Doctor Who: Pest Control
by Peter Anghelides (BBC Audio, 2008)
Although read by David Tennant and featuring the Tenth Doctor and Donna, Pest Control harks back thematically to the Jon Pertwee era (and not just by namechecking ‘chitinous’). As such, the parasitic hatch-outs seem overly sanitised and the Doctor’s moralism somewhat underplayed.
Doctor Who: The Runaway Train
by Oli Smith (BBC Audio, 2010)
This pointless paradox in the Wild West plays cavalier with time (oh lord), the dunghill moment being when the runaway train, while outrunning a spaceship, is caught up to by horses that already have galloped for thirty minutes in the opposite direction.
Doctor Who: Dead Air
by James Goss (BBC Audio, 2010)
Doctor Who meets The Boat That Rocked: a creepy tale somewhat at odds with the drollness of its recounting – an extended Tenth Doctor monologue in which David Tennant (sublime and Scottish in other readings) sounds like Bill Nighy crossed with Arnold Rimmer.
Doctor Who: The Day of the Troll
by Simon Messingham (BBC Audio, 2009)
David Tennant narrates in his Scottish accent and plays the Doctor very much as per tv, bringing authenticity and complementary zest to this typically grim, typically compelling Simon Messingham novel, available (atypically) only in audio format. Something is lurking under the bridge…
Unflinching Beyond Midnight
(The Derelict Space Sheep Review of Doctor Who Series 8)
Never one to shy away from the sort of perilous escapade made famous by Danger Mouse and Penfold, Arthur Graeme Smith has ventured into Fish Fingers & Custard to review Peter Capaldi’s first season of Doctor Who.
Arthur’s review appears in FF&C #16, which is available in print or as a (free) .pdf download.
Crumbs, you might well say. Ooh, ‘eck!
Doctor Who: City of Death
by Douglas Adams & James Goss (BBC Books, 2015)
Like Douglas Adams’ script before it, this posthumous collaboration appears to have been written somewhat hastily; while it does capture (and at times build upon) the splendour of the 1979 serial, this isn’t quite the much-pined-for novelisation that Gareth Roberts’ Shada was.
Doctor Who: Engines of War
by George Mann (BBC Books, 2014)
This readable (if unproofread), epically themed yet superficial bridging novel evokes something of the classic series four-parters. For all the promise the Time War offers, John Hurt’s so-called War Doctor for the most part could (and should) have been Paul McGann’s Eighth.
Nemesis of the Daleks (Doctor Who graphic novel #15)
(Panini, 2013) [Collecting comics from 1990]
For all that these comics are visually evocative and constitute an impressive editorial achievement when the strips could have been cut altogether, the stories themselves are mediocre, featuring (if at all) a companionless Seventh Doctor as either passive bystander or omnipotent wizard.
The Doctor: His Lives and Times
by James Goss & Steve Tribe (BBC Books, 2013)
This photograph-rich primer on Doctor Who comprises one-third a potpourri of reminiscences by cast and crew across fifty years (with crosspollination between classic and news series Who) padded unfortunately with an excruciating, nigh unreadable pastiche of ersatz news articles and faux memoire.
Doctor Who FAQ: All That’s Left to Know about the Most Famous Time Lord in the Universe
by Dave Thompson (Applause Theatre and Cinema, 2013)
First and only question: Why the misnomer? This hastily potted history-cum-personal reminiscence is memorable more for its recurrent vitriol against the 6th and 11th Doctors (a non-partisan non-appreciation of both Classic and New Who) than for hammering out mostly non-existent interrogation points.