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About Time is a series of reference books written by Tat Wood and Lawrence Miles (with additional material by Lars Pearson), which has been billed as the largest single work of reference on Doctor Who. According to the publishers, the series stands at 1.7 million words. The series currently features six volumes, although the publisher - Mad Norwegian Press - have confirmed that a seventh volume has been commissioned.
Publisher's summary
In About Time, the whole of classic Doctor Who is examined through the lens of the real-world social and political changes — as well as ongoing developments in television production — that influenced the series in ways big and small over the course of a generation. Armed with these guidebooks, readers will be able to cast their minds back to 1975, 1982 and other years to best appreciate the series’ content and character.
Subject matter
A critical and cultural analysis of every televised Doctor Who story up to Survival, as well as the TV Movie. (The seventh volume will feature the Ninth Doctor and an unconfirmed number of Tenth Doctor serials.) Areas of examination include production notes; logical flaws in the story; detailed catalogues of facts about planets, alien races, the Doctor, the TARDIS and the companions; and an attempt to examine where each story came from, and why each was made in the contemporary cultural climate of Great Britain and Earth.
Notable features
- Each story is broken down into many segments, including: Which One Is This? (very brief introduction, as the writers eschewed dense plot summaries), Firsts and Lasts, Continuity - encompassing The Doctor, The TARDIS, The Time Lords, The Supporting Cast, The Supporting Cast (Evil), Planet Notes, Non-Humans and History -, Where Did This Come From?, Things That Don't Make Sense, Critique (often divided into Prosection and Defence), Facts (writer, director, ratings, guest cast and list of cliffhangers) and The Lore (behind-the-scenes notes).
- Complementing most serial entries are essays on a number of topics, such as timelines for Daleks, Cybermen, UNIT and the Earth Empire; the science of regeneration, Gallifreyan history and time travel, sexual relationships between members of the TARDIS crew, the absence of Torchwood from the UNIT stories, and examinations of why the BBC and the production team made the decisions they did.
History
Authors Tat Wood and Lawrence Miles initially published volumes 3, 4 and 5 (as they were aware that these volumes covered the most well-remembered eras) in 2004. In 2006, volumes 1 and 2 were published. Miles subsequently left the team, and Wood wrote Volume 6, with additional material supplied by Lars Pearson, which was released in 2007.
In 2009, Wood authored a significantly expanded edition of volume 3, which - as it was published first - had not been as in-depth as the following works. This second edition, at almost three times the size of the original, included much of Miles' original material.
As of 2011, Wood is working on Volume 7, which will cover the first two series of the revived Doctor Who.
List of Volumes
- Rather than dividing each volume by Doctor, the authors instead focus on the "production era". The books are broken down as follows:
- Volume 6: 1985 - 1989, 1996 (Seasons 22 - 26, TVM, Dimensions in Time, The Curse of Fatal Death, Dr. Who and the Daleks, Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.)