Doctor Who, Series 12
BBC, 2020
Series 12 shows tremendous diversity and production values, top-notch acting and highly imaginative storylines, albeit that some of the most promising scenarios boil down to heavy-handed moralising (‘Orphan 55’, ‘Praxeus’) or egregious dei ex machina (‘Spyfall, Part 2’, ‘Can You Hear Me?’).
Doctor Who: The Wormery
by Paul Magrs & Stephen Cole (Big Finish, 2003)
The experimental storytelling doesn’t always pay dividends, but at least the writers aren’t stuck on the bog-standard. Colin Baker holds himself in fine fettle (and is afforded an uncommon depth of character). Former Pertwee-era companion Katy Manning runs rampant as Iris Wildthyme.
Dr. Eleventh
by Adam Hargreaves (BBC, 2017)
Hargreaves, in his usual clumsy way, has Matt Smith’s Doctor and River Song run a pointless gamut of monsters… but can only think of three (Zygons, Silurians, Weeping Angels) before resorting to snakes and spiders! The ending is as tiresome as ever.
Dr. Ninth
by Adam Hargreaves (BBC, 2017)
As if inspired by a particularly insipid Terrance Dicks novelisation, Hargreaves doesn’t so much attempt a mash-up here as a clumsy retelling of Rose’s first story. The text is belaboured and even the pictures offer little. Jack Harkness is a middling highpoint.
Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles – Find and Replace
by Paul Magrs (Big Finish, 2010)
This short, tightly plotted story makes clever use of both Huxley (an alien narrator) and Iris Wildthyme (quasi Time Lady, owner of a transdimensional bus) in transporting Jo Grant back to the 70s and giving her one last scene with the Doctor.
Doctor Who: Revelation of the Daleks
by Eric Saward (BBC, 2019)
At last, lagging thirty-five years behind the TV serial, former Doctor Who script editor Eric Saward has novelised Revelation of the Daleks. If only he’d spent some of that time learning to write! This is BBC-endorsed beige-wallpaper fan fiction without the heart.
Dr. First
by Adam Hargreaves (Puffin, 2017)
Doctor Who purists may not approve of this playful rewriting of the programme’s origin story. There’s no denying, however, that the characters are beautifully drawn – from Susan, to William Hartnell’s cantankerous purple and grey Doctor, to the jiving, sports mascot, continuity-defying Cybermen!
Dr. Sixth
by Adam Hargreaves (Puffin, 2018)
Poor Colin Baker. Hargreaves captures something of the Sixth Doctor’s voice, and also his rather planless propensity towards grandiloquent bluster as a means by which to defeat evil (in this case, the Rani). Unfortunately, the illustrations in this volume are rather bland.
Jago & Lightfoot & Strax: The Haunting
by Justin Richards (Big Finish, 2015)
A lightweight but very funny adventure. Just as they supported the Fourth Doctor in The Talons of Weng-Chiang, here Victorian pathologist Professor Lightfoot and theatre impresario Henry Gordon Jago afford Strax (the gung-ho, incomparably befuddled Moffat-era Sontaran) a lease on the limelight.
Dr. Tenth: Christmas Surprise!
by Adam Hargreaves (BBC, 2017)
Having misappropriated elements from the Ninth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctor Christmas specials, Hargreaves then dresses the Tenth Doctor in nothing but sneakers and an unfortunately placed collar and tie, giving the distinct impression of David Tennant as a stripper. Ta-dah! Christmas surprise!