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The Discontinuity Guide by Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping
01/04/2007 . Source: Neale Monks 
pub: MonkeyBrain Books. 346 page enlarged paperback. Price: $15.95 (US), $21.95 (CAN). ISBN: 1-932265-09-0. Buy The Discontinuity Guide in the USA - or Buy The Discontinuity Guide in the UK  check out website: www.monkeybrainbooks.com
Until relatively recently, books about Science Fiction TV shows pretty much had the market to themselves, but nowadays such books need to compete against the many and often excellent web-sites devoted to their subjects. Fans of the long-running BBC television show 'Dr Who' not only have Auntie Beeb's official 'Dr Who' web-site to explore, but also comprehensive fan-run sites like 'Outpost Gallifrey'.
In short, for a book about a Science Fiction show to be successful, it needs to be not just good, but better than the competition. Some books manage this, but others don't. 'The Discontinuity Guide' is one that misses the mark.
'The Discontinuity Guide' was first published in 1995 and as such the 2004 re-issue suffers first and foremost from bad timing. It doesn't contain anything at all about the revitalised series that began airing in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston in the title role.
This means that fans of the new series who don't remember the original show will find nothing much to entertain them here. Perhaps more surprisingly for a 2004 re-issue, the 1996 'Dr Who' TV-movie isn't included neither, though it does get name-checked and then summarily dismissed in the preface. Besides new (but worse) cover art, it is hard to see where the 2004 re-issue is any different from the 1995 original. As a result, 'The Discontinuity Guide' is very much a book for fans of the 'classic' show with no particular interest in the more recent re-boots.
But what it does cover, it covers thoroughly. Coverage of each story is about one-third devoted to the show as a work of television, and about two-thirds as part of the 'Dr Who' universe. In terms of critical analysis, the authors clearly know their subject and dissect it expertly, naming guest-stars, suggesting important source material and linking each story to some of the others in the long history of the show.
One of the authors, Keith Topping, has made something of a career out of this sort of thing, having authored similar works on TV shows as diverse as 'Buffy' and 'The West Wing' and 'The Discontinuity Guide' is very much a pro forma piece of work in many ways, matching precisely the style and depth of his other works. Expect to find lists of gaffs, comments on the dialogue and acting, and brief summaries of the overall quality of the story in question.
Despite the book's name, it does spend a fair amount of space analysing how far the stories influence, connect or contradict one another. The key thing of course is that 'Dr Who' never really had much of a sense of continuity. Story writers took no interest in what had been broadcast previously and to a large degree most stories were expressly designed to be free-standing structures connected only by the Doctor himself. But where there is continuity, the authors find it and for the hardcore 'Dr Who' fan these sections are among the most rewarding. Of course, less seasoned viewers of the show will simply find such diversions mystifying and the obligatory nit-picking at technical details just plain annoying.
One problem is that while thorough and intelligent, the arrangement of the book is not at all user-friendly. 'The Discontinuity Guide' is laid out on a season-by-season basis and the contents page is limited telling you which page coverage of each season starts with, hardly the most intuitive way to find information.
Neither is there an index of story titles at the back. So if you don't know which season 'The Horns Of Nimon' was part of, the authors offer you no help at all. All you can do is thumb through the book and hope for the best. Scattered throughout the book are essays discussing things like the history of Mars, the origins of the Daleks and the lock in the front door of the TARDIS. These essays are rather good but, again, without an index finding these gems is more a matter of luck than anything else. You certainly don't know they're there until you come across them.
Another negative is that the layout of the book is incredibly dull. The cover art is insipid and cheap. There is no artwork of any sort and the typography is very plain and not without errors. As a result, however good the text, the book looks flat and boring. A reminder that this book is simply a re-issue of a 1995 title is the singular lack of any reference to currently available VHS or DVD recordings of the show.
As any serious 'Dr Who' fan knows, many of the earlier shows simply don't exist in any form at all, having been erased by the BBC, but most of the shows have been issued in one form or another. Without reference to these, the discussions of the shows are very one-sided. The authors explaining what they have seen and enjoyed, but not giving the reader the chance to do likewise.
The biggest problem, though, is that the authors' manifest delight in the poor scripting, wobbly acting and production gaffs characteristic of the show doesn't really warm the reader up to the subject. The more you read, the less impressed you are with 'Dr Who'. After only a few pages, the reader gets a distinct impression that classic 'Dr Who' is a show best remembered through the lenses of nostalgia and otherwise massively over-rated in terms of Science Fiction. The authors don't do much to placate this sense of unease and if their schoolboy-level delight in double entendres doesn't amuse, the reader's irritation is likely to rise even more.
On balance, then, does 'The Discontinuity Guide' deliver? Insofar as the authors have assembled their facts and provided in-depth criticism, 'The Discontinuity Guide' is a good book. But stacked against the many web-sites offering equally thorough analyses of the stories, it feels decidedly old-fashioned and uninspired.
Poor timing also comes into play, with nothing here to engage those entertained by the Doctor's more recent adventures. Serious 'Dr Who' fans will find the book a worthy addition to their bookshelves, but more casual readers will probably want to find a more user-friendly and attractive book or web-site instead.
Neale Monks
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