Doctor Who: Atlas

by Mike Tucker, Rachel Talalay (Foreword)

Travel through time and space like never before in this stunning guide to the worlds of Doctor Who!

*With a foreword by renowned Doctor Who director, Rachel Talalay*

Journey from Gallifray to Skaro to Mondas and everything in between in this beautifully illustrated Atlas. With full colour maps, take in epic stories, the glorious history of the many faces of the Doctor and magnificent views of the entire saga.

Complete with 30 maps, character profiles of companions and monsters, this stunning collection is perfect for new and old fans of Doctor Who covering everything from well-known stories to little known facts.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published September 2, 2021

About the author

Mike Tucker is a special effects expert who worked for many years at the BBC Television Visual Effects Department, and now works as an Effects Supervisor for his own company, The Model Unit. He is also the author of a number of original tv tie-in Doctor Who novels (some co-written with Robert Perry), and three books based on episodes of the television series Merlin. He co-wrote the factual books Ace! The Inside Story of the End of an Era with Sophie Aldred in 1996, and BBC VFX - The Story of the BBC Visual Effects Department with Mat Irvine in 2010.

Reviews

[The Post Monument · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Fluvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book for any Doctor Who fan! I would especially recommend it for people recently interested in the show: it isn't too long and it has enough lore to make you learn about the show's past without being too overwhelming.

The illustrations were very good and I loved remembering so many stories and episodes that I might have forgotten about. If I have to pick some "defect", I would say that, when talking about planets, they focused a bit too much in New Who, with exceptions like Skaro (that is been seldomly visited in NuWho) and one planet for a First story. In any case, I loved it and I have learnt so much, it was a very good read that left me feeling all warm inside, as Doctor Who is my comfort place <3

[ValeryVal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doctor Who Atlas es el perfecto libro de iniciación en la no-ficción para niños y adolescentes. No te cuenta una historia ni una aventura del Doctor, sino que describe los acontecimientos de distintos lugares o etapas de la serie. El lenguaje es muy básico y los párrafos son lo suficientemente cortos para no aburrirse o perderse entre tanta información. Me recuerda a un agente de una oficina de viajes que te cuenta un poquito de todos los destinos a los que viaja su compañía, pero sin profundizar mucho en ninguno de ellos.

Los dibujos son bonitos y cuidados, aunque en general el fondo es muy vacío. Parecen más dibujos aislados que una ilustración completa. Los párrafos de información quedan muy bien con su respectiva imagen, pero al ver la página en general sigues teniendo esa sensación de vacío.

Mi recomendación es que este libro sea destinado para niños o jóvenes adolescentes ya que los lectores más adultos pueden quedar insatisfechos. Para un libro titulado "Atlas" me esperaba más información, sobre todo si lo sumas al precio de venta. Por poner al lector en contexto, este tomo de 77 páginas costó 20£ mientras que "Doctor Who: The Monster Vault" era un compendio súper completo de 310 páginas por solo 5£ más... El nombre del libro también me llevó a entender que la conversación estaría centrada en los lugares como tal, pero la realidad fue una descripción del capítulo usando el lugar únicamente como contexto.

Si quieres disfrutar de bonitos dibujos, interesantes easter eggs y la justa información para incitarte a volver a ver la serie; comienza el viaje con Doctor Who Atlas. Si lo que buscas, en cambio, es conocimiento más detallado y extenso te recomiendo que compres otro título.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully mapped out with illustrations of places, times and characters; this book is very visually exciting and includes lots of lesser-known Doctor Who lore to feast on. I do think that for a book titled as an 'atlas', it didn't cover a big majority of planets, times, spaceships, buildings etc that it could have done. It has a good spread, covering major locations across Classic and New Who, but lacks some of the 'less famous' places which would be great to explore (examples I can think of which didn't make it in the book include The Library, the Dalek crucible, the SS Madame de Pompedour to name just a few!). The different places are set out in mesmerising double-page spreads however I did notice that a lot of the information is more based on the plot narrative of the actual story that the location appears in; it would have been great to get a bit more insider info on the actual planet, spaceship etc with less focus on the story lines.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been dipping in and out of this since I received it as a Christmas present...and it's just lovely. It's an artistic work of love that will appeal to all 10 year old fans...and to all "Doctor Who" fans who still feel like they are 10 years old. The artwork is quite brilliant, and there are numerous easter eggs for both newer fans and old-school fans such as myself. On in particular involved a tip of the hat to "Star Trek-The Next Generation that had me wide eyed and chuckling. Of all the big SF/fantasy universes, "Doctor Who" seems the most successful at creating these wonderful works that appeal across the generations.

[Jamieson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine, but nothing overly special. Sure, you can't include every Doctor Who story in here, but it just seemed oversimplfied. More akin to a children's atlas or one of those Star Wars cross-section books. We get things like: The TARDIS, Gallifrey, several pages on Earth, Vortis (from The Web Planet), War World (from The War Games), Telos (from Tomb of the Cybermen and Attack of the Cybermen), Mars, the Moon, Skaro, and then various locations from the modern series (2005-present) going up through Orphan 55. It's not terrible, and was kinda fun to thumb through once. But it wasn't overly special or super engaging.

[Emma Dargue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good guide in the form of atlas of some of the locations of the doctors big battles. Mainly focusing on the new era of doctor eho rather the old who it gives context to some of the planets visited by the doctor and his companions. Not comprehensive by a long shot still a nice book for doctor who fans to experience.

[Lee Cadwallader-Allan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book that covers Classic and New Who locations, characters and storylines. Great to inspiration to rewatch some episodes.

[Mark L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, lovely art, great concept. Just a shame it's limited to a relatively few locations, would have loved more, particularly more old ones!

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A highly colourful "map" to the Doctor's adventures in space and time.

Glossy and well illustrated, the table notes provide nice teasers for stories across the history of 'Doctor Who'. This should provide a nice stocking filler for younger fans, but the ordering of the sequential information is counter intuitive and annoying (some of the tabulated notes are numerically ordered, but laid out across a two page stretch with no real logical progression - for example box eleven on one spread is furthest left and nowhere near either box ten or box twelve. The box is located close to the geographic area it refers to, but the geography is made up for the book and arrows could have been used). An easy improvement would be to provide photographs and tinker with the layout a bit.