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The Cybermen are back to terrorise time and space - but luckily
the new Doctor, played by David Tennant, and Rose are back
to stop them. This fully illustrated guide documents the return
of these metal menaces, as well as the Sycorax and other foes
from the new series, plus first series terrors like the Gelth
and the Reapers. More classic baddies such as Sutekh and the
Robots of Death also make a welcome appearance...
This
follow-up to last year's Monsters
and Villains
book dishes up a second helping of glossy illustrations and
lightweight guides to some of Doctor Who's most memorable
baddies past and present.
If
a book like this had been published during the wilderness
years of the 1990's, then the dedicated fan would of course
have been treated to full in-depth production notes, tracing
the roots and development of each species. And I dare say
it would have gone on to chronicle, with agonising detail,
every returning appearance in books, comic strips, short stories,
Weetabix packets and cards that came free with Sky-Ray Lollies.
This isn't that sort of book, though. In fact, Aliens and
Enemies is much more reminiscent of Terrance Dicks' glorious
Doctor Who Monster Books from the 1970's. A brief background
on each Who nasty with short, fun facts and a wealth
of great pictures that the younger reader will lap up with
glee.
I'm pleased to say that production standards have risen since
those days, and Aliens and Enemies is suitably glossy
with superb full-colour photographs and illustrations, showing
off some of Doctor Who's finest monsters and enemies
at their very best.
Naturally,
there is a strong emphasis on the new series and thus we have
lavish showcases for the Sycorax, the Gelth, the Krillitanes,
the Clockwork Robots and several pages devoted to the awesome
new Cybermen. But ample room is also given to some of the
Doctor's older foes, notably the Axons, Sutekh, the Zarbi
and even The Weed Creature from 1968's Fury From The Deep
gets a surprising look-in!
The
book is clearly aimed at the newer, younger fan, and much
of the material is accordingly simplistic, brief and fun,
but even the more mature old-school fan may find a couple
of gems within these pages. Of particular note are some of
the original concept artwork for the new series, including
an early look at the Emperor Dalek, frankly disturbing images
of the original Zombies from New Earth, and several breathtaking
paintings of early Cybermen designs, some of which (hush,
whisper it) look even better than the finished model seen
on screen.
The
highlights of last year's Monsters and Villains book
were the background notes supplied by Russell T Davies himself,
delivering brand new nuggets of information and offering tantalising
clues to the show's future. It's a major disappointment that
they sadly haven't been followed up in this sequel, although
we are instead presented with extended behind-the-scenes material,
and new series writers such as Steven Moffatt, Paul Cornell
and Tom MacRae are given space to discuss their respective
scripts.
Overall, Aliens and Enemies is a fun, glossy and very
reasonably priced book. It has to be said that the hard-core
fan probably won't find much that is terribly new, and is
not likely to spend more than about twenty minutes gleaning
all they can from the pages, but maybe that's not the point.
Aliens and Enemies harks back to the glory days of
Doctor Who when the show was massively popular and
there was a market for fun material aimed at younger fans.
We should now be jumping with joy that we're back there again,
and every fan should be over the moon that such a lovely book
as this even exists.
Danny
Salter
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£3.99
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