Written by J. Shaun Lyon
Introduction by Philip David Segal
Cover Illustration by Dariusz Jasiczak

Release Date: Summer 2005 from Telos Publishing
Standard Edition (Softcover): ISBN 1903889782
Deluxe Limited Edition Hardcover: ISBN 190388979 0

The adventures in time and space continue, as the Doctor and his faithful companion Rose Tyler travel time and space fighting evil, righting wrongs and saving the course of history. This is the ultimate guide to the newest adventures of the Doctor: an archive of information, review and commentary, from the press to the production to the fans, as the venerable Time Lord returns to television in 2005 in a thirteen-part series set to stun viewers and critics alike.

Back to the Vortex unfolds as history happened, from the announcements to the press releases, casting calls, the highs and lows, and the start of production. Discover the background to the new series, through the eyes of the press, the commentators and fans; read about the casting of Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and one-time pop princess Billie Piper as Rose; and be there during the lead-up to the return of the travelling Time Lord to regular prime time television after sixteen years away. And as the show debuts, investigate the stories themselves, through detailed analysis, facts and figures, as well as extensive reviews and commentary with a panel of fans and aficionados spread across the world.

This is the essential guide to the long awaited and anticipated return of the Doctor... and it's about time!

Back To The Vortex: The Unofficial and Unauthorized Guide to Doctor Who 2005 is a labor of love that I've been working on since it was initially commissioned by David Howe of Telos Publishing in February 2004, during the Gallifrey 2004 convention. I've been writing it a bit at a time, following the developments as they happened, starting with that night last September when we all found out that Doctor Who would be coming back to television. As editor of Outpost Gallifrey and someone on the receiving end of hundreds of emails per week with all of the most recent developments about the series -- from both fandom and elsewhere -- I've been in the position to see things from a unique perspective that I hope will translate into an exciting and enjoyable read.

That's what I hope Back To The Vortex will be: an engaging look at the new series from the point of view of someone on the outside looking in... all the news coverage, the media speculation, the hype, the developments as they happened. Official guides to the show can give you facts and figures, but they can't tell you what it was like to be there, waiting for the series. Back To The Vortex covers the casting developments, the big announcements, the perceptions in the press, and reactions from fans who've been waiting fifteen years for this moment in time. It's a different way of looking at something that we'll all know very well within the next few years, from the day we first found out about it. You'll see a lot of background information on the cast, comments and quotes from the stars, the writers and the production team, and a lot more.

That's the first half. The second half of Back To The Vortex will be a complete analysis of the show's first season: In depth breakdowns, casting items, logic issues, continuity issues and the like... and then accompanied by a "reviewers panel" comprised of ten reviewers from five countries, each looking at the stories from a different aspect: as drama, as television, as Doctor Who, as a Doctor Who fan, as a technological product, and so forth. Each review will look at the various pieces assigned to them and then the episodes as a whole, providing a definitive running commentary.

In short, Back to the Vortex will be a celebration in print of the return of Doctor Who to television... a book I hope fans will want to enjoy and keep in their collections for years to come.

J. Shaun Lyon is a leading light in today’s Doctor Who fan community, as editor of the influential and comprehensive Outpost Gallifrey, one of the Internet's most popular Doctor Who websites, and as co-creator and program director of Gallifrey One, North America's longest-running annual Doctor Who convention. His published works include "The Inquisitor's Story" in Short Trips: Repercussions and "Good Will Toward Men" in Short Trips: A Christmas Anthology, licensed Doctor Who short fiction anthologies, as well as several articles for the long-running licensed Doctor Who Magazine. Shaun also co-edited (with Mark Phippen) the best-selling Doctor Who fan fiction charity anthology Missing Pieces; was a paid consultant for Pocket Books' Star Trek novel line for reference work he compiled on the long-running series Star Trek: The Next Generation; served on the Board of Directors of the Southern California Institute for Fan Interests (S.C.I.F.I.), Inc., the parent organization of the 1984, 1996 and 2006 World Science Fiction Conventions; and for eight years was a senior administrator of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Media Forums on the CompuServe network. He lives in Los Angeles.

Philip David Segal was executive producer of, and the driving force behind, the 1996 FOX/BBC co-production of "Doctor Who," the 90-minute feature film that introduced Paul McGann as the Doctor and brought the unique long-running series back to television. Segal provides the introduction to Back To The Vortex. Philip served as the Director of Development at Columbia Pictures Television, a program executive at ABC, and a Senior Executive, Vice President of Television Production at Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment. After four years with Amblin, Philip coordinated the transition from Amblin to Dreamworks SKG, and then became Senior Vice President, Scripted Programming and Development at Tribune Entertainment. Segal also spent three years working as an Independent Producer, Writer and Director. His most recent credits include, Executive Producer of "G-Saviour" for Bandai/Sunrise, the first live action version of their hit anime franchise "Gundam," now seen on the Cartoon Network. In 2002 he directed an episode of Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda entitled "For Whom The Bell Tolls". Philip has also written and directed "The Other Side off Monday," winner of Best Director for a Short Film at the New York International Independent Film Festival and "Hobbs End," a thriller which was completed in July 2000. His most recent writing credits include, "Room 14," "Spellbound" and "Yeti." Segal is currently Executive Vice President, Current Programming & Development at Bunim-Murray Productions, whose television programs include "The Real World," "The Simple Life" and the forthcoming "The Rebel Billionnaire" starring Sir Richard Branson.

Back to the Vortex features a panel of ten reviewers who will look at each episode of the first season of the new Doctor Who series from a unique critical standpoint. Besides the author of the book, the review panel consists of the following reviewers, who represent the five major countries with significant active Doctor Who fan interest:

Dariusz Jasiczak was born in 1964 in Poznan, Poland. Since the age of 16 he has been actively interested in fine arts, especially in fantastic painting (principally surrealism). His first works were influenced by the masterpieces of such painters as Hieronimus Bosch, Arnold Böcklin, Salvador Dali and Max Ernst. From 1985 to 1991 he studied philosophy at A. Mickiewicz University in Poznan, although his main love was always illustration. Dariusz' first art commissions came in 1990. These were mainly illustrations for calendars, placards, and, later on, book covers (which comprise all his work today). During the early '90s, he used only traditional techniques to create his paintings (acrylic and oil painting) and his work from that period was thematically connected with horror and SF. Time brought significant changes, and around 1996, he started using a computer as a graphic tool, and slowly this took over until today it is the only instrument he uses to create his images. In 2001, the importance of the computer was brought to the fore when Dariusz presented a selection of his pictures at the Eighth Festival of SF in Nidzica entitled Virtual World 2000 - 2001. Dariusz provided the frontispiece illustration for Ghost Ship by Keith Topping for Telos Publishing and continues to have an active presence in the Doctor Who community with his illustration for the cover of this book.

Telos Publishing produces high-quality novellas and books in the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres. Formerly a license holder for original Doctor Who fiction, publishers David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker published fifteen Doctor Who novellas with authors including Kim Newman, Louise Cooper, Tom Arden, Paul McAuley, Mark Chadbourn and Simon Clark as well as established Doctor Who novelists Kate Orman, Jonathan Blum, Keith Topping, Dave Stone, Simon A. Forward, Daniel O'Mahony, Mike Tucker, Robert Perry, Iain McLaughlin and Tara Samms, and former Doctor Who script editor Andrew Cartmel. Telos spun off two characters from one of their novellas, O'Mahony's The Cabinet of Light, into a new series of adventures called Time Hunter. In addition, Telos publishes original fiction under their "Telos Originals" with science fiction, fantasy, horror and crime genres, and "Telos Classics" reprinting Hank Janson's pulp crime thrillers; and current reference books on Doctor Who and genre cult television series such as "Blake's 7," "Stargate: SG-1" and "24". Their website is located at www.telos.co.uk.