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About Time #1
About Time: The Unauthorized Guide to Doctor Who, #1: 1963-1966; Seasons 1 to 3
Constituting the largest reference work on Doctor Who ever written, the six-volume About Time strives to become the ultimate reference guide to the world's longest-running science fiction program. Written by Lawrence Miles (Faction Paradox) and long-time sci-fi commentator Tat Wood, About Time focuses on the continuity of Doctor Who (its characters, alien races and the like), but also examines the show as a work of social commentary. In particular, Miles and Wood dissect the politics and social issues that shaped the show during its unprecedented 26-year run (from 1963 to 1989), detailing how the issues of the day influenced this series. As part of this grand opus, About Time 1 examines Doctor Who Seasons 1 to 3 (1963 to 1966) -- the show's every beginnings, with William Hartnell in the lead role. Among other things, About Time 1 answers such vitally important Who questions as Where (and When) is Gallifrey? and Why Couldn't the BBC Just Have Spent More Money?
290 pages, Paperback
First published February 10, 2006
13 people are currently reading
176 people want to read
About the author
Tat Wood
28 books6 followersTat Wood is co-writer (with Lawrence Miles) of the About Time episode guides to the television series Doctor Who. This book series, begun in 2004, emphasises the importance of understanding the series in the context of British politics, culture and science. Volume Six is entirely Wood's work.
Wood has also written for Doctor Who Magazine. In a 1993 edition of "Dreamwatch", he wrote a piece entitled "Hai! Anxiety", in which the Jon Pertwee era of the series was — unusually for the time — held up to sustained criticism.
In addition to this he has written features for various magazines, on subjects as diverse as Crop Circles, Art Fraud, the problems of adapting Children's novels for television and the Piltdown Hoax.
He is also active in Doctor Who fandom, notably as editor of the fanzines Spectrox and Yak Butter Sandwich and Spaceball Ricochet, which mixes academic observations with irreverent humour and visual bricolage. Some of his fan writing was included in the anthology Licence Denied, published in 1997.
For most of 2005 he was the public relations face of the Bangladeshi Women's Society, a charity based in Leyton, East London, and managed to keep his work running a supplementary school separate from his writing.
Wood has also written for Doctor Who Magazine. In a 1993 edition of "Dreamwatch", he wrote a piece entitled "Hai! Anxiety", in which the Jon Pertwee era of the series was — unusually for the time — held up to sustained criticism.
In addition to this he has written features for various magazines, on subjects as diverse as Crop Circles, Art Fraud, the problems of adapting Children's novels for television and the Piltdown Hoax.
He is also active in Doctor Who fandom, notably as editor of the fanzines Spectrox and Yak Butter Sandwich and Spaceball Ricochet, which mixes academic observations with irreverent humour and visual bricolage. Some of his fan writing was included in the anthology Licence Denied, published in 1997.
For most of 2005 he was the public relations face of the Bangladeshi Women's Society, a charity based in Leyton, East London, and managed to keep his work running a supplementary school separate from his writing.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 2, 2014
There is a peculiar form of insanity that afflicts many a Whovian at some point in his or her life. Though the American Psychiatric Association has not yet included this disorder in the DSM, in fandom, it is known as "Wouldn't it be fun to watch every episode of Doctor Who in order from the beginning?" If you are suffering from this affliction, you would be hard-pressed to find better companions for your long day's journey into night than Messrs. Wood and Miles. Of the three guidebooks I've been using as navigational aids for the Hartnell era, "About Time" is, by far, the most comprehensive.
Their analysis of each story is divided into four main sections: 1) a general overview of the story, with headings such as "Which One is This?", "Firsts and Lasts", and "Things to Notice", 2) "Continuity", in which they point out how aspects of the story fit into the admittedly contradictory Doctor Who mythos, 3) "Analysis", in which they discuss various cultural and historical trends which influenced the creation of the story, point out the plotholes and inconsistencies, and provide their judgment of how good or bad the story is, and 4) "The Facts" including info on the writer and director, the rating figures, the number of episodes that are missing from the BBC archives, and various other interesting off-screen details.
Though I don't always agree with their conclusions, the day that a given pair of fans will agree on every point that can possibly be made about the object of their shared obsession is as likely to arrive as the day that my cat agrees that it is more important that I get a sufficient amount of sleep than that she gets her breakfast precisely when she wants it.
Their analysis of each story is divided into four main sections: 1) a general overview of the story, with headings such as "Which One is This?", "Firsts and Lasts", and "Things to Notice", 2) "Continuity", in which they point out how aspects of the story fit into the admittedly contradictory Doctor Who mythos, 3) "Analysis", in which they discuss various cultural and historical trends which influenced the creation of the story, point out the plotholes and inconsistencies, and provide their judgment of how good or bad the story is, and 4) "The Facts" including info on the writer and director, the rating figures, the number of episodes that are missing from the BBC archives, and various other interesting off-screen details.
Though I don't always agree with their conclusions, the day that a given pair of fans will agree on every point that can possibly be made about the object of their shared obsession is as likely to arrive as the day that my cat agrees that it is more important that I get a sufficient amount of sleep than that she gets her breakfast precisely when she wants it.
July 2, 2018
Reading this series along with my comprehensive watch through the classic series. Such a good idea — witty, smart, irreverent and informative about everything from the quirky and detailed history of Who itself to its literary sources, contemporary pop culture and historical context. More of a guidebook than the more theory heavy Eruditorum series, but there are still some great critical nuggets.
Read
October 21, 2007http://nhw.livejournal.com/796625.html[return][return]The authors state firmly that they have provided "the most comprehensive, wide-ranging and at times almost shockingly detailed handbook to Doctor Who that you might ever conceivably need" and though it is a pretty large claim, I think they have succeeded. As well as description of each story, evaluation of how well it succeeded, and variably straight-faced attempts to reconcile continuity issues, there is some very good analysis of just how Doctor Who fitted into the BBC and British culture in general, and what its influences, both inward and outward, were. I should have spotted some of this - for instance, the foreshadowing of things later used in Blake's Seven in The Keys of Marinus; or the influence of J.R.R. Tolkien on The Daleks. I especially liked the embedding of long essays on specific broader topics in boxes inside the story-by-story narrative. This is a difficult trick to pull off, but they've done it well, including topics like the true history of the Daleks (twice), unpacking the classical roots of The Myth Makers, and explaining Z Cars.
March 1, 2008
This series may constitute the only guide to Doctor Who that you'll ever need. (Well, apart from Cornell, Topping, and Day's Discontinuity Guide, which forever changed the way guides to television shows were written.) Need a plot synopsis of "Galaxy Four"? Want to know what the ratings were for Episode 3 of "The Daleks"? Wondering if "The Gunfighters" is really as crap as it's rumored to be? Curious about how Doctor Who influenced and was influenced by contemporary British television?
This book covers the first three seasons of Doctor Who in what ought to be excruciating detail - except that it is so engagingly written that it doesn't feel excruciating at all.
The worst thing about this book is that it makes me sad that my other favorite television shows don't have guides as detailed and loving as this one. Maybe we can persuade Miles and Wood to tackle Blake's 7 next?
This book covers the first three seasons of Doctor Who in what ought to be excruciating detail - except that it is so engagingly written that it doesn't feel excruciating at all.
The worst thing about this book is that it makes me sad that my other favorite television shows don't have guides as detailed and loving as this one. Maybe we can persuade Miles and Wood to tackle Blake's 7 next?
September 13, 2020
This is a dense, irreverent and wonderfully entertaining analysis of the first three seasons of the classic Doctor Who series (1963-1966). I was captivated and engaged from page one right on up through the end-notes. I picked this up hoping that it might be good and was pleasantly surprised at discovering just how good it actually is. I even picked up several more volumes in the series before finishing this one, so I'm certainly hooked. If you're a fan of classic Doctor Who in general and the first Doctor, as portrayed by William Hartnell, this is something you simply must read.
June 5, 2025
Not the most exciting read, but it is incredibly well researched. Walks a fine line between reading like an academic paper, and reading with touches of dry humor that made me feel a need to read a line off to a friend, if they were sitting nearby. Definitely a smart resource for any kind of academic understanding of Doctor Who, as well as touching on elements of Television at the time, sci-fi and it's evolution, the British public, among other things. The arrangement of the essay pieces makes the book itself feel bigger on the inside, not unlike the titular show. The best pieces, aside from the essays would have to be the "Where did this come from?"/"Things that don't make sense"/"critique" sections of each story. I look forward to reading another entry (and maybe quicker than 2.5 years, next time.)
April 10, 2024
Hey, look, if you're seeking a book that details the making of the show, divided into its numerous eras and the historical events surrounding, complete with essays.... then you're just nerdy enough for this book. It delivers precisely what I wanted, though I do wish the plot summaries were a little more detailed. I was trying to read prior to rewatching each story, but it was occasionally hard to remember some of the episodes based off the summary given. Still, precisely what I was looking for.
March 5, 2025
Expansive and frequently illuminating - but would it have killed them to have provided references for their sources? After all, if you're going to go this encyclopedic, you may as well go all the way. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/202...
November 12, 2025
Incredibly well-researched and unbelievably in-depth.
April 4, 2022
Impressively comprehensive. Dense, at times, but fascinating in its reach and attention to detail. A ton of material covered in both specific and also with consideration to bigger trends and the wider world.
February 11, 2014
In what seems to be becoming a more common practice, an intellectual discussion about tv series, this book does a wonderful job of balancing some insightful bits about the early years of Doctor Who as well as stay somewhat "loose" and not take itself too seriously.
The book takes each episode breaks it into several parts. It begins with a somewhat humorous description of the episode, then any first and last milestones in the story, four or five things about the episodes, then character/planet notes, analysis, facts (more technical stuff) and lore. Intersperced throughout the book is are essays which I found the most interesting. Some of the essays talk about the show and several deal with Britain and the BBC of the 1960s. They provided a great context on such things as why the BBC wiped out a lot of its earlier episodes and the role of post war Britain had on the writing and motifs of the early Doctor Who.
If I had one complaint, it the same I have with many of the books about Doctor Who or any British based TV show. Since the books are for the most part written by and for British audience, it assumes a better knowledge of British television and culture than is widely known overseas.
The book takes each episode breaks it into several parts. It begins with a somewhat humorous description of the episode, then any first and last milestones in the story, four or five things about the episodes, then character/planet notes, analysis, facts (more technical stuff) and lore. Intersperced throughout the book is are essays which I found the most interesting. Some of the essays talk about the show and several deal with Britain and the BBC of the 1960s. They provided a great context on such things as why the BBC wiped out a lot of its earlier episodes and the role of post war Britain had on the writing and motifs of the early Doctor Who.
If I had one complaint, it the same I have with many of the books about Doctor Who or any British based TV show. Since the books are for the most part written by and for British audience, it assumes a better knowledge of British television and culture than is widely known overseas.
March 11, 2014
This book goes into the history of the first three series of Doctor Who in a ridiculous amount of detail. I am a lifelong fan and there is loads of stuff in here that I just did not know (and also discovered that Paul from the Cadmium 2 podcast had read in in preparation for the shows, given how often his so-called spontaneous observations turned out to be word for word quotes from this book!) and I have to say it is brilliantly researched and fascinating. I am rewatching the DVDs of the series in order (including the extras) and there is stuff in this book that is not mentioned at all.
Very impressed, will continue to read more in the series.
Very impressed, will continue to read more in the series.
September 8, 2007
The first in a series of reference guides to Doctor Who, covering the era of the First Doctor. Amazingly in-depth, and possibly the most entertaining and well-written TV guidebook I've ever seen. (Most I've come across are 90% plot summary of all the episodes we've seen, and 10% trivia that every fan invariably already knows.) They've also written guidebooks on Buffy & Angel, so I may pick those up as well sometime down the road.
June 26, 2015
Tat Wood and Lawrence Miles have written without question the best series of books on Doctor Who ever published. These, alongside the Howe/Stammers/Walker books (particularly their Sixties, Seventies and Eighties) will give you as complete a background as you could want.
March 1, 2013
Really good review of the first 3 seasons of Doctor who. Full of interesting anecdotes and quite funny in places. The sheer amount of text however means that it takes a while to trawl through the essays and monumental info dump. It's a good effort and I'd recommend it to any fans of the show.
May 28, 2013
Brilliant! There aren't enough superlatives for this book. If you are interested in Hartnell era Who you should buy it. What... you haven't left yet?
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews