Chronicles 1973

 

Received the latest in Doctor Who Magazine's Chronicles bookazine range today. This is the first Pertwee one, and covers the 10th Anniversary year of 1973. This was due two weeks ago but was put back a fortnight for reasons unknown.

Stories covered are The Three Doctors (despite the first episode falling in 1972), Carnival of Monsters, Frontier in Space, Planet of the Daleks and The Green Death. Oddly, despite having three episodes fall in 1973, The Time Warrior is absent - so this edition seems to be more season- rather than year-based.

Regular purchasers of these bookazines will know the recurring contents by now. As well as a two-page overview of the year's stories, we have a look at merchandise; special effects; studio / location filming; Doctor Who in the news; what else was on the box; the year's Dr Who Annual and so on.

The merchandising chapter gives us the first of the Target paperbacks - the trio of Hartnell stories with the Chris Achilleos covers.

Items unique to this issue include the famous Radio Times 10th Anniversary Special and TV Action's Doctor Who Summer Special, which had a huge behind-the-scenes photo layout from Frontier in Space. You could go out and try to find a dog-eared second-hand copy of this, paying an arm and a leg, or you could just buy this.

Other contents include a look at Moonbase 3 - the series which Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks hoped would provide an escape from Doctor Who; a feature on Jo Grant on the occasion of her departure from the series; and an article about Mr Dicks' correspondence with the writers for this season. The ones with Bob Baker and Dave Martin are always a hoot.

I know a lot of people don't buy these, as they think that it has all been covered in the regular monthly magazines or in the Special Editions, but I think they go above and beyond, and bring a lot of material together all in one place. Just think about what a complete collection will look like, for every year of the series, old and new.