The Good Doctor marks my first venture into the novel world of the 13th Doctor. I loved Jodie Whitaker’s characterisation on TV, as well as the dynamics between her ‘fam’ of Graham, Ryan and Yaz (although I do think the whole ‘fam’ thing was a bit cringey). My hope was that the book authors would be able to catch the sheer joy of this team and for The Good Doctor, Juno Dawson certainly does it.

Dawson is also one of the creatives behind the podcast series Redacted – a Doctor Who spin off which definitely deserves far more attention than it gets – and it also has a central cast that are joyous and energetic.

The most enjoyable aspect of The Good Doctor is the 13th Doctor. Dawson’s writing positively brims with Whitaker’s energy. She barrels around the story making friends, fighting injustice and battling injustice and always doing it with a smile on her face. This is doubly remarkable because, apparently, the book was written before The Woman Who Fell to Earth was aired and Dawson only had script extracts to work from.

The space a book also allows Dawson to give all of the TARDIS crew plenty to do – something which, unfortunately, the TV series never quite managed during Series 11 and 12. Splitting everyone up with the elan of a classic series adventure, gives each person a decent chunk of the story. Yaz and Ryan both get to team up with different factions fighting the injustices of the planet they are on and Graham gets a great role, literally, to play with.

The story which gives Graham such a good ‘part’ involves a bit of The Face of Evil mixed with The Ark and a dash of The Aztecs. We join the Doctor and friends on the planet Lobos where they have just successfully united it’s dog-like inhabitants, the Loba and human colonists, preventing a war between them.

Returning 100 years later to retrieve Ryan’s misplaced phone, they discover the entire planet has descended into a religious totalitarian state where the Loba are treated as slaves by a brotherhood of misogynistic monks who follow the law of the Good Doctor.

But it isn’t the Doctor they worship – it’s Graham. A misinterpreted remnant of the TARDIS crew’s previous visit has led to Graham being believed to be the Doctor and then, as is often the way with humans, layer upon layer of lie and misinformation is added to the myth to create a society where a racist, bigoted elite rule with fear.

Graham is forced to go along with the ruse, initially to save their skins and then as the story progresses, with a hope that he can put the world back to how they left it. Much as Barbara was frustrated in her efforts to change Aztec culture, eventually Graham has to admit defeat.

Because of how misogynistic the society has become, Dawson gets to play a little with the Doctor’s gender change. The Doctor, briefly renamed as The Nurse, finds herself being ignored and patronised and, to begin with, going along with it – sharing in Graham’s hope that he can make a difference. When that starts to go pear-shaped she steps up and takes control. The two halves are both a lot of fun.

Her main adversary is Mykados, the High Priest of the Temple of Tordos (do you see what happened there). He’s an oily, nasty piece of work who strongly reminded me of the way the actor Will Keen portrayed Father MacPhail in the phenomenal TV adaptation of the His Dark Materials trilogy. Like all good villains he is mocked by the Doctor but also treated seriously as a threat when the story demands it. He quickly sees through Graham’s ruse but plays along for long enough to give Graham time to start lacking in credibility as the Good Doctor.

That the rest of the Mykados’s order quickly turn against him at the climax of the story speaks volumes as to how twisted his worldview had become; a fact emphasised by the young monk, Tempika who has already defected to the rebellion and is feeding them information. It becomes clear within hours of arriving that very few of Lobos’s inhabitants are actually very happy with the state of affairs.

The Loba, as a species, is fairly one note – they’re dogs, and a off the cuff comment by Graham, 100 years ago, about dogs being ‘man’s best friend’ was the first seed of the Tordos religion. Apparently they are descended from the DNA of Laika, the first dog into space, but I couldn’t help but picture them as variations on Karvanista – one of my favourite characters from Flux.

The rebels also don’t really break any stereotypes for this type of story – there’s even the mixed race loba/human character – an aspect I think a little more could have been made of.

Fortunately, these are minor gripes in a story which was entertaining throughout. I hope the other, small number, of 13th Doctor novels capture the fun and adventure of Thirteen’s era as well as this one does.

I would absolutely call this the best Doctor Who novel that I have yet read, and it’s a major highlight of the 13th Doctor era. It combines a breakneck pace with unsubtle yet biting social commentary. The supporting characters are a product of this, but they are also very great characters. The fam all have moments where they individually shine. Juno Dawson’s writing is awesome