How to get my books!

I'm seeing more and more people posting that my books aren't available in the USA or Australia, and how can I get copies ...

The real challenge I think is that shipping costs have gone through the roof over the last 5-6 years and it now costs more than the book to ship things overseas (from the UK, which is where I and all the books are physically located).

However there are a few options available.

If it's signed copies that you're after, then if you order from my own store here:

https://samantha-lee-howe-ltd.sumupstore.com/products?category=9b37b1db-0176-46fd-bc88-1f79643f4d74

Then all the books are signed and all have options for USA and Australia shipping ... so while the cost might be higher than from Amazon or whatever, Amazon may not have the titles in your country anyway!

The store has all my non-Telos Publishing titles:  My Doctor Who Memoir Who Me! in all editions (hardback, paperback, trade paperback, and proof copy); the new Doctor Who audio Shard of Life is there too, as are my two Doctor Who review books Then and Now ... so please check it out if you're looking for something that I have written!

Many other titles are now also published by Telos Publishing, and so you can head to www.telos.co.uk to find them, and most are also available on Amazon where you live ... so it's always worth checking there as well!

If all else fails, you can always reach out to me on social media - you never know ... I might have copies of what you're looking for!  https://www.facebook.com/davidjhowe/

Review: The Mortuary Assistant (2026)

A new film from the horror streaming channel Shudder ... and apparently it's based on a bestselling video game. I've never heard of it, but then I don't 'do' computer games so I'm not the target market in that regard.

I suspect though that this background is at the same time the film's greatest strength and it's greatest weakness.

I'm reminded of other films taken from computer games where I've never played the games. Movies like Silent Hill, Resident Evil and Doom. In each case the film makers took the apparent essence of the game, and managed to construct a decent plot around it, so that the viewers were not left in the dark about what was going on. In the case of The Mortuary Assistant, it's the plot that's lacking. The script could have done with another draft or two to really nail what was going on and to translate that to scares on the screen. Instead I assume they've taken the 'plot' of the video game and established that the fact that the location is so key there, that so it is in the film (they mention this in the brief behind the scenes documentary that accompanies the film on blu-ray). Except that it isn't really.

I'm reminded of a film with an apparently similar premise, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, which is again set in a mortuary and has limited characters. That film manages to be terrifying and intriguing (mainly due to a brilliant performance from Brian Cox), but The Mortuary Assistant, despite heaps of atmosphere and scares, just manages to be confusing for the early to mid part of its runtime.

The plot revolves around the eponymous assistant, Rebecca Owens, who has just passed her 'exams' or whatever they are, and can now look after things in the mortuary on her own. Thus her creepy boss suddenly asks her to do a night shift as bodies have come in that need processing. And so she's on her own in the place with these cadavers.  But the cadavers don't seem to be that dead and start moving and coming back to life ... except maybe they're not, and perhaps she's hallucinating. Or not.

It's this uncertainty about what's happening which loses the audience. I started not to really care what happened as it was never 'real' and we reset back to where we were before. Lots of great jump moments and creepiness abounds, but it never amounts to anything.

But then the film turns and it's suddenly a possession movie, where an ancient demon wants to possess Rebecca's body (not sure why her's and no-one elses - it seemed to possess a lot of the corpses ... if that was what was happening)  And to stop it she needs to find out it's name and create it on a large pendant thing and burn it on her chest or something.  The runes which make up the name are, for some reason, burned into the walls of the mortuary, but she can only see them in the flame from a lit piece of parchment.

As you can see, the 'but why?' factor is high here, and there are few answers. You just need to go with it and hope it all sort of comes out ok at the end.  Cue lots of creeping around the mortuary with a single flame looking for the marks and trying to avoid the hallucinations and the demon ... great video game fare!

In the film's favour are just about every element except the plot!  The practical effects are exceedingly effective, but also gratuitous. The gore of the dissections and attacks are wincingly realistic, and to be honest a little too much for me. But they are superbly done! The performances are first rate, with a great central character in Rebecca (Willa Holland). The set design, lighting and direction are excellent, providing some fascinating angles and prowling camera throughout, and the music and sound design is also first rate, adding to the atmosphere and general ambience of the film.  It's just the script which lets it down.

Overall it was an entertaining watch, but because of the gore and body horror which starts from virtually the first frame and doesn't let up, it's not a film I would rush to watch again. I guess if you love a film with some great gruesome effects in, and are not too worried about it all making total sense, then you may love this to pieces!

The film is now available as a blu-ray which also contains a single behind the scenes featurette from Acorn Media.

Review: The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth

Two new releases from AllTheAnime.com, and two classics from the Henson studios.

First up is The Dark Crystal. Following the success of Jim Henson's Muppets on television in Sesame Street and then their own The Muppet Show, the idea was mooted for a film which could feature them. Furthermore, there would be no human performers at all ...

The Dark Crystal takes this idea and runs with it big time. Everything on screen is puppetry and animatronics in real time: no CGI no AI no animation ... and yet this major selling point for the film becomes its biggest downfall. You just don't care much about the lead characters Gelflings Jen and Kira. They can't emote and act as a human performer would, and so while you can follow the plot and Jen's journey to complete the titular Dark Crystal, you don't really care. 

It's also all taken dead seriously, with the Skeksis being evil and cackly and the peaceful Mystics being, well, slow and peaceful. And this impedes the film. It's all a little ponderous and heavy.

There are some gorgeous sets and shots. A favouite is a long slow pan across a forest where everything is alive from the plants and fungi to the trees and animals and insects ... all created through puppetry. It's beautifully done and testament to the skill of the makers.

I know the film holds a special place in many fans' hearts, but sadly it just doesn't do it for me. I admire the talent and inventiveness that went into it, but I wish they had used real actors for the two Gelflings to give more humanity and emotion to the performances.

And speaking of using human actors brings us to the second film realeased by All The Anime.com, Labyrinth.

For this film, while it's the same production team, and it features puppetry and animatronics, they very wisely decided to use humans for the main protagonists, and in a genius move of casting, paired a young 14 year old Jennifer Connolly, with the pop icon David Bowie. And the magic happened.

Take an inventive and clever script from Monty Python's Terry Jones and combine with the visual flair of artist Brian Froud (who also worked on The Dark Crystal) and they managed to capture lightning in a bottle with the story of a young girl who asks the Goblin King to take her baby brother away, and then has to traverse the eponymous labyrinth to rescue him, making friends and meeting all manner of strange creatures along the way.

The film is a tour de force and Connolly and Bowie are perfectly matched in their battle of words and deeds to rescue baby Toby. But it's some of the subsidiary characters who stick in the memory, in particular Hoggle (who is deliberately mis-named as Hogwort by Bowie a couple of times - was this film perhaps a favourite of a certain J K Rowling?), a masterpiece of animatronic face (controlled by four operators) and actor-in-a-suit to bring it all to life. Likewise is the amazing lumbering Ludo, an orange-haired ape creature with a single operator within to bring it to life, as well as having an animatronic face. Add the voice talents to the visuals and the effect is seamless, the creatures leaping off the screen and into your heart.

It's all just so well done. The merging of elements like M C Escher's paintings, the toys in Sarah's bedroom coming to life, the goblin myth and legend, and above it all, striding as some beautiful, powerful Goblin King, the master himself, David Bowie.

Bowie's performance is towering. He's such a talent, and composed the songs for the movie himself, as well as performing them. When you compare this performance with his equally powerful role in the film The Hunger, you can see what a talent he was. Charisma on a stick!

As you can probably tell I love Labyrinth. It takes the seeds that were sown in The Dark Crystal and matures and improves on them at every turn. I don't think the film puts a foot wrong. Even down to the tone, which this time is distinctly humourous. Yes, the leads take it all very seriously, but there is humour in nearly all the subsidiary characters from Didymus and Ludo through to the incompetant guards and other elements which appear throughout the movie.

The prints on these two releases are great quality and show off the films to their best advantage, and they come with a wealth of extras, from documentaries to outtakes, and even to casting reels, which for Labyrinth show that they really did make the right decision casting Connolly. A shame that her audition reel is not included though.

Available from www.alltheanime.com

Review: The Ginger Snaps Trilogy

Second Sight films bring us a new box-set Blu-Ray release of the three films in the Ginger Snaps trilogy. I've long been a fan of the first film, called simply Ginger Snaps (2000) as it came along at a time when horror seemed to be retreading a lot of old ground (is that ever not the case) and presented something new and refreshing.

Karen Walton penned the screenplay, and John Fawcett directed this tale of two sisters. The basic idea, as are all the best ideas, is simple: take a girl coming into puberty and starting her periods and so on, and align it with the idea of being bitten and turning into a werewolf for the first time. The loss of person, the unexpected mood swings, the personality changes, and of course the blood. It's a beguilingly simple premise, and the film works extremely well to present the transformation that Ginger (Emily Perkins) goes through. Her sister Brigitte (Katharine Isabelle) does her best to try and help her sister, but both end up trapped in the cycle that can only really end with the death of Ginger in her wolfen form.

There's so much to love about this film. The performances from the two leads are pitch perfect, from Emily Perkins' slow transformation from teen rebel to vamp to full blown werewolf, to Katharine Isabelle's sulky younger sister, missing out on all the 'fun' and ultimately needing to align with a local drug dealer to find a potential 'cure' for her sister.

The werewolf lore here is new, not following the established 'transform at the full moon', 'silver bullets and wolfsbane' type approach that many other films follow. We have a slow transformation which takes place over several days/weeks, and the idea that monk's hood (a toxic plant) could provide the 'cure' for Ginger. 

The effects are all well done, and the film is the goriest of the three, with many scenes of stomach churning graphic gore. Wisely the director seems to have realised that the weakest element was the actual full size werewolf itself, and so it is edited around and never shown for too long. Although what you do see is quite effective.

It's something of a tour de force for the team behind it, and so there was no real surprise that a sequel came along in 2004. Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed is curious in that it doesn't really rely on the original film for its plot. The film reinterprets the ideas and Brigitte, after the events of the first film, ends up confined in a drug rehabilitation centre for women, where she tries to understand her life. Key to the film is a new character, Ghost (Tatiana Maslany), a 12 year old child, who helps Brigitte. 

Brigitte is now turning into a werewolf herself (apparently because she drunk some of Ginger's blood in the first film) and is trying to work out how the Monks Hood can save her. But there's more afoot, and Ghost too is not quite as she seems. There's also the spirit of Ginger hanging around and talking with Brigitte.

It's a more confused film than Ginger Snaps and as it doesn't really rely on the source for it's plot and development, can be seen as stand alone. This time Megan Martin wrote the screenplay and it's directed by Brett Sullivan. The standout performance here is from Tatiana Maslany, playing Ghost. As with her future barnstorming performance(s) in Orphan Black, Maslany immerses herself in the character and she's intensely watchable and nuanced. It was a surprise to realise that Maslany was around 18 or 19 years old when she played the part, and yet she is utterly convincing as a 12 year old child.

Again the effects are well done, but the film is a little muddled and it doesn't really work as a sequel, mainly because Ginger Snaps set the bar so high that nothing could really reach it. It is a very enjoyable watch though.

The third part of the trilogy, Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004) is another film with only a tenuuous connection to the original story. This time it's a prequel, showing how the werewolf curse all started, and the film was made back to back with Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed.

Ginger and Brigitte are sisters in 1815, travelling the Canadian wilderness. They arrive at a fort which is beseiged by werewolves, and of course Ginger is bitten and begins her transformation. There are various comings and goings and werewolf attacks and we end with the two sisters escaping from the destroyed camp, and sharing blood together: the implication being that this creates the werewolf line which ultimately infects Ginger in Ginger Snaps.

It's another enjoyable film, and another for which you don't really need to have seen the previous two. The two leads are played by the same actresses, and some of the cast here are the same as Unleashed as the films were made at the same time. The effects are excellent, and the plot, while again a little confused, with seers and predictions and native visions coming into play to try and give the piece more of a mythalogical footing.

Written by Stephen Massicote and Christina Ray, and directed by Grant Harvey, the film is another worthy look at the werewolf myth. It's enjoyable and well made, and makes the most of the two leads.

Alongside the three films, the Second Sight release also contains a host of extras including many commentaries, interviews with the creative teams, deleted scenes and much more. It's a great way to appreciate and enjoy these three cracking films.

Available from: https://secondsightfilms.co.uk/products/the-ginger-snaps-trilogy-blu-ray-pre-order-available-may-25th

Reviews: The Time Team Unearthed: The Art of Adrian Salmon

Adrian Salmon is one of the superb artists whose work has graced the pages of Doctor Who Magazine for decades now.  His style tends to be very distinctive: blocky angular shapes and vibrant colours combining in strange and interesting angles and viewpoints for the art.  Never moreso than in a long-running feature for DWM, the 'Time Team'.  In this feature a group of fans discussed and dissected a particular Doctor Who story as they watched it ... working their way through the series, and each entry was illustrated by a piece of art from Salmon.

Now Roundel Books have collected all these pieces togther, and along with some new offerings to 'fill the gaps' so to speak, have presented it all in a lovely new artbook celebrating Salmon's work.

Printed landscape format so as to give the best coverage and size for the art (which were mostly landscape pieces), the book puts them all in context with a detailed commentary from Salmon, and supplemented by comments from others involved with Doctor Who Magazine and the feature itself.  One thing which is a little strange is placing the commentaries in a long 33 page essay at the start, rather than having them alongside the art itself. This then makes you flip back and forth through the book as you read the commentary, wanting to see the finished items.

And there's a lot more than just the finished items here. The publishers have included early sketches and ideas too, so you can see the development from sketch to black and white to coloured final piece for many of the stories.

The book is completed with a section of other artwork from Salmon, 'Classic Art from the Archives' which presents a selection of other work by the artist. A favourite here is the second Doctor clambering out of one of the CyberTombs, but it's shaped like the helmet decal seen in 'The Tomb of the Cybermen' and with some Cybermats scattered on the floor for good measure.

As a record of a much-loved aspect of Doctor Who Magazine's history, this is second to none, and it comes highly recommended. Art, and Doctor Who art in particular, doesn't come much more imaginative and impressive as this!

The book was funded via Kickstarter, and there are now copies to buy, while stocks last, from the Publisher's website. There's a smashing hardback edition (£59.99. Which comes with a free DVD, featuring an excellent and in depth interview with Salmon, audio of Salmon on a Podcast, and a video called Unnatural Born Writer: Kroton  about Salmon's writing and illustrating of a Doctor Who comic strip - these are very high quality interviews in line with the quality of the book itself), and also a paperback edition (£39.99). 

https://www.cutawaycomics.co.uk/publications/the-time-team-unearthed

Reviews: Doctor Who: Aliens of London, The Satan Pit, The Time of Angels, Stormcage

The Target range of Doctor Who novelisations expands again with three new adventures committed to the page.

First up is Joseph Lidster with an adaptation of Russell T Davies' two-part adventure 'Aliens of London'/'World War Three'.  This is a freewheeling version of the story, and, like the show itself at the time of transmission, is fun and breezy with lots to enjoy. It follows the plot of the story closely, but there are a few additions. 

The family Slitheen are well described, and there's a lot of great characterisation throughout. Another interesting element is that Doctor Sato at the hospital is reconfirmed as being the same person as Toshiko Sato from Torchwood. This was established in Torchwood itself: she has a conversation with Owen about how she had to pretend to be a doctor when he was hung over to cover for him and ended up meeting a space pig. Russell T Davies also confirmed at the time that they were the same person. There's also some appearances from Jack Harkness in the book, watching the Doctor and having timey-wimey shenanigans. 

I enjoyed the read and the ride and it's a great adaptation of a fast moving story.

Moving on to Matt Jones' adaptation of his own scripts for the two part story 'The Impossible Planet'/'The Satan Pit' and this is another very well written piece of prose. Jones sets the scenes as the three survivors (Ida/Zack/Danny) of the events on the planet Krop Tor are being put on trial for the deaths of their friends, and for the financial loss of the Sanctuary Base they were using. Each tells their own parts of the story, and so we get a version of the adventure which is slightly different from what was seen on television in that elements are explained, if you like, in the wrong order. It's a clever way of telling the story and I liked it a lot.

We have a couple of interjections from the people hearing their tales, and we conclude in the court room, during which there is a section as told by the Doctor himself which is most interesting. One of the defining characteristics of most prose Doctor Who is that the Doctor himself is unknowable, and we don't hear his thoughts or know what he's up to. This element in the book completely ignores that of course and we find out exactly what he's thinking and doing when he confronts the giant demonic god/monster/creature at the bottom of the pit.

There's also a coda where the Doctor, as part of his 'world tour' just before he regenerates in 'The End of Time', visits Ida and has a chat with her in a cemetery. It's a nice sequence and seems in line with how the Doctor was behaving at that time. There's also some expansion of the Ood here, with their 'song' coming into the narrative, and also their celebration/song of the Doctor which started in 2146 in 'Planet of the Ood'. This actually forms a key part of the narrative here and is well explained and worked into the overall plot.

There was a lot of speculation at the time as to the amount of change that Jones' ideas and scripts underwent, with the addition of the Ood (which were created by Russell T Davies for the story) being a major element. Davies has explained that an early draft of the script included Raxacoricofallapatorians - beings from the same planet as the Slitheen family - rather than the Ood. The idea was that the aliens had been enslaved and they wanted to awaken the Beast as they thought it could free them. This novelisation, however, follows the televised story and includes the Ood.

Overall this is a great addition to the Target range, and the book makes the most of an excellent script and a very exciting and eventful story. I think it's my favourite of the three this time around.

The third novelisation in this batch is by Jenny T Colgan and is of the Steven Moffat story 'The Time of Angels'/'Flesh and Stone'.

Something that all three of these books have in common is that they try to replicate their eras. So the Eccleston is fast and furious and fun; the Tennant is more heavy on the weight of being the Doctor; and the Smith one is fast and loose with an emphasis more on the events and the spectacle rather than on the story.

Thus Colgan manages to add a little into the proceedings, but not much in the way of explanation as to what is going on. The plot seems to change depending on where you are in it. There's River Song dashing around and dropping 'Spoilers' and 'Sweetie' everywhere, the Doctor muddling on through and Amy Pond overshadowed by both of them. In the mix too are a bunch of soldier Clerics, and, initially one, but then hundreds of weeping Angel creatures which are in this crashed ship and whose motivation seems somewhat obtuse. I'm just not sure what they wanted. Power? The ability to time travel? 

The story of course follows the televised episodes, but the telling is far more linear than the other books. There's an introductory piece about a man repeatedly sent further and further back in time by the Angels, and I think he wrote the book that Father Octavian is looking at. There's also a little foreshadowing of the clever sequence in the forest where Amy is talking to the Doctor (but it's the Doctor from a future adventure, 'The Big Bang', rather than the one from this story - I loved that touch on transmission).

I think if you enjoyed the television episodes, then you'll probably get on fine with the book, but don't expect any great revelations or additional information here. 

The three books have excellent covers from Dan Liles, and are £10.99 each in paperback. They have also changed the internal paper stock and it's now very much thinner than before.

The final book for review is another featuring River Song. And it's a hardback 'game' book of all things. The ones where you read a page or so, and then it poses the reader a question: If River goes back to her cell, turn to entry 102; if she heads to the engine room, turn to entry 45 ... that sort of thing.

Allegedly written by Alex Kingston (the busy actress who played River Song), but probably written by BBC Books regulars Jacqueline Rayner and Steve Cole, the book follows you/River in an adventure which starts in the Stormcage containment facility. As you go, you choose your path, and there are many endings. 

I managed to die within about 5 minutes of reading! But the book helpfully has little tick boxes so you can mark your choices as you go. This means you can backtrack (or start again) and choose different selections to see how you get on. There are Daleks and Cybermen lurking inside, as well as the TARDIS, the Doctor and a regeneration, plus Varga plants, taranium and the Time Destructor ... and lots more depending on the choices you make!

It's an enjoyable escapade, and dipping through the entries at random reveals all manner of twists and turns and characters ... I don't envy the putting of it all together, or the editors having to read and check every entry to follow all the variant story threads that it has. 

River Song last appeared on television 11 years ago (2015), so this publication is a little like a book featuring the Meddling Monk coming out while 'The Talons of Weng-Chiang' was being transmitted. Isn't fandom and the existence of DVD and episode streaming wonderful!

New Doctor Who: The Daleks' Master Plan ...

I say 'new' Doctor Who, but of course we're talking about some new 'old' Doctor Who.

This crazy show has something of a history around its past, which is ironic for a programme which is all about time travel. Just in case you're not up to speed ... while there have been 65 years or so of Doctor Who episodes transmitted by the BBC, not all of them still exist to enjoy today. This is largely as a result of the cost of videotape back in the sixties and early seventies, and the BBC's need to reuse it where they could, but also because the BBC saw themselves very much as a television producer and transmitter, and not as an archive. So they got rid of a large number of programmes by wiping the tapes for reuse, or throwing filmed copies away to make space for other things ... never stopping to think that someone in the future might be interested in seeing them again.

And thus it was that just 97 episodes of Doctor Who remained missing from the BBC's archives, consigned to the dustbin of history. The irony is that while they threw away the completed programmes, they kept all the production paperwork and photographs that had been taken. And enterprising fans had kept audio recordings of the episodes that they made at the time of transmission ... so we could listen to the episodes and look at the photographs, appreciating the details of which BBC studios they were made in and how much the costumes cost ... but we couldn't watch them.

After a long period in which there were no Doctor Who recoveries - missing episodes rediscovered in collections or at overseas television stations - hope was fading that anything more would be found. But then ...

In 2025, an organisation called Film is Fabulous managed to get access to the film collection of an elderly collector. It seems he didn't even know what he had ... but what he had included two episodes of sixties Doctor Who which were missing from the BBC's archives!

They were recovered, repaired and cleaned up, returned to the BBC, and on Good Friday, 3 April 2026, they went live on the BBC iPlayer for everyone to enjoy once more!

And what a treat. The two episodes both came from a 12 part story called 'The Daleks' Master Plan', a 1965/66 epic which saw the Doctor (William Hartnell), along with companion Steven (Peter Purves), and a handmaiden from ancient Troy called Katarina (Adrienne Hill), team up with  Bret Vyon (Nicholas Courtney in his first ever appearance in Doctor Who) and his sister, Space Special Security Service operative Sara Kingdom (Jean Marsh) to try and foil an invasion of the Solar System by the Daleks, aided by the Guardian of the Solar System himself Mavic Chen (Kevin Stoney). The story encompassed many worlds, escapes, chases, intrigue and excitement as the Daleks try to obtain the emm of the mineral taranium that they need to power the awesome Time Destructor weapon. 

Bret Vyon (Nicholas Courtney), the Doctor
(William Hartnell), Katarina (Adrienne Hill)
and Steven (Peter Purves) consider the
taranium core.

Some of the story existed (episodes 2, 5 and 10) but most was missing, and this episode recovery comprised episodes 1 and 3 of the adventure. So we could finally see how it all started, and, indeed, enjoy the first three episodes uninterrupted.

This was a fascinating time for Doctor Who. Under John Wiles' producership, the show was abandoning some of it's previous companion characters and tropes and trying to move into a more groundbreaking approach to the stories and adventures. Indeed, the whole of 'The Daleks' Master Plan' was foreshadowed with a one episode adventure called 'Mission to the Unknown' which didn't feature the regular cast at all. This laid the groundwork for the Daleks' presence on the planet Kembel, and the alliance of aliens from the outer Galaxies who were coming together with the Daleks to attack the Earth. After this episode, there was then a four part story called 'The Myth Makers' which had the Doctor, Vicki and Steven adventuring in ancient Troy, and then, at the end of this, Vicki leaves, Katarina enters the TARDIS, Steven is injured, and they're off to the start of 'The Daleks' Master Plan'.

I enjoyed the first episode a lot. 'The Nightmare Begins' sets the scene with Mavic Chen heading off on a holiday (in reality to conspire with the Daleks) while the Doctor and friends arrive on Kembel so the Doctor can try and find something to help Steven. Bret Vyon is also there and he stumbles across the TARDIS and thus the scene is set ...

The direction from Douglas Camfield is as good as we have come to expect from him. Great visuals, tracking shots and interest in every scene. The performances are also good, and we come away somewhat in awe.

I found it interesting that in episode 2 the characters talk about something that we don't see! In episode 1, Bret Vyon is trapped in a magnetic chair in the TARDIS while the Doctor heads outside to see what he can find, leaving Katarina caring for Steven. Vyon persuades Katarina to give Steven some pills he has in his belt pouch which will help cure him. Then in episode 2, Katarina and Steven are suddenly outside the TARDIS, Steven has a jacket and shirt on (he was topless in episode 1), and Bret Vyon has escaped. It seems that he persuaded Katarina to release him from the chair and they all left the TARDIS as they thought it might be dangerous to stay there as the Daleks were outside ... in fact it was the safest place to be.  But we never see any of this happen. They just talk about it!

The second recovered episode is part 3, 'Devil's Planet', and this for me is the more enjoyable of the two. We're now in Mavic Chen's stolen Spar spaceship heading for the prison planet Desperus, and the Daleks take control of the ship remotely and bring it down on the planet. What makes all this so interesting is that there are very few photographs of the events on Desperus available, so we see sets and characters we have never seen before (except for on the original transmission). This is just sublime for a died-in-the-wool fan, and I loved the beardy men (and women) and their initial struggle over a knife. This reminded me of the show's first story, '100,000 BC' and the struggle to control fire: who controlled fire, controlled the tribe. And here we have the same thing with the knife being the symbol of power.

The giant feet of a 'screamer' bat
threatens Kirksen

There's also some giant 'screamer' bats on the planet to contend with, and to my surprise we don't actually see them, just a shadow. Which is very intriguing as there is a photo of one of the criminals, Kirksen (Douglas Sheldon), being attacked by a giant pair of legs and feet ... so they built it but never used it on screen (except to throw said shadow perhaps). Fascinating. Maybe Camfield felt it didn't work as a visual so decided to just go with suggestion.

The episode ends with a cliff hanger that the Daleks arrive on Desperus, but the Doctor and friends escape, taking off again in the Spar, but with an unwelcome passenger: one of the criminals, Kirksen; who grabs Katarina and holds her prisoner in the airlock of the ship. Exciting stuff!

While we had 3 episodes already, with a story like this which features a variety of characters and locations for which there is little or no visual record, this is a real treat. It makes me wish so hard that more of the story did exist and that we could enjoy it all again. But sadly this is not the case. 

As with much of sixties Doctor Who, there are episodes missing which we would love to revisit but cannot, relying on the memories of those who saw them on transmission to confirm that they were indeed some of the very best that Doctor Who had to offer at the time. When we get a discovery like this, it just cements that stories like 'The Daleks' Master Plan' was indeed a 'masterful' set of episodes, and truly deserves its reputation as one of the great lost classics of television of the time. 

For the moment, point your browser or television to the BBC iPlayer (in the UK) or to the BBC's YouTube channel (in the USA) to enjoy again the start of the greatest adventure that the Doctor has ever undertaken.

POSTSCRIPT

For my first viewing I wanted to get into the mood, so there are a couple of other things to seek out to watch in order to get an effective build up to the newly recovered episodes.  

I suggest:

'Mission to the Unknown' - the episode no longer exists, but the University of Lancashire remade it in 2019 using the same cameras and style as were originally used in the sixties. Moreover an enterprising fan matched the remade episode to the original soundtrack, and the result is probably as close as you can get to watching the original. The soundtrack matched version can be found here: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7nz2pu

After this, there is a rather lovely interlude/teaser which uses AI to recreate key visuals from 'The Myth Makers' and thus provide the introduction of Katarina and the injuring of Steven so that you go into 'The Daleks' Master Plan' reminded of the immediately preceding story. This is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmZ3yquMEqA

Then we have episodes 1-3 of 'The Daleks' Master Plan' to watch on iPlayer, but you then need to skip episode 4 and head to episode 5 ... or you can watch a photo reconstruction of episode 4 on Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7gw2s9

However you decide to watch these returned episodes, I hope they bring you as much joy and happiness as they have to me ... a little slice of classic Who has come home to rest. And may there be many more.

*****************************

While I'm here ... If you're a fan of film, then have a look at a Film Festival that I run with my wife, Sam.  THE SYKEHOUSE FILM AND WRITERS' FESTIVAL combines writing with filmmaking, and we have an amazing weekend coming up on the 16/17 May showing some of the films entered in this year's festival, plus guests and panels and talks and pitching sessions with agents and film producers ... all sorts of great things.  Here's a rundown of what to expect:

For more information and tickets, please visit www.slhfilmfest.com

Review: Doctor Who: The Adventures After

This is another in the current BBC Children's books series of anthologies and follows on from The Adventures Before.  This time we're looking at mini-adventures that happened after certain Doctor Who stories, and it's a mixed bag. Some of the stories are not really sequels and yet the contents pages and subtitle to the book suggest they are.

There are two stories written (or co-written) by stars from the show: Carole Ann Ford (with Rob Craine and Beth Axford) who played Susan in the show has 'The Verge of Death' which follows 'Marco Polo' and picks up on the prior events of 'Inside the Spaceship' where the TARDIS was trying to warn the travellers of danger. The idea is that a psychic creature has got into the ship and is attacking them ... 

And Katy Manning who played Jo has a story which follows 'The Green Death' about the Master attempting to get hold of the Metebelis crystal given to Jo by the Doctor.

Other stories are 'The Face of Fear' by David N Smith which is aligned to 'The Web of Fear' but which is more of a sequel to 'The Faceless Ones' as the Chameleons are back. Paul Magrs provides a proper sequel to 'The Daemons' as the Master (or Missy) is back and the 13th Doctor has to work with an aged Olive Hawthorne to stop Missy from summoning Azal again. Mark Griffiths brings us 'Harry Sullivan and the Chalice of Vengeance' which follows 'The Christmas Invasion' (one of the Sycorax survives and saves his mind which then encounters the 4th Doctor, Sarah and Harry in the future.)  ... Janelle McCurdy has 'The Ashes of Pompeii', a sequel to 'The Fires of Pompeii' (the Doctor and Donna have a second encounter with a Pyrovile)... Alfie Shaw has 'Aftercare', which follows the events of  'The Angels Take Manhattan' (a sad tale of Brian Williams trying to come to terms with Rory's death) ... and finally Beth Axford has 'Save the Earth', aligned to 'Kill the Moon', with clothes that eat people and the Doctor's coat having dimensionally transcendental pockets.

As I've said before about these books, they are aimed at 8-12 year old kids, and as time moves forward, so those kids fast outgrow whatever is being written for them. So an 8 year old in 2025 would have not been born when 'Kill the Moon' was shown, and would have been 6 when 'The Giggle' was transmitted (Ncuti Gatwa's debut) ... and only 1 year old when 'The Woman Who Fell to Earth' was transmitted (Jodie Whittaker's debut) ... my point is that it's hard to see how these kids, who have grown up in a world where Doctor Who is less 'event' and more 'cult' would react to the stories and want to buy them (or have them bought for them).

I feel that around the age of 6 or 7 is when we start to get our 'core memories' (as Inside Out might put it) and kids watching the show for the first time at around that age are more likely to then want to go and find out more ... especially if the watching is a shared experience with friends at school. But for something to be able to tap into that 'shared experience' it needs to be 'shared' ... Look at how well the whole Stranger Things phenomenon has grown ... off the back of Netflix planning and coordinating 'drops' of the episodes so everyone can watch at roughly the same time, and then discuss and want to see what happens next with their friends. Doctor Who just doesn't have the same degree of mass-market take-up these days, and when there is an opportunity to be taken, it tends not to be. 

I really hope that this book and others like it find a market, but I'm really not sure what that market is.

Review: Spirited

We discovered Spirited hiding on Prime. It's an Australian genre series from 2010/11 and is a little 'inspired' (if that's a thing) by shows like Ghosts or The Ghost and Mrs Muir and so on.

The basic idea is that a dentist, Suzy Darling (Claudia Karvan), finds that she can see the ghost of a 1980s punk rock star called Henry Mallett (Matt King). The series is all about Henry trying to figure out how he died and why he's haunting the apartment block in which Suzy has her work and living place. Just giving a basic synopsis like this does somewhat demean the whole as it's a well written and very engaging series, with some black comedy mixed in, and some great characters who grow and change as the series progresses. There's Steve, Suzy's ex, who starts out being a right bar steward, sleeping with basically anyone who will have him - and a surprising number of women seem to want him!  But by the end he has his own moment of revelation and seems to change his ways.

Henry is a smashing character and Matt King plays him with aplomb ... all eighties punk sensibility and rage packed into a tall lanky man who can't work out where it all went wrong. Claudia Karvan is a superb foil for him and, as the only human who can see and hear him, starts to grow fond of her spectral friend.

There's lots of good ideas on show, some great performances, and a very well realised romance blossoming between the two leads - even though they can't actually touch each other.

Recommended viewing.

Review: The Art of Time Travel by Peter Mckinstry

This is more like it!  After a seemingly endless succession of 'in universe' factual photo books from BBC Books about Doctor Who, finally we get a proper behind the scenes look at the work of art department designer Peter Mckinstry.

Peter worked on Seasons 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the revived Doctor Who series as a concept artist and designer, and his work spans pretty much everything that you see on screen. There are a great many superb illustrations here depicting everything from Sonic Screwdrivers to watches through guns and gadgets, to giant spacecraft and aliens. There's (of course) redesigned Daleks and Cybermen and Sontarans and all manner of other things which Peter was commissioned to create for various other books and magazines, and accompanying them all is a commentary explaining the key points and thought processes that went into realising the ideas.

Alongside these there are Peter's emails and comments to Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat and their responses which give a great insight into how the ideas develop into reality for the screen.

I loved the book. It's big and chunky and full of colour, information and interest. The true behind the scenes elements have always been of more interest to me than 'in universe' continuity-type information and so this book is ideal! It's a fascinating insight into how a 'world' or 'alien' can be developed in Doctor Who and how every element is considered and thought through to give consistency to their race and culture, whether that be the jewellery they wear, the weaponry they carry, or even how they decorate their spacecraft or buildings.

The copy I was sent was a second printing, so maybe this has done really well to have been reprinted so fast ... or maybe they underestimated the print run it would need!  Either way it bodes well for more like this in the future.

Review: First Light - The Science Fiction Art of Alex Storer

I'm a sucker for art books, I love the collected works of people far more talented than I am at painting and drawing and illustration ... and so this new collection from Alex Storer is right up my street.

First Light collects together  many of Storer's pieces of fantastic art and is presented thematically: Cities, Stars, Worlds, Environments and finishing with a selection of book covers that he has created.

'Cities' presents some marvellously gothic creations. 'Daybreak' is a smashing vista of a man looking out at a purple and violet hued cityscape at sunrise, across a river, while a cat watches the man ... marvellously forlorn and evocative, the image has a hint of peace about it ...

'Thalassa' meanwhile is a drowned cityscape. The tops of skyscrapers poke through the waters, while taller structures are visible through the watery air. Another very evocative piece.

The images range from the neon drenched 'Night Shift' to lovers running across a green meadow ... Cities of all types are represented.

'Stars' presents spacescapes and rocket ships and spacestations ... all hanging in the inky star studded void. These are fascinating and serene.

'Worlds' goes to the planets and we have twin moons, space suited explorers, underwater creatures and incredible vistas.

'Environments' is similar, but focussing on specific conditions: ice and snow, caverns and tunnels dominate.

And finally the book covers for authors like Alice Sabo, Terry Grimwood and Andrew Hook. All great evocative cover imagery which makes you want to pick the books concerned up: the prime function of a cover!

All in all this 80 page book is a tremendous celebration of the imagination of Alex Storer and of a love of art and colour and shade and of incredible sights hitherto unseen. It's well worth a look!

Copies are available from Amazon at: https://amzn.eu/d/8GIDLHD

Review: The Moon Cruise by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson

The Moon Cruise is the latest Doctor Who novel from Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, and is her first original novel for the BBC's range. Previously she wrote the novelisation of 'The Church on Ruby Road'.

In line with the other recent novels, The Moon Cruise is a short book clocking in at 189 pages. The story sees the 15th Doctor and Belinda part way through his second season (the novel places the action after the story 'The Well' when the Doctor is still taking vindicator readings from various places in his attempt to get Belinda back to Earth).

Here they arrive on what the Doctor thinks is a deserted asteroid, but which is reality one of the service corridors for a fantastic space cruise experience named The Moon Cruise. The ship is owned and run by Marilyn Moon, a character inexplicably modelled on singer and actress Marilyn Monroe, and as the Doctor and Belinda soon discover, the ship and its crew and its modus operandi are not at all what they seem.

The workers are prisoners, serving out a sentence which rises with every minor infraction, and Belinda ends up taking the place of one of them. The Doctor has to rescue her and so joins forces with the worker she replaced, a green-haired girl named Jax, to infiltrate the upper levels of the ship and to find out the truth behind the whole setup. But there are robotic guards everywhere, and giant centipedes roaming the lower levels ...

The novel has quite a few welcome influences from Doctor Who. We have, of course, the other space cruise liner story, 'Voyage of the Damned' with its robotic angelic Hosts and an owner, Max Capricorn, who isn't exactly human himself. Then there's elements from 'The Greatest Show in the Galaxy' with the robot clowns, and also 'The Long Game' where the humans down below are controlled by a mysterious entity on the upper floors, reached by a single lift. It feels like a Doctor Who story, which is great.

Jikiemi-Pearson blends all these ideas together well, and her writing flows nicely, bringing the reader quickly through the story. The idea that the robotic guards have human parts inside also brings to mind 'Frontios' where the Tractators used human body parts to power their mining machines, or, indeed 'The Girl in the Fireplace' where the Regency Clockwork Men used human parts to fix up the spaceship they were travelling in. One thing I wasn't quite sure about was why there were giant centipedes and ember-emitting fungus in the lower floors - there's some words about how they just grew and multiplied there, but this is just Belinda's assumption - but it all adds to the suspense and provides for some great action sequences.

Overall the story doesn't really feel like a 15th Doctor adventure though, and in some respects I could 'see' the same story being told in the same way with any of the incarnations of the Doctor being involved. It's an enjoyable and action packed book, and once it gets going, it just keeps on going ... 

It's a diverting and enjoyable read and I had a lot of fun with it. A good way to pass an afternoon.

Review: Evolution by Andrew Skilleter

I'm a sucker for lovely art books, and this is partly why Telos has been dipping into publishing them over recent years.  Andrew Skilleter is an artist whose name is almost synonymous with Doctor Who. He has done so much over the years, creating cover art, posters, books, bookmarks and many other visual expressions related to the show.

He has published several artbooks himself, collecting much of his Doctor Who output, and you'd perhaps think that there wasn't much left for him to publish. However. Andrew is still working and has been creating new art for this book he calls Evolution. Partly because it showcases an evolution in his style to a more fluid form, and encompassing photography as well: basically making full use of the tools currently available to artists to create new and interesting work.

And that's what this book is: new and interesting. From the impressive gold embossed cover with a part fabric spine overlap, the book screams quality. It's been produced in limited numbers, all signed by the artist, and here we find the opening pages presenting new imagery of the Doctors.

Each spread is accompanied by a quote from the show, which Andrew explains, acts as a jumping off point to new adventures and ideas. So here we have companion Peri Brown reimagined as a 'space adventurer' in a red skirt and cape, wearing white gloves and holding a Star Trek-like phaser pistol. There's River Song in a very Jim Burns spaceship, an exploding Cyberman, a painting of Nyssa of Traken as some flying fey being, the Rani: all aloof and with another flowing red cape ... the imagery is impressive and it works. 

Following a central gallery of commissioned work and pencils showing a different side to Andrew's art, and presented as being 'The Under Gallery' presided over by the Curator, we have more fantastic imagery: Leela swimming underwater; Arizona Amy striding through the desert; Romana mk1 wearing a shiny blue catsuit and beside another Burnsian space car; while Romana Mk2 is flying through the air in a black catsuit and boots. 

There's a section on the Daemons, with new imagery of the Master and Azal, followed by other daemonic forces like the Malus and the Fendahl, the Haemovores and the Destroyer.

Andrew's classic 'poster prints' are reimagined as Radio Times covers next and they work very well indeed in this form, and then we're onto Jamie against a Highland background; Ace as a battle-suited marine, and Sarah Jane as a 'Spacegirl' dressed in another shiny spacesuit; Cybermen; Zoe; Missy; Captain Jack;  and finally of course, a Dalek.

The whole book is a joy! 

It's available from Andrew's store at https://andrewskilleter.com/store-gallery/doctor-who/drwho-books/evolution-doctor-who-arta-new-dimension/

Doctor Who Book Reviews: The Chimes of Midnight / Doctor Who Annual / Where's the Doctor

A few more recent Doctor Who titles to put through the review machine, and first out is The Chimes of Midnight by Robert Shearman. This was released in hardback along with another title called Jubilee and both are novelisations of audio adventures that Shearman wrote several years back. They have remained as popular audio releases and this is presumably why BBC Books has chosen them for release as novelisations. Jubilee formed the basis for the Doctor Who TV script that Shearman wrote in 2005, the story 'Dalek'.

The Chimes of Midnight is an eighth Doctor adventure, and the companion is Charley Pollard, a creation for the Big Finish audio adventures of that Doctor. As a novelisation, it works really well, and Shearman manages to create bags of atmosphere in a story which is redolent of past tales like 'The Celestial Toymaker' and 'The Space Museum', with tones of more recent fare like 'Ghost Light' and 'The Giggle' in there as well.

The Doctor and Charley find themselves at Christmas in an old house, where they seem to be at odds with reality in that they cannot interact with anything. As the clock chimes, so they find themselves faced with a murder, and the Doctor starts to investigate. But nothing is as it seems, and reality bends and twists around them, with the staff of the house behaving strangely, time speeding up, and the TARDIS blocked from them. It's a strange tale which maintains the mystery far beyond the half way point (when one might expect some answers to start to appear). 

I enjoyed the read, the text is eloquent and the characters all leap from the page. 

As an experiment to see if novelisations of the Big Finish audios might work, then it's a worthy start. After all there are rather a lot of those audios out there now to draw on in the future should BBC Books deem it worthwhile.

Also available is the traditional Doctor Who Annual, again written by Paul Lang, and this time with a story from Pete McTighe (a prequel to 'Lucky Day'). As with previous Annuals, we're following a tested format, and here there's an introduction from actress Varada Sethu who played Belinda Chandra, followed by pages looking at the various characters and stories from the last season (and the Christmas special which preceded it), the pantheon of powerful creatures (including the new-look Sutekh), some games and puzzles, a feature on Mrs Flood. a cartoon strip based on the animated sequence from 'Lux', a piece on Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter, and a spread from the colourised version of 'The Daleks'.

As mentioned in previous reviews, there's a lot that goes into the Annual to try and make it interesting and diverse for the younger reader, and the team have again done a sterling job. I do wonder what the 2027 annual might bring next year as there's no new Who on television for it to use as a backbone. Maybe a more general look back over the show's past?

Another 'new' title is Doctor Who: Where's The Doctor? which is a Where's Wally-type book with 14 spreads of detailed illustration in which you have to find the Doctor, plus various other elements (detailed at the back) which you can also look out for.

The illustrations by Pablo Gallego and Jorge Santillan are charming, and the book claims to draw on work previously published in When's the Doctor? (2012) and Find the Doctor (2013). The strange thing here is that Find the Doctor was actually a complete reprint of material from When's the Doctor? and Where's the Doctor? (2013) the latter of which featured illustrations from Jamie Smart, whose work is not included in this book. ('Shackleton's Expedition', 'Metebelis III', 'Ancient Egypt', 'Ancient Greek Olympics', 'The End of the World', 'TARDIS Graveyard' and 'Victorian London' are all taken from When's the Doctor and thus by Jorge Santillan. There are therefore eight new pieces by Pablo Gallego (presumably) in this book.) 

There's also an updated version of the Greatest Monsters book from a few years back available. Obviously reprinting, repackaging and updating of older material is the order of the day!

Doctor Who LPs from Demon

Demon Music Group started out as Demon Records, a British record label, founded in 1980 by former United Artists A&R executive Andrew Lauder and Jake Riviera (aka Andrew Jakeman), and also, possibly, Elvis Costello! In 1998, Demon was acquired by Crimson Productions and the record label was merged with its Westside Records operation. The date that BBC Studios acquired Demon Records/Crimson Records and their subsidiaries and labels is not recorded. 

As well as Doctor Who they also release many other items and specialise in the reissues of catalogue titles, with a focus on the various Record Store Days each year where many rare items are re-issued on vinyl specifically for sale at participating stores.

The Demon Records/BBC Doctor Who initiative came from Ben Stanley, Product Manager at Demon Records; their first Doctor Who release came in 2016 when they produced a new vinyl edition of the 'Genesis of the Daleks' adaptation (first issued in October 1979) for the April Record Store Day that year. They also put out 'The Tomb of the Cybermen' and 'City of Death' before Oink Creative and Michael Stevens came on board in 2019 to create a revamped look for 'The Daleks’ Master Plan' soundtrack release. 

As the years have gone by, the Doctor Who releases have become more elaborate and complex. From initial reissues of some of the single- and double-LP historic Doctor Who recordings, they moved into releasing LPs of the Doctor Who soundtracks in 2018 ... and have since augmented the range with some reissues of Big Finish's Doctor Who audios on LP as exclusives to certain retail stores.

The disks themselves are very nicely produced and packaged, and as the range has expanded, so various variants have been introduced. The soundtrack LP covers have been created by various artists at Oink Creative, including (but not limited to) Tom Fournier, Sam Goddard, John Conlon and Louise Barden. The packaging design is by Oink, based on art direction by Michael Stevens; Michael gives the team a detailed brief on each release and supplies photo assets, story detail, sleeve text and suggestions for key elements to illustrate. Michael and Oink decide the vinyl colours and effects between them and he then gives each one a story-appropriate name. 

The pressing plant they use for the LPs is a dab hand at creating all manner of different effects on the disks, which Michael names with suitably 'Who-ish' descriptions for the releases: 'Skaro swirl', 'Tibetan blizzard' and 'Animus splatter' among them ... and these are usually special releases exclusive to the online retailer Amazon.

Most of the Doctor Who soundtrack releases are re-issues of audio previously released on CD, with an overlaid narration from one of the actors from the show, but the release of  'The Web Planet' had not been previously made available and featured an all new narration from Maureen O'Brien. A CD release was subsequently made available the following year.

Looking at the most recent releases, and we have two soundtracks. One is a boxed set of three LPs covering 'The Sensorites', and the other is a two LP release covering 'The Celestial Toymaker'. Each 25 minute episode of the original show takes one LP side, so the number of LPs is dictated by the number of episodes. And the packaging too, to some extent, though the releases have settled into something of a 'format'. There is a box or gatefold case with stunning new artwork on the front, and then each LP has it's own slipcase with a standard design on one side (colour themed to whatever the colour palette of the release is), and the other containing the cast and credits details for that episode. The outer sleeves within the box sets also have imagery on each side which, when placed together, makes up a larger picture.

'The Sensorites' also comes with an embossed, frameable art print of the cover artwork and the Sense-Sphere blue marble vinyl LPs are presented in individual pockets which, when placed in order, reveal a double-sided composite illustration, again of the cover artwork. An accompanying booklet supplies cast and credits, and inner bags feature complete episode billings. It's an impressive package!

'The Celestial Toymaker' comes on red (king) and blue (queen) coloured LPs and is in a more simple gatefold packaging with inner bags.

If it's sheer luxury you want though, then the two LP boxed set releases of two of Paul Magrs' audio series for AudioGo really push the boat out.

Hornet's Nest and Demon Quest were two 2009 and 2010 five-part audio releases featuring Tom Baker as the Doctor, but strangely having adventures in England while living in a cottage with his housekeeper, Mrs Wibbsey. There is a third series of adventures called Serpent Crest, coming on 23 May 2023! The stories were typically Doctor Who, and Baker effortlessly fell back into his classic portrayal ... but here even more eccentric if that's possible!

For these special LP releases Demon Records have really gone the extra mile!  

For Hornet's Nest, the set comes with an exclusive, frameable portrait of the Fourth Doctor - every copy of which has been individually signed by Tom Baker himself. There's an impressive, die-cut removable outer sleeve housing a hornet-adorned lidded box, inside which are ten individual, alternating yellow and black vinyl LPs, within exquisitely illustrated LP sleeves featuring full cast and credits for each story. Also included is The Doctor’s Journal, a large 16-page full colour booklet detailing the Time Lord’s notes and illustrations from his battles against the hornets.

Demon Quest also has ten LP records, alternating red and black, each one containing one episode of the series. Every copy of the vinyl edition includes an exclusive, frameable portrait of the Fourth Doctor, again hand signed by Tom Baker himself. There's an intricately die-cut, removable outer sleeve revealing a demonic lidded box, inside which are ten individual illustrated LP sleeves featuring full cast and credits for each of the five stories. The Time Lord’s encounters with the mysterious demon are detailed in The Doctor’s Journal, a large 16-page full-colour booklet featuring notes and illustrations from this epic pursuit through time.

Each are superbly produced and are in themselves true works of art. Sadly the cost reflects this - they're not cheap, each retailing for around £190 each! But some outlets have them discounted ... so shop around! As a very special present for the Doctor Who fan in your life, they're probably hard to beat!

Released for Record Store Day 2023 (22 April) wasanother Demon release, this time of stories in part from The Amazing Worlds of Doctor Who hardback book, published in 1976 through a special promotion with TyPhoo teabags. The promotion included 12 collectible photo-cards given away with the boxes of tea, and a poster onto which they could be mounted.

This 2023 audio edition included 'The Sinister Sponge' (also in The Doctor Who Annual 1976, previously released on CD on The Sinister Sponge and Other Stories (2019)), 'The Vampires Of Crellium' (original to The Amazing World of Doctor Who), 'On The Slippery Trail' (original to The Amazing World of Doctor Who) and 'The Mission' (also in The Doctor Who Annual 1976). There are two stories not contained in the book The Amazing World of Doctor Who: 'A New Life' (from The Doctor Who Annual 1978) and 'Avast There' (from The Doctor Who Annual 1976). The release also contains audio adaptations of two comic stories: 'The Psychic Jungle' and 'Neuronic Nightmare' (both also in The Doctor Who Annual 1976). 

Dan Starkey (Strax), Louise Jameson (Leela) and Geoffrey Beevers (The Master) read these weird and wacky stories. Published in Doctor Who's 60th anniversary year, the 140g clear vinyl LPs are presented in a gatefold sleeve with illustrated inner bags. Chris Achilleos' iconic artwork for the original book provides a stunning front and back cover to the LP release.

Tom Baker signs copies of the Demon Quest print

The May 2023 Serpent Crest release follows the pattern of the two earlier box sets. This time the colour theme is green and black, and there's the usual quality booklet, art print personally signed by Tom Baker, ten LP records (alternating black and green) and artwork adorning the whole package. This time the slipcase has 'serpent scale' cutouts in the outer box and the whole package just screams 'luxury'.

Author Paul Magrs with his copy of the Serpent Crest LPs

15 September 2023 saw the release of a 4 LP set of stories featuring Tom Baker as the Doctor. Genesis of the Daleks, Doctor Who and  the Pescatons, Exploration Earth: The Time Machine and The State of Decay. Limited to 600 copies, the set comes with a personally signed picture of  Baker.

The Tom Baker Record Collection

Also an LP release in the DOOM'S DAY spin off series: Four For Doom's Day.

For the twin story release Pest Control/The Forever Trap, the set of LPs had an illustrated lift off lid, and features 6 x 140g vinyl LPs three in transparent red and three in transparent yellow each housed in a unique inner sleeve. A four page booklet features sleeve notes by authors Peter Anghelides and Dan Abnett, who reflect on the process of writing for the Tenth Doctor and Donna, and how they regard the stories 17 years later.

'The Edge of Destruction' features an impressive picture LP with the ormolu clock on one side and a TARDIS zoetrope on the other. The soundtrack, it's first audio release in any format, has narration from Carole Ann Ford, and also features an interview with Ford. 

'The Highlanders' was an exclusive vinyl for HMV, and released on 14th June 2024. Narration is by Frazer Hines. It boasts translucent red and blue disks, and the usual information on the slip sleeves.

The Jon Pertwee Collection brings together two of the audio novelisations readings that Pertwee did originally for cassette tape, along with several archival pieces. The box set comes with a print of Jon Pertwee.

LP 1 Side A Doctor Who and the Curse of PeladonPart One / Goodwood Races mini-drama

LP 1 Side B Doctor Who and the Curse of PeladonPart Two / Profile interview

LP 2 Side C Doctor Who and the Curse of PeladonPart Three / Newsbeat interview

LP 2 Side D Doctor Who and the Curse of PeladonPart Four / Simon Bates interview

LP 3 Side E Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks Part One / The Skivers comedy sketch

LP 3 Side F Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks Part Two / Local radio interview

LP 4 Side G Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks Part Three / Radio Lives tributes

LP 4 Side H Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks Part Four / Who Is The Doctor?

Here's the covers for further releases from Demon.

Here's a checklist of all the Doctor Who LPs that Demon Records have released so far ...

Doctor Who: Genesis of the Daleks 16/04/2016 DEMREC160

Doctor Who and the Pescatons (Victor Pemberton) / Doctor Who Sound Effects No 19 22/04/2017 DEMREC202

Doctor Who: City of Death 21/04/2018 green vinyl DEMREC254

Doctor Who: The Tomb of the Cybermen 21/04/2018 silver vinyl DEMREC253

Doctor Who: Cold Vengeance (Matt Fitton) 19/10/2018 DEMREC327

Doctor Who: Galaxy 4 13/04/2019 2x180g splatter vinyl DEMWHOLP001

Doctor Who: Destiny of the Daleks 13/04/2019 2x180g splatter vinyl DEMWHOLP002

Doctor Who: The Daleks' Master Plan 15/02/2019 6x180g translucent blue vinyl. DEMWHOBOX001

Doctor Who: The Daleks' Master Plan (Amazon) 15/02/2019 6x180g translucent 'splatter' vinyl. DEMWHOBOX001X

Doctor Who: The Creeping Death (Roy Gill) 24/05/2019 DEMREC433

Doctor Who: Wave of Destruction (Justin Richards) 02/08/2019 'ocean swirl' vinyl. DEMREC453

Doctor Who: The Evil of the Daleks 19/07/2019 translucent red vinyl. DEMWHOBOX002

Doctor Who: The Evil of the Daleks (Amazon) 19/07/2019 'Skaro swirl' vinyl. DEMWHOBOX002X

Doctor Who: Death and the Queen (James Goss) 06/09/2019 DEMREC370

Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen 27/09/2019 3x180g white vinyl DEMWHOBOX003

Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen (Amazon) 27/09/2019 3x180g 'Tibetan blizzard' vinyl DEMWHOBOX003X

Doctor Who: Max Warp (Jonathan Morris) 15/11/2019 DEMREC554

Doctor Who: The Web Planet 13/12/2019 180g pink vinyl. DEMWHOBOX004

Doctor Who: The Web Planet (Amazon) 13/12/2019 180g 'Animus splatter' vinyl. DEMWHOBOX004X

Doctor Who: The Paradise of Death & The Ghosts of N-Space (Barry Letts) 28/02/2020 3x180g blue vinyl & 3x180g yellow vinyl DEMWHOBOX005

Doctor Who: The Paradise of Death & The Ghosts of N-Space (Barry Letts) (Amazon) 28/02/2020 3x180g space world splatter vinyl and 3x180g spectral splatter vinyl DEMWHOBOX005X

Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace 06/07/2020 180g 'volcanic eruption' vinyl. DEMWHOLP004X

Doctor Who: The Massacre 29/08/2020 'Parisian blaze' vinyl DEMWHOLP003

Doctor Who: Marco Polo 11/09/2020 sandstorm vinyl DEMWHOBOX006X

Doctor Who: Time Lord Victorious: The Minds of Magnox (Darren Jones) 04/12/2020 DEMWHOLP005

Doctor Who: The Edge of Time (Richard Wilkinson) 22/01/2021 140g red and purple vinyl DEMREC713

Doctor Who: Horror of Fang Rock 19/02/2021 140g Rutan blob green vinyl DEMWHOLP006

Doctor Who: The Ice Warriors 04/06/2021 molten ice vinyl DEMWHOBOX007

Dalek Terror 12/06/2021 2x140g 'extermination splatter' vinyl DEMWHOLP007

Doctor Who: The Myth Makers 27/08/2021 'Trojan sunset' vinyl DEMWHOLP008

Doctor Who: The Pirate Planet 18/03/2022 'sky demon' splatter vinyl DEMWHOLP009

Doctor Who: Dead Air (James Goss) 23/04/2022 2x140g soundwave green vinyl. DEMWHOLP010

Doctor Who: Hornet's Nest: The Complete Series 06/05/2022 10x140g alternating yellow and black vinyl DEMWHOBOX009

Doctor Who: The Sensorites 22/07/2022 3x140g Sense-Sphere blue marble vinyl. DEMWHOBOX008

Doctor Who: The Celestial Toymaker 30/09/2022 2x140g king and queen (red and blue) vinyl DEMWHOLP011

Doctor Who: Demon Quest: The Complete Series 02/12/2022 10x140g alternating red and black vinyl DEMWHOBOX010

The Amazing World of Doctor Who 22/04/2023 2x140g red and orange vinyl REF: DEMWHOLP012

Doctor Who: Serpent Crest: The Complete Series 26/05/2023 10x140g alternating green and black vinyl DEMWHOBOX011

Doctor Who: The Tom Baker Record Collection 15/09/2023 4x140g orange, green, red and blue vinyl DEMWHOBOX012 (the label on the front has DEMRECBOX012)

Doom's Day: Four For Doom's Day 15/09/2023 2x140g translucent purple and blue vinyl DEMWHOLP013

Doctor Who: Pest Control / The Forever Trap 24/05/2024 6x140g translucent red and yellow vinyl DEMWHOBOX013

Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction 24/04/2024 1x140g zoetrope picture disc vinyl DEMWHOREC1190

Doctor Who: The Highlanders 14/06/2024 2x140g translucent red and blue vinyl. DEMWHOLP014

Doctor Who: The Crusade 04/10/2024 2x140g translucent green and yellow vinyl. DEMWHOLP015

Doctor Who: The Tenth Planet 12/04/2025 2x140g white and silver vinyl. DEMWHOLP016

Doctor Who: The Jon Pertwee Collection 01/08/2025 4x140g Green and Blue vinyl. DEMWHOBOX014

Doctor Who: The Moonbase 19/09/2025 2x140g translucent 'blue moon' vinyl. DEMWHOLP017

Doctor Who: The Last Voyage 28/11/2025 2x translucent yellow vinyl. DEMWHOLP018

Doctor Who: The Wheel in Space 13/02/2026 3x translucent 'bernalium' blue vinyl. DEMWHOLP019

Doctor Who: The Rescue 18/04/2026 1x translucent 'rescue red' vinyl. DEMWHOLP020

Doctor Who: Circuit Breaker: The Deadliest Weapon 31/07/2026 1x translucent 'purple coat' vinyl. DEMWHOLP021