📝8/10

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time! 

This time: Steam, Treasure & Space Babies

MY SCATTERED AND TOTALLY IRRELEVANT NOTES:

The steam-powered planet of Starfall, with its enigmatic owner, McCavity, provides a fascinating setting. I also enjoyed the pirate elements, including the mythical Captain Hemlock Glint, the black shadow that claims many victims, the treasure, and the spaceship designs inspired by pirate ships.

Bobb, Jimm, and Silver Sally are fun supporting characters—at least until our perception of them shifts later in the story.

Justin Richards leans a bit too heavily on Ten's quirky traits, and I don’t think he fully captures the Doctor’s mannerisms. However, considering the limited reference material available to him at the time, I can overlook this. His portrayal of Ten is still stronger than his characterisation of Nine in The Clockwise Man.

The chatty, reluctant monster Kevin, who’s forced to act as a contract killer, felt a bit too comical for the tone of the story. His sarcastic, almost muppet-like personality seemed out of place. However, his true nature, revealed later in the book, redeems him somewhat. Strangely, I kept picturing him as Blue from the movie IF (2024).

It’s enjoyable to see the Doctor lead an expedition to track down Hemlock Glint, complete with a robotic crew and a ship of his own.

One of the more striking twists involves Sally, who has replaced her broken robotic parts with human ones, rather than the other way around. While the reveal that Glint's old crew has essentially become the Doctor's robotic crew is a bit predictable, Sally still stands out as one of the more compelling villains in the New Series Adventures (NSA) range. Her clear motives, unrepentant vileness, and grim fate make her memorable.

Unfortunately, the story devolves into a standard chase narrative by the halfway mark, failing to make full use of its intriguing concepts. For instance, Starfall and the space sharks could have been explored in greater depth.

McCavity, the grief-stricken madman seeking salvation through the Resurrection Casket, emerges as a compelling figure. His gradual shift from ally to antagonist is engaging, and his ultimate fate—reminiscent of Benton’s experience in The Time Monster—is satisfying.

The climactic action sequence, where Kevin tries to attack the Doctor while they simultaneously attempt to solve Kevin’s unfinished crossword puzzle, is a highlight. The creative use of the psychic paper here is also a nice touch.

The story loses some momentum toward the end. We never truly meet Glint (or at least not in the expected way), and the Resurrection Casket turns out to be a machine that de-ages people—similar to the TOMTIT device in The Time Monster. However, the final twists were surprising and enjoyable.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

• The use of human body parts to repair robotic components bears some resemblance to the events in The Girl in the Fireplace.

I absolutely adore this book. This book is so 10/10 it’s ridiculous. I read it in one day. Every character in this book is great, and the humor is spot on. I properly, actually grinned during the Doctor and “Kevin’s” first meeting. Almost every NSA has a Doctor and companionless cold open which introduces characters/problems the Doctor and companion will run into later. Usually it’s five pages of basically waiting for the book to actually start. This was the first one I can remember that actually hooked me immediately. Normally I take notes when reading the NSAs, but I was so absorbed I went basically halfway through the book without writing anything down. If you only read a few NSAs, be sure to read this one, especially if you’re a Rose fan.

The Resurrection Casket is an excellent example of a strong, solid Doctor Who story, that is entertaining, moves along quickly, has good antagonists, but also doesn't particularly amaze but it's just a solidly written bundle of fun, one which I can see myself rereading as it was simply that, fun. I did find the plot somewhat predictable and had guessed some of the twists a while beforehand but that did not subtract from my enjoyment, and all the side characters are entertaining. The world is nicely fleshed out, and I was somewhat surprised we never got to the mystery of the zeg, but I also like that it is left a mystery, builds the world nicely. I also love the conclusions for all the characters, I feel it all wraps up nicely.

A solid 8/10.

4.5/5

Truthfully this is a book that I struggled to decide on a score for; it’s a fairly average story really with nothing revolutionary going on, possibly deserving of a 3-3.5 rating *however* I don’t think I have experienced another book that does ‘mid-series average story’ in such a well-rounded manner.

Interesting premise and characters, lot of fun to read, a couple of standout scenes later on and ultimately no specific criticisms while reading. I have given this book a 4.5 rating, but ultimately, I suppose, it’s dependent on how each person views review score, either as a scale of how well the book meets its objective (of being a fun mid series story with established characters) or how interesting/enjoyable was the book in the context of other stories.

If you asked me for the best or most interesting Doctor Who books, The Resurrection Casket probably wouldn’t get a mention; but if you asked me for fun revival Doctor Who stories – this would be the first book I send you to.