This is what Doctor Who looks like when all bets are off!

After a recent meeting with Alexander the Great, the Doctor, Scientist Ian Chesterton and Susan English are back in the Tardis. They’re mourning the loss of their close friend Barbara, who died thanks to the radiation poisoning they got on Skaro. That all changes, however, when Barbara suddenly walks into the room. But this Barbara is not the secretary and tutor they knew. This Barbara is a teacher from Coal Hill school. Something going wrong in time and space…

In case you didn’t really get that little summary: This book starts not with our regular cast, but with their book adaptation from “Doctor Who and an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks”. Several details were changed between the book release and the tv run, like the original origins of each character. Campaign’s use of these alternate origins early on can be seen as a mission statement: It’s going to challenge every assumption and attempt at canonicity, and it is going to get weird fast! You can constantly expect character to change names, personality, origin and behavior. Combine that with eventual bouts of long-term exile and some existentialism, and you’ve got a challenging read ahead of you.

Yet in a sense, it always feels grounded, because we constantly take the perspective of one of the characters. No matter what happens, the emotions are presented as is. Which is an interesting anchor as the world constantly shifts and shapes around our crew.

At times, this book is almost more of a creative writing exercise and less of a story. It feels unconstrained in both a physical sense and as a Doctor Who story. It is a story that will suddenly change fonts, use facts from old Doctor Who annuals, turn into a comic, give you a chapter with some drawings of robots and much, much more. In that way, it might just be the most Doctor Who story to ever exist. It can go everywhere and do anything.

Which brings me back to the reality of the book, which has to be addressed: Campaign was never officially released as part of the Doctor Who “brand”. It was planned as a Past Doctor Adventure novel, but because of deadlines, medical emergencies and changes in leadership it never came to fruition. Which is a massive shame. As far as I can tell, it also caused writer Jim Mortimore to never work for Doctor Who again, which is an even bigger shame.

However, eventually Campaign saw the light of day in an unofficial capacity, with all proceeds going to charity. For modern readers, that means you can go online and find a free pdf pretty easily and legally. So it’s not hard to get a copy of your own. It even has writer commentary for every chapter!

When reading Campaign, my brain constantly got tickled with what-ifs: What would this have looked like if made for tv? What if it had been published? Would it have influenced other writers? Would Steven Moffat have changed the way he approached time travel shenanigans if he read Campaign?

And I think that is the essence of the novel. At the very edges of this show, there exists a little book that did its own thing and went creatively wild. Even more creatively wild than Doctor Who as a series dared to go. It lives in infamy as one of the strangest pieces of media, but by being strange, it also constantly reminds you of what Doctor Who can be. If you’re ever lost in the deep fan minutiae and every piece of Doctor Who media starts to feel the same, give Campaign a go and be surprised at how many directions this show can actually take.