Nothing O'Clock

Author and legend Neil Gaiman has a new collection of short stories out called Trigger Warning. One of the stories is Nothing O'Clock, a Doctor Who story which was written for the show's 50th anniversary. It's not a new story but as it is reaching a new audience in the collection I thought I would review it here anyway.

Neil Gaiman is a master of short stories and after writing two brilliant episodes of Doctor Who (The Doctor's Wife and Nightmare in Silver) this was always going to be something special. It is set around the early part of Series 5, somewhere between The Eleventh Hour and The Vampires of Venice, and sees the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond fight off the Kin, sworn enemies of the Time Lords. 

The Kin are a great and genuinely scary monster and I could really see them appear on the show one day. They look like a man wearing an animal mask and you must never answer them when they ask you "What's the time?". My goodness they give me the shivers and their "monster-power", for want of a better phrase, is wonderful. 

Gaiman tweeted this image recently which shows what the Kin are supposed to look like:

Having written for the characters before Gaiman has no trouble nailing the eleventh Doctor and Amy and even has Amy joking about the fact this Doctor makes up words. Gaiman also has a little girl in the story who is well described and really does what a little girl would do. So many authors struggle to make children seem realistic but Gaiman does it with ease. 

Gaiman merges his fantastic TV writing to his brilliant short stories and creates this work of art. A must read for any Doctor Who fan and still a really enjoyable read for a non-fan. The rest of the collection is also pretty awesome, so I recommend checking out Trigger Warning!