Obsessive fans of Doctor Who will be aware that only three films were ever successfully made from the show, all of which have their fans and detractors. Most will be aware that Tom Baker tried to get his own film off the ground and that there was never a year went by without someone declaring that they are developing a new Who movie. So why, for the last fifty years, have so few projects ended with a finished film?

Now on the Big Screen: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Doctor Who at the Movies sets out to win the prize for the longest title and take you through all of the successful and failed projects. The book is written by Charles Norton who presents a well-researched book that is both informative and entertaining, drawing on both well known facts and new interviews with those involved in both the successful and failed attempts at bringing Who to the big screen.

No book can discuss Who at the cinema without reference to the two Peter Cushing Dalek films and Norton spends a third of the book covering every aspect of both these movies. The information is presented without comment. As the reaction to these films fall into two camps it’s probably safer to keep to factual information without offering a personal opinion.

The book diverges a bit with links to two other projects: one only speculatively connected to Who and a radio play which never made the grade, both projects were connected by Cushing.

It was not just people outside of the Who family that harboured dreams of making a feature, the next major project was started by Tom Baker, entitled Doctor Who and the Scratchman, a project that failed to secure the necessary finances required to make the film. Douglas Adams Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen fared no better. A number of other projects tried to fly, though they failed to get off the ground, until we finally got a television movie in 1996, with Paul McGann. In reality there have only been two Who films, but it is interesting to read about the might have been's.

Even for someone who knew much of the overall information, Norton provides enough new material to make the book worth reading. So, it’s another well researched tome from Telos to add to your collection of readable reference material. An essential purchase for the serious Who fan.

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Charles Packer