April 30th, 2024 25 comments

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Companions: Sixty Years of Doctor Who Assistants

Available to order from www.candy-jar-store.co.uk

Candy Jar Books is pleased to announce Companions: Sixty Years of Doctor Who Assistants, the definitive story of all the Doctor’s friends in time and space.

The book covers every companion from Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, as well as the Doctor’s granddaughter, Susan – introduced in An Unearthly Child, the first episode of Doctor Who – to Ruby Sunday, the Fifteenth Doctor’s companion who travels with Ncuti Gatwa’s incarnation of the Time Lord.

The tome charts the adventures of every Doctor’s fellow travellers, taking into account not only sixty years of the TV show, but also the franchise’s ventures into other mediums like novels, comics, and audio.

Primarily split into fifteen chapters, one per Doctor, each section looks first at companions’ TV stories, their arcs, and importance to the show as a whole, before delving into spin-off media that expands on their characters.

That means that, alongside in-depth histories of Sarah Jane Smith, Ace, Rose, Amy and Rory, and many more, Companions: Sixty Years of Doctor Who Assistants further covers companions not seen on television, including Fitzgerald “Fitz” Kreiner, Erimemushinteperem, Gabby Gonzalez, Frobisher, and Lucie Miller.

Companions: Sixty Years of Doctor Who Assistants is a brand new, fully expanded edition of one of Candy Jar Books’ most popular non-fiction works, Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants. With just over a decade’s more stories, this sixtieth anniversary edition revises and expands on every chapter, bringing to light more details than ever before; includes detailed summaries of characters added to The Whoniverse since 2013; and features new chapters for the companions of the Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Doctors.

Publisher, Shaun Russell, says: “Companions has been long out of print, and I still get fans asking when it’ll be available again. With Doctor Who recently celebrating its sixtieth anniversary, now seemed the perfect time. What’s been so amazing, though, is seeing how much extra material there’s been to cover. It’s effectively the same amount as a brand new book!”

Original author, Andy Frankham-Allen, is joined by Philip Bates, editor of the Doctor Who Companion website. Andy says: “I remain incredibly proud of Companions; the reception it had made the long hours noting down every important character beat worthwhile. My edition went up to the end of The Name of the Doctor in 2013, so for this new edition, we’ve finished off Clara Oswald’s time with the Eleventh Doctor, then analysed the lives of many more companions since then like Bill Potts, Yasmin Khan, and even someone whose time on board the TARDIS we all thought was over, Donna Noble.”

Philip adds: “Andy’s tome sits on my desk, a comprehensive and fascinating guide that I can turn to whenever my memory cheats. When Shaun and Andy asked me to get on board updating it, I was understandably over the moon. It quickly dawned on me how many more adventures there were to feature, so that meant starting again from page one – checking all the information was still correct or hadn’t been contradicted, then diving into other mediums to find out how classic and new companions have had their lives explored further. And it’s been an absolute joy.”

The book is due out later this year, so also looks at Ruby Sunday’s travels with the Fifteenth Doctor in Space Babies, The Devil’s Chord, Boom, 73 Yards, Dot and Bubble, Rogue, The Legend of Ruby Sunday, and Empire of Death.

Shaun concludes: “Doctor Who has a rich history and this book indulges in it. But Doctor Who is also about looking to the future, and right now, that’s Millie Gibson. So it felt only right to feature the 2024 season of the show. Plus, we get to talk more about the lovely Bonnie Langford, who returns as Mel Bush in the latest series. So this is as up-to-date and rigorous an exploration of Doctor Who as you can get!”

Synopsis:

Doctor Who was never really about the Doctor. This is the story of the Time Lord’s companions – friends through all time and space.

Discover the journeys of every one of the Doctor’s assistants, from Susan, Ian Chesterton, and Barbara Wright, to Fifteenth Doctor companion, Ruby Sunday; including their adventures off-screen, in novels, comics, and audio.

Companions: Sixty Years of Doctor Who Assistants is an in-depth account of each companion, examining their arcs, significance in the TV series, and how they traversed different times, places, and mediums. Relive their travels on television. Learn what companions did after they left the TARDIS. And meet the Doctor’s wider network of friends, from Evelyn Smythe to Liv Chenka, Professor Bernice Summerfield to his grandchildren, John and Gillian.

See the universe anew through their eyes.

Categorised under: Books, Reference books