Fear of the Dark

I'd forgotten how good this book was. It was a great, very traditional Doctor Who story. The characterisation of the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan was spot on; to the point where I could hear Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton's voice in my head as I read it. If this had been a TV story I could have picture Graeme Harper directing it.

It was a worthy addition to the 50th anniversary collection and the best of the bunch so far.

Festival of Death

Back when I reviewed Shada I commented on Gareth Roberts love for the Graham Williams/Douglas Adams produced era of Doctor Who. I would have loved for one of his Missing Adventures novels to have been republished to represent the Tom Baker era in the 50th anniversary collection. For whatever reason that hasn't happened. But we've got the next best thing.

Jonathan Morris is also, evidently, a fan of season 17 Doctor Who. Now, I remember reading this book when it first published in 2000. And I remember enjoying it (and for some reason the prologue has always stuck in  my mind). Re-reading it now, I was struck by how convoluted the plot was. In fact Morris points out in his introduction that, pre 2005 Doctor Who, it was pretty unique. Nowadays we're used to plots like Blink, most of series 6, etc. So this story would be best described as being a season 17 Doctor Who story, but as written by Steven Moffat! And just was enjoyable to!