The Doctor Who Technical Manual (reference book)
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The Doctor Who Technical Manual was a Doctor Who reference book published by Severn House in March 1983 and subsequently by Sphere Books in September same year. Random House published the book in the US in October same year and January in 1984 and J.M. Dent published the book in Australia in December 1983.
Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
Ever since 1963, the Doctor has been fighting alien tyrants, vicious monsters and emotionless robots bent on cosmic domination. But it's not only his hair-raising adventures that have made Doctor Who the longest-running science fiction series in world television. It is also its endless array of marvellous machines.
- Now, in this totally new concept in Doctor Who literature, that gadgetry is made available to the Doctor's millions of fans.
- Totally accurate plans and drawings at last reveal the inner workings of the Daleks, of K9, of the Doctor's tool kit, and dozens more.
- Best of all there are the fullest possible plans for making your own model TARDIS!
- This is the only book that opens the true world of the Time Lords to its readers. No friend of Doctor Who can afford to be without it!
Subject matter[[edit] | [edit source]]
Some annotated line drawings (in blue ink) with some textual content.
Contents[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Introduction
- Who is the Doctor ?
- The TARDIS
- Police box
- TARDIS Tool Box
- TARDIS Tool Kit
- Sonic Screwdriver
- TARDIS Master Control Console
- Davros and the Daleks
- K9
- The Cybermen
- The Cybermat
- The Robot
- The Servo Robot
- Quarks
- White Robots
- Movellans
- Movellan Side-arm
- Skonnos Blaster
- Space Freighter
- Earth/Titan Shuttle
- Jagaroth Spaceship
- The Doctor's Car
- Build a TARDIS
Notable features[[edit] | [edit source]]
- This book contains 4 pages of colour photographs. Some of these photos include K9, Daleks, the TARDIS, Cybermen, the Whomobile and the Titan/Earth shuttle.
- The introduction was written by John Nathan-Turner.
- This was one of a series of titles released during the 20th anniversary year, as a part of JN-T's desire to capitalise on the programme's success and merchandising opportunities.
- The "Tool Kit" section details the content of the TARDIS Tool Box even if not identified onscreen: master drone clamp, laser, pen torch, universal detector, neutron ram, influx booster stabiliser, stalos gyro, moog drone clamp, magnetic clamp and the destroyed sonic screwdriver.
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- This title was released priced £4.95 (UK).
- To those familiar with the range of commercially available Star Trek reference titles available at the time and their added insight into the television series, this title must have been a disappointment.
- The content is at times sparse (for example a full page, line drawing of the Emperor Dalek or a Movellan) and adds little to our understanding. Similarly six pages given over to a side and front elevation of Daleks Type I, III and V are without reference or comment. Even any explanation of why they are Type I, III or V is not mentioned.
- Many of the references are obscure (the Space Freighter for example, from where / when?), and the book is not arranged into any particular way – alphabetically, chronologically or even by type.
- However, on the positive side, this was indeed a first of its kind in Doctor Who publishing, and it should be remembered that at the time, any information on the rich history of the series was confined to the pages of Doctor Who Magazine (which incidentally DID print the K9 blueprints in full in one of its very early issues).
- Mark Harris later expanded the final three pages of the book ("Build a TARDIS") into its own title, Build the TARDIS, a cut-out book with already coloured cut-outs.
