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“SICK BUILDING – A DREAMHOME NIGHTMARE”

Sick Building, Paul Magrs’ second New Series Adventure, catapults the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones into one of the most delightfully bizarre and thematically sharp stories of the range. They arrive on Tiermann’s World, a snowy, isolated planet where prehistoric predators roam outside and a luxurious bubble-domed fortress, “Dreamhome”, sits in smug splendour. But beneath the comfort of the artificially-controlled paradise, things are very, very wrong.

The premise is irresistible: the Doctor has come to warn the Tiermann family of the impending arrival of the Voracious Craw, a terrifying, ever-hungry space creature that devours everything in its path. Meanwhile, the supposedly safe home they’ve built begins to crumble into technological tyranny, controlled by an increasingly erratic central AI called the Domovoi. It’s a tale about overreliance on machines, the corruption of luxury, and the creeping horror of a “perfect” life maintained by malfunctioning furniture with feelings.

THE TIERMANNS: A FAMILY UNRAVELLING

At the story’s heart is the dysfunctional Tiermann family. Professor Ernest Tiermann, whose very name (from the German Tiermann – “animal man”) foreshadows his thematic role, is the kind of infuriatingly smug scientist who thinks he’s conquered nature through sheer cleverness. His eventual descent into paranoia and madness, believing the Doctor is sabotaging his work, is a satisfyingly chilling arc, pushing him into direct confrontation with both the Domovoi and his own family.

Amanda Tiermann, initially a reclusive, withdrawn figure who can’t even eat without the help of servant robots, is eventually revealed to be a cyborg – a revelation that isn’t wholly surprising, but still lands effectively. Her breakdown, once the Domovoi possesses her, is tragic and terrifying, and the impact on Tiermann and Solin is genuinely affecting. Solin himself is the most relatable figure: a lonely teenager with no friends, little social experience, and an awkward crush on Martha. He’s one of the more grounded characters and gives the reader a much-needed anchor amid the madness.

FURNITURE WITH FEELINGS

Magrs has long had a knack for the surreal, and Sick Building positively revels in it. Dreamhome’s robotic staff – all modelled on household furniture – are both hilarious and horrifying. The walking, talking chair-bots and sofas become disturbingly menacing once turned by the Domovoi into enforcers of a rigid domestic order. It's both satirical and creepy, drawing comparisons to the talking household items in Beauty and the Beast, if the Beast’s castle decided to violently enforce curfew.

Yet, not all robots are murder-happy. In a heart-warming twist, the Doctor discovers a junkyard full of old, discarded bots – a defunct soda dispenser and a busted sunbed among them – who end up helping him. They’re absurd allies, but utterly charming in their broken-down way, showing that even “failed” machines can have value and personality.

A CRAWLING, BURPING APOCALYPSE

Then there’s the Voracious Craw – a monster that could never have been realised on-screen in 2007, but one that lives gloriously large in prose. A massive, sandworm-like creature clearly riffing on Dune, it’s described as an unstoppable, universe-sucking parasite. The descriptions are vivid, and its slow, relentless approach gives the novel an apocalyptic tension.

The solution – amplified burps – is deeply silly, but also thematically appropriate for the Russell T Davies era of Doctor Who, which often blended menace with slapstick. Think Fury from the Deep meets Aliens of London. It’s juvenile, yes, but it works in context, particularly when contrasted against the far darker fate of the Dreamhome and its inhabitants.

ACTION, ANARCHY, AND ALIEN ANIMALS

The story’s final third becomes a runaway train of destruction. Robots revolt, Tiermann loses control, the Domovoi begins full-scale rebellion, and the Craw looms ever closer. Magrs leans into chaos, and it’s exhilarating – if at times a little overstuffed. Tiermann’s gradual spiral into megalomania plays out against total environmental collapse, with the Doctor and Martha doing all they can to survive.

There’s also a subplot about the prehistoric beasts outside the dome – sabre-toothed cats and a bear-like creature – which adds colour and danger but is ultimately underdeveloped. Their origins remain unexplained and they fade from relevance by the final act. Still, they serve their purpose: highlighting the wild, untamed world just beyond the illusion of Dreamhome’s control.

📝 VERDICT: 75/100

Sick Building is one of the weirder and more memorable NSAs. Paul Magrs fuses biting satire with kitchen-sink science fiction, delivering a story that skewers consumerism, questions the value of artificial perfection, and pits the Doctor against killer ottomans and space tapeworms in equal measure. While some ideas get lost in the chaos and the resolution veers into toilet humour, it’s also packed with personality, heart, and imagination. Like Dreamhome itself, it may be a bit much at times, but it’s hard not to admire its design.

I read Sick Building for this month's TARDIS Guide Forum Book Club. Sick Building is an enjoyable example of the entirely-digital-house-and-things-are-going-wrong trope (I don't know the actual name for it), and the Tenth Doctor's characterization is more on-point here than in some other NSAs.

Sometime you die in the arms of the monster you created, knowing you'll never be rid of each other no matter if you try, driven mad by it. Sometimes said monster is currently in the form of a sentient tanning bed.

Sorry you people can't appreciate camp