Doctor Who Unlocked: Twice Upon A Time

The episode opens with a recap of the 1966 First Doctor story The Tenth Planet, the story which introduced the Cybermen. The episodes lists this as '709 episodes' ago which refers to the first part of the serial. No footage is shown from Part 4 in the recap as this is one of the many episodes which doesn't exist in the archive. The regeneration scene is shown and that only exists because it was part of an episode of Blue Peter. 

In the original script for The Tenth Planet the Doctor refused to give in to his regeneration but it was not cut as director Derek Martinus was running short on time.

Mark Gatiss plays The Captain, his second credited role on Doctor Who- he played Lazarus in The Lazarus Experiment though he has had several uncredited appearances too- Gantok in The Wedding of River Song and the voice of Danny Boy in Victory of the Daleks and A Good Man Goes to War. He has also written a number of episodes (The Unquiet Dead, The Idiot's Lantern, Victory of the Daleks, Night Terrors, Cold War, The Crimson Horror, Robot of Sherwood, Sleep No More and Empress of Mars). He was the only Doctor Who writer to have appeared in the show until this episode.

Gatiss is joined here by fellow writer Toby Whithouse (School Reunion, The Vampires of Venice, The God Complex, A Town Called Mercy, Under the Lake/ Before the Flood and The Lie of the Land) who plays the German soldier.

The Captain's name is revealed to be Captain Archibald Hamish Lethbridge-Stewart, an ancestor of long-running Doctor Who character Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and his daughter Kate Stewart.

The First Doctor complains that he thought his future self would be younger, a play on the fact both Peter Capaldi and William Hartnell were fifty-five years old when cast as the Doctor. Hartnell was 55 years, 10 months and 15 days old on his first appearance whilst Capaldi was slightly younger at 55 years, 7 months and 9 days old. Capaldi stayed in the role longer than Hartnell though and is nearly a year older than Hartnell was when he regenerated. David Bradley is much older than both at 75 years old.

The role is David Bradley's second in Doctor Who having played Solomon in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. He played William Hartnell in the 2013 docu-drama An Adventure in Space and Time about the early days of Doctor Who. It was his role in this that led to Peter Capaldi's suggestion that he appear on the main show as the First Doctor.

Rusty the dalek returns here after his appearance in the Twelfth Doctor's second story Into the Dalek. His first line in Twice Upon A Time is the same as his last line of his first appearance: "I am not a good dalek. You are a good dalek".

This is not the first time the Doctor has been to the planet Villengard. Back in The Doctor Dances the Doctor noticed Captain Jack's weapon blaster came from there and said he destroyed the weapons factories and a banana grove replaced them.

Professor Helen Clay is from New Earth in the year 5,000,000,012 which is eleven years before the episode New Earth and 41 years before Gridlock.

The Twelfth Doctor has several nicknames for the First Doctor. Mary Berry refers to the former star of The Great British Bake Off who now makes various programmes for the BBC and Corporal Jone refers to Clive Dunn's character in Dad's Army. Mr Pastry was an accident-prone comedy character played by Richard Hearne, who was considered to play the Fourth Doctor.

On the First Doctor's console the name 'Bernard Wilkie' is fixed on tape. Wilkie was a visual effects designer in the early days of Doctor Who and also worked of other BBC series like Quatermass and the Pit.

We see a montage of clips from Doctor Who's past which includes footage from Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Arc of Infinity, The Happiness Patrol, The Parting of the Ways, Journey's End, The Waters of Mars, Night of the Doctor and The Day of the Doctor.

We also hear a number of the Doctor's nicknames. The Oncoming Storm (first used in The Parting of the Ways, the Imp of the Pandorica (referring to The Pandorica Opens), the Shadow of the Valeyard (the villain of The Trial of a Time Lord was a version of the Doctor), the Beast of Trenzalore (referring to The Time of the Doctor), the Butcher of Skull Moon (based on a Time War event mentioned in Hell Bent), the destroyer of Skaro (the Seventh Doctor helped destroy Skaro in Remembrance of the Daleks, though the planet has been seen several times in the new series) and the Last Tree of Garsenon, which we've not heard before.

In his final speech the Twelfth Doctor also uses the phrase "never be cruel or cowardly". This was first used by Doctor Who writer Terrance Dicks in his book The Making of Doctor Who: "He never gives in, and never gives up, however overwhelming the odds against him. The Doctor believes in good and fights evil. Though often caught up in violent situations, he is man of peace. He is never cruel or cowardly".

He also says "never eat pears" which is a reference to a line cut from Human Nature (Martha fast-forwards through it) which was originally used in Paul Cornell's novel of the same name. He also told Clara in Hell Bent not to eat pears as "they're too squishy and always make your chin wet."

The Doctor talks about children being able to hear his name and this is something that comes from Peter Capaldi himself. In April 2017 a young fan asked what the Doctor's real name is this is Capaldi's reply.

"I don't think human beings could even really say his name. But I think we might be able to hear it. At a certain frequency. If the stars are in the right place, and your heart's in the right place, you'll hear it"

The episode ends with Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor falling from the TARDIS, the interior of which is exploding. She should survive the fall as the Tenth Doctor showed in The Christmas Invasion that Time Lords can still heal for a while after their regeneration. The TARDIS is likely exploding so that it can be given a revamp for the new series.

Lethbridge-Stewart: Night of the Intelligence

This series has largely followed a "monster of the week" style so far like Doctor Who itself often does. Each book has contained an individual story and there has been minor character development and gradual ongoing plots in the background. This book though is like a season finale when those plots are suddenly at the forefront of the story. 

Although the Great Intelligence plays an important role in this story it's not really the enemy as such. Without wanting to give too much away this sees the Brigadier and the Fifth go up against the mysterious Vault. We finally find out who the General is and what he's up to. Simon's real identity and aims are also revealed and there's significant events for the Travers family too. 

I have to admire the way the author (and man in charge of the series) really takes control of things here. There's a lot of characters to manage now but I felt all were well dealt with. I also liked the way minor events in previous books all come together here to give that series finale feel. The author also does a good job at occasionally filling in gaps- there's a hint at why Anne Travers never appeared in 70s Who despite playing a large part in these books and an explanation about what HAVOC actually means in this series (if it appeared before I missed it completely). 

If I had to criticize anything it's that this requires a lot of background knowledge. If you don't know the Doctor Who stories 'The Abominable Snowmen' and 'The Web of Fear' or haven't read all previous ten books in the series there will be areas here where you are missing something. At the very least The Forgotten Son, The Schizoid Earth and Times Squared are all essential reading before this. It wasn't a problem for me but this wouldn't be a good jumping on point for new readers of the series.

I seem to be saying this after every book in this series but it continues to get better and better.

Lethbridge-Stewart: Mind of Stone

This series has had a fairly familiar format up until now. Something mysterious happens and Lethbridge-Stewart and the Fifth Operational Corps go an investigate. This book begins very differently, with Lethbridge-Stewart in Wormwood Scrubs prison.

It's a great way to start the book as it really changes the status quo. Firstly there's the mystery of why the Brigadier is in there in the first place. It seem fairly obvious as a reader that he hasn't actually done anything bad but it's unclear if it's a miscarriage of justice or part of some grand plan. Putting Lethbridge-Stewart in this situation also works well because it's a rare time when we see him isolated. Here the Brig is utterly on his own and that's a great dynamic to see.

There's a wonderful homage to the Ronnie Barker prison-based sitcom 'Porridge' at the start of this book, before the drama really unfolds. The Brig shares his cell with Stanley, who is almost identical to Barker's character Norman Stanley Fletcher. There's also a nasty warder called Fulton, named after Fulton Mackay, the actor who played Porridge's warder Mr Mackay. There were a few other small references too and it was a lovely touch and really helped to set the scene.

The latter half of the book transforms into a Bond-esque thriller as Lethbridge-Stewart rushes to stop a villain. There's even a classic Bond fight in a sleeper train sequence. I really like it when this series goes for this feel and doesn't try to be too Doctor Who.

The sci-fi element of this book wasn't my favorite and coming straight after Lethbridge-Stewart: Blood of Atlantis the general idea felt a little tired. It did work in context of the story though and it was nice to have a relatively minor threat. It's mostly Lethbridge-Stewart who is in great danger here rather than the world in general.

A different style for the series which worked really well and kept things fresh- I really enjoyed it.

Lethbridge-Stewart: Blood of Atlantis

In this book Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart , Anne Travers & the team head to the Aegean Sea to investigate strange goings-on, as ever. This time it's a damaged Royal Navy ship & a series of missing vessels.

Candy Jar books chose Simon A Forward well as a writer for this series. He really gets it, making an action story, almost James Bond like, but keeping the sci-fi Doctor Who stuff in the story. This series is about a military man and his colleagues and Forward really sees this.

All of the series' regular cast are well treated here. It can be hard to focus on the Brigadier and keep both Anne Travers & the likes of Bishop & Ware plenty to do. Forward splits them up for much of the story, and like in Doctor Who this is often the best way of showing the characters. 

Forward also creates several of his own characters, all of which are great. There's cat lady archeologist Señora Montilla, who is like the Anne Travers of a different field. Then there's Captain Bugayev, a Russian who ally's with Lethbridge-Stewart in the middle of the Cold War. I really liked this whole element to the story, the uneasy friendship between the two sides and the Brig never being sure he can trust the Russians.

The threat is a good one and a little different to what we've seen in this series before. It's can get repetitive having intelligent strong aliens being the antagonist every time and here we get something different.

There's plenty more I could praise about this book too. The bittersweet ending, the chapter titles are based on Doctor Who stories/episodes. I've enjoyed much of this series but none more than this one.

Lethbridge-Stewart: Times Squared

The Brigadier has a much needed holiday after his recent adventures so he takes fiancee Sally and nephew Owain to visit New York. Upon arrival they quickly become embroiled in an alien plot- the Great Intelligence is back and Yeti are in the New York Subway. 

This certainly made for an interesting change to the series. Previously we've had what are essentially UNIT stories but with the Brigadier technically off-duty here and in the USA it has a rather different style. He's well out of his comfort zone and I like that. Sally has a bigger role here than in previous books as she is properly involved with the adventure. 

I did have a lot of issues with this though. Essentially it's The Web of Fear but in New York. The author has changed a few things to make it a little more interesting, notably stripping some of the Yeti of their fur and adding lots of essentially rabid rats. The plot itself is different but it's still the Great Intelligence doing the same sort of evil stuff again. 

I also felt that the book could have been shorter considering how little plot there is. There seems to be a lot of long descriptions of lots of rats approaching people which gets a bit samey after a while. Then there's the problem that this has to fit with the Great Intelligence's ever more complicated continuity- and the author even throws a time-traveling Professor Travers into the mix too. It feels like half the book is dedicated to explaining how it fits in with Doctor Who and The Forgotten Son and I still feel a bit confused. 

That said, I enjoyed plenty of bits of this book. There's an interesting character in Kramer and I'm tempted to seek out the book she originally appeared in. The rats are a really good idea and certainly creepy, it's just a shame they are overused. Owain gets a much bigger part then he's had for a while and the author really plays around with his connection to the Great Intelligence. He's great here and I am intrigued to see how he will play out in future books. 

It's not the best Lethbridge-Stewart book by any stretch but I still enjoyed it. The idea of the Brigadier in New York is as awesome as it sounds!

Lethbridge-Stewart: The HAVOC Files 2

This is the second collection of short stories from the Lethbridge-Stewart series of books.

Ashes of the Inferno by Andy Frankham-Allen: This story links the parallel worlds of  The Schizoid Earth and the Doctor Who story 'Inferno'. It's a nice exploration of parallel worlds and the idea of how they might affect those that find out about them. What I really liked from this story was the hints at how the Lethbridge-Stewart novels work with Doctor Who and why there seems to be more to the Brigadier than we ever saw on TV.

House of Giants by Rick Cross: Another story which deals with the aftermath of a Who story, this time First Doctor story 'Planet of the Giants'. It sees Anne Travers become miniaturized and the Brig attempt to clear things up. It's a lot of fun and sets up an element of The Grandfather Infestation well.

In His Kiss by Sue Hampton: A different style this one, set in 1945 and featuring a young Alastair through the eyes of his friend Jemima. It deals with the aftermath of James Lethbridge-Stewart's death and is really a dark story about a young girl dealing with grief.

The Lock-In by Sarah Groenewegen BEM: Another different style. This is set late in the Brigadier's life and sees an exchange of letters between a woman called Pearl Hammond and the Brig in his care home as she recounts an encounter with the Fifth Operational Corps and aliens. I liked the style but felt the plot didn't quite work. 

The Black Eggs of Khufu by Tom Dexter: Lethbridge-Stewart arrives at the Great Pyramid in Egypt where ancient alien activity has been uncovered. There's an alien body and mysterious black eggs but when a group of Russians get involved Lethbridge-Stewart finds himself racing across the desert on a camel. It's a decent story and I liked the alien explanation for the pyramids. It certainly made good use of the locale although it's never really explained how on Earth Lethbridge-Stewart ending up going there. 

The Band of Evil by Roger J Simmonds & Shaun Russell: An alien band called Totem Pole is brainwashing it's fans. It's a plot that has been used before but done well here. The story also introduces Captain Younghusband who is immediately a great character. 

The Playing Dead by Adrian Sherlock: Sherlock wrote a Lethbridge-Stewart novel set in Australia which I thought was never published but will apparently be next year. This follows on from that future book. Bishop and Anne Travers are in Darwin and find themselves in a zombie apocalypse. Whilst I am a big zombie fan it felt out of sorts with the feel of the series. It worked in a Torchwood novel but I don't think it works here. 

Schädengeist’s First Love by Jonathan Cooper: This is a deleted scene from The Showstoppers. It delves into how Schadengeist/ Mondegreene ended up as the villain of the book. I really liked this and felt it would have worked well in the book. 

Exodus from Venus by John Peel: The original prologue from The Grandfather Infestation. It sees a failed invasion of Venus by the grandfathers. It's a good story but I can see why it was cut as it reveals too much of the aliens of the book. 

The Lost Skin: Episode One by Andy Frankham-Allen: The first part of a longer story which is set parallel to Times Squared. Whilst the Brig is away in New York, Anne Travers, Bishop and Samson have their own problems to deal with. Harold Chorley and Larry Green are investigating the Brigadier so a distraction involved Anne's father Professor Travers is conceived. Travers inevitably finds a myth to investigate... It's a fantastic first part of the story and I am really looking forward to seeing where this goes. 

Overall, I thought this was a great collection. It's great to see how the publisher's have decided to expand it's short stories for this range and experiment with different styles and eras of the character. As with any short story collection some are better than others but I thought generally the standard was very high.

Lethbridge-Stewart: The Grandfather Infestation

Lethbridge-Stewart and the Fifth Operational Corps face their greatest challenge yet!

When a pirate radio ship disappears, the Navy investigates. When the Navy submarine disappears, Lethbridge-Stewart knows something is up. Deep in the sea an alien race known as the Ynir are preparing plans for their 'grandfathers', a species of intelligent killer plants, to wipe out all life on Earth and take the planet over.

This is the book in the series that really captures the era well. It feels like a James Bond movie but with killer plants akin to The Day of the Triffids or Doctor Who's own Seeds of Doom. At the same time it fits in well with the previous six books and Doctor Who in general. Unlike previous books the threat is world-level here and it's interesting to see that additional tension and the way the team deals with it- they are starting to get used to this sort of thing. There's also a great link to the First Doctor story Planet of Giants which I thought was fantastic.

Peel's other strength in this book was the characterisation. For a start he deals with the main cast really well, making Lethbridge-Stewart and Anne Travers feel just like do on screen. He also introduced us to some great one-off characters like pirate radio DJ Mary. The thing that really surprised me was his excellent characterisation of the aliens. So often the idea that aliens have some sort of personality is ignored but Peel addresses it really well and in doing so creates a more believable threat.

My one issue with this book was the ending. It felt a little rushed and much of the solution came from a frustrating deus ex machina, albeit a previously established one. As much as I thought this was clever it felt a little frustrating in terms of the story.

Overall though a stunning read and this series continues to reach a high standard.

Lethbridge-Stewart: The Showstoppers

This sixth Lethbridge-Stewart book again feels different to the previous books in the series. The team commissioning these book is doing a fantastic job at finding great authors and ensuring we get a range of stories. 

This time Jonathan Cooper gives us a tale which focuses on the world of spy-fi TV shows, which were of course massive at the time and many fans of classic Doctor Who loved. Journalist Harold Chorley meets a tramp wearing a tinfoil hat and somehow manages to persuade Lethbridge-Stewart to investigate the making of a new TV show called BLIMEY. It's star, Aubrey Mondegreene, is playing all the main characters and is nearly single-handedly running the show. But he seems to get into character in an extreme way and people are convinced he seems to be in more than one place at once.

The actual plot isn't revealed to the closing stages of the book which means this is largely about the mystery. It's great because as a reader I had little idea in what was going on and frankly when all was revealed I realised I never would have guessed. 

My favorite part of this book was where Anne Travers and new character Samson Ware find themselves trapped by one of Mondegreen's characters, an over-the-top German scientist. Such a ridiculous character was common in the sort of TV shows that BLIMEY is representing but they rarely work as a proper character. Thanks to the context though we can have a ridiculous German scientist and Cooper even manages to give him that brilliant accented quote from The Underwater Menace, "Nuzzink in ze vorld can schtop me now". 

Cooper does a great job at ensuring all the main characters are properly involved with the story and represents them all well- even Harold Chorley, who fits into this book so well. This book also had my favorite epilogue of the series so far for reasons I won't spoil. 

Yet another hugely enjoyable book in the Lethbridge-Stewart series and I look forward to reading the next one.

Lethbridge-Stewart: Moon Blink

This is the first book in Season Two of the Lethbridge-Stewart series. After the events of the previous books Lethbridge-Stewart is becoming more experienced in dealing with alien threats and has a strong team to help him. Here he heads up to Edinburgh to prepare to lead a new unit, the Fifth Operational Corps (a prototype UNIT).

In London, Anne Travers gets a visit from an old friend who announces she has an alien baby from the moon in tow. Lethbridge-Stewart discovers there is a new drug on the streets called Moon Blink which seems to have actually come from the Moon. It's up to Anne, Bill Bishop and Lethbridge-Stewart if they can ever contact him, to protect the alien baby from being used and abused by both the US and the Soviets.

I had my concerns about the publisher choosing Sadie Miller as the author of this book. She is the daughter of Elisabeth Sladen, who played Doctor Who's most popular companion Sarah-Jane Smith. But it turns out that Sadie Miller is a fantastic author, perhaps the best this series has seen so far. I liked her style of writing and she manages to some fantastic details. This book really fits into the series excellently with references back to previous books and indeed into the Doctor Who universe- there are references to everything from The Ambassadors of Death right through to Victory of the Daleks.

I really liked the plot here as it manages to be original and very different from the previous books. Here we have good aliens and it's humans that are the villains. There's a fantastic section where Anne considers that this is more scary which I thought was one of the best moments of any Doctor Who novel I've ever read.

There are a few minor quibbles though. Even more so than some of the previous books, this focuses more on Anne than the title character. It worked well here though and I can totally understand why an author would choose to do this- Anne is more of an interesting character. The ending here is what let the story down a little- it got very exciting and then suddenly fizzled out.

I thought this was probably the best book of the series so far and a strong start to the second series. I hope Sadie Miller writes more books because with this as a debut I can only imagine how fantastic her later books might be.

Lethbridge-Stewart: The Black Eggs of Khufu

Candy Books have been generously giving away free short stories to people who pre-order the Lethbridge-Stewart book and this is their Easter free story, although other than the eggs connection it has nothing to do with Easter.

Lethbridge-Stewart arrives at the Great Pyramid in Egypt where ancient alien activity has been uncovered. There's an alien body and mysterious black eggs but when a group of Russians get involved Lethbridge-Stewart finds himself racing across the desert on a camel. 

It's a decent story and I liked the alien explanation for the pyramids. It certainly made good use of the locale although it's never really explained how on Earth Lethbridge-Stewart ending up going there. 

As is often the case with Doctor Who short stories though, this is limited by it's length. We get little explanation for the aliens and I couldn't really work out what the Russians were hoping to achieve. I hope that at some point Dexter gets to write a full-length Lethbridge-Stewart novel because he brings some great ideas into these short stories but doesn't have the time to expand upon them. 

Another decent freebie that adds to the growing Lethbridge-Stewart series.

Lethbridge-Stewart: Mutually Assured Domination

The Dominators would hardly be described as one of the better 60s Doctor Who stories yet it is still well liked, largely because of the brilliant little robots the Quarks. In this book the Dominators and the Quarks are back and this time they have come to Earth. 

Journalist Harold Chorley (from The Web of Fear) stumbles onto mysterious goings-on at Dominex Industries, a plant on Dartmoor where no-one really knows what they are doing. Chorley and Lethbridge-Stewart investigate and soon discover that Dominex aren't all they seem. But with the whole thing sanctioned by the government, Lethbridge-Stewart doesn't have the back-up he would like. 

In many ways this is better than the original TV story. The Quarks are given an upgrade, as seen on the cover, which manages to keep in with the TV story yet make the robots more of a threat. The Dominators here also come across as proper individual characters and their plan is more developed. 

I felt this was one of the better books of the series so far. By having Lethbridge-Stewart effectively working against the government he is working only with a few people at a time. I think these books shouldn't feel too much like UNIT stories and this one certainly didn't. I also felt that this was the first book that really made use of the time of its setting, with the hippie movement and worries over nuclear power. 

Another great edition to a high-quality series.

Lethbridge-Stewart: Beast of Fang Rock

This is both the third main book in the Lethbridge-Stewart series, following the Brigadier before he was the Brigadier, and also a sequel to the excellent Fourth Doctor TV story Horror of Fang Rock. 

There's been sightings of ghosts and a UFO at Fang Rock so Lethbridge-Stewart goes to investigate. He calls upon Anne Travers for assistance and she ends up in the middle of a timey-wimey adventure.

This isn't really a Lethbridge-Stewart book, it's an Ann Travers book. She's the star here and she continues to be the strong female scientist ahead of her time that she was in The Web of Fear. She's so well portrayed here and you can't help but like her as a character.

The plot is more to with complicated time travel than it is alien attacks but the Rutans do make an appearance. It's largely independent of the original TV story, using that more as inspiration. There's lots of Doctor Who references here which is always fun and I can only admire the way the author swerved around copyright issues. 

There are still a few problems though. Lethbridge-Stewart really should have had more to do as he is the star of the series. There's the inclusion of a werewolf which I didn't think really added much to the story. And several times the narrative re-writes itself. I felt the plot needed ironing out generally.

Another good addition to a series which has really found it's feet now.

Lethbridge-Stewart: The Fright Before Christmas

Download for free here!

A great Christmas short story set within the Lethbridge-Stewart series. Lethbridge-Stewart is attending a Santa Claus party, much to his frustration. But when alien spheres start attacking civilians and head to Buckingham Palace it's up to Lethbridge-Stewart and his fellow Santa's to save the day. 

This is a genuinely exciting story and the threat feels very real. Of course the whole Santa costume thing is something of a gimmick but it is used well here, meaning Lethbridge-Stewart doesn't have his usual authority and is mistaken for a drunk reveller. 

I'm also intrigued that though the threat of the story is beaten, it's not revealed where it comes from- I wonder if we'll find out in one of the upcoming Lethbridge-Stewart novels. 

A great short story, yet another great freebie from the publisher.

Lethbridge-Stewart: The Schizoid Earth

This second Lethbridge-Stewart book is much better than the first. Like the first book, this focuses on the character of Lethbridge-Stewart shortly after his TV introduction in The Web of Fear, before UNIT existed and he was made the Brigadier. 

Lethbridge-Stewart is on his way to Tibet when something strange happens. The next thing he knows he can't remember his recent past properly and the world doesn't seem quite right. As he investigates mysterious capsules he begins to question his sanity. Is it his brain that has gone wrong or the rest of the world. 

That's about all I am going to give you otherwise I'll give too much away. I think it will be fairly obvious to most Who fans that this is a parallel world story but the details are very mysterious and there are some great reveals which I didn't see coming. I suppose it has a hint of the brilliant story Inferno about it but doesn't have a connection to it in anything but theme.

Anne and Professor Travers have a small role to play here and Chorley is mentioned a few times too so this is very much in the post-Web of Fear universe of the series. Yet at the same time, this feels very independent and you could read this without even knowing that over Lethbridge-Stewart novels exist. 

I adored this, much more than the first. A good idea with some great moments which is well told. It starts a little slowly perhaps but as you gradually learn what's going on it gets better and better.

Lethbridge-Stewart: The Forgotten Son

The first in a series focussing on Doctor Who's legendary Brigadier, this story follows shortly after the character's first appearance in Doctor Who, The Web of Fear. Still only a Colonel, Lethbridge-Stewart is tasked with returning everyone back to London. But when a body goes missing he soon realises the Great Intelligence is still at large and up to something in the town Lethbridge-Stewart grew up in. But why can't he remember his childhood clearly. 

I thought this book did many things well. It is a decent sequel to The Web of Fear and tells Lethbridge-Stewart's backstory, something we have never had before. I wasn't entirely convinced on the Great Intelligence being at all involved with his childhood but it was just about explained through timey-wimey stuff. Without wanting to spoil things, the Great Intelligence plotline is closely linked to the modern episodes to feature the 'creature', especially The Name of the Doctor. I thought this was a good idea as it means this book is accessible to fans of New Who as well as the classic series. 

There were a few problems though. I wasn't keen on the way the book was set out, lots of switching between scenes. I felt it would have worked much better with shorter chapters which focused on one group of characters rather than continually switching between perspectives. And for a short book, I think there should be lots of short chapters rather than only a few long ones. 

I also wasn't entirely enamoured with the writing style. It read very much like it was written in the late 1960s, feeling almost like a Target novelisation. I liked the period details but the style felt old fashioned and along with the long chapter and switching of perspectives made the pace feel slower than it could have been. 

I thought this was a really good story which was not written as well as it deserved to be. Great to have a series focussing on Lethbridge-Stewart and I look forward to the next few books!

Lethbridge-Stewart: Top Secret Files

This is a fun addition to the series featuring Doctor Who's Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Although it costs 99p on the Kindle Store, you can get the e-book free as a PDF from the publisher's website here.

The Ambush: A short story originally published in Doctor Who Magazine which explains the moments before Lethbridge-Stewart's very first Doctor Who appearance in The Web of Fear. It's nothing hugely special but it is a nice little extension of a wonderful TV story.

We Won't Let him Down: An extended edition of a chapter from Companions focussing on the Brigadier. It's essentially a run down of his TV appearances and I suspect most people reading the book won't get much from this, but it is a useful addition for newer fans.

What Lies Beyond: A quick look at some novels featuring the Brigadier. It's basically just a further reading list.

Graeme Harper: An interview with the only man to direct both Classic and New Who who directed Nicholas Courtney a number of times during his career. It's an affectionate little interview that only makes you wish that Courtney was still alive for more.

Original Prelude: This was originally going to be the opening to The Forgotten Son. It is set much more recently, in the Brigadier's last few weeks of life and explains where the stories in the series come from. I really liked it.

The New World: The opening chapter of The Forgotten Son. I've yet to read that book but this is very promising, continuing Lethbridge-Stewart's story on from the end of The Web of Fear.

All in all, a pretty decent collection considering you can get it for free and makes me eager to read the first in the series.