What do you think?
Rate this book
Doctor Who: Decades #2
Doctor Who: The Seventies
By the end of the nineteen-sixties the BBC television programmed Doctor Who had enthralled a generation of children. The police telephone box and staccato-voiced Daleks had become household icons, monsters and aliens had lurched and glided across flickering black-and-white TV screens every Saturday night at tea time.
In January of 1970 Doctor Who returned for a new season — and burst into living rooms in full colour and with a new, dynamic actor in the starring role.
Doctor Who and its audience were starting to grow up.
The Seventies is the definitive record of Doctor Who's second decade. Jon Pertwee was followed as the Doctor by Tom Baker, who brought to the part a personality that was even more flamboyant than Pertwee's and who created one of television's most charismatic and memorable characters.
Advances in technology produced more believable monsters and more spectacular special effects and made location filming much easier.
Doctor Who became more popular than ever, with adults outnumbering children in the continuously climbing audience figures.
The fascination with Doctor Who continued to generate hundreds of spin-off products; large scale exhibitions were mounted; and organisation of fans started to proliferate.
The Seventies is a meticulous record of Doctor Who's most momentous decade, and is illustrated throughout with an unrivalled collection of colour photographs, most of which have never been published before.
In January of 1970 Doctor Who returned for a new season — and burst into living rooms in full colour and with a new, dynamic actor in the starring role.
Doctor Who and its audience were starting to grow up.
The Seventies is the definitive record of Doctor Who's second decade. Jon Pertwee was followed as the Doctor by Tom Baker, who brought to the part a personality that was even more flamboyant than Pertwee's and who created one of television's most charismatic and memorable characters.
Advances in technology produced more believable monsters and more spectacular special effects and made location filming much easier.
Doctor Who became more popular than ever, with adults outnumbering children in the continuously climbing audience figures.
The fascination with Doctor Who continued to generate hundreds of spin-off products; large scale exhibitions were mounted; and organisation of fans started to proliferate.
The Seventies is a meticulous record of Doctor Who's most momentous decade, and is illustrated throughout with an unrivalled collection of colour photographs, most of which have never been published before.
180 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
2 people are currently reading
134 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 2, 2020
Tells the story of the background and history of the iconic BBC sci-fi series Dr Who during the 1970s when arguably two of the best 'Doctors' played the role, the late Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker. It is a nostalgic look at the series for anyone who grew up during the era and remembers the quite low-budget effects, companions struggling to take on more important and independent roles, and the wonderful Roger Delgado who made the role of the Master his own.The 70s produced many interesting Dr Who stories that made it different from most other sci-fi series of the day. Highly recommended to any fan of the series or to anyone who is interested in a behind the scenes look at the production of a BBC television series of the 1970s.
April 26, 2020
The problem with reading a factual book that is now over twenty-five years old us that things have moved on, both in terms of how factual books are seen and published and the research that goes into them. Back in 1994, this book may have been justifiably reviewed as "this will probably rank as the ultimate book on the subject" but now it comes across as slightly amateurish, with some facts left hanging, with no explanation and others just clearly wrong and, therefore, not researched. (Early on one quoted source mentions a TV series that had been broadcast. I was so intrigued to find out more that I turned to the internet, only to find no mention of said series anywhere.) Others details are duplicated, particularly between the main, season-by-season section and the chapter on companions.
The fly-leaf proclaims the book is "lavishly illustrated" with "an unrivalled collection of colour photographs, most of which have never been published before". That may be so, but most are also do small that you can barely make out detail, even if they aren't the ones that have been very badly reproduced, or appear to be just photos taken off the TV screen.
It's not all bad, though. Despite previously immersing myself in various Dr Who related publications this book contained a lot I didn't already know (or, perhaps had forgotten) and, while a bit dry in the style of writing, was easy enough to read.
The fly-leaf proclaims the book is "lavishly illustrated" with "an unrivalled collection of colour photographs, most of which have never been published before". That may be so, but most are also do small that you can barely make out detail, even if they aren't the ones that have been very badly reproduced, or appear to be just photos taken off the TV screen.
It's not all bad, though. Despite previously immersing myself in various Dr Who related publications this book contained a lot I didn't already know (or, perhaps had forgotten) and, while a bit dry in the style of writing, was easy enough to read.
April 3, 2022
I just don't find this as impressive as some other fans believe it to be -- in fact, for all their faults, the Howe/Stammers/Walker handbooks are far better examinations of their respective eras. The information is solid enough, but the layout is pedestrian and unimaginative. I simply can't drink the kool-aid on this one.
June 16, 2010
David Howe has written some excellent books about Doctor Who, and this is one of the best. The book covers the 1970s, when Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker made a midly popular tv show into a world-wide phenomenon. The research is meticulous and the detail is amazing.
October 1, 2012
Hugely comprehensive, this and The Sixties are one of the most well-thumbed books in my DW collection. The appendixes examining toys and records are pretty nifty.
July 27, 2016
Memories of ABC TV at dinner time with the Goodies and Dr Who. Nice details of the seventies covering my favourite "Tom Baker" period.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews