The Brilliant Book of Doctor Who 2011 [Hardcover]

Fabulously detailed, nicely balanced between fact and fiction, and beautifully artworked: this book really lives up to its name. Although aimed squarely at the ten-year-old, there is enough in there to engage younger children (my seven year old is totally absorbed in it), and there are a few bones thrown to the older Who geek too (the Target novel cover artwork for each episode in the current series being my favourite part - sadly not by Chris Achilleos, but you can't have everything ;)).

The amount of content in the book impressed me greatly. This is not just a magazine thinned out and given a hard cover as some annuals are; real thought has gone into the content, and there's a lot of it.

I'd recommend this for anyone with a child obsessed with Doctor Who, and there's enough in it to satisfy adult Who fans for the price, too.

'Doctor Who: The Brilliant Book 2011' is best described as a companion volume to Matt Smith's first series as TV's favourite Time Lord. Part episode-guide, part-behind the scenes tome, part-annual, it pulls together a whole range of features in such a way that it's certain to keep even the most discerning 'Who' fan happy for a while.

Each story gets its own guide and supplementary material blending the fact and fiction elements of the series, some of it by the show's writers themselves - for instance, 'The Eleventh Hour' is accompanied by a guide to Amy's home of Leadworth, 'Victory of the Daleks' includes an insight into Winston Churchill's previous encounters with the Doctor, and 'The Lodger' is supplemented by writer Gareth Roberts' guide to writing for 'Doctor Who'. And if it's new adventures you're after, there are a few short stories in there as well, one of which is penned by renowned SF author Brian Aldiss.

The regular 'Doctor Who Annual' is aimed squarely at the younger end of the children's market, and 'The Brilliant Book' is ideally suited to older children or adult fans. It's been put together with a lot of love for the source material, and is very nicely designed. Many 'Who' fans would be happy to see this in their stocking come Christmas Day.

The must have book of the year for all Who fans is finally here, and boy does it live up to it's ambitious title. It's 131 jam packed pages of all the information, behind the scenes photos, interviews, stories and tips from the last season.

The book reads like an extra special edition of Confidential with lots of snippets from the writers/directors of each the episodes, we see how aliens and costumes evolved or were designed, there's even deleted scenes for each of the episodes.

There's been a great deal of thought put into the extras, there's a fantastic map of Leadworth complete with adverts for bingo night and the summer fete for example. Rory's Twitbook entries from his stag night show another side of him and his life in Leadworth. And his altered history as an Aunton is explored, we see that he and the Pandorica are in the Bayeux Tapestry and that one of his closest friends was Sir Samuel Pepys.

My favourite though has to be Winston Churchill's Lost Diaries which chronicle his meetings with each of the doctors. Starting in 1879, when he meets Doctor 4 during a Punch and Judy show, and ending in 1945, when he meets 9 for the first time and they travel back to Ancient Rome. These letters capture the essence of each incarnation perfectly.

There is of course interviews with all the main cast of season 5, Steven Moffat and composer Murray Gold. Some of the questions are a little mundane, yet are insightful and you really do feel that they all genuinely love working together. In 'Making Doctor Who' executive producer Beth Willis breaks down exactly what is involved in getting the show together. The sheer size of the operation from Moffat's original ideas to finishing the last of the CGI elements is phenomenal task, and makes me wonder how she can always seems to unflustered on Confidential.

The page that I think a lot of people will be talking about it the Dream Lords teasers, a long list he calls a miscellany of misdirection. 'Concealed within the following statements are a smattering of truths about what is to come for our intrepid amigo on his Saturday night sorties on BBC One in 2011. Everything else is a load of codswallop - fabrication - farrago - dream, geddit?!'.

We know that Moffat spent some time hiding some genuine spoilers in this article, some of them seem to hint some pretty big stuff too. I imagine that he will be chuckling away to himself for sometime before may of these, if any, are worked out.