TIMELINK REVIEWS
Rassilon was a pigeon...
Vanessa Bishop, UK
'Timelink' is absolutely superb!
It's the best fanproduced book I've ever seen.
Bruce Robinson, Australia
...really excellent and thought-provoking.
Congratulations on a fine piece of work!
Stephen James Walker, UK
A fascinating book!
Andrew Pixley (UK)
The following are some of the reviews of the book that have
been published in the fan-press:
Doctor Who Magazine
Shelf Life with Vanessa Bishop
DWM 294 (23 August 2000)
Timelink is a daunting, self-published study of every loose end, cock-up and inconclusive statement dropped from the mouth of TV Doctor Who. Author Jon Preddle could argue the toss over anything. If he wanted to convince me Rassilon was a pigeon, Preddle knows Doctor Who backwards and sideways enough to secure evidence to make his theory watertight,
Like a game, Timelink begins with rules, guidelines to lead us through its suggestions. All the legendary continuity chestnuts - Susan's family status, 1980s UNIT dating - queue to pummel your senses all over again. Pretending you don't care lasts about a minute. Preddle's stamina, invention and clever observations have the grey matter firing - and somehow, he makes this beast readable.
The author has spent a decade calculating the Doctor's age, defining a Gallifreyan year and working out when Snakedancing was banned on Manussa - and the resultant work would take another ten years to fully absorb.
Almost endless, Timelink is the answer to everything you never thought you wanted to know.
[Please note, the prices quoted in DWM were the old rates for the first edition - please refer to the Order page for the latest prices.]
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Andrew Pixley - Celestial Toyroom #270 April 2000
I think this is a great book. My partner doesn�t. She�s threatened to leave me if I ever write anything like this myself. She doesn�t see the point of trying to link the whole of televised Doctor Who history together into one whole. Maybe she�s right; she�s right about a lot of things. Anyway, one thing is for certain, there�s no danger of her leaving me now ... at least not for writing a book like this ... because New Zealand�s premier Doctor Who historian, Jon Preddle, has just spent most of the last decade writing it anyway. I�m a great believer in seeing other perspectives, and so although I may not agree with everything that Jon has written as he fits every line of dialogue from the show�s history together like an incomplete jigsaw to which he has lost the box, I am fascinated by the deductions which he makes and the slants which he puts on various aspects because it makes me question my perception of them. This is a fantastic work of immense details and thought, and deserves praise for that alone.
Of course, this isn�t a book for all fans of Doctor Who, as my other half has admirably demonstrated. But, if you�re still thirsty for a coherent Whoniverse after Lance Parkin�s A History of the Universe, then you might like to take a look at this very well laid out, highly usable and rather fascinating tome. It�s great for dipping into, although some of Jon�s more complex theories - particularly regarding Gallifrey Relative Time (GRT) - do require you to turn the CD off and sit down and concentrate for a page or two. By doing so, you�ll find that another nifty notion to solve a continuity conundrum unfolds before your eyes.
So what do these 322 fact-packed pages have to offer? We start off with the rules for Jon�s work. Don�t agree with all of them myself, but this is Jon�s book and if I want to do my own it�s up to me to put my relationship at risk. And I have to admit, they�re really extremely clever rules and I wish I�d thought of a few of them. Then Jon uses sources quotes to see how the Doctor Who universe and its flow of time fit together; one fascinating aspect which Jon studies through the book is that of language, and who can read or understand what when and with or without the Doctor�s magic gifts. Next comes a Lance-style time-line of the universe, but more meaty issues lie beyond such as Gallifreyan History (complete with a study of the First Law), the Doctor�s Age (Troughton lasted 2 years while Pertwee notched up 199), Life on Gallifrey (so, how old is the TARDIS anyway?), An Enigma Called Susan (did she name the TARDIS or not?), Half-Human? (has he always had two hearts?) and More Than A Time Lord? (when did we first hear the term �regeneration�?). Having polished off our hero and his kin, it�s into run-downs of Cybermen History, Dalek History and those oh-so-debatable UNIT Years. This is where occasionally I have a wry smile at some of the evidence, wondering exactly how the fact that Chinn wears a bowler hat in The Claws of Axos helps us find a date ... but again, the unit fits into a whole.
Name-Dropping is a particularly fascinating chapter devoted to the Doctor; his likes and dislikes, his skills and talents, the people he�s met, the places he�s been and what he carries in his pockets. Finally comes the mammoth Storyfile, listing serial by serial all the evidence for dating, how stories link together, a comparison with true history and - rather nicely - the real-time occupied by the Doctor�s adventures. September 1971 was a very busy month for him ...!
This will not be everybody�s cup of tea, but if you do like trivia and conflicting continuity, then this is most definitely the volume for you to send off for. Right now. This minute. Now.
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Bruce Robinson - Time Space Visualiser # 60 June 2000
Preparing articles on Doctor Who continuity is nothing new. Professional publications have even tackled the subject � for instance, the Discontinuity Guide, devoted a whole section for each story on continuity related matters. Most well-known Dr Who publications (such as DWM and TSV) have featured regular "question and answer" columns for fans puzzled about some aspect of the show's fictional universe. In fact, one could almost go as far as saying that just about every fanzine in creation has published their "complete" Dr Who timeline. But up until this point, we have failed to see a truly authoratative reference on the subject � a publication which takes every known snippet of information from the show, and attempts to weave it into a single logical framework (well, as logical as can be expected �).
The most probable reason why this has never happened before is that it's too complex a task. Unlike shows such as Star Trek, which seem to thrive on having an established background, Dr Who never been shackled with the same restrictions. While this ensures more freedom for writers, it also results in an increased likelihood of continuity "stuff-ups" Some fans may criticise the show for such "shortcomings", but (for reasons too lengthy to examine now) I find it to be the proverbial "breath of fresh air". However, what we've lacked in the past is someone with the dedication to analyse Dr Who in a similar fashion to those countless other Star Trek books, and at the very least, provide us with a starting point for continuity discussions.
But let's get one thing clear straight away. Timelink is more than just a starting point - it's the whole race and the finish line thrown in as well! This book, recently released by NZ fan Jon Preddle, is the first publication of any kind to exhaustively tackle the fictional Dr Who universe. And the scope of the book can certainly not be underestimated. Quite simply, Jon has presented a breath-taking series of facts and conclusions within 322 pages of thoroughly researched continuity pieces.
The "bread and butter" of the book is a detailed evaluation of each Doctor Who story, and how the facts fit into the overall picture of the "Whoniverse". This may sound similar to the aforementioned section in the Discontinuity Guide, but unlike the authors of this equally notable publication, Jon is not limited by commercial considerations. Believe me, Jon does not hesitate to throw in any scrap of information that he can come up with � there are sections on languages used, story durations, and comparisons with "real" events (which, for obvious reasons, is mainly relevant for the historical stories). And in preparing his arguments, Jon does not limit himself to essential plot elements either � even the most throwaway of throwaway lines is analysed in the same thorough fashion.
The book also contains a number of detailed essays of various controversial topics which have appeared over the years � Jon demonstrates an enthusiasm to tackle all subjects regardless of how messy and confusing they may be! Examples include a description of Gallifreyan life in general, whether the Doctor is "more than a Time Lord", dating the UNIT stories (a real can of worms!), and my personal favourite, a look at the Doctor's age. Oh, and there's the obligatory Dalek history chapter as well �
In a nutshell, the true worth of any Dr Who reference book is whether it can be classed as a "one-stop shop". Now that I have Timelink, will I ever have to need to look elsewhere for continuity related information? Well, there may be some obscure fact that even Jon has managed to overlook, but I'd be very surprised if this is the case. Timelink is the most comprehensive and well-researched Dr Who item that has ever appeared ... both professional and amateur. I would strongly recommended anyone with even just a passing interest in continuity to obtain a copy.
Unfortunately, for supporters of Timelink, there's just one bad point about the book � because it's SO comprehensive, a sequel is completely out-of-the-question!
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