Fun, magical and charming from the very first page.

Using the TARDIS team really well, an excellent piece to continue the challenging dynamic with Turlough. Throughout, I was theorising what was happening, and was pleasantly surprised with the conclusion. Wonderland feels a perfectly natural setting for Doctor Who, and the characters inhabit the universe effortlessly.

Magrs also just gets the characters well, which helps the prose and characterisation flow - however, I often felt Nyssa a little under served.

It's surprising just how long it took for someone to actually go for this idea, I mean there's certainly been Doctor Who stories that have that Alice in Wonderland madness to it like The Mind Robber, but to actually have that crossover event with the famous Lewis Carroll novel, you'd think this would've been something they got to sooner. In the Black Guardian's latest scheme to have Turlough kill the Doctor (as I've always said in the Black Guardian trilogy, why can't he just kill the Doctor in the here and now? Cos he's a very inept Guardian that's why), he causes an accident on the TARDIS console that brings them to 19th century Oxford where what starts out as an ordinary tea party spirals into a world of madness as the characters from Alice in Wonderland come to life.

This absolutely delivers on its premise of mixing Doctor Who with Alice in Wonderland, splitting up our main characters allows them to explore more of Wonderland and brings in all your old favourites, the Cheshire Cat, the March Hare, the Mad Hatter and of course the White Rabbit who seems to have more to him than what he appears as is the Queen of Hearts who's all in black and has a keen eye on the Doctor's head. But the story also incorporates some of the real world aspects of Alice in Wonderland such as the creator himself under his real name and even brings in the woman modelled on Alice. In a lot of ways it's a love letter to everything that makes Alice in Wonderland a favourite among so many people. One thing I would've liked was characters from Carroll's other written works, we of course get the ones we all recognise from Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass but it would've been neat to have had some nods and appearances from other stories written by Lewis Carroll such as Sylvie & Bruno, especially considering how it's one of the earliest literary references to time travel.

Absolutely a fun read.

Hey, I'm just glad to have gotten a new Fifth Doctor book! It was fun to follow this constantly put-upon TARDIS team around getting into mischief. Glad there's still more of this series being written.

A Fifth Doctor story based on Alice in Wonderland and written by Paul Magrs was always going to appeal to me, so from the very first announcement I had my eyes on this book. I am pleased then, that I can call this book an utter delight.

Arriving in Oxford, The Doctor, Tegan, Nyssa, and Turlough meet Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, and very quickly find themselves caught up in an adventure straight out of his works.

Paul Magrs makes it clear from the beginning that he knows his stuff, as he writes our TARDIS travellers flawlessly, while incorporating elements of the Alice stories in a delightful manner.

The Doctor (who introduces himself as Doctor Who within the story) gets swallowed by a Jabberwock, drinks a potion labelled “drink me”, and meets up with Alice herself. He rarely sleeps, but when he does, he usually bursts awake with a great long list of things he wants to get done. He’ll happily play cricket, as long as it doesn’t involve exploding hedgehogs.

Tegan, much like Charley, holds fond memories of Alice in Wonderland from her childhood, and finds herself matched up with The Mad Hatter, The March Hare, and the Dormouse (from her favourite chapter of the story), who are well characterised and fun across the story, to the point where it’s something of a shame when reality is reasserted and the Dormouse is returned to a normal mouse (albeit one with a fondness for tea). She listens for the mocking laugh of The Mara deep inside her soul.

Nyssa and Turlough are paired up for most of the story, the latter being sickened by Nyssa’s optimism, refusing to take the situation seriously or show respect to any of Wonderland’s inhabitants – which gets him kicked out of a tea party, and nearly loses him his head. It is Turlough, under the Black Guardian’s orders, who creates the situation, spilling a potion into the TARDIS console. After mentioning Adric, The Black Guardian tells him that the Doctor didn’t save him because he doesn’t care for those he travels with. The Guardian hears Adric’s lonely screams in the Abyss.

Overall, Paul Magrs delivers a delightful story, packed with love for the Fifth Doctor and the Alice in Wonderland books, which will leave you struggling to put the book down until the end.

10/10

👍🏼(7.3) = GOOD!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

In Wonderland begins like any other adventure, as the TARDIS takes our friends to London in the 1860s to go to a tea party with Lewis Carroll, the Queen, and people looking a lot like various animals.

Paul Magrs demonstrates a great understanding of the Season 20 TARDIS team; he effortlessly introduces readers to Five, Turlough, Nyssa, and Tegan as if this were a lost story from that season.

It's interesting that this simply isn't a retelling of Alice in Wonderland with Doctor Who elements; it’s a Doctor Who story with distinctive Alice in Wonderland (and Alice Through the Looking Glass) elements.

What's fun is that this story is almost as wild as Carroll's books. You meet strange characters in surprising situations, and the narrative twists and turns and keeps on moving all the time.

Eventually, the story changes a bit more as Tegan begins interfering with the established story and the Doctor suddenly meets the real-life elderly Alice on a cruise liner to America in 1932.

We slowly learn that whatever is going on is connected to Alice, Carroll, and the original Alice in Wonderland script.

The story does fall off a bit towards the end, and the companions don't do much.

The Black Guardian is the villain, but he mostly acts through others. The Jabberwocky and the Red Queen don't quite feel villainous.

Despite being a kids' book, In Wonderland isn't too naive in its language, and it flows effortlessly.