Wednesday, 26 February 2014

Who Reviews The Official 50th Anniversary Annual Review by DJ Forrest


BBC Books
ISBN 978-1-40591-179-5
Written by Moray Laing
Reviewed by DJ Forrest

The Official 50th Anniversary Annual is jam packed full of exciting pages full of facts, fiction, quizzes and games.  There’s enough to keep any Time Lord in the making amused for hours.  It already had me at the front cover, and the story The 50 Year Delay had me captivated till the last word. 

The 50 Year Delay is a very short story and tells of a young man called Ryan who has rushed down to the tube station in order to catch the train to Kennington via Charing Cross, only to discover that the train isn’t due for 50 years.  Something is in the tunnel and it’s not a train although it soon becomes apparent what it is.  The Doctor lands the TARDIS on the platform and instructs Ryan to remain behind the yellow line.  There’s something else in the tunnels, and again it’s not a train but it is something that is messing with time and setting the trains back a good 50 years, but what is it?
The illustration on the second page of the story is wonderfully bright and depicts the underground tube station very well.  It’s wonderful to see the flash of colour from what comes out of the tunnel.

From the moment you turn over the first page of the Annual you enter into the fiery vortex where two cartoon characters can be seen, which is intriguing.  Who are they and what episode are they from? Turn to page 10 and you discover more monsters and discover there’s a lot of them hiding within the pages of the annual, so for anyone who has children, or with time to kill, hunting for the cartoon characters within the annual is a fun way to spend a few minutes, or a few hours if you’re anything like me.  There is so much to read, and its set out in such a way to keep you entertained, it doesn’t dip in disappointment, there are no moments through the annual where you feel cheated, or robbed of the money it cost to buy it.  There is so much to take in, four pages of monsters, four pages of amazing facts about the Time Lord we love, comic book stories with convincing Doctor and companion illustrations (I always read those first).

Mazes, quizzes and games including my favourite of them all, the Spot the Difference and this time you have 50 differences to spot.  All in all there are 61 pages to entertain you with.

Moray Laing has been editor of the Doctor Who Adventures magazine since (2006 – 2010, 2013 - ).  DWA is the junior version of the Doctor Who magazine and comes out monthly, although between the years 2008-2013 it came out weekly.  It’s aimed at the 6-13 year olds but many adults (raises hand) still find it interesting and the competitions are always worth entering.  Who doesn’t want a life size Dalek in their living room?


To be in with a chance of winning a copy of the 50th Anniversary Annual, if you haven’t purchased one already, just answer this one question:

What creatures name means ‘the shadows that melt the flesh'?
Email your answer to us no later than 20th March, winner will be announced in Issue 12.



No comments:

Post a Comment