After watching 17 Seasons of WHO, I noticed I didn't really care any more. Was I just bored? Maybe. But as the authors point out with their analyses and behind-the-scenes info, by the end of the Tom Baker era neither the star nor any of the creative forces were really giving it their all.

Fortunately, the advent of the JNT era brought with it some refreshing changes; watching the series, you can notice the immediate upturn in quality, but the fantastically informative and insightful commentary in this book gives you a much clearer idea as to why. Sadly, by the time the book finishes off, you can see where it's all going so horribly horribly wrong, and why the producer gained the terrible reputation that he did.

Still, I suppose having watched 21 out of 26 seasons, it'd be silly to stop now.... ( )

http://nhw.livejournal.com/964336.html

This is the fifth and latest so far published in this superb series of reference guides to Doctor Who. It's the only one that doesn't begin or end with a change of Doctors - it encapsulates the whole Peter Davison era, plus Tom Baker's last season and Colin Baker's first story; it also, of course, covers roughly the first half of John Nathan-Turner's time as producer. It's an era where my memory is variable - I saw every episode of seasons 18 and 19 when first broadcast, but remember only about half of season 20 and a bit less of season 21. Since I started watching old Who again in 2005, I've seen only five stories from this period (out of 29), so on the whole it is less fresh for me.

Still, Miles and Wood deliver the goods, explaining what the intellectual and cultural roots of each story are, usually finding good things to say despite their general anti-John Nathan-Turner snarking as well as blistering specific critiques of each one (eg, under The Twin Dilemma, they point out that there doesn't actually appear to be a dilemma in the story). Their inserted essays are, I think, more analytical on the whole than in the other volumes, starting and finishing with the cases for the defence and prosecution of JNT, and including also reflections on the effects of Doctor Who Monthly and the 1983 Longleat celebration on Doctor Who fandom. ( )