REVIEW: WIT, WISDOM AND TIMEY-WIMEY STUFF – THE QUOTABLE DOCTOR WHO / AUTHOR: CAVAN SCOTT, MARK WRIGHT / PUBLISHER: BBC BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: MAY 22ND
Cavan Scott and Mark Wright’s follow-up to their Sunday Times Top 10 best-selling Who-ology is exactly what you’d expect from the title: a vast collection of quotes curated from the show’s 50 years on the box and organised into various themes from First Lines to Famous Last Words, calling at many topics in-between. Amongst many favourites are ‘Fancy a Brew?’ which looks at the importance of tea and the obvious Bigger on the Inside. There are of course less whimsical sections including Love, War, Death, Fear and Loneliness.
The book is littered with drawings by Ben Morris which help to break the text up. If the book has a weakness it is that it is better suited for dipping into rather than as a serious trawl, after a while the pages of quotes become repetitive, especially compared to Who-ology, which made a particularly good job of varying the material. That said, the quotes do stand on their own and many of them are quintessential Doctor Who.
Where Wit, Wisdom and Timey-Wimey Stuff scores well is that, by virtue of being published more recently, it is able to include not only the War Doctor but also Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor (if we may call him that). This helps round the book out and makes it feel complete.
At a more festive time of year we would describe this as an essential stocking filler for Whovians of any age; for now all we’ll will say is that the boys have done good and we wonder what they will produce for us next time.
