The Reference Book Wars: pt5

[SiHart]

This week your choices come from the triumverate of doctor Who experts, Howe, Stammers, Walker who took the Doctor Who reference book market and shook new facts into it in the 90s. Very popular even though their actual writing could sometimes be torturous!

(I'm including the handbooks as a series as a whole as there's little point choosing between the individual volumes)

Anyway this week you're voting for:

















Vote now!

Si xx

[Wayne]

I have the 3 decades books, & they're all great, but naturally i have to vote for the Golden Era.

[Andrew Curnow]

The Sixties/Seventies/Eighties - these were a Christmas tradition for me for the first half of the 90s; Mum & Dad got me the Sixties for Christmas 92, the Seventies for Christmas 94, and then Zel picked up the baton and got me the Eighties for Christmas 96 (before we were even married - how scandalous, pre-marital hardbacks!)

Similarly, whichever year Timeframe came out (95?97?) my brother got me it for Christmas. It's a bit of a 'coffee table' book in that there's not much in the way of reading content, but the pictures make up for that. Shame they put the Nightshade cover the wrong way round, but nobody's perfect!!

I only ever got/read the CBaker handbook, which was OK but nothing I'd rush to re-read; to be fair, one big section was compiled from other interviews, most of which I'd read before - if I hadn't, then it would have probably been a lot more interesting to read 'for the first time'.

The other three look fine, but I've never read any of them (BTW, will JN-T's two books me making one of these polls, Si - The Companions one in this batch has jogged my memory that he did one on a similar theme) so I can't really vote for 'em.

Really, like Wayne, I'm down to voting for one of the three decade books, and I think it has to be the final part of the trilogy, The Eighties!!!

[Wayne]

Really, like Wayne, I'm down to voting for one of the three decade books, and I think it has to be the final part of the trilogy, The Eighties!!!

My 80's book originally belonged to either Mr Hunt or Mr Rayner. Very nice condition too.

[Si Hunt]

I've been controversial and chosen the Handbooks so I don't need to choose between the Howe/Stammers/Walker decade books. The Handbooks are that rare thing - a series of seven books that never change cover design or format. The reviews are entertaining, if at times a little pompous (The Web Planet? 10/10!). But best of all is the Production Diary for the Hartnell Years. I remember reading with fascination about the chronicling of pay rises offered to the early stars. My nieve young mind of course thought that the series first regulars were all so loyal and beloved of Doctor Who that they would have stayed under any circumstances. But no.
"Hartnell has turned down flat our offer of an increase of two guinea's a week."
Fascinating.

Si.

[Pip Madeley]

This is too difficult I'll have to think about this and report back later.

[Dirk Gently]

Now that the Internal Server & Database Errors have allowed me to post...


I'm with Si, Handbooks for me. Especially the Hartnell & Troughton ones.

[Wayne]

I'm with Si, Handbooks for me. Especially the Hartnell & Troughton ones.

And there me expecting Tim to've gone with the Companions book.



gigitty-clickety-gigitty

[Dirk Gently]

I thought we were voting on the facts in the books & not the pictures.

[Wayne]

You speak for yourself. I only voted for the 70's book for Jon Pertwee's expression on Page 39.

[Ralph]

The Seventies book is naturally the best as it deals with the finest era of the show

[Stuart Wallis]

The Handbooks. Although the Television Companion has a fair amount of the same information as these do, in the one place, they give a better overview of the era. Also, they give a better idea of plots for newcomers, and you don't have to wade through wodges of sometimes conflicting opinion as to whether the story's any good.

[Paul Hayes]

This is a difficult one, as they are all brilliantly written and researched and excellently designed books. I have immense affection for The Sixties, one of the first factual books on the series I ever owned. But in the end, my vote has to go to The Handbooks, if for no other reason than the wonderful Production Diary section of the First Doctor volume. The story of the genesis of the series, told as it happened through the carefully-researched production paperwork and memos, and it's as enthralling as any fiction.

[Dave Tudor]

I've not owned the Handbooks for long enough, or know them well enough to vote for them, and although I was tempted to vote for the (in my opinion) indispensable Television Companion, I'm ultimately drawn to brilliant Decades books, some of the best reference books ever published on the series. I have immense affection for the Sixties, a book I consumed in no time after buying it, and I still think it's the best of the series, so it gets my vote.

[Phillip Culley]

It has to be the Television Companion - were it not for that tome I probably wouldn't have got back into Doctor Who 10 years ago

Although The Handbooks are also excellent books - sadly I never got the final two I needed to complete the collection...

[SiHart]

I went for The Eighties, because by that stage the style of the sixties and the seventies had been refined, they'd squeezed in as much information and new photos as they could and it's just a great reference work. TBH though there's not much between any of the set- they're all still great books.

I should make an honourable mention of Timeframe, which although there's not much content is worth a mention just for the fantastic blow ups of the Target artwork, some of which remains incredibly impressive and iconic to this day.

Si xx

[Antony Cox]

I can't believe I'm agreeing with Ralph for once () but I've gone for The Seventies as again it's the only one I've got.

However, I have read The Sixties book and that's very good too.