Doctor Who: The Secret Lives of Monsters, by Justin Richards

Second paragraph of third chapter:

Stung by the criticism and scepticism of his colleagues and peers, Travers accepted Walters’ challenge. Together with John Mackay, he went in search of the Abominable Snowman – the fabled Yeti. And in the foothills of the Himalaya Mountains in Tibet, he found it.

I grumble sometimes that Justin Richards is either rather good or rather average in his Who writing. This is a good one. Published in 2014 (so covering the first Capaldi season), it looks at the classic and new monsters of Who, with chapters on the Cybermen, the Daleks, the Great Intelligence, the Ice Warriors, the Judoon, the Krillitanes, the Nestenes & Autons, the ood, the Silence, the Silurians & Sea Devils, the Slitheen, the Sontarans, the Weeping Angels and the Zygons. Most of each chapter is an in-universe account of the history of each alien and their televised encounters with the Doctor (all spinoffs are excluded, which is a bit of a missed opportunity for cross-marketing), finishing with a few pages from the real-world perspective about how the monsters were actually made and brought to the screen. It’s well-written and gorgeously produced. There wasn’t a lot that I didn’t already know, but I enjoyed looking at it. You can get it here.

One thought on “Doctor Who: The Secret Lives of Monsters, by Justin Richards

  1. The Miliband idea of mandating the debate is a classic Labour move to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The whole debate business was turning in their favour, and then they had to go and propose something authoritarian and unworkable, just to show that they hadn’t learned from the Blair years.

    Republicanism has lain dormant as the Queen is non-disruptive and highly popular. If Charles changes that the debate will re-open, getting pulled into the wider “What (and who) is the United Kingdom for?” question.

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