Doctor Who: The Star Beast
by Russell T. Davies; dir. Rachel Talalay (BBC, 2023)
Russell T. Davies returns to Doctor Who as if on a season pass he misplaced for fifteen years, and brings David Tennant and Catherine Tate along for the ride, scripting a fun, tonally frivolous special that nevertheless checks assumptions at every turn.
Doctor Who: The Gunfighters
by Donald Cotton (Target, 1985); audiobook read by Shane Rimmer (BBC, 2013)
As daring an experiment as Cotton’s original script (and even more so in audiobook form with Rimmer’s total commitment to cowboy drawl). Superbly witty on a line-by-line level, and unlike so much of the Doctor Who canon the prose has independent merit.
Doctor Who: Time Crash
by Steven Moffat; dir. Graeme Harper (BBC, 2007)
An 8-minute charity special that should very much be considered canonical. Moffat’s mini-script is first-rate, pairing the Fifth and Tenth Doctors in a humorous yet sentimental melding of eras (thus also director Graeme Harper). David Tennant and Peter Davison work brilliantly together.
The Who Adventures: The Art and History of Virgin Publishing’s Doctor Who Fiction
by David J Howe (Telos, 2021)
The painstaking history of a publishing enterprise whose workings will be of limited interest to most readers. Howe includes lengthy biographical notes on everyone concerned. Diligently researched but for the most part textual deadweight cluttering and detracting from the coffee-table art component.
Doctor Who: Voyager
by Steve Parkhouse; ill. John Ridgway; colours Gina Hart (Marvel, 1985)
Frobisher is introduced, joining a more proactive, less bombastic Sixth Doctor in an adventure trippy enough to have rounded out The Trial of a Time Lord. A preponderance of dark hues serves to foreground the SF (and make Baker’s coat blend in!).
Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor
by Steven Moffat; dir. Jamie Payne (BBC, 2013)
Ending Matt Smith’s tenure with a Christmas special was a brave choice, but one that pays off. The story is chaotic and full of holes, yet Smith himself is quite brilliant as the ancient but ever-young-at-heart friend of children. A fitting farewell.
Doctor Who: The Destroyer of Delights
[The Key 2 Time, Part 2]
by Jonathan Clements (Big Finish, 2009)
![Audio drama cover: “Doctor Who: The Destroyer of Delights” [The Key 2 Time, Part 2] by Jonathan Clements (Big Finish, 2009)](https://www.derelictspacesheep.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Clements_Destroyer-of-Delights.jpg)
The Arabic setting makes for a diverting sea change and offers plenty of scope for culturally specific plot points and humour. Unfortunately, the Black and White Guardians are played for laughs, lending an already lighthearted production too much of an Iznogoud vibe.
Doctor Who: The Last Adventure, Part 4: The Brink of Death
by Nicholas Briggs (Big Finish, 2015)
Colin Baker’s regeneration story. The Sixth Doctor is given the send-off he was denied in the 1980s. Indeed, he is compensated somewhat by being scripted a dual death—once knowing the underlying reasons, once not. Unsurprisingly, Baker puts in a character-defining performance.
Doctor Who: The Last Adventure, Part 3: Stage Fright
by Matt Fitton (Big Finish, 2015)
Fitton brings some intrigue to the Last Adventure. At the end of the day, however, the Valeyard’s evil scheme doesn’t make much sense. The Sixth Doctor’s modus operandi is once again to march up to the threat and demand its immediate cessation.
Doctor Who: The Last Adventure, Part 2: The Red House
by Alan Barnes (Big Finish, 2015)
Not much of a standalone. The Doctor is uncharacteristically dismissive of the pseudo-werewolves, based purely on pro-human prejudice and the writer’s need to muddy the waters. Charley and the Valeyard act in ways that are explicable only within a bigger picture (presumably).