Introduction

I'm unsure how controversial this review will be, but looking at the other reviews for this book, which range from 4-5 stars, this is likely to stand out as a less-than-positive take on the novel.

Fear of the Dark is by Trevor Baxendale. An author I really don't like as a person. And it doesn't help that I haven't really enjoyed any of his contributions to Doctor Who that I have previously read.

But I did have fairly high hopes for this book as it was the Fifth Doctor book chosen to be reprinted for BBC Books' 50th Anniversary Collection. I should have known I was going to be disappointed, as this was the same run of reprints that selected Only Human as one of the 'best' Ninth Doctor novels. (Another well-regarded book that I really didn't enjoy, also written by a disgusting person)

Tone and Monsters

I think the reason many people like this book is because it's 'dark', 'brutal', 'edgy', and 'terrifying'.

Now, I'm not averse to dark stories (Extremis is one of my absolute favourite episodes, and that's horrifyingly bleak), and this story is literally all about the Dark.

The Dark itself, a strange creature seemingly made of shadows, is a good enough concept, but I just felt like it was underused, and wasn't even very interesting.

The odd Bloodhunter creature provides a lot of the story's gore. And I really didn't like the gore.

I'm not against gruesome moments in Who but this novel just goes too far. As in, it just keeps trying to shock the reader, but each death is so similar that it just gets boring. It just felt a bit unnecessary.

Characters

Oh god.

The side characters in Fear of the Dark are awful. I couldn't stand them! But more on them later.

The TARDIS team of Five, Tegan, and Nyssa isn't one I'm overly familiar with, but I have had a good bit of experience with them, and I've liked what I've seen of them.

But in this book, I only liked one character. The Doctor was irritating, and Tegan was just there yelling. Nyssa was the sole reason I was reading this book, as she was the singular likeable character in a 288 page novel.

Of course, Baxendale doesn't want me to have nice things, so he decides to just relegate Nyssa to more of a plot device than an actual character.

And now we come to the side cast. They are probably the worst thing about this book for me.

We have Jyl Stoker, a character that I wanted to punch; Vega Jaal, who was actually kind of interesting, but killed off far too early; Bunny Cheung, someone who only exists to elicit some sadness in the reader; Lawrence and Cadwell, who are two different characters, but I kept getting confused as to who was who, so similar and unlikeable are these characters; and Ravus Oldeman, who is indeed an old man.

All of these side characters die. And not once did I care for them.

Prose and Dialogue

There was some nice prose in the book but it was overshadowed by some terrible dialogue, spoken by terrible characters.

Conclusion

As you have probably gathered, I hate this book.

I try my best to be positive about all things Doctor Who, but I'd be lying if I said I at least had an enjoyable time reading this novel.

Reading Fear of the Dark actually made me feel like I was in the novel; I was experiencing a disaster.