Doctor Who: 25 Glorious Years

by Peter Haining

Television's longest running science fiction series is celebrated in full-color and black-and-white photographs and commentary on "The Silver Years," "The Seven Faces of Doctor Who," "The Dalek Chronicles," Whomemorabilia, and much more

Genres: Doctor Who, Nonfiction, Tv, Reference, History, Media Tie In

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 17, 1988

About the author

Peter Alexander Haining was an English journalist, author and anthologist who lived and worked in Suffolk. Born in Enfield, Middlesex, he began his career as a reporter in Essex and then moved to London where he worked on a trade magazine before joining the publishing house of New English Library.

Haining achieved the position of Editorial Director before becoming a full time writer in the early Seventies. He edited a large number of anthologies, predominantly of horror and fantasy short stories, wrote non-fiction books on a variety of topics from the Channel Tunnel to Sweeney Todd and also used the pen names "Ric Alexander" and "Richard Peyton" on a number of crime story anthologies. In the Seventies he wrote three novels, including The Hero (1973), which was optioned for filming.

In two controversial books, Haining argued that Sweeney Todd was a real historical figure who committed his crimes around 1800, was tried in December 1801, and was hanged in January 1802. However, other researchers who have tried to verify his citations find nothing in these sources to back Haining's claims. A check of the website Old Bailey at for "Associated Records 1674-1834" for an alleged trial in December 1801 and hanging of Sweeney Todd for January 1802 show no reference; in fact the only murder trial for this period is that of a Governor/Lt Col. Joseph Wall who was hanged 28 January 1802 for killing a Benjamin Armstrong 10 July 1782 in "Goree" Africa and the discharge of a Humphrey White in January 1802. Strong reservations have also been expressed regarding the reliability of another of Haining's influential non-fiction works, The Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring Heeled Jack.
He wrote several reference books on Doctor Who, including the 20th anniversary special Doctor Who: A Celebration Two Decades Through Time and Space (1983), and also wrote the definitive study of Sherlock Holmes on the screen, The Television Sherlock Holmes (1991) and several other television tie-ins featuring famous literary characters, including Maigret, Poirot and James Bond. Peter Haining's most recent project was a series of World War Two stories based on extensive research and personal interviews: The Jail That Went To Sea (2003), The Mystery of Rommel's Gold (2004), Where The Eagle Landed (2004), The Chianti Raiders (2005) and The Banzai Hunters (2007).

He won the British Fantasy Awards Karl Edward Wagner Award in 2001.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very nice volume high-lighting the first quarter century of The Doctor on the BBC, 1963-1987. It takes us through the first 150 adventures of the first seven iterations, with added information on the companions, the antagonists, and all manner of fascinating minutiae like the lost episodes, the comics adaptations, what toys and merchandise were produced, etc. It's a big, slick volume, profusely illustrated with many photographs; before the internet, books like these were the only link fans had to their favorite shows. Peter Haining assembled a lot of fascinating information and presented his detailed research very well. In a word... Brilliant!

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first fan book, and I did enjoy reading it in small pieces. Full of facts, quotes, gossip about the stars of the show and fairly fascinating lists of other things they had done or would go on to do. Audience reaction to monsters was equally fascinating. Intellectually I particularly liked the chapters on the economics of television production and the archiving of shows at the end -- along with the efforts to preserve and save what was left and the search for episodes in unlikely places. Like the Mormon Church in Clapham.

I also really loved the very last pages, storyboarding the special effects.

Most enjoyable for fans, I have to say.

[Mary JL · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice retrosepctive on the immensely popular "Doctor Who " series. This book is aimed at die-hard fans but is invaluable also to those youngers who know only the new Doctor Who series first hand, and are just discovering the older series.

A easy to ready sytle--no deep philosophical discussions here--but lots of good info about the show and some nice photos.

Recommended for any Doctor Who fan.

[rabbitprincess · Rating 3 out of 5]

* * 1/2 (rounded up because I can't bear to give a Doctor Who book anything less than 3 stars)

I'm not sure what I was expecting from this book, but evidently I had very high standards for it. There's no denying that the author loves this subject matter (and hey, Doctor Who is a perfectly cool thing to like, so no shame there), but the whole book didn't really feel very substantial to me. He did get a lot of interviews, but there's so much ground to cover that everything is basically whittled down to "Oh, this was a great show to work on, and everyone made me feel welcome, and everyone wants to be on it." The chapters on merchandising and the lost shows were pretty interesting, but other than that it just seemed to be a puff piece. Perhaps the 50th anniversary book will be less repetitive and have more colourful anecdotes. That's probably what the book needed more of... I love hearing about things like practical jokes played on set, or just quirky habits that the actors had, or funny stories involving set pieces. That kind of thing is what makes insider books special.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wore this book out as a kid. I'll be sorely upset if the BBC doesn't produce a similar (and larger) volume this year for the 50th anniversary.

[Natira · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5* hmm...Das war ein wenig unbefriedigend und das hat nichts damit zu tun, dass dieses Buch 1988 veröffentlicht wurde.

Vor diesem Hintergrund kann ich noch verstehen, dass im Gegensatz zu den für die ersten sechs Doktoren erwähnten Gaststars diejenigen beim siebten nicht erwähnt wurden, auch nicht die in seiner "ersten" Staffel; vermutlich wurde das Buch zeitlich parallel mit dem Dreh geschrieben oder war im Lektorat. Ich kann auch verstehen, dass sowohl Producer John Nathan-Turner als auch der Schauspieler Sylvester McCoy als die bei Bucherstellung aktuellen Akteure ausführlich zu Wort kommen; aber ich war schon ein wenig enttäuscht, dass im Vergleich dazu die vorhergehenden 6 Doktoren nur über jeweils nicht ganz 1,5 Seiten sowohl zur Inkarnation als auch zum Schauspieler zusammenfassend angerissen wurden. Im Übrigen liefert dieses Buch einen Überblick zum Start, den 7 Inkarnationen, ein paar Companions kommen zu Wort, es wird ein Blick auf Comics geworfen und den Aspekt "verlorene Episoden", nett auch mal der Blick auf Personen, die für den ursprünglichen Doktor in Szenen erscheinen; dazu finden sich diverse Fotos und ein kleiner Auszug aus dem Storyboard zu "City of Death", das Buch schließt mit einer Episodenliste (dort letzte Episode "Dragonfire").

Ich bin erst mit der Wiederaufnahme in 2005 in Kontakt mit der Serie gekommen und hatte später das Glück, viele Classic-Folgen von Hartnell bis McCoy über den jetzt leider nicht mehr als app in Deutschland nutzbaren iPlayer sehen zu können. Dies vorausgeschickt: Ich bin mir sicher, dass ich 1988 bei Erscheinen des Buches - vorausgesetzt, ich hätte die Serie damals bereits gekannt - ähnlich irritiert gewesen wäre wie heute, wie und wonach der Bereich "Companions" gestaltet wurde. Es gibt eine ausklappbares Foto, auf dem "The Doctors favorite female Companions" abgelichtet sind. Ich frage mich, wer diese Auswahl getroffen hat. Die Zuschauer? Der Doktor? Der Producer? Der Autor? Die BBC? Offenbar wurden jedenfalls keine der weiblichen Begleiterinnen des 1. und 2. Doktors für würdig befunden, dann es finden sich nur Fotografien der weiblichen Begleiterinnen vom 3. Doktor bis zum 7. Doktor (ohne Mel, Romana in beiden Inkarnationen).
Später kommen die "favorite female Companions" auch zu Wort in Bezug auf den Doktor. Es war schön zu sehen, dass hier auch Jacqueline Hill (Barbara) dabei war, Deborah Watling (Victoria) und Wendy Padbury (Zoe), aber immer noch nicht insbesondere Carole Ann Ford (Susan); Lalla Ward (Romana II) war übrigens hier auch nicht dabei. Ob dies daran liegt, dass die betreffenden Schauspielerinnen nicht angesprochen wurden und/oder sie kein Interesse an der Mitwirkung hatten, weiß ich nicht; das ändert aber nichts daran, dass ich sie - besonders Carole Ann Ford - in einem Buch zu diesem Anlass vermisse.

Und übrigens: Ich habe geblättert und gehofft, dass sie noch kommen, aber nein. Im Gegensatz zu der Behandlung der weiblichen Begleiterinnen gibt es im Buch weder ein Fotoblatt noch ein Kapitel mit den bzw. über die männlichen Begleiter des Doktors. Kein Ian, Ben, Jamie, Harry, Aldric, Turlough - und kein Brigadier (okay, er ist kein "Begleiter", aber doch ein wesentlicher Charakter im Doctor-Who-Universum). Die Herren werden im Rahmen des Buches im Grunde nur erwähnt. Auch hier weiß ich nicht, ob keiner der Schauspieler angesprochen wurde oder sie kein Interesse hatten. Auch hier ändert das aber nichts daran, dass ich sie in einem Buch, dass 25 Jahre Doctor Who feiert, vermisse.

Ich habe bereits "Treasures from the first 50 years - The Vault" hier liegen. Geordert hatte ich beide Bücher, weil ich dachte, dass das vorliegende ein "Mehr" für die ersten 25 Jahre bietet als das Buch, das 50 Jahre abdecken muss. "25 Glorious Years" hat meine Erwartungen leider nicht erfüllt.

[Kevin O'Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Haining is a well-known author in the world of Doctor Who, and this book is part of the reason. As you might infer from the title, it was published in 1988 for the 25th anniversary of Doctor Who. It has a lot of good information concerning those first 25 years, but do not expect to read anything critical beyond some mild criticism of the hiatus in the middle of Colin Baker's run. This reads like a release from the BBC publicity department: everyone is brilliant, the decisions were all sound, and no mistakes were ever made. That said, it deserves a place on the bookshelf of any Doctor Who fan.

Since the Doctor at the time of this book was Sylvester McCoy, it is not surprising that he gets a little more attention than the other Doctors, but all of them are covered. In addition, there is some discussion of the various companions and many of the guest stars. Other chapters address the various merchandise you could have gotten (mostly Dalek figures), Doctor Who in the comics, and the status of the lost episodes at the time it was written (some additional episodes have been discovered since, thankfully). And the many photographs are a welcome addition. So if you see a copy, pick it up. I think you will like it.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first three Peter Haining books celebrating "Doctor Who" and its history were like holy scriptures to me: revelations about my favourite show that sent my young mind spinning with geeky happiness. But this later book is a disappointment. The design seemed to be slapdash and amateurish compared to the previous books, and the chapters didn't cover topics that seemed as interesting or fascinating compared to what was covered in previous volumes. Above all else, I'm still haunted by blacked-up pictures of Louise Jameson as the 4th Doctor's companion Leela. Back in my younger, more innocent daze, I wondered why they had dirtied her up...but now that I know the real reason, it is distinctly uncomfortable. A sad ending to an otherwise excellent series of reference books.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can only imagine how exciting this would have been to read way back when, especially for the chapters on merchandising and comics (with some information I wasn't aware of).

[Psyckers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book for those who wanted some insight on the 'classic years' of Doctor Who.
Sure, there are newer books that technically supercede this anniversary book, but as I have found, this book supplies better detail and context on a number of behind the scenes dramas.
Such as why the BBC decided to start destroying their archives and why many Doctor Who episodes had guest celebrities.
The book is an easy read, is well presented and have interesting archival photos that showed how Doctor Who was made in its early years.

[Lisa]

Doctor Who: 25 Glorious Years Xxv by Peter Haining (1988)

[SciFiOne · Rating 3 out of 5]

1989 grade C

Non-fiction
Repetitive. Good lost stories.

[FranklinTV · Rating 4 out of 5]

Memories of ABC TV at dinner time with the Goodies and Dr Who. And any book with a photo of Louise Jameson as Leela gets a minimum of 4 stars.

[Annette McIntyre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative