The Making of Doctor Who

This is a work of non-fiction.

Unlike other fictional universes, the Doctor Who universe is created solely by fiction. To us, this is not a valid source. Information from this source can only be used in "behind the scenes" sections, or on pages about real world topics.

The Making of Doctor Who
Written by:	Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke
Release date:	20 April 1972 (first edition), 16 December 1976 (second edition)
Publisher:	Piccolo Books, Target Books
Format:	Paperback, 115 pages (1972 edition), 128 pages (1976 edition)
ISBN:	ISBN 0-330-23203-7 (1972 edition), ISBN 0-426-11615-1 (1976 edition)

The Making of Doctor Who was a non-fiction work by Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke published by Piccolo Books. The first edition was principally written by Hulke in 1972 . It was later followed by a second edition, rewritten by Dicks in 1976 from Target Books. It stands as the first professionally published non-fiction book about the series, predating similar works by Peter Haining and Jean-Marc Lofficier by many years.

It notably featured The Trial of Doctor Who, a narrative feature which notably gave new insights on the Time Lords and UNIT and summarized every television story from An Unearthly Child to The Sea Devils.

Publisher's summary

First edition

What happened when Doctor Who was put on trial by the Time Lords? Why did he agree to help UNIT? This fascinating book tells you everything about the Doctor and his adventures, the points in Space and Time he has visited, the aliens and monsters he has defeated. One of the most famous and longest running BBC serials of all time, Doctor Who depends for its success on the enthusiasm of everyone working on the show. Come inside the TV studio and meet them, learn how the Daleks and the Cybermen came into being and how the special effects work. What happens in Doctor Who often seems impossible. But is it? Could it all be true?

Second edition

Here it is... the story behind one of television's most successful, longest-running shows. Come with Doctor Who on a trip through time... to the early days of the programme when it all began... meet actors, authors and television staff... see inside a TV studio and watch a production take shape... learn the secrets of the monsters... relive every Doctor Who story since the beginning... follow the Doctor through four incarnations and — perhaps — begin to discover just who is Doctor Who?

Subject matter

A behind-the-scenes guide to the production of Doctor Who.

Notable features

First edition

• The short story The Trial of Doctor Who, in which accounts of the Doctor's adventures take the form of fictional documents, summarizing his activities as a renegade Time Lord. The first part, detailing his life in exile up until "The War Games" take the form of notes made by Time Lord prosecutors and lawyers during the Doctor's trial. These give the Doctor's name as ∂³Σx². Other Time Lords are given mathematical names as well: ᔑx²-›‾‹ is the prosecutor, Δ:ʮ≠β is the counsel of defence, ⵋᵅ/₆↑∝ is the court reporter, and Øμ³-∝ is the court archivist. Following the Doctor's exile to Earth, UNIT reports by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart continue the story, with supplementary notes by Øμ³-∝.
• In a non-fictional section, the Brigadier's first name is given as Alastair. Later sources have it as Alistair. On TV, it was mentioned in Planet of the Spiders Part One.
• The Brigadier's ancestor from the Battle of Waterloo is named Fergus, spread over two lines as Fer- gus). Fergus would be mentioned in later narrative Doctor Who material.
• As unlikely as it may sound, one chapter, written by a clergyman, discusses Doctor Who in a Christian religious context.
• Behind-the-scenes information concentrates on the production of The Sea Devils and consist of including Hulke's story outline and scene breakdown, a sample rehearsal script page, the film diary, and a sample camera script page.

Second edition

• The second edition contains script-to-screen account of the Fourth Doctor's debut adventure Robot, written by Making of Doctor Who co-creator Terrance Dicks. Dicks would novelise the serial as Doctor Who and the Giant Robot.

Both editions

• The first edition described the Doctor as "never cowardly". The second edition adds to this and says that he is "never cruel or cowardly" and that "[h]e never gives in, and he never gives up." These words were used in the TV series as the promise made by him when choosing to be called "the Doctor" (TV: The Day of the Doctor, et al).

Notes

First edition

• A PDF of the original Piccolo Books edition of The Making of Doctor Who was included on the DVD release of The Sea Devils.

Second edition

• The Target Books edition was a complete rewrite of the previous edition, aimed more at younger readers.
• This release marked the fourth occasion on which Target republished a work previously issued by another publisher. This followed the reissuing of the Frederick Muller novelisations that kicked off the Doctor Who novelisation book line.
• Chris Achilleos provided the cover artwork.
• It had a print run of 50,000 copies and was priced 60p (UK).
• This title saw a reprint by Target Books, W. H. Allen in on 20th March 1980 of 15,000 copies. Despite the, by then, out-of-date information in the first printing, the only difference was a price increase to £1.80 (UK).
• Along with two dozen Target novelisations, copies of The Making of Doctor Who were included in randomly selected bagged editions of Doctor Who Magazine published in July 2008. (These were all original, backstock copies and not reprints.)

Audiobook

Material from both editions were released as an audiobook 1 June 2023 by BBC Audio and read by Jon Culshaw, Dan Starkey, Maureen O'Brien, Louise Jameson, Katy Manning and Geoffrey Beevers. It used the cover image from The Doctor Who Monster Book by Chris Achilleos instead of the cover of either the print editions.

Track	Title	Edition	Narrator
1	Opening Credits	n/a
2	The Trial of Doctor Who - Indictment Against	First
3	How it All Began	Second
4	Enter the Daleks!	Second
5	The Trial of Doctor Who - A Plea In Defence of the Doctor A Summary of His Travels	First
6	Who Is the Doctor	Second
7	The Trial of Doctor Who - Outcome of Trial	First
8	The Doctors	Second
9	Lourdwater Cottage Hospital	First
10	Monsters Galore	Second
11	UNIT Memo	First
12	The Men from UNIT	Second
13	The Diary of a Production - The Sea Devils	First
14	UNIT Memo	First
15	High Court of the Time Lords Court Archive	First
16	The Good Companions	Second
17	Some Regulars - Old and New	Second
18	Inside a Television Studio	Second
19	UNIT Memo	First
20	How to Make a Monster or Blow Up the World!	Second
21	High Court of the Time Lords Court Archive	First
22	The Diary of a Production - Robot	Second
23	A New Life for the Doctor	Second

Associated images

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  1976 Target Books edition

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  2023 audiobook edition