Customer Reviews

Inside the Tardis: The Worlds of Doctor Who

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It is important to say, first off, that I am a huge Doctor Who fan. For all that it is constantly referred to as "the longest running science fiction show of all time", I think it is more important to note that it is the show with the cleverest concept pulled off in the most consistently excellent manner of any science fiction show ever made. (The Twilight Zone may be a better show overall, but that's comparing apples and oranges.) Having said that, though this book may not stand with Zicree's The Twilight Zone Companion as a critical history of great television, it is an excellent volume nonetheless.

What Chapman excels at in Inside the Tardis is history. He gives amazing insight into the development of the series, particularly how the BBC, production staff, writers and actors influenced in various ways what eventually ended up on the screen. He is also very strong in showing the impact (or non-impact) that cultural norms had on the series. For example, he has nice discussions of the portrayals of fascism in the series as well as the response of the show to public criticisms of violence in Doctor Who.

What I felt was missing was real criticism. I would have like to have seen more analysis of episodes and performances in terms of their effectiveness. As an obvious fan himself, Chapman is quick to let poor scripts, performances and production values off the hook in his very general outline of the progress of the various seasons. I understand his motivation; however, I would have felt more confident in his analysis had I seen a more critical eye.

On the other hand, Chapman's real purpose here doesn't seem to be criticism, so it is hard to blame him much. He seems content to spell out what happened and leave a more critical analysis to another writer. Within the scope of what he's decided to do, Chapman does a good job.

This is another book in a long string of books to come out recently capitalizing on the recent resurgence of the Doctor Who series. Overall an interesting book going into the history of the series as a way to catch readers up to the new series. I agree that there was little criticism of the series, or critical value in how the series evolved from the 1960's through today. The idea of doctor who though as a cultural artifact is to more or less celebrate the idea that there are ways of seeing new things, and generally having a good if deadly time doing this. There is little focus on the way that the recent doctor who series (1 through 3) has worked towards a more grim, less "fun"doctor than there were during the Tom Baker era.

Overall a good book to purchase and read, as it catches people up, but if you are looking for literary criticism, this is not the book to get.

With respect to my two fellow reviewers, I don't know why they complained that, "What I felt was missing (from the book) was real criticism ... analysis of the episodes and performances in terms of their effectiveness" and that, "if you are looking for literary criticism, this is not the book to get" GIVEN that author James Chapman's purpose in writing INSIDE THE TARDIS: THE WORLDS OF DOCTOR WHO is clearly stated on its back cover (which can be seen by clicking on the "Click to look inside (this book)" bubble on this webpage) and given his statement in his intro that, "This book is NOT ... yet another internal history of Doctor Who, recounting the Doctor's many adventures and listing all his foes and companions" (my emphasis).

Instead, Chapman does a very fine job of providing a cultural history of this wonderful, long-running program from the contexts of 1) the institutional history of the BBC, 2) British (and, to a lesser extent, American) science fiction, and 3) "developments in British society and culture" since Doctor Who's genesis (he also examines many of the major changes in tv production technology and techniques during these years in passing). And, while the author does not examine each and every Who story, he does elucidate on how the three aforementioned influences have been reflected in each of the various production eras by illustrating their effect on many selected stories, usually ones that are now viewed as Who classics. Indeed, according to Chapman's research of the Beeb's archives, fans who don't think much of the Graham Williams and John Nathan-Turner stories ought to be a bit more forgiving as those two producres had to contend with BBC upper-management meddling and outisde influences (e.g. the emergence of sci-fi as mainstream entertainment after the success of "Star Wars" in 1977) to a much greater degree than their predecessors. And, of course, the author also examines how each of the Who producers' tastes and styles were reflected in their production eras (e.g. Letts' use of allegory, Hinchcliffe's preference for pastiche, Williams' embrace of parody, etc, etc).

Nonetheless, as I stated in the title of this review, this book is more a "luxury item" than a "must have" for dedicated Who fans becuz much of the analysis and examples provided in INSIDE THE TARDIS can also be found in various "Special Features" documentaries on particular Doctor Who dvds. For ex., the excellent 53 min, 2006 doc entitled "Doctor Who: Origins", included in THE DALEKS/THE EDGE OF DESTRUCTION dvd, does as good a job of explaining the creation of this show as Chapman's book and the 42 min, 2004 doc, "Serial Thrillers", included on the PYRAMIDS OF MARS dvd, provides a great overview of Philip Hinchcliffe's era as producer during Tom Baker's first three years as the fourth Doctor. Basically, this book is for Who fans who aren't on a tight budget AND like having the aforementioned type of info at their fingertips (i.e. in a book).

Also: please note that this book was published in 2006, so only the first season of the "new" Doctor Who series was covered. Enjoy

BTW, for excellent, but "barebones" plot summaries and production info on each of the 1963 to 1989 Doctor Who stories, I recommend Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier's THE DOCTOR WHO PROGRAMME GUIDE (Fourth Edition) (which sells here on Amazon and also doesn't provide critical analysis of the stories).