The Discontinuity Guide

The Discontinuity Guide
Author(s)	Paul Cornell, Martin Day, Keith Topping
Cover artist	Slatter–Anderson
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Subject(s)	Doctor Who
Genre(s)	episode guide
Publisher	Virgin Books
Publication date	1995
Pages	357 (first edition)
ISBN	0-426-20442-5
OCLC Number	60225122

The Discontinuity Guide, by Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping, is a humorous guidebook to the serials of the original run (1963–1989) of the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who. It was first published in 1995 by Virgin Books, which at the time also published licensed Doctor Who novels.

Contents

The book focuses on the fiction of Doctor Who. For each serial, the authors discuss the roots of the story, technical and narrative gaffes, technobabble, dialogue disasters and triumphs, continuity, and a "bottom line" critical analysis of the story. The book also contains short essays on subjects in Doctor Who continuity, such as the Doctor's family, the history (or histories) of the Daleks, UNIT dating and the origins of the Time Lords. One of these essays marked the first publication of the Season 6B theory.

The Discontinuity Guide contains an introduction by Doctor Who writer and script editor Terrance Dicks.

Publication history

The book was first published by Doctor Who Books, an imprint of Virgin Books, in 1995. It was subsequently reprinted by MonkeyBrain Books in November 2004, with a new foreword by Lou Anders.^[1] Additionally, the BBC's Doctor Who website incorporated the book's text, along with that of Doctor Who: The Television Companion by David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker, into its classic series episode guide.^[2]

See also

• List of Doctor Who serials

References

1. ^ "The Discontinuity Guide". MonkeyBrain Books. November 2004. http://www.monkeybrainbooks.com/Discontinuity_Guide.html. Retrieved 20 April 2009. 
2. ^ "Classic Series - Episode Guide". BBC Doctor Who website. bbc.co.uk. http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/. Retrieved 20 April 2009.