Fiction

Doctor Who: The Beast of Babylon by Charlie Higson
Chapters 1–12 [the end]
Resuming the 11/12/13 Doctors, 11/12/13 Stories series, here wrapping up my time with the Ninth Doctor in my 60th anniversary marathon. Higson is known to write good James Bond books, but how does he fare in the Whoniverse? I had mixed feelings. I thought he captured the voice and attitude of the Ninth Doctor well, and he pulls a neat trick with de facto companion Ali that would only work in literature (no spoilers!), but the way it unfolded didn't feel quite Who-y enough for me. You know when you sort of admire something, or like elements of it, but you just didn't actually like it, for some reason? That. Never mind.


Doctor Who: Revenge of the Judoon by Terrance Dicks
Chapters 1–14 [the end]

Although the 60th TV specials starting later than I'd anticipated has bought me some leeway, I don't want to become too relaxed and wind up messing this up — especially as they keep unveiling brand-new treats, like the colourised version of The Daleks that's airing on November 23rd. So, with the Ninth Doctor barely done, it's straight on to arguably the most popular Doctor of all time now: David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor.

As I said when I reached the Ninth Doctor, because I’ve been an avid fan and follower of Who throughout the “new series” era, naturally there are no TV episodes to turn to here; but when it comes to expanded media, as befits such a popular incarnation, I’m spoilt for choice: they published dozens of novels during his few years, most of which I bought but few (if any) of which I’ve actually read; several of his episodes have received the Target novelisation treatment, too; more recently, Tennant has starred in multiple different box set-length audio adventures for Big Finish; and then there are the comic books, from DWM and both of the series’ US licensors, IDW and Titan. But most of those types of media have already been covered (or will be soon) as part of my 60th anniversary celebratory marathon, and I was loathe to commit to anything else too long (so out go any of the novels, or something like the nine-episode Dalek Universe series; although, as it turns out, maybe I would've had time). Instead, I’ve gone for something so short that its brevity is in the title. Well, it's in the range title. Not that it was a range, exactly, more of a general initiative.

For the sake of those who don't remember it: coinciding with the Tenth and Eleventh Doctor years, there was a reading initiative in the UK called “Quick Reads” — short, easy-to-read books aimed at reluctant or inexperienced readers of all ages. A new selection was published every year for six or seven years. Well, I presume that’s how long they lasted, because that’s how many Who entries were published (one each year from 2006 to 2013, except for 2011). (A quick Google suggests Quick Reads is still going in some form. Why Who stopped participating, then, I don't know.) Anyway, as a different type of ‘novel’ to the others I’ve already covered, I thought I’d go for one of those for the Tenth Doctor. It’s kind of a poor way to represent the BBC Books era — which encompassed hundreds of full-length novels across the Eighth Doctor, Past Doctor, and new series ranges — but, as I've said before, I was already worried about finding time for the couple of novels I have included. Besides which, I don’t own many Past Doctor ones, and the Eighth Doctor ones were often a bit arc-y as I remember (i.e. you wouldn’t want to go reading just one; although, as I chose the first book in a four-book cycle for the Seventh Doctor, I’m aware that's somewhat hypocritical).

Also of note: this is by the legendary Terrance Dicks, who is at least partially responsible for me being a Who fan. I first got into the show while it was off the air, via a few Target novelisations that were in my primary school's library, and the very first one I read (as well as several more, I expect) was written by Dicks. In many ways, then, I owe all this to him.