Having said that, some of the events in the Doctor Who series four finale are fleetingly mentioned, though not directly referenced.Īnyway, these are trivial points. Even odder is the exclusion of The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End – an entry for the ‘Time-Lock’ would have been much more appropriate than the ‘To Buy Or Not To Buy’ entry (despite it being “briefly watched by Owen”). Now, I understand going into all the stories would be problematic, but it seems odd to include the audios and not the novels. The novels (and comics too) are discarded. Naturally, we get treated to all the television episodes and we get the excellent BBC Fouraudio dramas, but it stops there. The other problem I have are the stories the makers saw fit to include. (Of course, complaining that an encyclopedia is too detailed, too researched is akin to moaning that a dictionary has too many words. Surely, like the entry for ‘Years’ (where we get a listed breakdown of all the years mentioned and where the action takes place) the editors would have seen fit to have a similar ‘Songs’ listing?

For every song played (within the context of the onscreen goings on) or mentioned, there’s an entry, but not only that, there’s another listing for the artist who performed the tune.

There’s also a great deal of repetition, specifically when it comes to entries for songs. It’s journey into the minutiae of Torchwood can either come across as needless and tedious (‘X74JGF813W ‘gets an entry for being an access code!) or quite funny (the listing for ‘Barbara ‘ states, “Not, Jack considered, a suitable name for a Weevil.”). Yup, it’s that detailed.Īnd this is where I had a slight problem with the book. For example, there are entries that detail roads such as the A470 (“Truck road north of Cardiff leading towards the Brecon Beacons.”) and the always-interesting B587 (“Cardiff road that led to Hedley Point”).

Pedantry is the key word here, appropriately so being an encyclopedia, and Gary Russell is well versed in the world of Torchwood picking up on some of the most obscure tidbits humanly possible.

Doctor Who Encyclopedia by Gary Russell