The DisContinuity Guide: The Unofficial Doctor Who Companion [Paperback]

Paul Cornell (Author), Martin Day (Author), Keith Topping (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 17, 2004

A brilliant attempt to stitch the 26 years of Doctor Who into a coherent narrative. This is an essential reference for fans and a hilarious introduction for newcomers.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Paul Cornell is a novelist and TV writer who’s working on the new series of Doctor Who. Wa-hey!

Martin Day was born just in time to watch episode four of "The Web of Fear," and his first creative encounter with television was getting a letter about "Castrovalva" read out on Noel Edmond’s Multi-Coloured Swap Shop. He’s not sure which fact is most scary. He has written or co-written eight books about television and six novels, most recently Doctor Who - The Sleep of Reason. Some of them are almost readable. Now concentrating on scriptwriting, he has written scripts for the BBC and Channel Five. He lives in Wessex with three humans, a cat, a chinchilla, a hamster, a snake, and numerous tropical fish. The RSPCA have been informed.

Keith Topping is the author of 35 books, including two editions of The Guinness Book of Classic British TV with Martin Day and Paul Cornell, and volumes on series as diverse as The X-Files, The Sweeney, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Roswell, The West Wing, Stargate SG-1 and 24. He has also written four novels (including the award-winning The Hollow Men) and a novella. His most recent books include A Vault of Horror: The Story of 80 Great British Horror Movies 1956-1974 and Slayer: The Last Days of Sunnydale. He is a contributor to both TV Zone and Shivers magazines and a former Contributing Editor of DreamWatch. Keith was born in Newcastle in 1963 on the same day that his beloved United lost 3-2 at home to Northampton Town. Things haven’t improved much since. He regularly appears on local radio and has contributed to the BBC television series I Love the 70s. Keith’s hobbies include socialising with friends, foreign travel, loud guitar-based pop music, football, cricket, social and military history and irking the purists. His autobiography, I’ve Had Her, will be published posthumously.

Product Details

• Paperback: 350 pages
• Publisher: Monkeybrain (September 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932265090
• ISBN-13: 978-1932265095
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,159,223 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not for the unitiated, May 30, 2005

By 

Steve Kaye (Beaverton, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The DisContinuity Guide: The Unofficial Doctor Who Companion (Paperback)

The book is a lot of fun to read. Knowing what it takes to put a TV show together, getting to see all of the little mistakes and to have curious bits pointed out that only a fan would see is great. I've not been a fan of Doctor Who in the past but I've been watching the new series, which is excellent. It is also in keeping with the Doctor's well-storied past, at least based on the little I've seen of previous Doctors.

But you really have to know much more about the episodes to get the full value out of this book. Many of the episodes are lost or simply not yet available. This is sad, because as low-tech and dated as those shows probably were (are), they presented some great adventures. This book will not really fill you in on all of that, though.

The authors needed to do a few things to make this book work for everyone. With their wealth of knowledge it would have taken little time for them and little space in the book. Here's what is (crucially) missing:

1. Short episode synopses. While you can gleen the general story from the comments made, a clear recitation of the storyline would have been very helpful.

2. Profiles. It would have been nice to have profiles on the main characters - the Doctor and his companions. Maybe a page on how each Doctor was played, some interesting bits about their tenure, etc. As there were only 7 Doctors covered in this book (and why not the eighth Doctor? The Fox movie - considered part of the canon by many - was made many years ago. For the new edition they could have added a few pages) you wouldn't take up a lot of space giving this very important information. Also, paragraphs on each of the companions would have been nice. We're given some nice profile-style info on the Daleks, etc. But it's sprinkled about and difficult to find.

3. Comings and Goings. Doctor Who is about change. It would be nice to have a clear understanding of when someone new came on or someone old left. "This was X's last episode." Very easy to do.

4. An Index. Would have been nice to jump around and compare and contrast, say, all the Dalek information.

5. A history of Gallifrey and the Time Lords. As this is a central part of Doctor Who, understanding them and how they fit into the series would have been wonderfully helpful. We're given about a page and a half, and maybe that's enough for some people. For a show that was on the air for nearly 3 decades, I think those subjects deserve to have those entrees expanded.

Still, I have enjoyed this book fairly much. I'll be getting another book with, probably, more stogy information, but hopefully with greater detail.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tons of information about Doctor Who., March 27, 2005

By 

Michael Valdivielso (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: The DisContinuity Guide: The Unofficial Doctor Who Companion (Paperback)

This book is great, full of goofs, interesting dialogue, the roots (sources) of many of the stories, fashions, screw ups and lots of humor. But while the book examines each and every episode it does not tell you what happened within the episode. In other words, it tells you how something does not make sense without telling you WHY it didn't make sense. UNLESS you have ALREADY seen the episode. In other words, if you are a fan, this is the book for you. But if you are new to Doctor Who? this won't make sense. In other words there is no summary of any of the plots.
So, for a fan, it is five stars. For a person new to the show, it is worthless untill AFTER they watch a few episodes.
ENJOY!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Won't Watch Doctor Who Without It!!!, January 9, 2005

By 

Victoria Masters (Gainesville, Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The DisContinuity Guide: The Unofficial Doctor Who Companion (Paperback)

Since receiving this book, I can't watch a Doctor Who episode without it. I don't know how the authors could analyze and link all the episodes together, but they did. I love to read the fluffs and goofs sections before watching an episode to spot the same bloopers. The book has a rather curious habit of taking any line with "end" or "take it" or other such language and turning it into something sexual. This may be a result of watching too many episodes and trying to insert humor into a book that has more of a reference quality. My copy is well worn and I also use it to see which episodes I am missing when searching to buy videos. If you don't have this book- get it!!!