Neil Cole, curator of The Museum of Classic Sci-Fi, has launched a new book, It Belongs in a Museum: Searching for Treasures from Classic Doctor Who, all about the Second Doctor era of the show.
The fascinating tome aims to find out what props from the Patrick Troughton years still survive today — which is a really fantastic idea, and something I’ve often wondered about. The book is also filled with Neil’s beautiful illustrations.
Here’s the blurb:
Weather stations, Moonbases, ancient alien tombs. Humanity is under attack from the unknown: cybernetic creatures, ancient resurrected Martian warlords and closer to home — on our very beaches — a lethal strain of sentient sea-weed takes possession of the unwary….
Between 1966-69, the era of Patrick Troughton’s mercurial and brilliant Second Doctor was unmissable and quintessential Doctor Who. Nearly six decades on from those iconic episodes, that first introduced us to many of The Doctor’s most enduring and emblematic monsters and tropes, The Museum of Classic Sci-Fi creator and curator Neil Cole asks: just what managed to survive from the these three glorious years of golden-age, tele-visual science-fiction? Furthermore, what can we still see ourselves first-hand today?
It Belongs in a Museum — The Second Doctor combines meticulous research, set beside photographs from both the Museum and private collections — sourced from all across the globe. Alongside brand new, entirely hand-drawn illustrations by the author, the book explores in depth, the surviving artefacts of the era, whilst simultaneously piecing together a chronology of the Patrick Troughton years. Museum curator Neil Cole draws from his experience of piecing together a physical museum of objects from the classic series of Doctor Who, to produce a fresh new take on the time of The Second Doctor. It Belongs in a Museum is a volume not to be missed by fans of classic Doctor Who!
Astonishingly, Neil’s renders are all made using a BIC biro pen!
He said:
“It’s been a fascinating journey discovering these items and talking with fellow enthusiasts about them.
“Of course, a few of these objects reside in the museum so you can actually come and visit them first-hand, but to make the book a far more satisfying experience I knew I had to reach out to the collecting community to see what was out there!”
The book is a limited-edition, 136-page A4 work, and features a foreword from Margot Hayhoe, assistant floor manager and production manager on Doctor Who. You can find out more over at the Museum’s site.
To get your copy of It Belongs in a Museum: Searching for Treasures from Classic Doctor Who, email Neil on classicscifimuseum@gmail.com now!
