Justin Richards

This is a collection of fairy tales that Earthlings might recognize, but they have been given a Doctor Who twist. Part of the fun of this collection is spotting the parallels between the original fairy tale and the version being presented here. Many of the tales in this collection place women at the forefront, asserting their agency and bravely defending themselves and their families against the alien threat. The tales I found the most clever or enjoyable were The Three Little Sontarans, show more Cinderella and the Magic Box, Helana and the Beast (because I am a Beauty and the Beast fangirl), and The Scruffy Piper (this one nearly made me chuckle out loud with glee at the bus stop when I realized how it had been Doctor Who-ified). Honourable mentions to Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday, and The Three Brothers Gruff.

In the audio version, each tale is read by a different reader, so the listener’s enjoyment may rise and fall depending on their affinity with a particular reader. Sometimes readers would read too fast or too breathlessly, or their vocal range would be limited, making characters hard to tell apart. My favourite readers, in no particular order, were Dan Starkey, Nicholas Briggs, Ingrid Oliver, and of course Tom Baker. I particularly enjoyed Briggs’s take on The Scruffy Piper, and Dan Starkey is the king of Sontaran narration, in my books.

I did find myself a bit weary by the end of the collection, but that’s more down to me than to the collection; I was going through one of my audio slumps. When I was in audio mode, I found this a delightful diversion. show less

This was disappointing. I had read other Doctor Who stories and enjoyed them a lot. So I was shocked to find that the writing for these stories were incredibly simplistic to the point where I was wondering if this wasn't a children's book. The plots were also lacking the complexity and intellectual rigor that I've come to expect from Doctor Who. Looking at the Amazon page, I see that these stories are in fact supposed to be for a middle-grade audience. Yet -- I've read middle grade books. show more The writing for this felt even simpler than it needed to be.

As other reviewers have pointed out, there is no indication in the stories that these are featuring Twelve. The is no real physical descriptions used, nor are Twelve's mannerisms or way of speaking present (You'd think, that Americans might have remarked on his Scottish accent, no? Especially as one of the stories take place on a military base and he was was posing as someone on a mission from General Eisenhower). Any generic Doctor could have been the Doctor in these stories.

Some of the stories did show promise, and they seemed to get better the later in the book they were. The first two were eye-rollingly painful and I nearly gave up on the collection.

"All That Glitters" - Not worth reading, in my opinion. Incredibly choppy writing, and the POV characters were grown men, so there was no excuse. Plot-wise, nothing new, really.
"Off the Trail" - Slightly better than the first one but not by much. At least it was mercifully short.
"Ghosts of New York" - Showed promise. More atmospheric than the first two, and it looked like there may be some action to be had. Alas, no.
"Taking the Plunge" - Interesting premise. Though I'm not convinced that The Doctor would have willingly gone to a theme park.
"Spectator Sport" - The best of the lot. It touched on some morality questions, having a bit more depth than the other stories in the book.
"Base of Operations" - Why did no one question why a man with a Scottish accent was assigned to inspect a military base before D-Day by Eisenhower??? Argh. Other than that, a pretty good story. It showed promise and if it had been fleshed out and expanded, could have been one of the Doctor Who standalone short novels.

Overall, a middling collection that might be of interest to younger fans of the show. A bit insulting for adults.

Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley. show less

This is a Doctor Who spin-off novel featuring the Sixth Doctor and partly set in the present day (i.e. 2001 when this was written) and 1945 Berlin. An alien artifact crashes in Dorset in 1944, and the local village is immediately evacuated and maintained as a closely guarded military secret for decades right up to the present day. Journalists are trying to investigate this village, while at the same time trying to penetrate the lair of neo-Nazis incongruously gathering in a millionaire's show more mansion in Cornwall. The Doctor, travelling at this point without a companion (so it must be between Peri and Mel's spells in the TARDIS) is summoned to help by the now retired Brigadier. I never cared for the persona of the Sixth Doctor on screen, and for me the Brigadier is the real hero here, and the leading and most appealing guest character is young TV journalist Claire. In investigating the alien craft, and the mystery of the disturbingly familiar toothbrush-mustachioed figure leading the modern day Nazi group, the trio travel back to Hitler's bunker in the ruined Berlin of April 1945 as the Russians advance on the collapsing Nazi behemoth. Our heroes face some highly disturbing revelations and very uncomfortable compromises to uncover the truth about the modern day Nazis while uncovering secrets of the 1945 versions, and also save the present day from radiation leaking from the alien spacecraft. In the process, poor Claire shockingly meets a nasty fate. I really enjoyed this story, which is one of the best Doctor spin-off novels I have read. show less

This was so cheesy it could have topped a pizza, and I adored it. Doctor Who fans will recognize just who Melody Malone really is, and I appreciated the tongue-in-cheek subtle references to time travel. This was a light, fluffy noir-esque story.

I started reading this expecting it to be that book the Doctor was reading in The Angels Take Manhattan. It's not, but that's okay because that book's story was essentially the episode. Instead, we get a nice novella with a saucy dame detective who is show more investigating something hinky going on with a famous movie studio. show less