Time Lord Fairy Tales

"When I was your age — about, ooh, a thousand years ago — I loved a good bedtime story. The Three Little Sontarans. The Emperor Dalek's New Clothes. Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday, eh? All the classics."- The Eleventh Doctor. 

The idea of fairy tales with a Doctor Who twist seems a ridiculous idea at first but the brilliant Justin Richards makes it wonderful. In this collection are fifteen fairy tales that are mostly based on our traditional fairy tales, only with a sci-fi twist and a Doctor Who alien as the villain. 

The Garden of Statues: The least fairytale like story of the lot, this is a creepy Weeping Angel story which is great. 

Frozen Beauty: Sleeping Beauty except with space travel cryogenesis and the Wirrn. A particularly clever idea. 

Cinderella and the Magic Box: This one is closer to the original fairy tale than most here. The big difference is that the role of the fairy godmother is filled by the Eleventh Doctor. Oh, and there's vampires too. It works very well. 

The Twins in the Wood: An odd one this where two royal twins escape execution from a rival to the throne and hide in the woods on Gallifrey. It managed to have a real fairy tale feel to it despite not being based on an actual fairy tale. 

The Three Little Sontarans: It's the Three Little Pigs only with sontarans. A rutan plays the role of the big bad wolf. It's quite silly but it's a lot of fun. 

Jak and the Wormhole: A wormhole instead of a beanstalk and Nimon instead of a giant. It strays a little far from the original tale but just about gets away with it. 

Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday: Clearly only existing because of the quote above, this was my least favorite of the collection. It had to somehow get that title to actually work within the Snow White story and what we're left with is a story that isn't really much like Snow White at all. 

Little Rose Riding Hood: A young girl called Rose visits her Grandmother only to find she has been replaced by a zygon. The Ninth Doctor plays the role of the woodcutter. It makes excellent sense for the wolf to be a zygon. It's hinted that this is meant to be a young Rose Tyler but if so it conflicts with the history of the character on the show. 

The Gingerbread Trap: Hansel and Gretel, with the witch being a Krillitane. Another excellent use of a Doctor Who alien. 

The Scruffy Piper: My favorite of the collection, it's the Pied Piper with the Second Doctor and his recorder and the rates being cybermats. So ridiculous but so good.

Helana and the Beast: A Beauty and the Beast-esque story where the Twelfth Doctor makes an appearance. It loses the magic of the original tale. 

Andiba and the Four Slitheen: Another that isn't based on a traditional tale, this is set in the fairy tale feeling location of a distillery. A decent story. 

The Grief Collector: A take on the rumpelstiltskin story, with the Tenth Doctor helping sort things out. One of the best stories of the collection. 

The Three Brothers Gruff: The billy-goats are made to be humans and the troll is a sontaran on this take on the classic. It sort of loses the wit of the original tale but worth reading just for the idea of a sontaran being confused for a troll. 

Sirgwain and the Green Knight: Presumably based on the Arthurian story, one I am not familiar with, this sees the role of the green knight taken by an Ice Warrior. The Ice Warrior is less villainous than we often see.

All in all, this works excellently. Doctor Who often has a feel of fairy tale about it and here Richards takes that further than ever. They are written in the style of fairy tales and the book itself is beautiful, with a great cover, thick pages and lovely illustrations. It all comes together to be a wonderful thing

My Top 10 New Who Episodes

This week sees the 10th anniversary of Doctor Who returning to our screens. A lot of people seem to have done a list like this and I thought it would be fun to do one too. So, here are my top 10 favourite new series Doctor Who episodes.

10: Blink (2007- Written by Steven Moffat, Starring David Tennant and Freema Agyeman)

Many people regard this as the best Doctor Who episode ever. I wouldn’t quite go that far but I have to agree that it is excellent. I think the big reason this idea is so good is the villains, the Weeping Angels. Statues that move but only when you are not looking. It’s a terrifying idea. It’s also notable for the fact that the Doctor barely appears so it’s a case of him solving things from afar. Guest star Carey Mulligan, now quite the famous actress, is superb as Sally Sparrow here too. A real joy.

9: Turn Left (2009- Written by Russell T. Davies, Starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate)

Another Doctor-lite episode, this one is a sort of celebration of New Who up to this point. Thanks to Donna not saving the Doctor’s life in a parallel timeline, this sees what happens to Earth when the Doctor is not around to save it. Basically, things don’t go well. It’s a great idea and there are some really deep emotional moments, like when Wilf realises history is repeating itself.

8: The Parting of the Ways (2005-Written by Russell T. Davies, Starring Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper)

This was the Ninth Doctor’s last stand. I adore the Ninth Doctor and this is his greatest moment. The companion/Doctor relationship is shown to be perhaps the strongest it has ever been- the Doctor saves Rose by sending her home but then Rose stubbornly returns and saves the Doctor by looking into the time vortex. The Ninth Doctor’s recorded message is incredible, there are loads of daleks and there’s the wonderful first appearance of David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor.

7: Father’s Day (2005- Written by Paul Cornell, Starring Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper)

An episode all about a companion, this one. Rose asks the Doctor to take her back to the day her Dad died and proceeds to save his life, thus changing history. Monsters happen. It displays the daughter/father relationship beautifully and in a way conventional drama can’t do. The monsters are pretty good, in my opinion anyway, the Doctor sacrifices himself and the resolution is heart-breaking.

6: The Doctor’s Wife (2011- Written by Neil Gaiman, Starring Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill)

Neil Gaiman gave the TARDIS a voice in this wonderful episode. That’s a great idea in itself but the whole idea of a sentient asteroid is brilliant and there’s some terrifying scenes in the TARDIS corridors featuring Amy and Rory. For me, those are perhaps the scariest scenes Doctor Who has ever had. Suranne Jones is brilliant as the TARDIS and there’s also an Ood there too to make things more fun.

5: The Girl in the Fireplace (2006- Written by Steven Moffat, Starring David Tennant, Billie Piper and Noel Clarke)

I would adore this episode simply for the scene where the Tenth Doctor stumbles into a spaceship, apparently drunk, and tells the monsters they are thick. That is my favourite scene in all of New Who. The whole premise of this episode is wonderful, Sophia Myles makes a wonderful Madame de Pompadour and the pay-off at the end of the episode revealing the connection between the spaceship and 18th century France is a staggering silent reveal.

4: Asylum of the Daleks (2012- Written by Steven Moffat, Starring Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill)

I’m not quite sure why I like this episode so much. In terms of a dalek story, it’s not great but it is a brilliant story in terms of the show’s main characters. The Doctor having to solve a typical Doctor-ish problem whilst trying to save Amy and Rory’s marriage is a wonderful idea. It leads to Rory being at his sarcastic best and some really touching relationship drama. Not to mention the whole Oswin being a dalek thing and a gorgeous soundtrack!

3: School Reunion (2006- Written by Toby Whithouse, Starring David Tennant, Billie Piper and Elisabeth Sladen)

I’ve never liked this episode because it saw the return of Sarah-Jane and K9. That’s like an additional bonus. Sarah-Jane’s return shows us the best of Rose Tyler and her relationship with the Doctor. I love the scene where Rose and Sarah-Jane try and compete with each other and the Doctor having to defend the way he treated Sarah-Jane. I also think the Krillitane are the best aliens created for New Who and would really, really like to see them return.

2: The Day of the Doctor (2013- Written by Steven Moffat, Starring Matt Smith, David Tennant and John Hurt)

How could I not include this celebration of fifty years of Doctor Who? For a start there’s two brilliant Doctors, Smith and Tennant, together. Plus a whole new one, John Hurt, who turned out to make a truly wonderful Doctor. A heart-breaking decision for the Doctor and the pure triumph of him being able to fix his greatest regret. It’s a great celebration, topped by the presence of Tom Baker as the Curator.

1: The Eleventh Hour (2010- Written by Steven Moffat, Starring Matt Smith and Karen Gillan)

Only two episodes in New Who had to completely reinvent the show. The first was Rose, which whilst excellent has some truly awful bits in it (plastic Mickey, that wheely bin). This though sees a hilarious introduction to a new Doctor and a sad one for a new companion. The fairly tale feel of it is really something special- there’s no way this story would have felt the same in a London suburb. Apart from the whole thing of introducing all the new stuff, the standalone plot is superb. I still think the line “the human residence will be incinerated” meaning the whole world rather than a house is so very clever and so sinister. In my eyes, this was an hour of perfect Doctor Who.

This list is of course simply my own opinion. I’m quite pleased that I’ve got quite a range of Doctors and surprised that as many as half of my favourites were written by Steven Moffat. I haven’t deliberately left out the Twelfth Doctor but I feel for an episode to be a true favourite it needs time and repeated viewings. It’s always fun to discuss these things so if you agree or, God forbid, disagree with my list then please do let me know with a comment!

Oh, and to celebrate ten years of New Who over on my blog Classic Who Catch Up I am about to start looking at the Ninth Doctor era. Please do take a look!