That all changes next year, as the franchise replaces The Doctor yet again, with the release of a new Doctor Who spin-off novel, Stormcage. Doctor Who ...

¡Hola, cielitos! ¿Alguna vez habéis querido poneros en los taconazos llenos de estratos arqueológicos de la única, la inimitable, la mejor arqueóloga de la galaxia (lo siento, Nico Robin e Indiana Jones): RIVEEEER SOOOONG? Pues os traemos Stormcage, una aventura interactiva escrita por la mismísima Alex Kingston junto a Jacqueline … Continuar leyendo →

¡Hola, cielitos! ¿Alguna vez habéis querido poneros en los taconazos llenos de estratos arqueológicos de la única, la inimitable, la mejor arqueóloga de la galaxia (lo siento, Nico Robin e Indiana …

Doctor Who Stormcage A River Song Adventure USA Cover Available to order in the USA from www.amazon.com. Please note links may default to the UK sites for UK visitors. Also available to order from www.booksamillion.com, www.bookshop.org, www.walmart.com and other selected retailers. The acclaimed actress behind Doctor Who’s River Song invites you to become the beloved character and embark on an immersive multi-strand adventure across time and space! Professor River Song, imprisoned in the Stormcage Containment Facility, welcomes the excitement of aliens storming her prison. They’re here to spring a creature wanted for terrible crimes. Their assault rips through reality to create the ultimate escape route: a Fate Nexus. A gateway to multiple exit points in time, space, and beyond. In Doctor Who: Stormcage, YOU are River, tasked with stopping the criminals and saving reality. Only YOU can choose the path through these pages. You’ll steer River through past, present, and future on all kinds of audacious adventures. You’ll meet old enemies, familiar friends and, of course, the Doctor. Will you hunt down a happy ending or find disaster and death? The chances are yours to take! Categorised under: Books, Story books

‘River Song has been imprisoned in the Stormcage, facing multiple life sentences for the Doctor’s assassination… or, at least, she was. Now, time is collapsing, and River is unexpectedly marooned in Tudor England, 1536 – with a mysterious alien companion, Dust. Someone, or something, has broken history: the distortions centring on the court of King Henry VIII. River must find the culprit, and fix the damage, before it’s too late. But some players, for whom established history does not end happily, may have other ideas… ‘ I do love Alex Kingston — from Moll Flanders to E.R., to arriving on Doctor Who as the larger than life River Song. Do I love The Death and Life of River Song from Big Finish though? It’s been fifteen releases now, so she is a survivor! I keep buying the releases, I keep thinking the publisher will finally have an epiphany, decide where to take her, to have her find a life without the Doctor-obsession she exists under, and yet even after a recent series relaunch, nothing at all changes with this character or Alex Kingston’s approach to her. Case in point: The Dissolution of Time. The Armageddon Game It’s a lovely opening to this release: we begin with the familiar sound of the TARDIS materialising, a chippy River Song exiting, asking the unseen Doctor not to leave it too long till ‘next time’ and River nonchalantly tottering back to her ‘room’ in the Stormcage facility… where she is being held after murdering the Doctor! It’s a very good way of easing the listener into this release of four stories, and it is Alex Kingston who immediately arrests the listener’s attention — it reassures us straight away that this is going to be good! The shame is that, after being delivered back to her ‘home’, it is amidst some temporal attack on Stormcage. The narrative immediately slips into a lot of technical babble and ‘talking heads’ exposition between River and Dust — Dust is a catlike humanoid at 7ft tall who appears to have pulled her out of the attack on Stormcage and into a safe bubble in time. It’s all quite laboured given the first four minutes of this opening story was so well done, and such a strong hook for the listener to be drawn in by. Dust appears to perhaps be from the 51st Century and is about as generic a character as it gets — very obviously inspired by the dog man seen in Jodie Whittaker’s series of Flux adventures, which doesn’t help in offsetting my growing lack of interest here. It’s dull, this partnership. Achingly dull. The story is not being made clear, there is only these two pompous characters (mostly River) talking, and Dust is as boring as television static. Time-shifting to the 16th Century and it is, again, all exposition from River, as she points out the lack of St Paul’s Cathedral and the dramatically disordered city skyline, then shifting seamlessly into an assessment of a Tudor wooden boss the two are stood by, which she deduces shows a ship that is the famous Mary Rose, and then witters on about her appreciation of Queen Elizabeth… Even Alex Kingston is struggling, and failing, to make this lumbering script sound remotely interesting, and we are only ten minutes in! This lack of pacing is not good, as this set of stories are all written by the same person, Rochana Patel, and so what gets set here in the debut is what is surely going to be carried on for the next three to four hours of playtime. The flow does pick up gradually as we meet the Mary Rose’s captain and learn he is, in fact, Henry Tudor’s young and illegitimate son, the Duke of Richmond. This meeting will allow River access to Henry’s court, and there is a welcome sense of a historical play coming into force as we are on the day of Catherine of Aragon’s execution; River is having to be very cautious in navigating court politics and, in particular, the formidable King Henry VIII, played straight by the capable Harry Myers. This is no caricature of Henry VIII here, and it offers some hope of being partial historical drama, with therefore understandable stakes. But this tonal potential is never allowed to really solidify, as the direction of the script and delivery doesn’t lift itself away from the worst aspects of River’s characterisation, and the fact there is a camp 7ft cat-man-thing at her side that precludes actual serious drama from happening. It is a story that never takes that little leap of faith, and treats its historical environment seriously. Yet the setting of Henry VIII’s court is one of the most dramatic and dangerous settings in the whole of British history. The possibilities for historical drama and tragedy are enormous! “River and Dust? Such poetic names.” – Henry VIII. Anne Boleyn Must Die “No one acts out of kindness — ever. Only self-interest.” So says Anne Boleyn. As River and Dust uncover a secret link between the soon to be Queen and a shadowy alien plant-being what develops is a gradually arresting test of wits and will between River and Boleyn. Anne is the younger by far, but reveals herself as adept at navigating and playing the Royal Court, and in being able to read River and Dust’s true intentions like some shrewd intuitive gamesman. It’s fine characterisation. History must take its course, and so the moral dilemma at hand is the knowledge of Anne’s fate, and what happens when she has been told of that destiny. How far will she go to protect herself, and how far will River find her own ethics being pushed as the stakes push her to make decisions on life and death, for the greater good? Imprisoned in Stormcage after she supposedly killed the Doctor, River is not blind to the parallels between her own fate and that of Anne Boleyn. Both doomed, both on their own, both trying to look after their own futures. Charithra Chandran plays Anne Boleyn, and she is superb! Nearly all of the guest cast are very good, as they are serious drama actors playing with straight performances and therefore some authenticity with their characters and the historical setting, but Anne Boleyn is the central character here and Chandran doesn’t just hold her own against Alex Kingston; she shows herself as being the better actor… “If you were to die, do you have any idea what would happen to the realm?” a concerned Boleyn implores Henry as he sets off on a jousting match, of which she knows well he has been wounded in before while participating. This is a small but important scene, in her fixation on her self-preservation. Anne is largely being blinded to any bigger picture. But with a child on the way and her having learned her head destined for the block in just weeks, fear is guiding her to take extreme actions, and the manipulations of the strange time-sensitive plant-being that visits her at key junctures are warping the flow of history unfolding. A Good Woman Goes to War Parallels between Anne Boleyn’s situation and River Song’s continue to be made in this third chapter. Rochana Patel has done some decent research on Anne Boleyn, daughter Elizabeth, Jane Seymour, and Mary Queen of Scots — all of them are here, and name-checked, and yet apart from Thomas Cromwell, none are given much in the way of airtime within these first two chapters. It is a story set in one of the richest and most eventful times in British history, and yet it is all largely left hanging in the background here, hinted at but never broached. Instead, the focus is Anne Boleyn, her ruthlessness, her understandable desperation to stay alive; if it wasn’t for the excellent actress bringing her to vivid life, this whole release might fall completely flat. It plays with moral dilemmas that it cannot satisfactorily develop, and then close. Henry VIII is dead, by Boleyn’s hand, as the mystery plant-being plays manipulative feints with her in order to feed on the disruption to natural events. Anne herself is proving no less adept and ruthless in using the people around her either. The plant, Anne, River, and even Dust, are all vying for their own aims and their own interests. So the question is: who, if anyone, will overcome their own selfishness and take personal charge for what needs to be done to set things right? It all sounds rather interesting, but in fact while the concept of Henry dying before his time is a potentially gripping story device to ratchet up the dramatic tension, Rochana Patel instead slips off into light farce, as plot-device character Dust uses his technology to take on the appearance of Henry and it is all handled as if it were some light children’s television production. But then it’s back to semi-seriousness, as Cromwell quickly sees through the deception and recognises his king is indeed still dead. And elsewhere, Anne Boleyn has visited daughter Elizabeth only to have River catch up to her and again the tone shifts to light farce, thanks to Alex Kingston deciding this is not to be actual drama playing out, but her time to hog the stage for herself. “Can’t say she likes me much — can’t say I blame her!” A line from River as she finds herself holding the infant Elizabeth. Which left me musing over whether Alex Kingston speaks it with awareness… This storyline is now revealed as not a historical, and that’s one of its main problems. It is a story set in history, but history going wrong. And River and Dust have to set it back on the right path. Meaning the writer would have to be very skilled with developing character, in order for the listener to invest in Anne Boleyn’s plight, and feel something for her when events reach their conclusion. But this point is yet to be met, and everything that might make this storyline worthwhile therefore hangs on the final chapter here, and what, if any, decision Anne makes in order to set things right, save England, her husband, and indeed all history to come… The Schism Bloom “I’m here to tell you it doesn’t need to be that way!” Were there “lawyers” in 16th Century England, would Thomas Cromwell ever have referred to the King’s law-makers in any such term?! We are not in altered history anymore; the situation has shifted so that apparently we are now in an alternate timeline. And Henry’s illegitimate son, introduced in the first chapter, returns here to take a prominent role as he determines to take his father’s throne. Thomas Cromwell is then killed, four years before history actually records it, and the damage to time is accelerating as the chaos of a collapsing timeline feeds the plant creature. On top of her slipping into using modern tics for scripting people living in the 16th Century, the writer also falls into characters using modern-day political mud-slinging and vernacular, further undermining the effort needed to believe this is the 16th Century, and that the court environment of Henry VIII is a very dangerous place to find yourself. Anne finds herself being strong-armed by River into accepting an alliance with hated rival Mary, but while the two actresses are giving it their best efforts with some very dubious material, it is the lack of logic in the storytelling, and the lack of attention in developing these now-alternate characters, especially in this chaotic last chapter, that defeat any hope of this being a satisfying or touching conclusion for either story, or main characters. The history of King Henry VIII’s time in power is immensely eventful, but also very complex in its various players and its depth of intrigue. Rochana Patel has struggled in picking out the relevant points of interest and sticking to a straight or linear narrative. The story started its journey by creating a focus on Anne Boleyn’s fiery manoeuvring and desperate sense of self-preservation at all costs. To have it all then handed to the haughty and thick-headed River to resolve Anne’s very personal and completely understandable fears, and then deliver deeply unlikely lecturing to her and Mary, finishes off the listener’s last grains of interest in following any of it. By this point, it is a meaningless alternate universe, with multiple plot strands that are all shooting off in their own directions. Thankfully, the end is almost in sight… Do I like River Song, from Big Finish? Well, err, it’s fairer I think to say that I want to like her. But then I want to like Bernice Summerfield as well, and despite me trying to give that character multiple chances to connect, that isn’t happening either. As a storyline, The Dissolution of Time, would have benefitted from not having the expediency of Dust – the unreality of this character and the regular use of his problem-solving technology, combined with River’s invulnerability and unrelentingly superior air, works to remove what may otherwise have been a tense character-led storyline. Rochana Patel is not a terrible writer, but still falls beneath the more skilled plotting of the likes of Lizzie Hopely, Matt Fitton, and Katharine Armitage. This storyline demands some very tight plotting and strong character-work if you are going to make it last across a full boxset, which this storyline does not, unfortunately: the finale’ staggers on and on with at least three (misjudged) endings, and so Anne Boleyn’s tragedy, in the end, doesn’t feel like a tragedy at all. It is not the worst I have been served with from Big Finish, but when I think of the fine historicals that the publisher has mounted in the past (in the superb David Bradley First Doctor range for example, or the more recent Fourth Doctor Last Queen of the Nile which pushed this Doctor into fresh areas for his character), the River Song series demonstrate Big Finish at its most lazy ‘pump-it-out’ worst. When you get the wonderfully done three volumes of Jenny – The Doctor’s Daughter from Big Finish, featuring a redundant character last seen on television in a one-off appearance in 2007, and then you have this River Song range still in production, and still showing absolutely no signs of bettering itself and heading off somewhere fresh and distinct with the lead character… I really have to ask whether Big Finish themselves like River Song. There’s still strong sound design throughout this release. It still needs a better theme tune. But by the end, this was four-plus hours of near torment… I have not the stamina for a marathon-length four-hour River Song yarn on audio. Does anyone?! The Death and Life of River Song: The Dissolution of Time is out now from Big Finish. Like this: Like Loading...

Doctor Who: Stormcage: A River Song Adventure eBook : Kingston, Alex: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Before I start… It was while I was halfway through reading this charity publication that, by chance, I learned of BBC Books releasing an all-new hardcover written by Alex Kingston, featuring her River Song character. Stormcage: A River Song Adventure is just the latest of what have now been a number of River Song publications released by the BBC, and join similar ventures from the likes of Sophie Aldred and Bonnie Langford. And if it weren’t for Pencil Tip Publishing having released this second collection of short stories and articles on the longstanding character of Sarah Jane Smith, it wouldn’t have occurred to me just how odd it is that BBC Books has avoided this prominent character since the passing of Elisabeth Sladen. It is as if the BBC have some problems in dealing with the fact that her passing led to the death of her actual character being made explicit by Russell T Davies, and so the BBC has (consciously?) placed a moratorium on the character’s use; with the exception of a short story in 2018’s The Day She Saved the Doctor, I cannot think of a single book in which they’ve revisited Sarah Jane in, not since her CBBC television series ended. That observation is more a postscript. The subject at hand is actually the hefty 388-page Sarah Jane Smith: Roving Reporter II — a charity release of short stories interspersed with personal recollections and articles by people who either grew up watching the character, or have some personal fondness for the actress herself, edited by Bob Furnell, Hamish Crawford, and James Silvester. Thanks to the short story nature of the book’s format, you can actually pick and choose where you step in, and what you want to read, so you might opt to try Ian Wheeler’s charming Lost Dog – a story set just after Sarah returns from being abducted in 1983’s The Five Doctors to discover K9 is missing from her home. Less charming is Russell McGee’s The Cocoon of Despair with its over-saturation of Doctor Who continuity and name-checking, married to a heavy-going confusing plot intent on breaking Sarah’s spirit. But there are also articles in here, that are particularly worthy – one being Hamish Crawford’s look at ‘The Other Lives of Sarah Jane Smith’. This is a rundown and examination of Sarah’s appearances in other media, such as the BBC and Virgin books, and it stands as perhaps the best analysis of these appearances and their worth that I have ever seen. This piece isn’t just a rundown, though: it’s also a critical and honest assessment of the character’s flaws, and the failures in her development over the years. And this candour makes it truly worthy, as what Crawford points out is applicable to other ex-companions we have seen return and who have reached middle to old age (like Ace, Mel Bush, and potentially Tegan, and can even include River Song). None of these women really moved on past being partnered with the Doctor, and for all the supposed development they have had since, none can be held as being fully rounded as none of them even has a known family of their own… Unmarried, still alone, and still essentially stuck where they were when they partnered with the Doctor a lifetime ago. Such is the limitations of the fans who control their development, and such is the nature of fictional characters, frankly. Sarah embodies this shortcomings, as even by the time of her death, what family she had was bolted on and adopted, late towards the end of her life. The line between Investigative Reporter and Private Investigator is a thin one in fiction. But it’s a key component to what drives characters like Sarah and makes them an ideal storytelling device. In this book, the bulk of the short stories are focused on the time after Sarah is left behind by the Doctor the first time, and has to rebuild her career as jobbing reporter; it makes it quite particular in who it is aimed at, and, due to the period of time it is set in, works to set a unique tone and sensibility for the stories. Take, for example, the first three stories that launch the book… Behind Bars By Phil Fenerty It’s rarely a good idea to open a prose story and on your very first page try to recreate regional dialect – and this opening tale is a good example of why. Yet it’s also an opener that demonstrates what will be a recurring tic with this book, as the science-fiction or horror elements that drive a story are left largely unexplained. Here, we open the tale seeing two men scavenging a post-war dump on the Liverpool banks when they uncover a mysterious flashing object… This will turn out to be a familiar Sontaran device seen in Sarah’s debut Doctor Who story, The Time Warrior, but how did such a unique bit of Sontaran kit come to be discarded here, on Earth, in a long-neglected dump? We can only wonder. Does Phil Fenerty himself know? Such is the nature of this short story that supplying such a background perhaps takes up space that the author simply cannot spare. And so we meet an undercover Sarah, working in a local pub. She’s here on UNIT’s behalf to find intelligence on a string of strange local break-ins and attempted robberies, and Fenerty’s ability to evoke a time and a place is impressive! This is set somewhere in the late 1970s, possibly as far as the early- to mid-1980s, and we sense this purely through the subtlety of Fenerty’s use of characters and the occasional references to things like wrestling tournaments and new developments in the local Liverpool geography. Just when is this story set? It wouldn’t ordinarily concern me. But the writer himself makes a number of points and contradictions in his own text that beg the reader to ponder on this. There are some key hints – it is after Sarah’s travels with the Doctor, the Pound note is still in circulation, and most significantly, we learn Sarah completely missed the Watergate scandal that engulfed President Nixon and ended his time in office. (“She had missed Watergate and its catastrophic fallout when it had happened, and the film left her considering the irony: she was so busy travelling through time she missed a moment of history from her own lifetime.”) So it seems the writer is working from a very odd timeframe here, given Sarah’s time with the Doctor began with a broadcast story bridging 1973 into 1974, and Watergate was all but over at that point — and this isn’t even considering that the stories in that era of Doctor Who would go on to make clear this was a world set a good five or so years in the future from that. Although he isn’t central to the story, Fenerty makes fine use of Harry Sullivan here. Acting as Sarah’s handler on behalf of UNIT, he keeps his distance, while Sarah slowly learns of a criminal gang plotting a prison break, but is in a way her reassurance that if things go wrong, he will be there for her. There is also a neat (and very intriguing) comment concerning the disgraced Mike Yates, where Harry reveals to Sarah that the Brigadier also uses Mike Yates for similar undercover reconnaissance investigations, presumably off the record and below the table. It’s a nice use of history, and while the Liverpool setting is a nod to Elisabeth Sladen’s roots, the author’s obvious familiarity with Liverpool and the North West in general is very evident. It was a neat discovery at the back of the book to learn that Phil Fenerty is indeed a Liverpudlian, and the use of accurate places and local past-times of the era is therefore very appreciated; it lends a great deal of authenticity to the story he creates. And with a suitable payoff at the end, this is a strong story to debut this collection. It never wavers. A Murder of Gulls by Grace Haddon Transitioning from a Liverpool setting to the coastal holiday mecca of Blackpool, this might be a quiet nod to Elisabeth Sladen’s appearances at the Doctor Who exhibition and the switching on of the lights in 1976. This is a very atmospheric story, with a strong emphasis on character. It begins with a fine ‘time-out’ between Sarah and Harry, and, we are told, is set one year after Sarah was abandoned by the Doctor. It’s a recurring thread in these stories that the various invasions and strange events in recent years are still unrecognised by the general public. Before multimedia and instant communication, news travels far, far slower, and so without pictures and communication, these things are much easier to play down by the authorities. There is a neatly disposed recollection from Sarah on how the shadowy nature of UNIT, and its rumoured containment of strange events involving giant maggots and the like, was what brought her to examine the organisation in The Time Warrior. This is a clever observation from Grace Haddon, and as this story moves on to investigate gruesome seagull attacks, and ends up with a grim discovery at the top of Blackpool Tower. This world that Haddon creates feels and behaves in quite dark areas. Haddon delivers memorable and professional character work, but also memorable suspense, and, like Sarah, wisely leaves us pondering on just what it was that they discovered at the top of the tower. There are no clear answers as to its origins… but this just leaves the reader to wonder — long after finishing reading. The Enfield Poltergeist by Matt Tovey “A part of her was actually enjoying it. She hadn’t expected to feel like this ever again, had never imagined that after everything she’d seen, the horrors of home could inspire such fear.” Sarah’s transition from ambitious, starting-out journalist, reporting on ordinary worldly things, to instead becoming attracted to the extraordinary, surely must be a result of having her horizons opened up by meeting UNIT and the Doctor. That she never actually joins UNIT, and instead prefers to keep her distance, points to her ambition and independence still being there, however. Harold Chorley presents the six o’clock news on television, and Sarah is on his show as she broke the story of a corrupt solicitors’ firm. Sarah and Chorley refer to The Web of Fear as a ‘fungus attack’ that gave everyone hallucinations. Curiously, Sarah seems to have only ever watched black-and-white television as she is unprepared for the colours of a television studio… It’s another of those odd notes that writers are using in this book, in an effort to anchor it to that hazy late 1970s period that much of this book’s content is set in. Matt Tovey uses a real-life event to set his story against, and a central threat that tests Sarah’s resilience, while at the same time, has no explanation in and of itself as to how it can even exist! You just have to accept the fantastical nature of it and move on. We shift from real-world investigative journalism to more paranormal territory, as an old acquaintance then approaches Sarah to ask for assistance. Maurice Grosse seems to be based on eccentric 1970s and ’80s presenter Wilf Lunn, considering the visual description that Matt Tovey gives, and the later retreat into his backyard shed and its content is so similar to Lunn and his public persona that I couldn’t shake the resemblance off. I would love to know if I’m right and this is Tovey’s affectionate wink to this now largely forgotten personality, who once entertained a generation! And so, a possession story with lots of familiar horror motifs ensues (and not much explanation for where the source is originating), but in the end a nice character-piece nonetheless… Other stand-out stories include The Fourth Wall by Rob Nisbett. It’s another example of good, competent writing, as Sarah encounters an old friend who apparently runs a very successful hi-tech computer effects company, but has dropped out of sight in recent years. This is a fine story, which again never flags, and, as with most of the authors in this collection, points to a high degree of professionalism. It seems from their bibliography at the back of the book that these are mostly experienced writers being used, familiar with short story discipline and knowing how to pace a narrative in the limited pages assigned. Writing (good) short stories is no easy thing — I appreciate the difficulties, and it may even have been an editorial dictat to the authors to keep the stories open-ended, and not waste time and space trying to explain the exact origins of the threats and oddness Sarah duly encounters. So while the writers deserve praise for delivering a degree of quality, and being so very readable, so too does the editorial team deserve full praise for making all of this happen in the first place! This is a very solid book, in every sense of the word. Some of the stories are even illustrated. But while its basic setting, in the stark late ’70s/early ’80s era, is not something you would see from a modern BBC book on Sarah, it does allow for a much more sober and harder grounding to Sarah’s world than the cosiness and sunshine of Bannerman Road. There are two volumes of Roving Reporter now; this latest is bigger than the first, more ambitious, and slightly more polished too as a result of the lessons learned with the first one. Both are worthy of your time if you have an affection or interest in Sarah Jane Smith. If I had one criticism to offer, then it might be that this book is too big! But then this is the by-product of it being largely a labour of love, and that really shines throughout. Sarah Jane Smith: Roving Reporter II is available now from Pencil Tip Publishing. Like this: Like Loading...

YouTube video by Doctor Who

The Target range of Doctor Who novelisations expands again with three new adventures committed to the page.First up is Joseph Lidster with an adaptation of Russell T Davies' two-part adventure 'Aliens of London'/'World War Three'. This is a freewheeling version of the story, and, like the show itself at the time of transmission, is fun and breezy with lots to enjoy. It follows the plot of the story closely, but there are a few additions. One that puzzled me slightly is the kidnapping of a boy called Brian early on. It seems that the boy is then used, along with a pig, to create the pig-hybrid thing which was piloting the spacecraft that crashed into Big Ben, but the fact that the boy was used (which is actually quite horrific) is not mentioned again.The family Slitheen are well described, and there's a lot of great characterisation throughout. Another interesting element is that Doctor Sato at the hospital is reconfirmed as being the same person as Toshiko Sato from Torchwood. This was established in Torchwood itself: she has a conversation with Owen about how she had to pretend to be a doctor when he was hung over to cover for him and ended up meeting a space pig. Russell T Davies also confirmed at the time that they were the same person. There's also some appearances from Jack Harkness in the book, watching the Doctor and having timey-wimey shenanigans. I enjoyed the read and the ride and it's a great adaptation of a fast moving story.Moving on to Matt Jones' adaptation of his own scripts for the two part story 'The Impossible Planet'/'The Satan Pit' and this is another very well written piece of prose. Jones sets the scenes as the three survivors (Ida/Zack/Danny) of the events on the planet Krop Tor are being put on trial for the deaths of their friends, and for the financial loss of the Sanctuary Base they were using. Each tells their own parts of the story, and so we get a version of the adventure which is slightly different from what was seen on television in that elements are explained, if you like, in the wrong order. It's a clever way of telling the story and I liked it a lot.We have a couple of interjections from the people hearing their tales, and we conclude in the court room, during which there is a section as told by the Doctor himself which is most interesting. One of the defining characteristics of most prose Doctor Who is that the Doctor himself is unknowable, and we don't hear his thoughts or know what he's up to. This element in the book completely ignores that of course and we find out exactly what he's thinking and doing when he confronts the giant demonic god/monster/creature at the bottom of the pit.There's also a coda where the Doctor, as part of his 'world tour' just before he regenerates in 'The End of Time', visits Ida and has a chat with her in a cemetery. It's a nice sequence and seems in line with how the Doctor was behaving at that time. There's also some expansion of the Ood here, with their 'song' coming into the narrative, and also their celebration/song of the Doctor which started in 2146 in 'Planet of the Ood'. This actually forms a key part of the narrative here and is well explained and worked into the overall plot.There was a lot of speculation at the time as to the amount of change that Jones' ideas and scripts underwent, with the addition of the Ood (which were created by Russell T Davies for the story) being a major element. Davies has explained that an early draft of the script included Raxacoricofallapatorians - beings from the same planet as the Slitheen family - rather than the Ood. The idea was that the aliens had been enslaved and they wanted to awaken the Beast as they thought it could free them. This novelisation, however, follows the televised story and includes the Ood.Overall this is a great addition to the Target range, and the book makes the most of an excellent script and a very exciting and eventful story. I think it's my favourite of the three this time around.The third novelisation in this batch is by Jenny T Colgan and is of the Steven Moffat story 'The Time of Angels'/'Flesh and Stone'.Something that all three of these books have in common is that they try to replicate their eras. So the Eccleston is fast and furious and fun; the Tennant is more heavy on the weight of being the Doctor; and the Smith one is fast and loose with an emphasis more on the events and the spectacle rather than on the story.Thus Colgan manages to add a little into the proceedings, but not much in the way of explanation as to what is going on. The plot seems to change depending on where you are in it. There's River Song dashing around and dropping 'Spoilers' and 'Sweetie' everywhere, the Doctor muddling on through and Amy Pond overshadowed by both of them. In the mix too are a bunch of soldier Clerics, and, initially one, but then hundreds of weeping Angel creatures which are in this crashed ship and whose motivation seems somewhat obtuse. I'm just not sure what they wanted. Power? The ability to time travel? The story of course follows the televised episodes, but the telling is far more linear than the other books. There's an introductory piece about a man repeatedly sent further and further back in time by the Angels, and I think he wrote the book that Father Octavian is looking at. There's also a little foreshadowing of the clever sequence in the forest where Amy is talking to the Doctor (but it's the Doctor from a future adventure, 'The Big Bang', rather than the one from this story - I loved that touch on transmission).I think if you enjoyed the television episodes, then you'll probably get on fine with the book, but don't expect any great revelations or additional information here. The three books have excellent covers from Dan Liles, and are £10.99 each in paperback. They have also changed the internal paper stock and it's now very much thinner than before.The final book for review is another featuring River Song. And it's a hardback 'game' book of all things. The ones where you read a page or so, and then it poses the reader a question: If River goes back to her cell, turn to entry 102; if she heads to the engine room, turn to entry 45 ... that sort of thing.Allegedly written by Alex Kingston (the busy actress who played River Song), but probably written by BBC Books regulars Jacqueline Rayner and Steve Cole, the book follows you/River in an adventure which starts in the Stormcage containment facility. As you go, you choose your path, and there are many endings. I managed to die within about 5 minutes of reading! But the book helpfully has little tick boxes so you can mark your choices as you go. This means you can backtrack (or start again) and choose different selections to see how you get on. There are Daleks and Cybermen lurking inside, as well as the TARDIS, the Doctor and a regeneration, plus Varga plants, taranium and the Time Destructor ... and lots more depending on the choices you make!It's an enjoyable escapade, and dipping through the entries at random reveals all manner of twists and turns and characters ... I don't envy the putting of it all together, or the editors having to read and check every entry to follow all the variant story threads that it has. River Song last appeared on television 11 years ago (2015), so this publication is a little like a book featuring the Meddling Monk coming out while 'The Talons of Weng-Chiang' was being transmitted. Isn't fandom and the existence of DVD and episode streaming wonderful!

Professor River Song, imprisoned in the Stormcage Containment Facility, welcomes the excitement of aliens storming her prison. They’re here to spring a creature wanted for terrible crimes. Their assau...

Doctor Who Magazine Issue 627 In this issue Brave heart! An in-depth chat with JANET FIELDING who played the irrepressible Tegan opposite the Fourth and Fifth Doctors. ALEX KINGSTON talks about playing River Song alongside the Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors, as well as her on-going audio adventures with Big Finish, and her new book Stormcage. Meet MILES TAYLOR, who is assuming the role of the Eleventh Doctor in a new range of audio dramas! Monster actor RICHARD PRICE shares his memories of playing Cybermen, a Sea Devil and a Scaly Man! 40 Years of Fundraising! Looking back at the incredible artistry and charitable work of the Hyde fundraisers – including their contribution to last year’s season finale. We examine the forbidden text of the Veritas, in our FACT OF FICTION feature on the mind-bending Twelfth Doctor episode Extremis. Top Trumps! A stat-busting guide to Doctor Who editions of the popular card game. Back to 1985… Blake’s 7’s Paul Darrow joins the cast of Doctor Who… We assess the battle plans of the various factions in Remembrance of the Daleks. The inner workings of the Dalek City on Skaro explored! The Fifteenth Doctor and Mel learn more about the Daleks’ plans, in the latest instalment of Corruption of the Daleks… Regular features GALLIFREY GUARDIAN: the latest news including the 4K Ultra HD release of the Paul McGann TV movie. Reviews – including the latest audio releases, books and action figures. Other Worlds – the essential guide to new stories in Doctor Who’s expanded universe – featuring a chat with ANNEKE WILLS who played companion Polly. Prizes to be won – including the new Season 21 Limited Edition Blu-ray boxset! Doctor Who Magazine Issue 627 is on sale Thursday 5 March 2026 from panini.co.uk and TG Jones priced £7.99 (UK). Also available as a digital edition from pocketmags.com priced £6.99. Categorised under: Doctor Who Magazine, Magazine

Doctor Who Magazine, issue 627 is released today In this issue Brave heart! An in-depth chat with JANET FIELDING who played the irrepressible Tegan opposite the Fourth and Fifth Doctors. ALEX KINGSTON talks about playing River Song alongside the Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors, as well as her on-going audio adventures with Big Finish, and her new book Stormcage. Meet MILES TAYLOR, who is assuming the role of the Eleventh Doctor in a new range of audio dramas! Monster actor RICHARD PRICE shares his memories of playing Cybermen, a Sea Devil and a Scaly Man! 40 Years of Fundraising! Looking back at the incredible artistry and charitable work of the Hyde fundraisers – including their contribution to last year’s season finale. We examine the forbidden text of the Veritas, in our FACT OF FICTION feature on the mind-bending Twelfth Doctor episode Extremis. Top Trumps! A stat-busting guide to Doctor Who editions of the popular card game. Back to 1985… Blake’s 7’s Paul Darrow joins the cast of Doctor Who… We assess the battle plans of the various factions in Remembrance of the Daleks. The inner workings of the Dalek City on Skaro explored! The Fifteenth Doctor and Mel learn more about the Daleks’ plans, in the latest instalment of Corruption of the Daleks… Regular features GALLIFREY GUARDIAN: the latest news including the 4K Ultra HD release of the Paul McGann TV movie. Reviews – including the latest audio releases, books and action figures. Other Worlds – the essential guide to new stories in Doctor Who’s expanded universe – featuring a chat with ANNEKE WILLS who played companion Polly. Prizes to be won – including the new Season 21 Limited Edition Blu-ray boxset! Doctor Who Magazine Issue 627 is on sale Thursday 5 March 2026 from panini.co.uk and TG Jones priced £7.99 (UK). Also available as a digital edition from pocketmags.com priced £6.99.

Doctor Who Magazine, issue 627 is released today In this issue * Brave heart! An in-depth chat with JANET FIELDING who played the irrepressible Tegan opposite the Fourth and Fifth Doctors. * ALEX KINGSTON talks about playing River Song alongside the Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors, as well as her on-going audio adventures with Big Finish, and her new book Stormcage. * Meet MILES TAYLOR, who is assuming the role of the Eleventh Doctor in a new range of audio dramas! * Monster actor RICHARD PRICE shares his memories of playing Cybermen, a Sea Devil and a Scaly Man! * 40 Years of Fundraising! Looking back at the incredible artistry and charitable work of the Hyde fundraisers – including their contribution to last year’s season finale. * We examine the forbidden text of the Veritas, in our FACT OF FICTION feature on the mind-bending Twelfth Doctor episode Extremis. * Top Trumps! A stat-busting guide to Doctor Who editions of the popular card game. * Back to 1985… Blake’s 7’s Paul Darrow joins the cast of Doctor Who… * We assess the battle plans of the various factions in Remembrance of the Daleks. * The inner workings of the Dalek City on Skaro explored! * The Fifteenth Doctor and Mel learn more about the Daleks’ plans, in the latest instalment of Corruption of the Daleks… Regular features * GALLIFREY GUARDIAN: the latest news including the 4K Ultra HD release of the Paul McGann TV movie. * Reviews – including the latest audio releases, books and action figures. * Other Worlds – the essential guide to new stories in Doctor Who’s expanded universe – featuring a chat with ANNEKE WILLS who played companion Polly. * Prizes to be won – including the new Season 21 Limited Edition Blu-ray boxset!  Doctor Who Magazine Issue 627 is on sale Thursday 5 March 2026  from panini.co.uk and TG Jones priced £7.99 (UK).  Also available as a digital edition from pocketmags.com priced £6.99.