The Doctor Who Programme Guide, Volume 2: What's What and Who's Who

Doctor Who Reference Guides #2

by Jean-Marc Lofficier

This is a time-travelling A-Z of all the people, places and facts in the astounding adventures of Doctor Who. In addition it contains a complete list of Doctor Who films and records, the names of all the Doctor Who book authors and a breakdown of who does what in the BBC Doctor Who production team.

Now at last you can discover exactly how many elephants and tigers the Doctor won at backgammon with Kublai Khan, the precise breeding speed of the Sontarans, the identities of all the Doctor's doubles, and thousands of other pieces of crucial and intriguing information!

The Doctor Who Programme Guide is the key to all the Doctor's adventures. No Doctor Who library is complete without it.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Reference

111 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 15, 1981

About the author

Jean-Marc Lofficier is a French author of books about films and television programs, as well as numerous comic books and translations of a number of animation screenplays. He usually collaborates with his wife, Randy Lofficier

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a wonderful and scholarly labor-of-love pair of reference books when they appeared forty-some years ago. Doctor Who was a wildly popular show (oops, I meant "programme"), but only the more recent episodes were familiar except for the Target novelizations, which gave us hints and glimpses of a vast and varied range of unknown adventures. This second volume provided a detailed list of all the times and places that had been visited, and all of the characters and companions who had participated. It covered all of the adventures of the first four Doctors, as well as a list of the novelizations to that time, the films, stage plays, and even records. It was a treasured resource in those pre-internet days.

[Nicholas Whyte]

"Back in 1981 it seemed like centuries since the last Doctor Who reference book had come out (it was three years since the second edition of The Making of Doctor Who). We fans grasped eagerly at the two rather slim volumes produced in the break between the Fourth and Fifth Doctors. The first volume is a recapitulation of cast, crew and plot from the first eighteen seasons of Who; the second an A-Z of characters, creatures and concepts in the Whoniverse up to that point in time.[return][return]They are pretty thin by even the standards of the day. Characters and events from the less fashionable end of the Hartnell and Troughton eras get pretty short shrift (eg the entry in volume 2 for Ping-Cho, whch reads, in its entirety, 'Chinese girl'). [return][return]The two volumes are a good model for how to do a comprehensive guide for Who, but not a brilliant example of the execution. (Numerous misprintls - poor John Abineri!)"

[Mhorg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, just like my piteous review of Volume 1, I wish I still had this book. Perhaps one day it will be available for Kindle. A great follow up to volume 1 and deserves to be on the shelf of any Who fan.

[Valerie]

Volume II--characters and other details. Useful for reference, which is why I kept them.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

For years part of my essential Dr Who resource material. Now it seems so light compared to others.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

There have been many bigger, deeper, funnier, more detailed guides since the publication of this book...but to those of us who first encountered this first-generation attempt at an encyclopedia covering the Whoniverse, this was like the revelation of holy scripture. So much detail about monsters and villians, planets, companions, allies, and the Doctor himself...and the matching story codes of where to find them in action. This was the fan bible for a decade, and all the later goodness that followed can trace back to this single book. This is a book that deserves the subtitle "Genesis of Doctor Who Encyclopedic Non-Fiction", and it should glow with blinding golden nostalgia.

[Ted · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd have given this 4 stars back when it was first published (1981), but now there are many other more complete and more in-depth sources available. Even now, though, it has nostalgic value.