OVERVIEW

Based on the exciting BBC television series Doctor Who, starring Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy Pond and Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams. This official 2012 annual is packed with comic strips, original stories, activities and features on all your favourite characters, monsters and adventures, plus a giant double-sided poster for your wall! A must-have for all Doctor Who fans, this is a fantastically collectable present for Christmas 2011.

Published by Penguin Books as BBC BOOKS.

COMMENT

If it’s August than it must be Christmastime, or so it seems as the perennial DOCTOR WHO ANNUAL is published (BBC BOOKS from PENGUIN BOOKS) to tie-in with SERIES 6.

With a slightly demonic-looking 11 th Doctor staring defiantly on its cover replete with the all encompassing (but plot demolishing) Sonic Screwdriver glaring powerfully the ANNUAL is always – for younger fans and the more jaded ones alike – welcomed, and since its move from PANINI COMICS the quality of its content has improved exponentially year-on-year.

Unsurprisingly, the layout is ebullient, joyous and neck-achingly jaunty based upon the equally success BBC MAGAZINE publications, DOCTOR WHO ADVENTURES.

However, fans of reading fictional short stories may be disappointed, as there are only two – AMY’S ESCAPADE and RORY’S ADVENTURE – to enjoy. The majority of the publication is “quiz” (echoing the recently published excellent timer & space handbook, DOCTOR WHO – MONSTER MISCELLANY) and “action” biased articles.

The ANNUAL was received before the airing of the SERIES 6 PART II trailer and it was fascinating to read – on page eight – that factoid number 10 read “The Doctor died at Lake Silencio on 22 April 2011 at 5.02pm”. I can only guess that all will be revealed in October 2011. Oh, and the spoiler on page 14 to “tease” the re-appearance of the Weeping Angels.

Factual features - a core content of the ANNUAL throughout the 1970s and 1980s - are limited a single double-page spread that details NASA’s THE REAL APOLLO MISSIONS however the information is so scant that the 258 word article is scandalous for such an important historic event. The article could have continued to discuss man’s unmanned missions to other planets in our galaxy and relate them to the series’ connection (Beagle’s visit to Mars would relate to Martian’s known as “Ice Warriors”, or the Doctor’s trip to Pluto in THE SUN MAKERS). New younger fans of the series are inquisitive, like my eight year old, and should not be restricted in learning more.

THE TARDIS ARCHIVES is informative but could have far more extensive, exploring the “teleport” facility that was never used during the Third Doctor’s TARDIS redesign, or that fact the Doctor could take the console from the interior to work on it.

With the omission of the Fifth Doctor’s “doggleganging” Omega creature, DOUBLE TROUBLE is accurate and will, hopefully, entice NEW SERIES fans to explore the CLASSIC SERIES stories.

Like any publication or website, there are spelling mistakes but, thankfully, they do not detract from the content’s meaning.

With a (very carefully) pull-out fold-out poster affixed to the inside back cover, the ANNUAL is over quicker than it started. My eight year old’s attention span for the publication was less than an hour as he has become more accustomed to reading the more literary DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE (he’s never bought DOCTOR WHO ADVENTURES as “it’s not worth my pocket money” as he says).

The ideal reader is up to five years old (boys only) and there lies the problem with the ANNUAL. It has not changed in decades, and it needs to. The hard-backed cover could be replaced to increase page count, more factual content (i.e. behind the scenes shooting similar to the content broadcast in DOCTOR WHO CONFIDENTIAL), more mature writing (in the era of post-HARRY POTTER, children are increasing more literate, intelligent and have a longer attention span than the ANNUAL’s producers seem to think.

Overall, time to re-invent the ANNUAL for next year? Paperbacked would equal more pages? More fiction less "quizzes" and "factoids"? Perforated pages to make DOCTOR WHO Christmas Crackers? More behind the scenes spreads that mirror DOCTOR WHO CONFIDENTIAL content?