4) Decalog 2: Lost Property, edited by Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker

A collection of ten DW short stories (actually one has no Doctor, but does have Sarah Jane, Mike Yates, K9 and the Master). As usual, of varying but mostly good quality; I hope any of the other contributors who read this will forgive me for favouriting the two Fourth Doctor / Leela stories, one by Tim Robins and set on a commercially exploited Mars, the other by Pam Baddeley and setting settlers against indigenous people on a planet with its own bizarre legal culture. Apart from that, I enjoyed all the rest except the one with Zoe and Jamie and the one with Peri and the peculiar timeshare.

12) Talkback: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Doctor Who Interview Book - Volume One: The Sixties, ed. Stephen James Walker

150 pages of interviews with people who had been involved with the making of Doctor Who in the 1960s. Some are more enlightening than others - the most interesting (slightly to my surprise) are the reflections of designers Barry Newbery, Raymond Cusick and John Wood. I wished others had been a bit more probing, especially since, sadly, many of the interviewees are no longer available. Only two actors are included - Anneke Wills and Peter Purves. Most of Dennis Spooner's anecdotes are disproved by the footnotes. A useful resource for fans of this period of Doctor Who, but not really a casual read for people not already familiar with the subject matter.

7) The Television Companion: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Doctor Who, by David J Howe and Stephen James Walker

This has been bedtime reading for a week or so (since I came back from London, I guess), getting through a season or so every evening. Of course, it is all on-line on the BBC website, but it's nice to hold the dead tree version in one's hands as well.

Good and comprehensive basic stuff, though I think I am now ready to move on to some more in-depth examination of the history of the series. I also think that I will buy the DVD of The Aztecs and the audio of The Daleks Master Plan, watch/listen, and decide that I have seen enough Hartnell (having also got through the first episode, The Daleks, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Crusade, The Chase, and The Massacre in the last year) - I hear that The Web Planet is not in fact very good, though also available on DVD.

Then, on to Troughton, and this book makes a strong argument in favour of Season Five as a Great Season Of Doctor Who - including the likes of The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Abominable Snowmen, The Ice Warriors, The Web of Fear and Fury from the Deep. Must see how many of those are available in different formats. There doesn't seem to be a convenient point of reference for that information.