The Banquo Legacy is an unusual Doctor Who novel, but also a very good one. It details the Doctor, Fitz and Compassion’s troubles in England, 1898 when they are forced down by Time Lord technology.

What makes this novel unusual is that very little of the book is from the point of view of any of our regulars. The entire books, save for short sections at the beginning and the end, is written as accounts from two contemporaries of 1898 – John Hopkinson, a lawyer, and Stratford, a police inspector.

The story alternates between their written reports driving the story forwards and often relaying the same events from their different points of view.

Hopkinson has been invited to Banquo Manor to witness a scientific experiment by a man called Richard Harries. Also in attendance are Harries’s sister, Catherine; the owner of the house, George Wallace and his wife, Elizabeth; Harries’s fiancee Susan Seymour; the butler Simpson and the maid Beryl.

Stratford arrives at the manor to investigate the death of Harries when the experiment goes horribly wrong. His investigations into the death are superceded, however, by the strange development of events involving further deaths and the reanimation of Harries’s charred, deformed corpse.

And in amongst all this are the out of place figures of Dr Friedlander and his associate Herr Kreiner. Having been stranded here, the Doctor adopts the guise of Dr Friedlander and, accompanied by Fitz, gatecrash the scientific demonstration.

But what of Compassion. Cleverly, she, as a human TARDIS in trouble, has latched on to a nearby human, close in form to Compassion herself, and merged with her as a safety protocol. Consequently, Compassion ‘becomes’ Harries’s fiancee Susan Seymour.

Unfortunately, this does leave the book Compassion-less for most of its word count. This is a shame because I don’t know that I’ve ever really got a handle on Compassion as a companion but there are some parts where Compassion’s personality reasserts itself over Susan’s which result in interesting reactions from the other characters.

However, without Compassion, we should be left with the Doctor and Fitz as our familar touchstones. But with the way the book is written from the point of view of Hopkinson and Stratford, they actually feature less in the book than a reader may expect. In fact, the Doctor disappears wholesale part way through and Fitz often lurks in the background rather than being front and centre to the story.

Stratford is more concerned with the death of Harries and Hopkinson has his own private agenda, both of which dominate the story, as well as both men pursuing the affections of Susan Seymour. The Doctor and Fitz remain elusive figures that neither man can really get a handle on and so we, as readers, become more familiar with the characters that are familiar to the two narrators – particularly Baker, Stratford’s local police colleague.

Another elusive figure in the story is the vaguely mysterious butler, Simpson. He hides quite a large secret which has implications for the overall story arc of this period of 8th Doctor novels. The revelation of his identity does get slightly lost in the telling as it is coming from the point of view of Hopkinson and Stratford who, understandably, don’t fully understand the implications of what the Doctor and Fitz realise about him.

So, a Doctor Who story that doesn’t feature the regulars front and centre and one that is told from the point of view of two guest characters might sound like a recipe for disaster. However, if the modern TV show has taught us anything, it’s that ‘Doctor-lite’ stories can be hugely successful. Whilst this isn’t really a ‘Doctor-lite’ in the same way as stories such as Blink or Turn Left, or even previous novels which played with the format such as Birthright, this does almost push the Doctor, Fitz and Compassion into the background. The ‘science-fiction’ elements are brushed over because the narrators can’t truly comprehend what is happening and the Doctor doesn’t offer any concrete explanations for what is going on at the manor house.

But, despite all this, The Banquo Legacy is an excellent read. It tears along at a thrilling pace, aided by the regular switching between narrators. Hopkinson, with his hidden agenda, and dependable and open-minded Stratford and his developing bond with Baker, are great characters to be in the company of and the rest of the guest cast add colour.

Although the Doctor and Fitz aren’t hugely present, they are still written well and the 8th Doctor in particular, sings from the page. It’s a credit to Justin Richards and Andy Lane, the dual authors of this book, that the book feels so cohesive bearing in mind the fact that they did as one might expect, each write one of the two narrators. It’s also quite mad that this started life as a non-Doctor Who TV concept that Richards and Lane dusted off when Rebecca Levene’s planned novel, Freaks, fell through. As a story it feels like it has Doctor Who at its core, what with the uncanny central mystery, the Victorian winter setting and the upstairs/downstairs cast of characters. That said, Richards, in particular, is an author who I feel can’t help to be influenced by Who. His range of children’s books – The Invisible Detective – also have a Doctor Who vibe and riff on quite a few concepts from the series. Normally, I find Richards’ books a bit underwhelming but this one is easily one of my favourites – although I’ve always enjoyed Lane’s work, so maybe that helps to balance out Richards’ prose.

This was a novel I didn’t go into with huge expectations, partly I think because I knew of its rather rushed production, but it was a good read and, I think, something of a palate cleanser before the ‘finale’ of The Ancestor Cell.