They can’t be as ambitious as their lost era counterparts, they have to stay true to the version of the TV series which exists around them, but still give us a sharp and well written tale of jeopardy, peril and adventure. Basically they can’t push the envelope until it nearly tears with an almighty rip. Books set in an established era of the TV show can’t just drop companions, or have the Doctor lose an arm, or marry a Sontaran. By well-established era, I mean a period of the show that has a beginning, a middle and an end (as opposed to the McCoy and McGann parts, both of which now do have endings, but there are still huge gaps one could drive the Number 22 to Putney Common through).

I’m really going to have to take a step back and think about what it is I want from a book that’s set within a well-established era of ‘Doctor Who’. This is probably as close to a 4 that I'll ever give a Doctor Who novel. The Doctor wrapped things up nicely and the epilogue was pretty fitting.įor once, everything is fish fingers and custard. Even though I knew all the main characters would survive, things got pretty tense a few times. The threat, the Squall, are a batlike species of hive-minded aliens who invade the two points in time via a rift created by Gradius' experiments. There's some timey-whimey and the two plotlines converge, complete with running away and the Doctor saving the day. While the Doctor goes back to 1910 to investigate, Rory and Amy stay put in 2789 to check on Professor Gradius, a scientist conducting time travel experiments, only to run into trouble on their own. The plot is a pretty good one and could easily have been an Doctor Who episode. The supporting characters, Arven the Android and Archibald Angelchrist, an old man with a past of adventuring, did their part more than adequately. The Doctor, Amy, and Rory were portrayed with more accuracy than I've encountered in the past. This Doctor Who novel was actually the best Eleventh Doctor novel I've read so far. I think what sold me is that the plot description reminded me of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode where they found Data's severed head in a cave beneath San Francisco. I'm not sure why I originally picked this up since I pretty much swore off reading George Mann after so-so experiences with The Affinity Bridge, The Osiris Ritual, and Ghosts of Manhattan. But how could a model of android that's just been created be almost a thousand years old? And what does its warning to the Doctor mean? The Doctor, Amy, and Rory wind up in London in 2789, just in time to see an android dredged from teh Thames.

Doctor Who by George Mann