Doctor Who The Handbook: The Seventh Doctor

, often referred to as simply The Seventh Doctor Handbook, is the seventh and last in the Handbook series by David J Howe and Stephen James Walker — the major contribution by Doctor Who Books to the world of professionally published Doctor Who reference works.

The book is highly regarded as a significant work of Doctor Who scholarship and is used as one of the main reference works for several later reference projects, perhaps most ubiquitously Shannon Sullivan's A Brief History of (Time) Travel website and several issues of Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition, which in turn are two of the major resources used by this wiki.

It is also notable for being the final Doctor Who book of any kind published by any division of Virgin Books, having been released well after the expiry of Virgin's license with the BBC. It was therefore technically released under a special one-off license with the BBC.

Subject matter
Like all in the Handbook series, it is divided into three major sections. The first presents a series of snippets from interviews with principles involved in the creation of the persona of the Seventh Doctor; the second gives detailed notes about every televised adventure of this Doctor; and the last concerns itself with behind-the-scenes developments during this Doctor's era.

Publisher's summary
Doctor Who is the worlds longest running science fiction television series. Each handbook provides both a broad overview and a detailed analysis of one phase of the programme's history.

Sylvester McCoy brought the mystery back to Doctor Who. With his companions Mel, and later the irrepressible Ace, he battled the Rani, Daleks, Cybermen, Haemovores and all manner of other alien horrors to bring justice to the universe, and perhaps enjoying a nice cup of tea once the fighting was all over. Ace, on the other hand, just wanted to blow things up, and it took the Doctor's influence to shape and focus her energies so that she emerged as arguably the most popular of all the Doctor's companions.

This book is an in-depth study of Sylvester McCoy's tenure as the Doctor, including a profile of the actor, a critical summery of each story he starred in, and much, much more.

In addition, this volume looks at what is happened to Doctor Who following its cancellation in 1989, with extensive coverage of the 1996 telemovie which featured Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor and which introduced Paul McGann as the mercurial and bohemian Eighth Doctor.

Notable features
to be added