Classic Guides to Doctor Who, Star Trek and More!

Gollancz and the SF Gateway are delighted to announce the eBook return of a series of classic unauthorised guides to genre TV by the authorial team of Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping. The five books were bought by Gollancz editor Marcus Gipps, and include a guide to Doctor Who.

Marcus Gipps said: “I’m thrilled to bring these books back. They may be representative of the time they were written, but they’re still entertaining, informative and enjoyable. All three authors have written Doctor Who novels and have a love of televised SF, and between them they bring a range of knowledge and critical thought to their subjects.”

The re-releases are led by The Discontinuity Guide, the groundbreaking light-hearted look at the entire classic series of long-running hit Doctor Who. Originally published in 1995, and out of print in the UK since the late nineties, this was the book that revolutionised the way in which Doctor Who was viewed. Now, on the eve of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the longest running SF TV series in the world, return to this classic and affectionate deconstruction and episode guide, completely un-updated or revised (apart from a couple of typos we spotted).

Other titles in the series include:

The Avengers Dossier, focusing on the fondly remembered action-packed series featuring Mr Steed and a variety of glamorous assistants, including Emma Peel and Cathy Gale. This isn’t about the world-conquering Marvel film or comics series, but if you’re a fan of that, you’ll probably enjoy this too. It’s certainly worth a try, isn’t it? A few errors have been updated for this edition, which covers every broadcast episode of the TV series.

The New Trek Programme Guide, a fully-up-to-date (when it was published in 1995) guide to 90s Star Trek. Featuring detailed analysis and review of all episodes of The Next Generation, and the first two series of Deep Space Nine, this is essential for the generation of people who were introduced to the Trek-verse by Picard, Worf and all. It’s a record of the time it was written, a time when Trek was forging new ground, exploring brave new frontiers, and reminding the world just how good the series could be.

X-Treme Possibilities – A paranoid rummage through the X-Files is, you will not be surprised to hear, about The X-Files. Covering the first five seasons of the show and the first film, this is the perfect way to remind yourself of just how groundbreaking and innovative the show was, how much we all enjoyed it, and how much BBC2 messed us around by broadcasting things in random order. I reckon it was a conspiracy, you know.

These four books will all be released on ebook on the 31st October 2013, and will be followed by a fifth volume, the more wide-ranging Classic British Telefantasy Guide. Marking a major foray by the SF Gateway into non-fiction, these books fit the site’s remit – to republish the out-of-print gems of genre – perfectly, and Gollancz is thrilled to welcome the authors to the list.