Follow the ongoing adventures of the Doctor in this comprehensive episode guide to Series Four of the new Doctor Who. The full build-up and background are revealed, from the aftermath of Series Three and the apparent death of the Master right up to date, detailing all the major news stories, press releases, casting announcements and critical response. The spotlight is then focused on each of the 13 episodes in turn, plus the Christmas Special Voyage of the Damned, with in-depth coverage, including all the facts and figures, behind-the-scenes details, press and fan reaction and detailed and insightful analysis...

Monsters Within is the fourth annual comprehensive guide to the latest series of Doctor Who. This series of books from Telos Publishing have been building up to form an exhaustive outsider’s overview of Doctor Who since it’s glorious and triumphant return to the television schedules in 2005.

The first couple of shelf-creakingly huge volumes in this series were written by J. Shaun Lyons, founder of Outpost Gallifrey (the biggest dedicated Doctor Who community and news resource on the internet). The baton has since been passed on to Telos co-founder Stephen James Walker, who has reined in a slightly slimmer, tighter sort of book, which still manages to be the definitive last word on new Who.

The book kicks off in the same style as the previous three volumes, with a month-by-month guide to a year in Doctor Who from the perspective of a fan, noting every press release, news story, promotional activity etc that occurred between the end of Series Three and the eventual transmission of Series Four.

I always love the opening sections of these books, as they prove to be a thoroughly engaging chance to re-live the rumours and revelations that thrilled, surprised, excited and even upset Doctor Who fandom over twelve mesmerising months, from the inevitable Kylie Mania that accompanied the 2007 Christmas Special, right through to the closing moments of the over-indulgent continuity-fest that was Journey’s End.
As ever, it’s an engrossing read and a definitive highlight of the whole book.

Following a brief section of detailed biographies on the cast and principal production members of Series Four, we come to the main core of the book, an in-depth guide and critical analysis of every Doctor Who episode to have been transmitted between July 2007 and July 2008, including all thirteen episodes of Series Four, the Christmas Special Voyage of the Damned, and the Children In Need mini-episode Time Crash guest starring Peter Davison.

If you really feel that you need it, (and I can’t help thinking that you very probably don’t) the guide even covers Music Of The Spheres, a 7-minute segment shown at The Royal Albert Hall as part of Doctor Who At The Proms in 2008.

Each episode is given the full Telos treatment, with impressively large sections given over to continuity points and revealing production notes, before moving onto the critique itself, which has been refined somewhat since the earlier volumes.

Whereas J. Shaun Lyons employed a whole panel of writers to deliver lengthy essays on each episode, often differing wildly in opinion, Stephen James Walker favours a more singular route, dishing up the main course of the analysis himself, although this is still nicely balanced out by large chunks of fan and press reaction.

I found myself disagreeing with Walker on much of his opinion (some of which is surprisingly negative, this volume is certainly no love-in) but I can’t fault his intelligent and insightful writing, whilst the pruning of the sprawling and excessive critique from the earlier volumes works in the book’s favour.

The final chapter of the book is a series of appendices, covering BBC3’s sister documentary series Doctor Who Confidential, a breakdown of the ratings battle with full stats and figures, and detailed guides to the original novels and other fiction that were released during this period, including the comic strips from Doctor Who Magazine and Doctor Who Adventures. Naturally, there’s not even a sniff of Torchwood, as that now has its own definitive guide from Telos!

It will be interesting to see how Telos cover Doctor Who’s current ‘gap year’ - a slimmed down volume perhaps featuring just the four specials to be shown during 2009? Or will they make us wait a bit longer for a heftier tome covering both the specials and the next full series to be shown in 2010? If the latter is the case, then Monsters Within should most definitely be savoured, as it could well be a while until the next volume, and you will not find a more exhaustive overview of modern Doctor Who than this uniformly excellent series of books.

One final note; whilst the paperback version does the job very nicely, it’s well worth tracking down the pricey but simply stunning deluxe hardback edition.

9

Daniel Salter