Burk Graeme - The Doctors are in : the essential and unofficial guide to Doctor Whos greatest time lord

The Essential and Unofficial Guide to

Doctor Whos Greatest Time Lord

Graeme Burk | Robert Smith?

When you think about it, were all different people, all through our lives. And thats okay. Youve got to keep moving. So long as you remember all the people you used to be.

The Doctor, The Time of the Doctor (2013)

Over the past 50 years, no character has changed more on television than the eccentric alien known as the Doctor. From his beginnings as a crotchety, anti-heroic scientist in 1963 to his current place in British pop culture as the mad and dangerous monster-fighting saviour of the universe, the titular character of Doctor Who has constantly evolved. And thats not only because he can regenerate into different bodies; the character has been reshaped according to the different needs of the public over five decades.

The Doctors Are In is a guide to televisions most beloved time traveller. While our previous two books (Who Is The Doctor: The Unofficial Guide to Doctor Who the New Series and Whos 50: The 50 Doctor Who Stories to Watch Before You Die, both available from this fine publisher!) were guides to the stories featuring the Doctor, this is a guide to the character of the Doctor: who he is, how he came to be, how he changed and why hes a hero to millions.

This book is a co-authored affair, written by two people with very different takes on the world of Doctor Who. This time, each co-author decided to write the biography of the other.

Graeme Burk (written by Robert Smith?) Graeme was one of the first people I met when I moved to Canada. Ever since we took a ten-hour train ride to Chicago together, weve been fast friends. Helped, no doubt, by the fact that were very different people. He once joked that, in different ways, we were each others id and superego. Its true: hes stepped up to the plate in areas Ive been terrified to go near, while at other times become the hilarious commentary track on some of the more outrageous aspects of my life.

Graeme may be one of the smartest (and funniest) people I know. Hes extremely widely read, with a love of language I admire deeply. He can mentally access obscure trivia in seconds. And he has instincts for what works and what doesnt that are honed to perfection. I learned the art of the structural edit entirely by watching what he was doing.

He also loves a good debate and can happily argue any point until the cows come home and positively revels in the fact that I invariably disagree with him. I think thats why these books have touched people in ways more profound than youd expect episode guides to do: because they capture all the raucous argument of a good-natured fan debate, without any of the nastiness. I take no credit for any of this, by the way; the central idea was all Graemes, and I just went along for the ride.

Graeme has this larger-than-life thing going on that makes him a true personality, whether that be at conventions, socially (my nonDoctor Who friends always enjoy his party antics) or in his deep commitment to making the world a better place, thanks to having mastered a job that regularly takes him to Haiti and Namibia to help children in need. I once saw him give a speech about his ineptitude when meeting Sophie Aldred that had the audience in hysterics and had Sophie Aldred grinning like a fool backstage, because he didnt know she was listening in and about to run out and hug him. (I was at the same meeting it was at the original Chicago convention that Graeme and I took the train ride to, in fact and just as inept, but Ace never hugged me. Im not bitter. Really.)

Incidentally, this also makes him the perfect radio show host. Im not even an audio person, and yet I adore his magazine-style Doctor Who podcast,