Doctor Who: A Short History of Everyone

Product Information

The brand-new, and very special, Doctor Who Annual to celebrate the 60th anniversary of everyone's favourite Time Lord.* The Thirteenth Doctor reveals she " can't remember much" about the life of the War Doctor, but she hopes her successor will, stating that the War Doctor deserves to be remembered.

But there is a fondness about it ... it's busy and interesting to look at, quite diverting ... it's just all so young-aimed. I suppose in a way the show with the 13th Doctor was aimed far younger than the 12th or previous Doctors. The storytelling onscreen was simpler and the moral dilemmas more straightforward and in-your-face, so possibly this is where they were trying to pitch this book ... A Short History of Everyone was the fifth book in the Official Guide series, published on 20 October 2022 [ source needed] by Penguin Group. As a consolidated edition of most of the previous instalments in the series — How to be a Time Lord, The Dangerous Book of Monsters, and The Companion's Companion — A Short History of Everyone contained a significant amount of material previously written by both Craig Donaghy and Justin Richards. This book was also updated with new entries to cover topics from the Thirteenth Doctor's era and the "Classic Era" of Doctor Who. This book is fun, don't get me wrong. I just take issue with the very minor inconsistencies in the Who-Lore. For instance, the book has an extensive (though not exhaustive) encyclopedia of foes, enemies, creatures etc that the Doctor has encountered. One of these being the Weeping Angels. What's the problem? There's a picture of them. And if you remember the episodes of 11 with Amy, Rory, and River you will remember that "an image of an angel becomes itself an angel" so actually having this image doesn't make any sense. Similarly, some of the entries aren't actually monsters but still have "monster data" (e.g; the Siren, the Teselecta, "gas mask zombies" wth?!, the Teller). Just seems a bit too absolute for what the Doctor might actually do, think, and write (seeing as this is supposed to have been written by the Doctor, I would have expected this to be important). Whether you read it on or behind the sofa, this book provides a wealth of information about the monsters and villains that have made Doctor Who the tremendous success it has been over the years, and the galactic phenomenon that it is today.

Forover forty years, The Doctor has battled against the monsters and villains of the universe. This book brings together the best – and the worst – of his enemies, companions, and fellow Time Lords. With a complete history of the Doctor, games and activities featuring friends and foes new and old and an exclusive short story from a favourite companion, this annual has it all. Exact contents unconfirmed, but from the title and publisher’s description it appears that this is possibly an omnibus volume containing the previously-published How to Be a Time Lord, The Companion’s Companion and A History of Humankind, with some new material.

An incredible bind-up of three stunning Doctor Who guides, with brand-new content from the Thirteenth Doctor era It's nicely written, but I'm not a great fan of narratives where the Doctor inserts his/herself into the past lives of companions before they met him ... that would do all sorts of harm to the timestreams as well as screwing up in-show continuity (just look at Clara!)! Sadly this meant that several of the stories in this book were not for me. Whether you read it on or behind the sofa, this book provides a wealth of information about the monsters and villains that have made Doctor Who the tremendous success it has been over the years, and the galactic phenomenon that it is today. Read more DetailsFor over forty years, the Doctor has battled against the monsters and villains of the universe. This book brings together the best - and the worst - of his enemies, companions, and fellow Time Lords. First up is Doctor Who: A Short History of Everyone. This is actually material compiled from three earlier titles published by Penguin: How To Be A Timelord; The Companion's Companion and A History Of Humankind; but the material has been reworked with additional illustration and 'jottings' to bring it up to date and relevant for the 13th Doctor.