October 1st, 2023
2 comments
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David Whitaker in an Exciting Adventure with Television
Available to order from www.tenacrefilms.com
An exclusive hardback cover is also available from www.thewhoshop.com
David Whitaker in an Exciting Adventure with Television
To celebrate 60 years of Doctor Who, discover the extraordinary, little-known life of one of its chief architects, David Whitaker. As the show’s first story editor, he helped to establish the compelling blend of adventure, imagination and quirky humour that made – and continues to make – the series a hit.
David commissioned the first Dalek story, and fought for it to be made when his bosses didn’t like it. Regeneration, the TARDIS being alive, the idea of Doctor Who expanding to become a multimedia phenomenon in comics, books and films… David Whitaker was all over it. Yet very little was known about this key figure in Doctor Who history – until now. Why did he fall out with Irving Berlin? Was he really engaged to Yootha Joyce? And how did an assignment to Moscow badly affect his career?
Simon Guerrier has written countless Doctor Who books, comics and audio plays. He’s also the author of Sherlock Holmes — The Great War and had produced a number of documentaries for BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4.
RRP: £17.99 (PB), £24.99 (HB)
156mm x 234mm Paperback/Casebound hardback, limited to 250 copies
400 pages plus 16-page photo section in black and white and colour
An exclusive hardback cover is also available from www.thewhoshop.com
Categorised under: Autobiographies and biographies, Books
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Duncan
October 6th, 2023 - 4:14pmI think I first came across David Whittaker’s name on the 3 Target books that were reprinted in the early 70s. He did The Exciting Adventure With The Daleks, and The Crusaders, didn’t he ? I was 9 when they came out and I remember finding the Crusaders and to a lesser degree The Daleks, hard going. Now of course, I can appreciate what wonderful books they are. The Crusaders is one of the range’s masterpieces.
Its such a shame so many of his stories have disappeared. I’m lucky to be such an old crock (on my 4th regeneration) that I remember Wheel In Space and the repeated Evil Of The Daleks. What they would be like now, who can say. But to my innocent young eyes both stories were magical and gripping and absolutely terrifying. Gemma’s death in Wheel had me wailing and the last episode of Evil was incredibly distressing. Oh to see those again.
Anyway, after all that waffle, I think I’ll buy the hardback of this. Whitaker is up there with Holmes for me and certainly deserves to be remembered fondly by the Who community.
In the meantime, I’ll keep hoping those 4 episodes of Wheel and the remainder of Evil are found soon. Id be happy with just Wheel.
Dave
October 10th, 2023 - 9:32amI’m not sure at what point you came across them, but I felt the same. I’d read a lot of the Terrance Dicks books first, which are marvellous in their effective simplicity, and the more complex language in Whitaker’s two novels were harder to deal with. I also had a really weird predilection that books in the first person were never good, which knocked the Dalek novel out for a start. Nowadays, I think they’re absolute pinnacles of the range and the illustrated Daleks book a couple of years ago was a beautiful edition. Despite being only a few years older than the rest of the Target range, they somehow feel like they’re from a different era.