When Matt Smith appeared in his first Doctor Who episode, The Eleventh Hour, Mike Taylor bashed out a review on his blog, and was surprised to see it featured on Slashdot. He kept blogging about each episode of Smith's first two series, and discussing them with blog commenters. Along the way, he developed some ideas on what makes the show unique.
THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR contains Mike's reviews, discussions and digressions on all 43 of Matt Smith's episodes (including all of Series 7 and the recent specials), plus the two mini-episodes leading into the 50th anniversary. It also features series retrospectives, evaluations of the different Doctors, and a look forward to the next Doctor. Along the way, Mike talks about Steven Moffat's writing, Matt Smith's acting, how Karen Gillan's Amy shapes up against Jenna Coleman's Clara, the glory that is Rory, and the visual vocabularies of various episodes. He also contradicts himself repeatedly (it took him a while to figure out what he thought about some things), makes wildly inaccurate guesses about how series arcs are going to pan out, and gets sidetracked onto ubiquitous surveillance, Peter Jackson's Tolkien films, and how to make a perfect summer salad.
If you're not already a Doctor Who fan, this book will not convert you -- in fact, it may not even be comprehensible. If you're looking for facts and stats about the show, you won't find them here. But if you love Doctor Who and want to dig deeper into what makes it tick (and what sometimes stops it from ticking as well as it ought to), then THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR is for you.
“Doctor Who is a light-hearted TV show which occasionally touches on deep subjects. This is not lost on Mike Taylor, whose analysis of the show is equally deep. The commentary enriches the viewing experience, and casts an interesting new light on the action.” -- Nicolas Laurent.
“There is more to Doctor Who than a mad man in a box; Taylor brings a passionate and well read analysis to each episode. With comfortable writing he discusses themes, the writers and Matt Smith in light of story arcs, current affairs, classic Who, and Veronica Mars.” -- Jeff Mitchell.
THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR contains Mike's reviews, discussions and digressions on all 43 of Matt Smith's episodes (including all of Series 7 and the recent specials), plus the two mini-episodes leading into the 50th anniversary. It also features series retrospectives, evaluations of the different Doctors, and a look forward to the next Doctor. Along the way, Mike talks about Steven Moffat's writing, Matt Smith's acting, how Karen Gillan's Amy shapes up against Jenna Coleman's Clara, the glory that is Rory, and the visual vocabularies of various episodes. He also contradicts himself repeatedly (it took him a while to figure out what he thought about some things), makes wildly inaccurate guesses about how series arcs are going to pan out, and gets sidetracked onto ubiquitous surveillance, Peter Jackson's Tolkien films, and how to make a perfect summer salad.
If you're not already a Doctor Who fan, this book will not convert you -- in fact, it may not even be comprehensible. If you're looking for facts and stats about the show, you won't find them here. But if you love Doctor Who and want to dig deeper into what makes it tick (and what sometimes stops it from ticking as well as it ought to), then THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR is for you.
“Doctor Who is a light-hearted TV show which occasionally touches on deep subjects. This is not lost on Mike Taylor, whose analysis of the show is equally deep. The commentary enriches the viewing experience, and casts an interesting new light on the action.” -- Nicolas Laurent.
“There is more to Doctor Who than a mad man in a box; Taylor brings a passionate and well read analysis to each episode. With comfortable writing he discusses themes, the writers and Matt Smith in light of story arcs, current affairs, classic Who, and Veronica Mars.” -- Jeff Mitchell.
