Doctor Who: Whographica

I had a brilliant time reading Doctor Who: Whographica. It’s colorful and fun and full of ridiculous detail.

It has twelve chapters, one per Doctor. (Published in 2016, the book only covers through 2015, or two-thirds of the way through the Twelfth Doctor’s run, ending with “The Husbands of River Song”.) Each chapter also covers another theme — including TARDIS, Alien Worlds, Technology, and my favorite, “That’s Silly” — and opens with something like this:

That lists the episodes for a particular Doctor, including how they ranked in fan votes and ratings, as well as key facts, such as costumes and quotes. It will not surprise you to find that the Fourth Doctor’s page has a “jelly baby count”, while the Tenth has a list of women he kissed.

The chapters then continue with things like this, details on how old the Doctor claimed to be in various incarnations:

Or this, my favorite because the little people are adorable. It’s a listing of every character named in a story title. Why? Who cares? It entertained me and gave me some things to think about watching.

Now, quibbles. There were several charts where I couldn’t tell apart the dark purple and black, or the pink, coral, and orange tones. There are also several pages that required a magnifier. It’s not easy on older eyes, is what I’m saying. But that didn’t really matter, as I wasn’t reading this as much for actual facts as for enjoying common memories and sharing fandom coolness. It was pretty, and I enjoyed it.