As my first Doctor Who Novel, I may have some bias to it, but my God, Scratchman is just so good. I can totally see why many of its Idea would have suited a Film very well (if I recall correctly, the Core Idea of this Novel was pitched as a Film first around the Mid 70s, but I could be wrong). Its use of Cybermen is creative and creepy. There are just so many Things I could point out that I love with this book!

The Fourth Doctor is one that, while I really like, but can easily get burned out by, personally speaking. Here? He's just done so perfectly, no Wonder considering Tom Baker had a massive Writing Input with it! One part of this book, which I really like, is how we really delve into the Psyche of this Doctor, something which does happen more rarely with 4.

Its Prose is compelling, its Dialogue has enough bite to it and overall it's such a Blast to read this one.

Normally I'm quite a slow reader and I also like to read multiple books simultaneously so reading a book of this size would normally have taken me a few weeks (months.................maybe a year) to finish, but in rare form once I started reading I couldn't stop and managed the whole thing in a day. This is probably the most quintessential Fourth Doctor story ever written as it all comes from the mind of the man himself Tom Baker, albeit with James Goss ghost writing and based on an idea for an unproduced Doctor Who movie Tom had with Ian Marter during his first year. It starts off true to form for the Fourth Doctor era with a base under siege in an isolated English village that carries that little touch of Philip Hinchcliffe's Gothic horror. But then in it's second half it goes completely demented, like The Mind Robber from Hell kind of demented. Doctor Who movies are always wonderful ideas to speculate on but let's be honest, what the second half involves would never have had the proper budget to fully realise. The whole theme is centred on fear and the various forms it takes with the Doctor pushed to his physical and mental limits against a supernatural force claiming to be the Devil. I do absolutely adore this story and love Tom Baker, but it is kind of true to Baker's ego having his Doctor go up against the Devil and defeat him in such a smug toothy-grinned manner. But that's just what we love about Tom Baker and the Fourth Doctor in general, yes he is the most iconic Doctor of all time, and he knows it! We also get some surprising cameos that are very welcome editions to this epic. If you're a Fourth Doctor fan this is a must own for your collection.

A delight to read

Ngl I was expecting more it just want really clicking the switch in my head half the time didn’t feel that engaged with it there where some scenes I liked with the toucher scene for example but that’s about it really

Not many Doctor Who books could say they are written by the Doctor himself, but here we are, with a book by a former Doctor.

And simply put, it's just brilliant. Tom Baker effortlessly captures the voices of the Fourth Doctor, Sarah and Harry from the very start, and delivers a book that is creepy one minute, stark raving bonkers the next.

Which feels like a perfect description of Tom Baker's era really. It had these brilliant dark moments, but also these totally barmy ideas that suited his Doctor like a tea.

There are some nice surprises from some, shall we say, familiar faces (including one from the Doctor's future), and a wildly inventive pinball game, but my favourite moment without a doubt was reading about the scarecrows terrorising the village, in 'Book One'. It feels so authentically 'Doctor Who', and like something that would slot with ease into Philip Hinchcliffe's time as producer, that I wish we had got to see this scarecrow horror onscreen (although we did get something similar with Series 3's Human Nature/Family of Blood).