I, Who 2
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Mad Norwegian press I, Who 2 |
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| Author | Lars Pearson |  |
| ISBN# | 1 57032 900 1 | |
| Publisher | Mad Norwegian Press | |
| Published | 2001 |
| Summary: More guides to all sorts of Who product. |
Four out of Five by Jamas Enright 11/2/02
People complain about today's Doctor Who fandom for hanging onto a show that's been gone for over ten years (the movie notwithstanding), and yet this shows that people are missing out on the great stories told in books and now audios. I, Who 2 follows the success of I, Who in giving us an excellent reference guide to the more recent books and audios.
This second volume covers the novels from City At World's End to Bunker Soldiers (ironically both First Doctor novels) and The Blue Angel to Escape Velocity. Again there is the usual entries of story summary, memorable moments, character developments, etc. Lars Pearson fills in the gap in the last volume with The Ultimate Evil, and also picks up the companion novels, Harry Sullivan's War and Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma. Despite certain promotional claims (ie. rumours), there is no section on the comics.
The Big Finish Audios are covered up to Minuet in Hell, with them getting the same treatment as the books. Also in here are The Pescatons and Slipback.
There's a large section on the Benny novels and audios, with each book getting the same analysis as any of the Doctor Who items. Especially intriguing are the behind-the-scenes details the book hints at, specifically for the end of the Gods Arc.
Finally, there's an Apocrypha section for The Masters of Luxor, Campaign, Death Comes To Time and The Curse of Fatal Death, including sidebars about the Origin of some of them, and a free rant by Lars Pearson about Campaign.
There's also a freebie in the form of a missing chapter from The Sands of Time. However to truly appreciate it, I suspect one would have to re-read that book, and that's not something I think I would want to tackle. (And just what is it with authors putting out missing chapters that were edited out for a reason?)
A frustrating point is that although Lars Pearson catches some comic tie-ins (eg. a reference Ace makes to a story in DWM #162 in Prime Time) yet misses others (eg. reference to Ace's death from DWM #241 in Prime Time). Omissions like that make one wonder what else Lars Pearson has missed.
One of the really useful features is the sidebars, giving away such things as the song title references in King of Terror. Once again, it would be useful to have an index to these sidebars, especially the ones not directly related to particular stories.
Obviously the most contentious part of this book is the reviews. I can't say that I agree with all of them, but that's the nature of reviews. On other hand had, his opinion of The Space Age, and The Quantum Archangel in particular, make for entertaining reading.
If you ever want to know what's what in the novels and audios, you need this book. And the best thing about it is that they finally have relevant artwork.
I, Who & I, Who 2: a joint review by Terrence Keenan 3/7/02
I'm reviewing these two reference texts together for practical reasons. I got them within days of each other and have flipped through them both at roughly the same time, switching back and forth on a whim or on whatever I was in the mood to check out.
Huge credit goes to Lars Pearson for making the two guides as comprehensive as possible. He manages to cover the entire Virgin line, as well as the BBC line up to Escape Velocity between both books as well as cover the early audios, the Summerfield NAs and include some miscellaneous stuff.
Like The Discontinuity Guide, the I, Whos are broken down into sections that include TARDIS crews, detailed synopses, ass-whuppings, who got some booty or drunk and many others, including novel and TV tie-in for the continuity-obsessed.
Pearson's opinions tend to lean toward normal fan conventions, although he is also the first to find the diamnonds in the rough. He does seem to have it in for Terrance Dicks, though, and in his eyes Kate Orman can do no wrong.
I, Who and I, Who 2 both are essential in the same way that The Discontinuity Guide is. Both as a way for the completeist as a reference guide, and for the newcomer to the novel DW world as a way to get caught up fast.