BOOK
Doctor Who: The scripts
Tom Baker 1974/5

Author: Terrance Dicks, Robert Holmes, Bob Baker, Dave Martin, Terry Nation and Gerry Davis
BBC Worldwide
£16.99
ISBN 0-5635-3815-5
Available now


First impression: this is a fine hardback volume - well designed and well presented. And it also appears to be full of meaty goodness. Unfortunately, on closer inspection these 350 pages are less satisfying than they initially promise.

The scripts contained within its pages are the rehearsal versions, complete with minor alterations. But what would have been really interesting would have been the scripts as originally submitted, especially the first draft of Revenge of the Cybermen which is totally different from the transmitted version. Not one word is the same - that's how different - but it's not to be found here.

Yes, some of the notes about the commissioning and editing process are quite interesting but it's hardly new. And although it's nice to have the whole of the first Tom Baker season in print in one book makes for a worthy tome but it could have been so much more. If only the editors had given us what was not recorded rather than a variant of what we already have on video.

The script book is quite good but hardly indispensable.

Anthony Clark

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