The TV story was a great first adventure for the Fifteenth Doctor which did good service to both the Doctor and Ruby Sunday. For a review of the TV episode watch it here on our Whovian Academy YouTube channel. The novelization does not expand on the story like the best of the Target books accomplish. I cannot think of a single instance where there is expansion of the narrative from the TV story. The TV story 10 out of 10 but this novelization 8 out of 10.
Adventures With the Wife in Space by Neil Perryman began as a blog when a long time fan watched the entire classic series with his wife who was not a fan of the series. They chronicled their mutual reactions and reminiscences in the blog and collected the highlights into this book.
I get the feeling from reading this book that Perryman if I knew him in real life I would find extremely annoying and not very likable. His constant allusions to his smoking habit and disparaging comment about “liberal Democrats” only lead to reinforcing this idea. His obsession with the show does mirror my own mindset and some of his anecdotes ring true. I attempted a similar endeavor with my own wife Rita but we only reached The Sensorites before we reached a roadblock. Maybe if we had been documenting our undertaking we would have been able to continue. 6 out of 10.
The Angel of Redemption by Nikita Gill was the sixth book in the Decades Collection which was published in 2023 to celebrate the programs 60th anniversary. The book was written mainly as poetry with a few prose pages as an epilog.
The book follows the Weeping Angel that was responsible for sending Amy and Rory back to 1930s New York City at the end of the TV story The Angels Take Manhattan. The format makes for an easy and fast read as we follow the Angel as she begins to feel the loneliness as one of the last of her kind. She follows the trail of the Doctor in her search for redemption. The unique story telling style in the form of an epic poem makes for an interesting change of pace and we get some insight into the Angels as a species. 7 out of 10.
There were text pieces and faux newspaper in-universe pages interspersed with the comic strips
The works of Gerry Anderson tie into Doctor Who with the Second Doctor novel The Indestructible Man. There are a number of Lady Penelope strips at the beginning of the volume that give the origin of Parker and Lady Penelope’s recruitment by Jeff Tracy as a Thunderbirds agent. There is one strip about an African leader who needs a heart operation but some Masai tribesmen kidnap the surgeon. The strip has some very unfortunate 1960’s style racism that is off-putting but the rest of the strips are well illustrated and interesting. Even though some of this material is upsetting it is nice that it is reproduced as a product of its time. 7 out of 10.
Doctor Who The Complete History was a series of hardback volumes which came out every two weeks and covered 3-4 stories each. These were in-depth volumes covering the production of each episode from the first in 1963 to the end of the Peter Capaldi era of the show. In addition to the extensive production notes there were also merchandise and publicity updates and actor profiles. The quality of each volume was exceptional overseen by several different editors. The volumes were only available in the UK and Ireland so were difficult to obtain in other locations. I am more of a Watsonian fan but if you are a Doyalist you will greatly appreciate these books. Even so I give the entire series a solid 8 out of 10. I will rate each episode covered below.
The Phillip Hinchcliff era of Doctor Who is considered by many to be pinnacle of Tom Baker’s tenure and of the series itself. After a brief flirtation with The Third Doctor in 1976 my local PBS station began stripping Baker’s first four seasons Monday through Friday at 7:00 PM. We also could receive the PBS station from nearby New Hampshire and they were running the same four seasons at 7:30 PM. I must have watched every episode of these four seasons a dozen times during my high school and college years.
Genesis of the Daleks is a great story combining a Nazi allegory, mutant results of a generational war and horrific war-torn landscapes into an exciting adventure. Terry Nation with just a little push developed the Daleks into truly frightening menace and created one of the icons of the program in Davros. Michael Wisher‘s performance is exceptional and his maniacal reaction to the Doctor’s hypothetical virus scenario is one of the most memorable in the entire series. Great performances by Marter, Sladen and Baker combine with great character actors like Peter Miles, Dennis Chinnery and Guy Siner light up the screen. 10 out of 10.
Revenge of the Cybermen sees the return of the metal cyborgs for the first time since the Second Doctor adventure The Invasion. The first half of the story with the Doctor, Harry and Sarah returning to Nerva Beacon and encountering what appears to be a disease outbreak is very good. The story loses some steam when the Planet of Gold Voga and the Cybermen come into play. We do get the classic line “Harry Sullivan is an imbecile” during this story 7 out of 10.
