Skip to content
TARDIS Guide

Overview

Released

Thursday, November 17, 1988

Written by

Terrance Dicks

Pages

128

Time Travel

Past

Tropes (Potential Spoilers!)

Pure Historical

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Cornwall, Earth, England

Synopsis

A 17th century Cornish town — villainous pirates roam the seas searching for treasure while the townspeople have turned to smuggling, wheeling and dealing in contraband.

Into this wild and remote place the TARDIS materializes and the Doctor and his companions find themselves caught up in the dubious activities of the locals.

When the Doctor is unwittingly given a clue to the whereabouts of the treasure the pirates are determined to extract the information — whatever the cost...

Add Review Edit Review Log a repeat

Edit date completed

Characters

How to read Doctor Who: The Smugglers:

Reviews

Add Review Edit Review

1 review

This review contains spoilers!

The Smugglers - 4/10

"You're a right couple of nutcases" grumbled Ben.

Before I actually did my run of 60s who, this is exactly what I assumed it would be. Old fashioned tropes with a very basic plot. 60s who is now one of my favourite eras, but this story is certainly a low point.

Positives

Easy reading: So far I have read two Terrance Dicks books. Strangely I found them both really easy reads despite not really enjoying the whole. There MUST be a good flow to the prose because I am always like wow I got through that fast.

Negatives

What is the point?:  I feel slightly mean saying this but it is so simplistic that it feels ultimately pointless. A companion's first trip in the TARDIS should really tell me something new about them.

Man Polly, Jamaica and other old fashioned writing tropes: The writing of these two concepts feel old fashioned. That is because this is an old story so kinda whatever but this novelisation is from the 90s right? Could we not have done something a bit more modern with these ideas? I get the impression this Novelisation doesn't add much that wasn't on-screen. 

 

 


MONK

View profile


Open in new window

Statistics

AVG. Rating238 members
3.33 / 5

GoodReads

AVG. Rating238 votes
3.33 / 5

Member Statistics

Read

22

Favourited

0

Reviewed

1

Saved

0

Skipped

3

Owned

1

Quotes

Add Quote

Submit a Quote