Keeping Up with the Joneses

The latest Time Trip e-book is set during the period the Tenth Doctor is travelling alone, definitely after the special "Planet of the Dead" and I would speculate before "The Waters of Mars". In the story the TARDIS is damaged by a leftover weapon from the Time War and the Doctor finds himself in a Welsh town called Jonestown where a version of Christina De Souza appears to live. And there's a storm coming.

The Tenth Doctor is characterised well here, although because we follow his thoughts for a while at a time it is exhausting to read. It's fine when we get a fast speech from the Doctor but pages and pages of his thoughts are just too much. I'm not happy with the lack of a proper companion here. Christina 2.0 is not really much like the original Christina and even she was it would have been an odd choice. If you are going to write a Tenth Doctor story surely it would be best to have Rose, Martha or Donna in it. The story mentions Jones in the title yet there is no sign of Martha whatsoever.

There isn't much of story here and when the mystery is solved I can't help feeling a bit flat. It was just a rubbish explanation.

If I was a teacher marking this I would write "Good try Nick but I think we need to do some more practice at this".

Into the Nowhere

This is a great short story featuring the Eleventh Doctor and Clara set between the last two Eleventh Doctor TV stories, The Day of the Doctor and The Time of the Doctor. They arrive on a planet which apparently doesn't exist and inevitably bad things happen, involving skeletons and a really creepy villain.

Colgan really nails the characters here, perhaps more than virtually any Doctor Who author has managed. She really gives us an expansion of Clara, especially given how in the show more time was given to plot than character expansion with regards to her. Colgan gives us a Clara who is confused, having distant memories of her many lives across time and space saving the Doctor.

We are also given some great references to the show's mythology, from mention of a fez to the Doctor still mourning about a robot dog. It's the little touches that add the fun.
Sadly, the last quarter of the story lets it down. It does all deep and meaningful and it might well have worked in a longer story but it just leaves the reader a little confused in this format.

Perhaps the best three quarters of a Doctor Who written story ever but unfortunately let down by the ending. Very close to being perfect.

The Death Pit

This is the first in a new series of Doctor Who books under the title "Time Trips". It features the Fourth Doctor landing on a golf course in 1978. In terms of chronology to the TV show this is during the short time the Fourth Doctor is travelling by himself, between The Deadly Assassin and The Face of Evil.

The story is essentially about a golf bunker which eats people. It's a bit silly but it kind of works. There's some of the best, most well-rounded characters I've ever seen in a short Who book given to us in Bryony and Patterson. They both seem very real and very Doctor Who-ish at the same time. Everything about this story is good except the basic fact that the monster is a golf bunker which eats people. It just doesn't quite feel like much of an epic story!

The style is brilliant, it really fits well with the Fourth Doctor and feels kind of Douglas Adams-esque. As much as I can kind of imagine it as a TV episode, this works brilliantly in the written form as it delves into the thoughts of the characters, including the Doctor. It's always a challenge to get into the mind of the Doctor and A.L. Kennedy does a good job by not going into too much depth.

All in all this is a great start to the new series and although the monster is good fun it is a little underwhelming. Great fun!

The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage

This is the e-short for the Tenth Doctor and sees him travelling with Martha Jones. From what I could gather from the references it is set somewhere towards the end of Series 3. In it the Doctor and Martha arrive in a place that looks strangely familiar to Martha, and she soon realises that is because it looks like the setting for a book she read as a child. It seems the Doctor and Martha are in a land of fiction- although not the Land of Fiction that the Second Doctor visited!

This is not the strongest of the e-shorts, largely as the plot feels a bit rushed, but it does everything these e-shorts should do- good characterisation of the Doctor and companion and a few cheeky references to the Doctor's era (here we get a quote from "Blink" and a nod to "The Shakespeare Code").

A good effort from Derek Landy for this e-short with a Famous Five-style start and a modern version of The Mind Robber to finish but one of the weaker ones of the series.

Plague of the Cybermen

This book sees the Eleventh Doctor face his old enemies the Cybermen. It is not entirely clear exactly where it is set in the Doctor Who continuity but it sees the Eleventh Doctor companion-less so it is probably after The Snowmen.

The Doctor arrives in a 19th century village to discover the locals dying of a plague or being taken away by "Plague Warriors" and the dead apparently walking from their graves. It's obvious from the title what the real cause of all this is and it soon turns into a generic Cybermen story. It's certainly a good story but it doesn't really cover any new ground. A big chunk of it was based on "Tomb of the Cybermen" which is certainly no bad thing. In fact if you are a fan of that excellent Patrick Troughton story there are a few little treats for you in this book.

As someone who has been writing Doctor Who books since the series returned in 2005, Richards has no problems in characterising the Eleventh Doctor. In fact I would say this is the most accurate prose version of the Eleventh Doctor out of all the books starring him I have read. We have a one-off companion here named Olga who makes a decent companion, although she is pretty much a copy of Clara.

Overall a good quick read for Doctor Who fans but not the most innovative Doctor Who book you can find.

4 Stars

The Beast of Babylon

Charlie Higson has created my favourite e-short so far. In it the Ninth Doctor picks up a girl called Ali and they head to Babylon, under the rule of Hammurabi, to face a god-like power.

The Ninth Doctor is captured perfectly, in his speech and in his characteristics. Higson uses the Ninth Doctor's cheeky grin to brilliant effect and I couldn't help but feel transported back to 2005 when a 12 year old version of me sat watching the first episode of the revived series.

The story is also great in many ways. Higson gradually reveals more as the story goes along and everything you think you know at the start of the story is wrong. He also does a good job of putting a bit of history in, with an appearance by Hammurabi and the Doctor mentioning how he stood for law and order. Plus this e-short is perhaps the most tied-in with the series as it is set during Rose.

Fantastic!

Shada [Novelisation]

Shada was originally going to be a six-part Doctor Who serial to end series seventeen but thanks to strikes at the BBC only half of Douglas Adams' story was filmed and the story was never broadcast. There have been various attempts to complete the story but this is the best one by a long way.

The story sees The Doctor, Romana and K9 attempt to stop the villainous Skagra from taking over the universe using an ancient Time Lord book stolen from Cambridge Professor Chronotis, who happens to be a retired Time Lord. It is quite complicated for a Who story of the age and with the addition of students Chris Parsons and Clare Keightly, obviously in love but yet somehow not together, it almost feels like too much. This is probably because it was intended to be a six episode story, rather than the more common four-episodes, and often these six episoders have to complicate the plot to make it last for the extra episodes and Shada does this.

Many elements of the story are classic Douglas Adams, from the forgetful retired Time Lord Professor Chronotis to Skagra's desperate to please spaceship. It is also a particularly original story being a Time Lord story yet not being set on Gallifrey and the revelation about what Shada actually is, is wonderful.

Credit must be given to Gareth Roberts here though for turning it into such an effective book. He matches the Adams style well and manages to fix a few of the weaker plot points. There's a very late '70s feel to the setting and lots of fun mentions for die-hard Who fans from the Doctor and Romana's past adventures to a few subtle nods to the revived series.

Overall this is a really successful novelisation of the missing story and compare it to the likes of The Creature from the Pit, a story from the same series, and it is wonderful. But for a work by Douglas Adams it is a little disappointing- this story is nothing on the virtually perfect Doctor Who serial City of Death. It remains a must read for all fans of this era of Doctor Who though!