I know that a Senior Member of the Pagoda reviewed this for Enlightenment
but I can't find too much in the Pagoda itself, so I post this in the hope
that more might buy and read DWIN's excellent publications.


Myth Makers Presents #5: Essentials

This Anniversary issue offers a look at the Essential Elements of Doctor Who
as selected by the authors of thirteen pieces of fiction, supplemented by 38
quotations from Famous Names (some from within Doctor Who fandom and others
from the wider world) and many illustrations. All this wrapped in a
full-colour cover for a stunningly low price.

The Essentials quotations themselves are almost worth the price of entry
alone. They range from single-liners (Larry Niven) to several paragraphs
(Simon A Forward) and most are interesting and betray a knowledge of the
programme that is sometimes surprising. It's perhaps odd that the least
complimentary of these comments is from Terry Pratchett, though Piers
Anthony runs him close.

It is however the stories that make up the bulk of the issue that are of
most interest. I happened to most like the very first, Dale Smith's
'Recursion', but several run it close. 'Recursion' is complex, though the
central idea is simple, and bears reading more than once. It's also very
funny (I have used the word 'silly' when writing about this before; Doctor
Who has often been silly) and I really enjoyed Rule Three...

Graeme Burk has translated and annotated 'The Second Book of the Dok'tar'
and the title suggests just what this is - Who as religious text. I regret
that it didn't quite work for me but I have the sort of mind that can't see
a footnote without reading it; as the footnotes are as long as the story
this rather broke the narrative.

Pete Kempshall manages to encapsulate two essentials: the changing face of
the Doctor and the tendency for 'Last Minute' rescues. These are woven
together in a UNIT tale and there's a suitably downbeat yet hopeful ending.

'The Silk Road' by Mags L Halliday revisits Marco Polo and manages to throw
a completely new light on that televised story. One of my favourites, this.

Scott Clarke's 'Life, Liberty and Pursuit' uses a future incarnation of the
Doctor, one with which it's hard to have any sympathy. Daniel O'Mahony
manages to use Sabbath, rather than the Doctor, in 'A Rag and a Bone'. In
'Perimeter Walk' Andy Lane utilises the interior of the TARDIS in ways that
were probably unintended by the designers while Robert Smith? manages to use
the exterior of the TARDIS in yet another unexpected manner in his story
'Something Borrowed'.

Jonathan Blum contributes a Fallen Gods: Postlude. As Fallen Gods is one of
the two best Who books I've read in the last twelve months it's not too odd
that I enjoyed it.

Mark Clapham uses another future incarnation of both Doctor and Master in
'Wheel', which includes one of the worst (possibly unintentional) puns in
the long history of Doctor Who in what Clapham calls 'a random fragment of
some imagined future series'.

The title of Richard Salter's 'Yestermorrow' suggests some of the complexity
of his story, which attempts 'to do something interesting with time', not
without success. Like several other stories in this collection this one
benefits from careful reading and rereading, though the central concept is
stunning enough on the first read through.

In 'Guest of Honour' Nate Gundy deals with the legend of Doctor Who in an
entirely apt and irreverant manner.

The final story goes right back to the beginning. In 'First Steps' Dave
Hoskin returns us to November 1963 and the faltering first steps of a new
television programme - and also to another event, which is an important
ending as well as the start of something different.

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