Doctor Who and the Pirates
by Jacqueline Rayner (Big Finish, 2003)
A bizarre audio drama, featuring an explicitly unreliable narrator (the story’s telling is itself the mystery) and Bill Oddie in gleeful Ecky Thump pirate mode. The third quarter sees Colin Baker and Co. drop into a full-on musical of the high seas.
Who on Earth is Tom Baker?
by Tom Baker (HarperCollins, 1997)
Although Tom Baker’s autobiography is by no means a bad read, it does (excepting the preamble, which promises at least a measure of absurdism) make for an unremittingly grim read, Baker occupying a headspace far removed from the comforts of Doctor Who.
Doctor Who: The Ghosts of N-Space
by Barry Letts (BBC Radio, 1996)
Unfortunately the gratified nostalgia of having a new Third Doctor adventure after twenty-one years, even with strong performances by Jon Pertwee and Elisabeth Sladen, could not make up for the manifest shortcomings (namely, dire minor characters and plot) of this audio adventure.
Doctor Who and the Carnival of Monsters
by Terrance Dicks; read by Katy Manning (Bolinda, 2014)
[first published by Target, 1977]
Precious few Target novelisations reach heights anywhere near those of the original broadcasts; certainly none by Terrance ‘run-of-the-mill’ Dicks. Carnival of Monsters is elevated somewhat in audiobook form by voice artist Katy Manning, whose range encompasses even a husky Jon Pertwee imitation.
Doctor Who: Wooden Heart
by Martin Day (BBC, 2007)
While exploring a spaceship filled with corpses, the Tenth Doctor and Martha discover a mysterious village within a forest bigger than the ship itself. This story is remarkably televisual, though as a corollary perhaps presents more as a novelisation than standalone novel.
Doctor Who: The Forever Trap
by Dan Abnett (BBC Audio, 2008)
For Doctor Who aficionados this is Paradise Towers meets The Long Game, plus a satire on bureaucracy. Unfortunately, this latter element is ipso facto less than riveting, and once overcome leaves nothing but the standard Tenth Doctor recourse to resolution via knob-twiddling.
Doctor Who: Fear Itself
by Nick Wallace (BBC Books, 2005)
Fear Itself is of that rare breed of standalone Doctor Who novel the success of which doesn’t depend on familiar echoes of the programme itself. Wallace crafts a mystery — one that actually wouldn’t work on television — melding setting, characterisation and genuine intrigue.
Doctor Who: The Last Voyage
by Dan Abnett (BBC Audio, 2010)
The Last Voyage – a somewhat middling spaceship under siege story – would have been a flat read on page, but has some life breathed into it by David Tennant’s engaging narration and redolent-of-Doctor acting. Even so, both premise and prose seem awkwardly belaboured.
Doctor Who: The Rising Night
by Scott Handcock (BBC Audio, 2009)
A village in perpetual darkness; a devourer that makes the (companionless Tenth) Doctor retreat into his own mind: The Rising Night begins with great promise but doesn’t deliver, undermining its threat with a deus ex machina solution and an irksome moral quandary.
Doctor Who: 50th Anniversary Collection
(Puffin, 2013)
Doctor Who doesn’t lend itself well to short fiction. This collection of stories — one each for the Doctor’s first eleven incarnations — is pleasant enough, but only Neil Gaiman’s darkly imaginative ‘Nothing O’Clock’ moves beyond nostalgia into the realms of original, broadcast-worthy adventures.