Even with the anniversary over, products celebrating fifty years of Doctor Who are still coming thick and fast.

50 for 50, by Paula Hammond (240 pages), is a collection of fifty interviews which take in the whole of the show's run. The book is published by Telos, the source of everything geeky.

Hammond has taken the bold step in not going for the all obvious contenders to interview. If nothing else, with the documentaries accompanying the DVDs, Doctor Who must be one of the most covered shows, so a collection of the same anecdotes would hold little interest. That is not to say that she has deliberately filled the book with obscure interviewees with only a tentative connection with the show, rather she has produced a nice balance between the known and the rare.

The book is not meant to be read cover to cover and Hammond has used a variety of styles when laying out the interviews, often reflecting the circumstances under which the interview was conducted.

Appropriately enough, the book opens with an interview with Bernard Lodge, one of the gentlemen responsible for the look of the show’s title sequence. What follows are vignettes with a whole host of characters which make up the greater Who family, actors and technicians. To keep the continuity going there are also interviews with those who worked on the show during its hiatus talking to those from Reel Time, Big Finish producers of fanzines and art.

Overall the book makes a nice companion to those books which look at individual Doctors or eras. Here we have a travelling snapshot of the whole fifty years with new anecdotes to read and enjoy.

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Charles Packer