Reading material...

Over the last few years, I've noticed that I have been reading less and less of Doctor Who Magazine each month. The last issue I think I only read about a quarter of. The reasons are several. I have less interest in behind the scenes material on new episodes, as you get to see the interesting stuff in the BTS programme which follows each broadcast. Interviews tend to be rather hollow puff-pieces, and previews are obviously never going to tell you anything interesting. I don't do Big Finish, so ignore the Review section as it's almost entirely BF product. And there have been far too many of what I call "peripheral" articles on the series - mainly elements of fandom which I really can't get excited about (cosplaying etc).

It's got to the point that I'm contemplating scrapping the subscription and just buying the Special Editions / bookazines on a case by case basis - as these are the only things which spend any significant time looking at the classic iteration of the series.

Luckily, the latest issue of DWM - in shops tomorrow - is one of the better ones, that might take more than half an hour to read. It has a huge interview with Philip Hinchcliffe, filling a whole third of the magazine.

The issue also has a feature on Blake's 7 / Doctor Who links, as well as a piece on actor / writer John Kane, who played Tommy in Planet of the Spiders. Great cover as well, especially if you are a subscriber.

Already in the shops is the latest of the BBC "coffee-table" volumes - "The Gold Archive" - which usually appear at this time of the year, just in time for Christmas. It's all about UNIT, and is written by Mike Tucker and Steve Cole. I wasn't intending to purchase this as these are usually aimed more at the younger market, and tend to have a lousy design / layout. The preview images which appeared on Amazon had stupid graphics plastered all over the photographs, so I decided against it. However, I saw it in the shops today and had a browse, and those preview images were quite misleading. The graphics are absent, and it has a large number of unpublished images, many from the classic era. Even where I've seen the picture before, we have nice big full-page versions here. 

Interestingly, aliens which UNIT never encountered - and stories in which the organisation never appeared - are featured. A weighty tome - over 300 pages - it has an equally weighty price (£35).

Some of the text comes in the form of memos / letters, which is very old hat, but there is also conventional text as well, though I think you'll be buying it more for the images.

Finally, due out on November 21st from Panini, is another bookazine. It seems like only a couple of months ago that they released the last one ("Into The Vortex") - and then you remember that it was only a couple of months ago that they released the last one. That has only just started appearing in shops, so if you want the new "Daleks: The Ultimate Guide" I'd order it on-line, or be prepared to wait until 2025 for it to get into the shops...