Script Doctor: The Inside Story of Doctor Who 1986-89 @ The TARDIS Library (Doctor Who books, DVDs, videos & audios)


Script Doctor: The Inside Story of Doctor Who 1986-89
 

No. 64 of 343 in the Miscellaneous factual books series
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By:Andrew Cartmel
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Editions:  UK (1st paperback) | UK (2nd paperback) | UK (hardback) | UK (3rd paperback) | UK (4th paperback)
Description:  An insider account of the production of Doctor Who during the Sylvester McCoy era, written by Andrew Cartmel, the script editor of the programme during this period.

Cover image for Script Doctor: The Inside Story of Doctor Who 1986-89
Edition: UK (1st paperback)
Released:  March 2005
Publisher:  Reynolds & Hearn
ISBN:1-903111-89-7
Format: paperback
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Cover blurb:
Doctor Who has been thrilling, amusing and terrifying television viewers for over 25 years. Andrew Cartmel was the show’s script editor for three of those years. He chose the writers, planned the stories and shaped the programme during one of its most exciting and fertile periods.

Script Doctor takes you into the producer’s office for smokey script conferences and then into the charged darkness of the studio control room as a television show is being shot. It captures the comedy, chaos and struggle of a television classic being made, against all odds.

These are evocative and amusing dispatches from the trenches, conjuring a firsthand and uncensored flavour of what it was like to be there when the cameras were rolling. And what it was like when they stopped.

Cover image for Script Doctor: The Inside Story of Doctor Who 1986-89
Edition: UK (2nd paperback)
Released:  November 2013
Publisher:  Miwk Publishing
ISBN:978-1-908630-68-1
Format: paperback
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Note:  Revised edition, containing a small number of corrections and tweaks to the text, but also a new introduction by Steven Moffat, a new afterword by Sophie Aldred and a new coda from Andrew Cartmel, plus many more photographs than the original edition. Reissued in mid-2019, but that appears to be a straight reprint with the same ISBN, cover & contents, so is not listed separately here.

Cover blurb:
"There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea’s asleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke, and cities made of song. Somewhere there’s danger, somewhere there’s injustice, and somewhere else the tea’s getting cold. Come on, Ace — we’ve got work to do!"

Andrew Cartmel was the script editor on Doctor Who from 1986 to 1989. During his time on the show he introduced the seventh Doctor and his companion Ace (Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred) and oversaw forty-two scripts written by eight writers new to the series.

With a clear mission to bring proper science fiction back into Doctor Who, he formulated what was later termed ‘The Cartmel Masterplan’, re-introducing the mystery to the character of the Doctor as the series celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary and beyond.

Script Doctor is his memoir of this time based on his diaries written sometimes on set and sometimes not even in the diary itself but on the back of scripts. Illustrated with 32 pages of photographs, many of them not published before. It is a vivid account of life in the Doctor Who production office in the late eighties.

Cover image for Script Doctor: The Inside Story of Doctor Who 1986-89
Edition: UK (hardback)
Released:  November 2013
Publisher:  Miwk Publishing
ISBN:Unknown
Format: hardback
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Note:  Signed and numbered limited edition of 100 copies, available exclusively from the Miwk website, plus an additional 8 copies available from Galaxy 4.

Cover blurb:
None.

Cover image for Script Doctor: The Inside Story of Doctor Who 1986-1989
Edition: UK (3rd paperback)
Title:  Script Doctor: The Inside Story of Doctor Who 1986-1989
Released:  February 2021
Publisher:  Ten Acre Films
ISBN:978-1-908630-68-1
Format: paperback
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Note:  Curiously, despite being a new edition from a different publisher, this uses the same ISBN as the previous 2013 Miwk paperback edition.

Cover blurb:
‘There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea’s asleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there’s danger, somewhere there’s injustice, and somewhere else the tea’s getting cold. Come on, Ace — we’ve got work to do!’

Andrew Cartmel was the script editor on Doctor Who from 1986 to 1989. During his time on the show, he introduced the seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and his companion Ace (Sophie Aldred) and oversaw 42 scripts written by eight writers new to the series.

With a clear mission to bring proper science fiction back into Doctor Who, he formulated what was later termed ‘The Cartmel Masterplan’, reintroducing the mystery to the character of the Doctor as the series celebrated its 25th anniversary and beyond.

Script Doctor is his memoir of this time, based on his diaries written sometimes on set and sometimes not even in the diary itself but on the backs of script pages.

With an introduction by Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat, a foreword by Sylvester McCoy, and an afterword by Sophie Aldred, Script Doctor is illustrated with 32 pages of candid photographs, many never published before. It is a vivid account of life in the Doctor Who production office during the late eighties.

Cover image for Script Doctor: The Inside Story of Doctor Who 1986-89
Edition: UK (4th paperback)
Released:  July 2021
Publisher:  Ten Acre Films
ISBN:Unknown
Format: paperback
Owned:
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Note:  Sold-out limited “wallscrawl” edition with amended cover design to tie in with the Blu-ray release of Season 24. Limited to 150 signed copies.

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