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"Doctor Who": Starships and Spacestations (Doctor Who (BBC Paperback))
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| List Price: | £7.99 |
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Product Description
The Doctor has his TARDIS to get him from place to place and time to time, but the rest of the Universe relies on more conventional transport. From the British Space Programme of the late twentieth century to Earth's Empire in the far future, from the terrifying Dalek Fleet to deadly Cyber Ships, this book documents the many starships and spacestations that the Doctor and his companions have encountered on their travels. In this stunningly-illustrated book, Doctor Who historian Justin Richards documents the amazing story of Earth's ventures into space, examines the many alien fleets who have paid Earth a visit, and explores the other starships and spacestations that the Doctor has encountered on his many travels.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #114772 in Books
- Published on: 2008-05-15
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 96 pages
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Justin Richards is the Creative Consultant for the BBC’s range of Doctor Who books, and has written a fair few of them himself. As well as writing for stage, screen and audio, he is also the author of The Invisible Detective and Time Runners series of novels for children, and Agent Alfie for younger readers.
As well as collaborating with thriller writer Jack Higgins, he writes standalone novels for older children including The Death Collector, The Chaos Code, and The Parliament of Blood.
Justin lives in Warwick, with his wife, two children and a nice view of the castle.
Customer Reviews
A thrilling catalogue
The third in Justin Richards' series of lavishly illustrated and detailed accompaniments to the rebooted TV series of Doctor Who; this book showcases spacecraft and spacestations (hence the name!) that have appeared on the show over the past four years, as well as some that featured in the programme's original twenty-six year run. The special effects available to Doctor Who producers have improved tremendously over the years, but the show's designers and model makers have always performed wonders on a relatively limited budget (with the odd exception of course!) The crab-like Jagaroth ship from 1979's `City of Death', Satellite 5 from 2005 story `The Long Game', and a Cyber-ship, are just some of the many and varied vessels that appear in the book. With colourful depictions, stock photos, a glossy cover and a large amount of detail; this publication makes a great gift and I'm certain will give great enjoyment to fans of the venerable sci-fi show, both young and old (and in-between!)
A real step down in quality
Whilst I have been suitably impressed with previous volumes of Justin Richards' Doctor Who guides, I was left feeling that the new edition seemed like it was done by someone else, someone who didn't care quite as much about the content. Previous books have focused on various aliens and enemies of the Doctor, with a healthy mix of Classic foes and villains from the new series up to the point of publishing. So for example, last year's "Creatures and Demons" book featued old skool terrors like the Krynoid and the Wirrn, alongside monsters from the tail end of S2 (the Cult of Skaro) and first half of series 3 (Judoon, Sec Hybrid). Arranged in alphabetical fashion, with beautiful photos and design sketches, the first three books were great for fans wishing to complement their Classic guides with new Who info, and ideal for newcomers to both incarnations. Most importantly, the guides featured a detailed index at the back for referencing monsters and the episodes they feature in.
The new book "Starships and Spacestations" is a real departure from the "a-z monsters" approach, and the book suffers as a result. One need only look at the contents page to see how haphazardly the guide has been assembled. Previous books have had around 30 entries to peruse, whilst the new volume has just 6 and tries to lump together categories of alien and Earth ships from across time and space and both versions of the show.
It also tries to stick to the principle of mixing old and brand new with mentions for late S3 episodes and early S4, but these are randomly shoved in - who would honestly expect "The Fires of Pompeii" to crop up in a book on starships and spacestations? Similarly, the splendid two-parter of "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood" is chucked in, but not in the detail it would be were the book a guide to MONSTERS rather than SHIPS, so there's no scarecrows, no John and Joan and no real detal on the family.
Infact, it seems to me that even the field of spaceships isn't serviced very well as there are many many omissions and some entries at the back mention the alien races who have ships and don't even show a still of the ship itself, just the alien. And surely any guide to DW's vessels needs to devote more than a page at the back to the TARDIS?!
Of course, like any Justin Richards and BBC production, the book is still lavish and detailed, but with no index, a poorly thought out structure and confusing one page pictures with no caption or relevance to the pages around them, this guide is a disappointment. And maybe Justin Richards was running out of suitable ingredients for titles (after "Monsters and Villains", "Aliens and Enemies" and "Creatures and Demons") or maybe it seemed time for a guide to the technology of DW, but as volume 4 of this particular range, it was a real disappointment, and as a guide to spacecraft it was sorely lacking.
2.5 stars
doctor who rocks!!!!!!_
This book can provide you with many facts and information, covering most of the past Doctors. It also takes you through the journeys of the Doctor and his TARDIS... but it fails to mension any information about the future... therefore this is why it failed to achieve the 5 star rating. Overall it's a great book to buy for kids... a must have for all Doctor Who fans!!!
