Modern Who annuals are flimsy by comparison- heavy on puzzles and games and comic strips but rarely featuring prose stories (at least compared to the glory days of the Doctor Who Storybook of 2005-09).
The World Distributors annuals represented a weird, often barely recognisable side-step from televised Doctor Who and also its first spin-off fiction- home to the Zarbi Supremo, the Sinister Sponge and a Universe Called Fred.
This was among the first pages to come loose from my first copy of the 1967 Who annual
The contents, over two discs, include:
Who is the Doctor and The Sons of Grekk, read by Peter Purves
Phoenix in the Tardis and The King of Golden Death read by Anneke Wills
Dark Invaders read by Geoffrey Beevers
Conundrum and The Penalty, read by Matthew Waterhouse
The Real Hereward, read by Nicola Bryant
The two essays were fascinating, especially Phoenix, from 1967, which formed my impressions of Ben and Polly, decades before I actually first saw them- on the BBC video release of The War Machines in 1997. It's my earliest memory of the The First Question, hidden in plain sight : "Doctor Who?"
The historical adventure for the Sixth Doctor is the most interesting, I felt, since I'm not very familiar with any of these vintage tales. Grekk is a dull story and I'd have preferred The Fishmen of Kandalinga with those "alien Voord".
I would also have liked to hear Katy Manning's reading of The House That Jack Built from 1975 ( which I recall as, ahem, owing a great deal of its inspiration to the b/w Avengers episode!). I'd also like Louise Jameson to read Terror on Tantalogus from the 1979 annual- or something that commemorates the nightmarish Paul Crompton era of World Distributors annuals.
I don't know the Davison and Colin Baker annuals well enough to make suggestions for a second volume but I'd like to hear one- and definitely a 70s Dalek audio annual read by Nicholas Briggs!
While the Audio Annual was an interesting curiosity, I can recommend two Big Finish full-cast audio plays. The Skin of The Sleek and The Thief Who Stole Time form the season finale for the 2017 Fourth Doctor Adventures. I skipped these audios at the end of the summer because I often find Marc Platt's magical milieu a bit too whimsical. However, I really enjoyed this two-parter, a blend of Waterworld, Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea and Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood. The "Wavewalkers" also reminded me of Hammer's The Lost Continent.
This story is about a video documentary team stranded on a planet prohibited by the Time Lords. The fantasy world of Funderell with its viscous oceans, giant electric eels and prophetic Skalds was well worth visiting. The timey-wimey climax was a bit unclear but the Time Lady villainess Sartia, Romana's very own Master, will very probably return at some point.
I got this pair of discs in Forbidden Planet, Aberdeen. I was told they were on sale because "no one is buying them" in this format: the audience is downloading them. So, a result for me, since I don't have that technology but also a mild dilemma in terms of keeping up with the product.
I'm currently enjoying the second volume of Tenth Doctor adventures, featuring David Tennant and Billie Piper. Then I've got The War Master with Derek Jacobi lined up. The next "season" of 4DAs will be released as a box set later this month; there's already a First Doctor box set starring David Bradley from TV's Twice Upon A Time and a third volume of the Diary of River Song to come. I listen to these discs commuting to work or visiting Glasgow but the output is so large and frequent that, even being discerning, there's little opportunity to revisit or reappraise previous releases. They've actually replaced the BBC books of the late Nineties and early Noughties in their scheduling -although, unlike them, they don't entirely act as a continuation of the tv show. Except for the Time War miniseries.
In any case, I'm thinking about posts for the rest of January: hopefully, after nearly a year, Dan Dare down the decades; Batman and the Outsiders; the Defenders and the Crew; maybe HTV children's tv and its contribution to Folk Horror.
Be kind.
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