THE ESSENTIAL DOCTOR WHO: ROBOTS

Panini’s lavish series of publications devoted to key aspects of the Doctor Who universe continues with an issue devoted to robots. The Doctor’s deadliest adversaries include mechanical killers such as the Yeti, the Voc robots and the clockwork droids. For more than five decades the series has realised some of our darkest fears about artificial intelligence and mankind’s relationship with its automated servants.

This 116-page bookazine includes interviews with:

Chris Boucher (writer of The Robots of Death)

Michael Kilgarriff (Robot)

John Leeson (voice of K9)

Tom MacRae (writer of The Girl Who Waited)

Dave Martin (K9’s co-creator)

Paul Murphy (director of The Caretaker and Robot of Sherwood)

Paul Tams (co-creator of the K9 television series)

Kate Walshe (visual effects producer)

The classic story guides include The War Machines, The Web of Fear, The Android Invasion, The Girl in the Fireplace, The Husbands of River Song and many more.

Among the other highlights are The Vampire Planet (an unproduced William Emms story from 1969), the strange story of the Mechonoids, a look at the Out of the Unknown episode that gave us the Mind Robber robots, Douglas Adams’ original notes for the Polyphase Avatron, the rise and fall of Kamelion and the history of robot comic strips.

Editor Marcus Hearn says: “2017 marks the 40th anniversary of K9’s first appearance in Doctor Who, so he looms large in our journey through more than 50 years of the series’ robots. It must be said that most of the mechanical characters we’re featuring aren’t quite as friendly as the Doctor’s dog…”

The Essential Doctor Who: Robots is on sale now at WH Smith and all good newsagents, price £9.99.