I've been purchasing a few of the Doctor Who Complete History hardback books recently. I've got the first release featuring the making of four stories during the 2007 series. That includes Gridlock, Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks, Lazarus Experiment and 42.

I've also got the Twelfth Doctor one that includes the making of Deep Breath and Into the Dalek, and the First Doctor one that includes the making of An Unearthly Child and The Daleks.

I'm going to be purchasing the next one, which includes Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, A Town Called Mercy and The Power of Three from 2012 with the Eleventh Doctor.

Here is the website for more details:

www.dwcompletehistory.com



I shan't be getting all of them as they are mostly £9.99 each, and there are 80 books in total, only covering the making of DW from 1963-2014. I'll only be buying the ones I really want.

What are they like ? Sounds like a total rip off to me.

80 issues x £10 = £800, so yeah, I'm not buying them either. It's fortnightly, so it takes almost four years to get them all. The material is mostly taken from DWM, though the Eccleston and Capaldi era material will be totally new (DWM didn't cover those eras in the section of the magazine they're taking them from).

I don't think these periodicals will tell us anything we don't already know and n some cases probably considerably less. No, I'll be leaving them.

Are these the things Tom Baker was advertising a few months ago on radio adverts? I thought they were the usual magazine partworks offered by that Italian company who do them for everything imaginable.

I wouldn't buy any partwork, even if I were bashed over the head with a shovel and injected with interrogation serum.

I was going to say I wouldn't buy any partwork any more than I'd believe another word of Moffat's rhetorical hyperbole. But I know that may offend every Dalek ever, so I shan't.

I would buy them, but £10 per issue?
That is too much
Even DWM isn't that much, at £5 per issue

Just used my PC's calculator to total up the price, if you bought all 80 books, and it's £799.20.

That's too expensive. Plus, not everyone would want to spend £9.99 every fortnight for 160 weeks. That's how long it would take before the final issue comes out.

It will be 2017 before the part work comes to an end. If my calculation proves right.

I couldn't get all of the books, anyway, as Issue 7 that features the making of Robot, The Ark In Space and The Sontaran Experiment, will be the last W H Smiths will stock. After that, I'd need to have a word with one of the W H Smith's staff about getting any more. They would then be able to get them in especially for me each fortnight, but I'd have to subscribe to every issue. I wouldn't be able to select only the ones I wanted, unfortunately.

What I'd have to do is look on eBay. Then hopefully I'd be able to get the ones I wanted, without having to purchase all of them. I have seen the first two issues on there, recently.

I'm sure you can just buy back issues from the website, once they're out.

I'm interested in the big finish exclusive free cd for subscribers of the book but it's not worth subscribing just for that.

I've read some of these (I know an insider).

They do have some good material in and are a good collector's item, but I wouldn't be able to justify the price.

Also due to the slow growth of sales there is the possibility they will be discontinued before all are released.

I can see that happening, yes. The price is ridiculous! Not everyone will purchase all 80 books. Not everyone CAN afford to spend £10 a fortnight on books. A lot of people are on a budget, for example if they are on benefits, or if they are in a low paid job, and so on.

i doubt that they will be discontinued, there will be enough subscribers to the range to keep it going for 80 volumes (not me though, i couldn't commit myself to buying nearly £800 worth of books )

No, they are too expensive for material some of us have already read in DWM.

Okay I'll confess that I'm already working my way through the DC comic book graphic novel collection at over £20 a month for some stuff I already own. That said... this looks like a complete rip-off. Sorry

If this is from that Italian company that does loads of partworks, I remember a piece about them on Watchdog, a few years ago. They only get stocked in shops for a while, then you have to take out subscriptions, and some of them get discontinued before the end.

The idea is that a load of people buy the first few on impulse, then they forget or realise the cost involved, so abandon it. That leaves a few people hooked who become obsessive and 'need' to complete the collection. By subscribing, you just commit yourself further until the point you think, "well I've already spent over £200 on it now, which will just be wasted money if I don't complete the collection", so they then end up with a small number of people spending the full £800. Apparently, this makes it worthwhile for the publisher.

Unless it doesn't, in which case they sometimes abandon a partwork if too few people are left subscribing.

That is exactly it.

There are two companies that share the ownership of these books. They are Panini UK and Hachette Partworks, according to the official website that I mentioned on the first comment at the top of the page.

Also, I went into my local W H Smiths yesterday to get the Eleventh Doctor one that has the making of Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, A Town Called Mercy and The Power of Three, and unfortunately they had sold out.

One of the young blokes that works in there said to me that the shop had received only one copy, and that for the next two issues, only one would arrive per fortnight, before I'd have to subscribe.

I'll have to look on eBay to see if the one I want is on there. I hope so.

It's a few quid less - issues 1 and 2 were at a lower price.