Doctor Who: Blink
by Steven Moffat; dir. Hettie Macdonald (BBC, 2007)
No ‘Doctor-lite’ episode should work this well, but Moffat’s script offers an adroit balance of humour, suspense and timey-wimey SF, the Weeping Angels are creepily effective (at least as a one-off), and Carey Mulligan, taking the lead, puts in a virtuoso performance.
Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time, Volume 2
by Scott & David Tipton
ill. Philip Bond, John Ridgway, Kev Hopgood, Roger Langridge (IDW, 2013)
One relatively perfunctory story each for the Fifth through Eighth Doctors, with dark-hued illustrations respectively cartoonish, deep-etched, gritty and caricatured. (The companions don’t come off at all well.) While contributing to a wider arc, this isn’t particularly edifying as a standalone volume.
Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor
The Many Lives of Doctor Who
by Richard Dinnick, various illustrators (Titan, 2018)
A graphic novel anthology featuring three- to six-page outings for every incarnation of the Doctor prior to Jodie Whittaker’s. We’re given random companions, no great character likenesses, and stories ranging from facile vignettes to scenarios without plot. Minor nostalgia value at best.
Doctor Who: Demons of the Punjab
by Vinay Patel; dir. Jamie Childs (BBC, 2018)
A beautifully filmed historical episode (technically pseudo-historical but the titular demons are something of a MacGuffin). The bigger context of the partition of British India allows for an impactful small-scale story where the TARDIS crew contribute little but empathy, which is enough.
Doctor Who: The Woman Who Fell To Earth
by Chris Chibnall; dir. Jamie Childs (BBC, 2018)
The best debut story since Rose. Jodie Whittaker hits the ground running, and Chibnall strikes a nice balance between SF threat, comfort humour and character introduction. All the soon-to-be regulars show promise (while Sharon D. Clarke is immediately much missed as Grace).
Doctor Who: The Great Beyond
by James Kettle (Big Finish, 2024)
A six-parter structured around a proper SF idea. While the plot follows recognisable patterns and the support characters play to standard, unnuanced types, Kettle lands a poignant denouement that allows the Doctor to live and grow from the consequences of his actions.
Doctor Who: The Power of Three
by Chris Chibnall; dir. Douglas Mackinnon (BBC, 2012)
An important episode in Amy and Rory’s storyline. Gentle humour, endearing character moments, but the ‘stuff of nightmares’ Shakri are brushed aside with laughable ease. Chibnall might have done better to spend less time on Rory’s dad and more on the resolution.
Doctor Who: The Unquiet Dead
by Mark Gatiss; dir. Euros Lyn (BBC, 2005)
A pronounced example, early in the format, of everything happening too fast. While Dickens and Gwyneth are good value, and there’s depths to plumb in Eccleston’s Doctor’s fair-weather avuncularity (a domineering temper simmering behind the goofy grin), it all just rattles by.
TV Comic Annual 1968
(TV Publications, 1967)
An abysmally written Adam Adamant short story, plus 90 pages of lame comics. Two simplistic, murkily illustrated four-page Doctor Who strips feature an overly tall Second Doctor defeating (with mammoths) Trods and (with rocks) Daleks, having first pre-invented the Goodies’ flying trandem!
Doctor Who: Mind of the Hodiac
by Russell T Davies & Scott Handcock (Big Finish, 2022)
This two-parter is rather too long for what it offers, though the female-centric plot is welcome and Colin Baker is once again a delight. Davies and Handcock capture the Sixth Doctor’s personality, yet (as usual) have him largely superfluous to the resolution.