Wooden Heart is a fun, pacey read with a good central mystery, a satisfying conclusion and a well-characterised Doctor, Martha and guest cast.

The Doctor and Martha materialise aboard an abandoned prison space station. The initial chapters of them exploring this setting a depicted well so when they step through a door and find themselves in the middle of a forest, the sudden change of scenery is palpable.

The village of people they find in this forest are an intriguing group. The traumatic disappearance of their children, one at a time, night after night is a great mystery and adds another layer to what is a story that already has some good mysterious threads already. The danger would be that these different threads compete against each other but Day balances them well. The abandoned prison is more or less forgotten about but only until the Doctor later passes back into that reality, leaving Martha behind in the forest world. The forest world, its monsters and exactly how it comes to be in the middle of a space station is compelling enough to drive the narrative before the two worlds come back together.

The best character in the village is the wise woman, the Dazai. One of those characters familiar in Doctor Who stories, who sees more than she should rightly know, she has a fun dynamic with all the characters she meets, especially the Doctor.

There are some great set pieces too. Martha and two villagers, Petr and Saul's perilous journey across the lake to a forbidden island is exciting. The Doctor and Jude's (another villager's) revelations aboard the prison station are also entertaining. The villagers congregating for safety in the village hall, lit by candles and surrounded by a mysterious fog from which the forms of their missing children emerge.

Indeed, the whole theme of missing children is one which I always think affects me far more since becoming a parent to when I read similarly-themed stories before that life event. The fear that their child may be next is palpable in those scenes with the villagers.

I also really liked the jeopardy around the Doctor and Martha being trapped in the wooded world when it disappears because of how the Doctor deduces that it extends beyond the actual spaceship also adds a great tension to the story.

A slightly messy soap opera-esque plotline where Jude turns out to be the child of an affair manages not to detract to much from the story but it's not something the novel really needed as the mystery and two 'worlds' of the story are more than enough to maintain interest and create a satisfying conclusion.

This is the sort of story that would fit perfectly as a middle episode in the RTD era. Nothing groundbreaking but a solid, fun, well-paced adventure.

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

“WOODEN HEART: THE FOREST THAT SHOULDN’T EXIST”

Wooden Heart starts with one of those classic Doctor Who premises that just works—an abandoned spaceship drifting in the void, full of corpses and mysteries, yet all systems inexplicably still running. The setup is eerie, unsettling, and intriguing, and then the book drops its central hook: somewhere deep in the ship lies a full-blown forest, complete with flora, fauna, and a human community that has somehow been living there for centuries. It’s a brilliant twist, and one that sets the tone for an atmospheric, philosophical tale.

TEN AND MARTHA: A DREAM TEAM IN A DREAM WORLD

David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor is very well captured here, full of quick-fire logic, curiosity, and compassion. Martha also gets a good showing—resourceful, brave, and empathetic. Their dynamic is strong throughout, and both characters feel like they’ve stepped straight off the screen.

The mystery unfolds slowly, but with a steady hand. The strange forest society believes they’ve always lived on the ship, and some of their children have recently vanished. As the Doctor and Martha investigate, they (and the reader) are left to wonder: are these people real? Is the forest a dream? A projection? Another dimension? The novel wisely lets the tension build while layering the mystery with each new chapter.

A CAST LOST IN THE TREES

Supporting characters here are a mixed bunch. Jude, the young girl who bonds with the Doctor and Martha, is the standout—hopeful, inquisitive, and a bright light in an otherwise fairly forgettable ensemble. Dazai, the wise leader, Saul the hardened warrior, and Kristine the gentle soul are archetypes rather than personalities, which is a shame considering how much page time they’re given.

The story occasionally brings in monsters—strange, spectral creatures lurking in the shadows. These scenes are vividly described and inject a needed jolt of energy into the otherwise moody pacing. One extended action sequence aboard a boat in the latter half of the book involving terrifying sea creatures is particularly strong and cinematic—something you’d never expect to see realised on TV at the time, and all the better for it.

A DREAMSCAPE MADE OF GUILT AND MEMORY

The forest, the monsters, even the people—they’re all products of the ship’s rehabilitation software, which creates phantom worlds and dreamscapes drawn from emotions and memories. There’s a prisoner on board—an alien dimensional traveller—whose psychic abilities were being used to help rehabilitate criminals by drawing out their inner pain and guilt. But it backfired, and all that negativity eventually coalesced into a monstrous Black Angel that turned violent and began killing off the crew.

It’s a compelling concept, one that invites comparison to stories like The Mind of Evil, where psychological rehabilitation via alien technology has dangerous consequences. And like The Price of Paradise, this is another story about a small human tribe forming its own culture and mythology while isolated from Earth—though here, the execution leans more towards meditative worldbuilding than social critique.

TOO MUCH FLUFF, BUT A STRONG PAYOFF

If the book has a flaw, it’s the pacing. The prose style is surprisingly dry and overly descriptive in places, with some chapters dragging under the weight of worldbuilding fluff. The early intrigue risks getting lost in exposition-heavy chapters, and some of the inner monologues sap the story’s momentum. But once the pieces start falling into place, the second half pays off with a strong blend of action, atmosphere, and thematic weight.

📝VERDICT: 6/10

Wooden Heart offers a rich, eerie sci-fi mystery that combines psychological horror with speculative wonder. Though it’s occasionally too slow for its own good and features a forgettable supporting cast, it nails the tone of Ten and Martha, delivers one of the more memorable spaceship settings in the New Series Adventures, and unpacks some genuinely thoughtful ideas. A dreamscape built from guilt, a forest made from memory, and a Doctor who refuses to give up on even the strangest worlds—this one’s worth the journey.

This was such a fun book. As always, it’s a joy to see the Doctor and Martha working as a duo.  I thought the ending was a little anticlimactic, but the rest of the book was so enjoyable that I’d still definitely recommend it. The book explores some really interesting concepts, with an exciting mystery set against a backdrop about what it means to be “real.”