Stories Book Target Collection Doctor Who: The Smugglers 1 image Overview Characters How to Read Reviews 1 Statistics Related Stories Quotes 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... Read Read Favourite Favourited Add Review Edit Review Log a repeat Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Owned Save to my list Saved Edit date completed Custom Date Release Date Archive (no date) Save Characters First Doctor Ben Jackson Polly Wright Show All Characters (3) How to read Doctor Who: The Smugglers: Books The Smugglers Reviews Add Review Edit Review Sort: Date (Newest First) Date (Oldest First) Likes (High-Low) Likes (Low-High) Rating (High-Low) Rating (Low-High) Word count (High-Low) Word count (Low-High) Username (A-Z) Username (Z-A) Spoilers First Spoilers Last 1 review 3 February 2025 · 219 words Review by MONK Spoilers 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 Like Liked 0 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 Related Stories Other adaptations of this story: We define an adaptation as a recreation of a similar story but on a different medium or with different characters. Classic Who S4 • Serial 1 · (0/4 episodes intact) The Smugglers Rating: 2.56 Story Skipped Television Reviews(8) More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: Doctor Who Season 4 Set of Stories: First Doctor Set of Stories: Doctor Who (1963-1996) Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved Quotes Add Quote Submit a Quote