For an episode I liked but that’s about it, I didn’t expect to love the novelisation even more than 73 Yards. It’s mostly the same story, but it really dives into Rogue’s character, giving him his own prologue, showing more of his life with his former partner, how he lives with his grief. The title is apt because it really is more Rogue’s story. It does have some of the same core issues like Rogue and the Doctor being in love after only a couple hours but it was still a very enjoyable read that helped breath a little extra life into a fairly solid episode. It achieves exactly what the Target Novels should set out for.

Given how much I loved 73 Yards, I already had high hopes for the Target novel going in and it didn’t disappoint. Everything I loved about the episode is reflected in this one, but one key strength is because it’s a long read, it does really feel like you go on a long journey with Ruby through her ordeal, which makes it all the more satisfying when you get to the ending and her resolution. We get some added details into Ruby’s life as she learns to live with the entity and how it affects others around her. Scott Handcock does a commendable job adapting one of the most mysterious and unexplained scripts of the show and turns it into something with significantly more depth but still keeps that air of mystery. If you love the episode, or even if you don’t but still felt there was something there with the idea, give this one a read.

So here we are with my pick for the Fifteenth Doctor’s best episode, it truly is like being back in the 2000s as yet again we have Steven Moffat pulling off the series-best with his first episode since 2017. Seriously, imagine a fan falling into a coma in 2008 and waking up in 2024, to them, Russell’s still the showrunner, David Tennant only left the prior year, and Steven Moffat is still writing the best episode per series! Honestly this episode made me realise just how much I’ve missed Moffat, not even the Moffat who left in 2017, I mean the Moffat of the 2000s who was writing without the constraints of being the showrunner. In old school Moffat form, he takes a simple question about the Doctor and writes a story around it, that being the Doctor’s habit of running all the time, but what if you take that ability away from him. Upon landing on a planet in the midst of a battle, the Doctor hears a cry for help from outside and runs out. But within moments of exiting the TARDIS he freezes, realising to his horror that he’s standing on a landmine. This landmine in particular can explode with varying levels of force depending on who it’s blowing up, and in typical Moffat glorifying the Doctor fashion, blowing up a Time Lord will mean destroying the planet itself.

It’s an unnecessary way of raising the stakes, I mean the Doctor’s on a landmine and powerless to help anyone including Ruby. Blowing up the planet just feels like overkill. But with that aside, this is one of the show’s best episodes in years, without the added nonsense of being the showrunner, Moffat gets to tap into his strengths as a writer in creating a simple but effective premise that echoes Classic Who (that being the landmine scene from Genesis of the Daleks). It weirdly feels like a story that would slot in perfectly in the Moffat era both for better and worse. The Doctor is written oddly out of character for how he’s been portrayed in the rest of this era, he’s more aggressive, gives speeches and has this intense vibe to him, it honestly feels like this story was written more for Capaldi, and yet it's one of Ncuti's best performances as the Doctor. It all seemed to work and really made me nostalgic for the Moffat era. What Boom really succeeds at is creating an episode using limited resources available, most of the episode takes place on this one spot in a quarry-like environment with little to no cutaways, just a small handful of actors, a couple dressed-up props and just the actors carrying the story with their performances. This honestly felt like one of the most Classic Who episodes Modern Who has ever done and I love it to bits for it.

It’s a shame that Moffat went on to write yet another Christmas Special that sadly fell into his poor category and with the show now in limbo it seems we’ll never get a proper great final episode for one of the show’s most beloved (and hated) writers to go out on. But regardless it has been a welcome return for Moffat and between this, 73 Yards, Wild Blue Yonder, Lux and The Well, it does warm my heart knowing that even when the show is going through its most unpopular period, it can still surprise us with a great episode from time to time.

Now we come to what is honestly the great portion of Ncuti’s era. Though with that said I have also heard plenty of people say they hate this episode for reasons I’ll get into later.

The TARDIS lands along a cliffside in Wales where shortly after exiting, the Doctor steps on a string forming some kind of circular pattern and then vanishes. As Ruby tries to work out where he’s disappeared to and why she can’t enter the TARDIS, she notices in the distance an indistinct figure of what appears to be an old woman, and no matter how much Ruby moves away or closer to her, she always stays exactly 73 yards from her. On top of that, anyone who approaches and communicates with the figure is frightened away and wants nothing to do with Ruby. With the Doctor gone, Ruby is forced to live out her life alone as everyone who offers to help her, from her adopted mother to UNIT, abandons her after communicating with the figure.

Russell hyped up this episode saying it was “the best thing he’s ever written”, which is a little misguided considering the high quality works he had previously written like Turn Left and Midnight, and of course it’s not on the same level as those two but it is a story I was very happy to have seen and the kind of story I’d love to see more of from the show. This is Russell being both experimental and tapping into the horror genre, but not horror in a trying to scare the audience sense, but horror in just creating this inescapable nightmare for the companion. I’m not overly keen on Ruby as a character, but Mille Gibson was just fantastic in this episode, some of these scenes were just brutally uncomfortable to watch, especially when her mother abandons and disowns her. Being unpleasant and uncomfortable really is a strength of Russell’s that he should tap into more often.

The kind of Doctor-lite stories I prefer are the ones that place our companions in a situation where they’re unable to rely on the Doctor for help and so they have to put their own knowledge and experience into practice. These are the kind of stories that really showcase the strengths of the companion, Ruby in particular as she spends the majority of the story testing the limits of this entity to try and find any way of breaking the curse, and we see her brought to her absolute low point with every failed attempt and any hope of help from the Doctor, her mother and even UNIT is crushed. But as time goes by, she comes to accept her situation and finds ways of learning to live with her curse, even using it to help save the world in preventing the election of a warmongering prime minister the Doctor previously mentioned. It’s only decades later when she’s reached the end of her life as an old woman where the entity suddenly gets within touching distance and at the moment of her death, we see Ruby sent back to where it all began but looking out through the eyes of the figure watching the TARDIS arrive and warning the younger Ruby just in time to stop the Doctor from breaking the mysterious circle. Or at least that’s how I saw the ending as this leads into the more divisive side of the episode. While the episode has had a mostly positive reception, it’s also had its share of fans who hated it for just how ambiguous and unexplained the events are, especially the ending. It’s understandable as yes the episode does leave a lot of itself unexplained. What is the strange circle that the Doctor breaks? What is the nature of the entity? What does it whisper to make others afraid of Ruby? How does it all tie together in the ending? The answers are… nothing forthcoming from the episode so it’s really just down to you and how you interpret the events. And I love that! I love having a story that allows you the chance to give your thoughts on how the mechanics of it worked rather than just flat out telling you as we often get in Doctor Who. It allows for more open conversations and there are so many ways you can interpret the event, like the idea that the entity and the effect it has on everyone is a manifestation of Ruby’s fear of abandonment given how that’s what led to her adoption to begin with. Or the idea that the story has themes of mental health that is something Ruby can’t escape from and has to learn to live with and the harsh reality that sometimes trying to involve people you think care about you and might be able to help will just see it as an excuse to abandon you. How the ending with Ruby as an old lady and being sent back is her making peace with her own fears and allowing herself a second chance in life.

That said though, I acknowledge it’s not perfect, the second half goes a bit off the rails with the prime minister candidate who wants to start a nuclear war and I felt it was only included to give the episode some form of conflict. Also the ending means the timeline Ruby gets stuck in never happened, so this prime minister will go on to be elected and do all the terrible stuff anyway. And despite all my theories earlier, Ruby being freed of her curse by preventing the circle being broken means it never happened so she never learnt anything from her experience ultimately. Though I would argue that the point wasn’t really for her to have learned anything to apply going forward, it’s not like Turn Left was written with the intention of Donna learning anything about herself as she went through a similar experience that then got erased.

73 Yards is as abstract a story as it gets and part of the reason why I feel some fans hated it is that it’s not the kind of story we often get in the show. The novels and audios do frequently handle abstract concepts and push the boundaries on what feels comfortable for Doctor Who, but the show has spent so long in its bubble, only occasionally trying for something outside the usual comfort zone that I do get why some fans were put off by this episode. This is definitely not Russell’s best work as he boasted about leading into the series, but I would certainly love to see him write more episodes along these lines going forward than his usual bag of tricks.

Hey look at that! An episode not written by the showrunner/former showrunner…..I know! What a rare find nowadays! Rogue is a solid entry to the series, again much like Dot and Bubble, not a feeling I really expected especially with this one as its setting is on a genre I’m not a big fan of. Lots of people coined this as Doctor Who does Bridgerton with its period drama setting and high society romantic ballroom location. But underneath the surface lies an alien menace and a bounty hunter that the Doctor forms a romance with. I mean poor Yaz, she spends three seasons having a crush on the Doctor that’s never reciprocated and in just one episode the Doctor forms a close attachment with Rogue the bounty hunter.

I’ve said before that I’m not really a fan of the Doctor having a romance, or at least not in the conventional sense. The Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard’s exploration from Scherzo was a perfect example of a Doctor romance done right, where the Doctor believes that he’s in love with Charley but he doesn’t quite understand what it means from a human perspective. That or the idea of a companion having romantic feelings for the Doctor but it goes unrequited. Anything else I feel just robs the Doctor of his more alien mystique. But with that said, Jonathan Groff and Ncuti Gatwa do have some great back and forth and Rogue is a charismatic character that reminds me of Captain Jack in a lot of ways. The highlight of the episode being how the Doctor convinces Rogue he’s not one of the aliens he’s hunting by showing him holograms of all his previous faces (which honestly isn’t the best strategy for trying to convince someone you’re not one of the shape changing aliens he’s hunting). And as you may have noticed in the picture above, one of those faces includes Richard E. Grant, the originally intended Ninth Doctor from Scream of the Shalka back in 2003. It’s really just there as a bit of fan service for long-time fans and to make canon obsessive’s heads explode. It’s a divisive argument but I’m not really bothered by that sort of thing, Doctor Who is old and vast enough that I kind of enjoy when they play a little fast and loose with what is or isn’t canon, the books and audios pull these sorts of tricks all the time. The Eighth Doctor books for example once made a reference to the three-fold Doctors, a subtle in-joke at there being three different versions of the Ninth Doctor; Christopher Eccleston from the show, Richard E. Grant from Scream of the Shalka and Rowan Atkinson from Curse of Fatal Death. Honestly, they should’ve included faces from Curse of Fatal Death just to really f**k with the fans!

Not much else to say really, it’s not my particular sort of Doctor Who episode but it is one of the better episodes of the series.

This was another really good novelisation of an episode I don't dislike but didn't really think that much of. As a Who debut for Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, she's got quite a natural writing talent that translates very well in this book. Though one thing that's a letdown which I forgot to mention in my review of the episode, I'm disappointed the book didn't explain just how the Doctor knew where to go to rescue Ruby as a baby. Countering that, I liked that Esmie connected the existence of the Goblins and their nature to the events of The Giggle which was what I said as an explanation for the show featuring more fantasy elements, how the walls of reality were damaged following the Toymaker's prolonged presence on reality. Overall it's a good read.

The premature ending to Fifteen's era really makes this a most unique and valued Fifteenth Doctor story. As everyone has pointed out, it's practically criminal that Ncuti left the show without having met the Daleks or at least any of the big three villains of Doctor Who. Well as of this date, Everyone Must Go is the only Fifteenth Doctor story in any medium where he encounters one of the big three, this case being the Cybermen. Though it has a twist to it as the Cybermen have a unique presentation in this story, one that features another member of the Pantheon, someone who deals in fear. I'll admit I'm not the biggest enthusiast for the Titan Comics but this was a solid read with some cool artwork, a great twist on the Cybermen's involvement and a cool villain. Though I will say, is it me or do these Pantheon Gods Russel created have really lame weaknesses, I mean Maestro got defeated by a piano key, Lux got defeated by the sun, the Toymaker and Sutekh having been rectonned into the pantheon were beaten by a ball and a bungee cord and now this god is beaten by a baseball bat smashing his collection of bottled screams. Elder Gods from the Seventh Doctor audios these are not!

Next, we have Dot and Bubble and honestly an episode I really didn’t expect to like as much as I did. Series 14 had ridden quite a high with back-to-back episodes being received very positively and I figured Dot and Bubble would be a revert back to average at best. And while it certainly was a downgrade to its preceding episodes, it still managed to be a solid entry in Fifteen’s era. According to behind the scenes, this was the first episode to be produced and it was done while Ncuti was wrapping up filming on other projects hence why he’s absent for large portions of the episode, which is the second Doctor-lite episode of the series. A bit of a risky decision but it is clever how Russell accommodates for Ncuti’s limited availability at the beginning of production. The final scene of the story in fact was Ncuti’s first scene to be filmed as the Doctor and I gotta say, now that this era’s all said and done, this goes down as one of if not my favourite Fifteenth Doctor scenes. Ncuti just really pours his heart into this ending where the group of people he’s spent all episode trying to save, suddenly reject his help when they meet him in person because they’re in fact racists. I knew at some point the show would go for an episode that tackles the Doctor’s change in skin colour and the potential conflicts that may arise from it, but I wasn’t expecting that episode to be one that takes place in the far future. Though it does paint a rather bleak idea that the same level of racism that exists today will continue to exist in the far future when by all logic it would’ve evolved into some other form of bigotry. But the Doctor doesn’t care how they feel or what they say about him, he just wants to save them because he knows they’ll die if they head out into the world that’s overrun by killer slug creatures. But because they refuse and he can’t force them to come with him, he’s left devastated that he was unable to save their lives. It’s honestly his best performance as the Doctor to date

This was surprisingly quite basic and straightforward story. Something that really felt could've been squeezed into a 45 minute episode. It's very small scale but has a nice pace to it and some good characterisation and a solid plot on the concept of making first contact and potential issues that arise from it. This was my first Fifteenth Doctor book and they really nail his personality, I think it's a real talent from book writers how they can easily shift the Doctor's personality according to each incarnation.

We have Ncuti’s first episode, The Church on Ruby Road, for the first time since Eccleston, we have a new Doctor whose first episode doesn’t immediately take place following a regeneration, but rather sometime later. The Doctor’s enjoying his new lease on life and meets a young woman named Ruby Sunday. An adopted child helping her foster mother care for other abandoned children. On Christmas, she finds herself being followed by a gang of goblins who are keen to take the home’s new-born baby to be eaten by their Goblin King.

This premise is utterly ludicrous but it’s something I’ve come to expect from the Christmas specials, so it never really bothered me that much. I’ve said before, I’ve never cared for the Christmas specials, I was not sad to see them taken away when Chibnall took over and it filled me with dread when Russell announced their return. The Christmas specials are what they’ve always been, an excuse for some cheap meaningless fluff that’s guaranteed to get good viewing figures cos nothing else is on at Christmas Day. In fairness, this one does have a little more heart and creativity put into it than most Christmas Specials in the past. The idea of this wooden ship (as in pirate ship) floating in the sky, crewed by small goblins who sing songs about wanting to eat this baby they’ve kidnapped, it’s the kind of dark humour I wish these specials had more of, and I’m open to Doctor Who mixing with more fantasy elements. The story also plays about with time travel by having Ruby erased towards the climax and the Doctor sees how the people around her are affected by her never having existed. Also the Doctor pulling down a ship in the sky is a badass moment

As a Doctor intro story goes, it’s fairly average, as an episode, it’s another Christmas special. I’ve never cared for them, never will

We have the second of the 60th anniversary specials, Wild Blue Yonder, and I have to say, not only is this a clear cut winner of being the Fourteenth Doctor’s best story, but this is the best episode I’ve seen from the show in a very long time! And I don’t mean that cynically, this is legit an excellent episode and made these three specials worth it in the end.

Following on from the end of The Star Beast with Donna spilling coffee on the console, and admittedly a silly and not very good pre credits scene with Issac Newton introducing a new running joke that gravity is now mavity (which was funny the first couple times but now seriously needs to be retconned), the TARDIS crashes on a spaceship sat at the very edge of the universe. As the Doctor begins repairs on the TARDIS, the hostile action system kicks in and the TARDIS leaves them behind, meaning something on this quiet and empty ship is so dangerous that it caused the TARDIS to run away.

What I loved about this episode right from the get-go was how gentle the pacing was for the first half or so, given the nonstop pacing of the Chibnall era and even The Star Beast, it was very welcome to have an episode that actually slows down and takes it’s time developing itself as the Doctor and Donna explore this seemingly deserted spaceship and it gives David Tennant and Catherine Tate time to really start reconnecting with nothing around to distract them. Wild Blue Yonder out of all the specials had the least amount of advertising and very little was given away heading in, which understandably led to a lot of speculation about possible surprise appearances given the 60th anniversary celebrations. But while we don’t get anything crowd pleasing, what we get instead works so perfectly with the context of not knowing much going in.

We get one of the best sequences I’ve ever seen in the show where as we go from area to area with the Doctor and Donna exploring this spaceship, we then start to cut back and forth between rooms that are lit in two different colours (blue and gold), made to look like this is part of the exploring montage. But then the Doctor says that very out of place line “My arms are too long” which we then cut to the other room where Donna says the same thing and we get that shocking reveal that Donna’s arms are unnaturally elongated and that this isn’t the real Donna, and at that point it just hits you with the twist that we haven’t been watching a montage, we’ve actually been watching two different conversations happening at once where the Doctor and Donna discover they’ve been talking to alien duplicates of themselves! Creatures that have taken their appearance, but don’t properly understand the physics of this universe and so they keep contorting and growing limbs in different shapes and sizes.

As ridiculous as the Issac Newton opening was, I do see the point of it looking back as the silly tone is mean to lure you into a false sense of security before throwing you into a cosmic horror story as the Doctor and Donna are being chased by these creatures that aren’t properly defined or explained, all we know is that they’re malevolent and can mimic our protagonists, which leads to some tense moments where the Doctor and Donna are split up and seemingly run into each other again, but they can’t be sure if they’re with the monster version or not.

This leads to one of Tennant’s best moments as the Doctor where he seems to open up to Donna about all the emotional baggage he’s been carrying in recent years, especially with the Timeless Child revelation and the Flux event destroying most of the universe, and now he’s happy to have Donna back in his life again, only for Donna to melt into the floor mocking the Doctor and revealing herself as the monster version, which results in the Doctor hiding away somewhere and then just letting out all his anger and frustration. Considering how emotionally closed off the Thirteenth Doctor was with these life altering discoveries she made about herself, it was very satisfying seeing Fourteen just let it out in a very intensely performed scene.

This was just such a feel-good episode, after many years of mostly bad, occasionally decent and a couple good but highly flawed episodes, this one was just a very satisfying watch and one of Modern Who’s strongest outings, also seeing Bernard Cribbins as Wilf one last time cinched it for me.

This perfectly demonstrates why the Target Novels have been at their best with Modern Who’s adaptations, this takes a story that I enjoyed but had mixed feelings on and makes it seem like The Giggle was a masterpiece all along. This was one of the most fun Target books I've come across with James Goss masterfully adapting The Giggle but putting his own crazy spin on it. Chapters are called Moves, some Moves feature their own little mini games and then partway through the Toymaker comes in and takes over as narrator for the story. A large portion of The Giggle is told from his own demented perspective, including going into detail on some of the nastier things he does to people in this story. The book even at one point turns into a choose your own path type book.

Some of the core issues I had with The Giggle is still present such as the dumb resolution to the mystery around the Fourteenth Doctor's face and the unanswered questions about his continued existence, though the book does offer a hint as to what may become of Fourteen once he's finished his rehabilitation, and in any case I was in such a good mood reading this book that it didn't bother me as much here.

Despite some glaring issues I've gone into, I do enjoy the 60th anniversary specials (TV and novels) and appreciate them for what they are. I know they've recently come under fire again following the return of Billie Piper, further emphasising how Russell can't seem to get over the golden days of his first run, but the Fourteenth Doctor does work and fulfilled his role well in carrying Doctor Who through it's 60th birthday so I still give them a thumbs up

Next we have The Star Beast, the first of the three specials and quite a rare episode as it’s a direct adaptation of a Fourth Doctor comic book of the same name from 1980. If you’re familiar with the comic, the episode roughly follows the same plot line where the Doctor gets caught up in a chase as a seemingly harmless creature named Beep the Meep is on the run from the ruthless Warriors of Wrath (pronounced W-rath) and is taken in by a teenager. But then the story pulls a twist where the Wrath Warriors are actually space police and Beep is one of the most evil creatures in the universe and is as cuddly as a boa constrictor. In the comic, the teenager is called Sharon who joins the Doctor for several more comic adventures, which historically makes her the first black companion in Doctor Who of any medium. In the episode however, Beep is taken in by Rose Noble, daughter of the Doctor’s former companion Donna Noble. Which is where Russell’s spin on the story kicks in.

The main crux of the story is that the Doctor has regained the face of his Tenth incarnation and what a co-inky-dink! No sooner does he land in London, he bumps into his former companion Donna Noble, because Russell’s middle name isn’t T, it’s actually Contrive! As explained in the pre credits scene in a very horribly filmed recap of Series 4, Donna’s memories of the Doctor had to be wiped to save her life and if she were to remember the Doctor, her mind will burn and she will die. So it’s pretty unlucky for the Doctor that Donna’s daughter just so happens to find the occupant of a crashed spaceship in her shed that’s hiding from pursuing warriors.

Adaptations of stories from the expanded universe don’t happen often but it’s strange that Russell decided to do so and then merge it alongside his main story of the Doctor reuniting with Donna, the actual Star Beast side of the story ends up suffering as a result. It’s treated mostly as an interchangeable Russell styled wacky runaround. The adaptation Big Finish did in 2019 with Tom Baker was much more enjoyable and funnier than Russell’s attempt.

The big talking point of the story is how Russell undoes Donna’s ending from Series 4 by restoring her memories and having her survive thanks to having a child who shares the Time Lord portion of her mind. I suppose if you’re gonna retcon the ending of Series 4, this is probably the best option for it, though it does suggest that a Time Lord’s mind is equivalent to two humans (one of whom is a teenager) which is yet another moment of stupidity Russell can add to his ever growing list. That being said, I'm sorry but that "male presenting Time Lord" line was utter cringe! Hate to echo certain nutcases on youtube (you know the ones I mean) and yeah I do point and laugh at how they're still milking it to this day, but in the moment it was a terrible line, and as for "letting it go", on top of being absolutely lazy I'm still waiting for Russell to explain why Donna couldn't just do that the first time!

I know most people weren’t happy about this idea to begin with, hate to break it to ya but the ending of Journey’s End was already ruined back in End of Time from 2009. In that episode the Doctor repeated to anyone who’d listen that if Donna were to remember him she would die, we then get the cliffhanger where she starts remembering and does she die? F**k no! She just passes out and the Doctor pulls a random explanation from his a**e because Russell is too big of a coward to follow through on teasing companions dying. He even wrote a deleted scene in Journey’s End of Donna remembering without her dying! So there was no question Russell was gonna completely undo the ending of Journey’s End cos that’s just the kind of writer he is!

Overall it’s not a bad story, being the first episode to follow the Chibnall era, you can just tell right away the difference in acting, directing, energy, sound design and editing that for a long time felt so sloppy and half-arsed under Chibnall. Everything seems to flow in a more organic way, characters actually stop and talk for a few minutes, the music isn't loudly drowning out the dialogue, you can feel how much more competent the production quality is compared to the Chibnall era which moved at a break neck speed, characters spoke in clunky exposition and then just charged off for the rest of the plot and the music was more like clanging mismatched instruments together while the dialogue can barely be heard. But beyond that it’s really more an ok I guess kind of story.

The follow-up to Under Control pits the Fourteenth Doctor against the Sycorax, or more accurately the Sycorax Queen. Poetically it makes sense, the Sycorax were David Tennant's first monsters and here in his return year as the new Doctor you want to have a rematch, though it does further demonstrate how the 60th anniversary seemed to prioritise celebrating the Russell era rather than 60 years of Doctor Who. There's a clever way it handles the Sycorax blood control and how the Fourteenth Doctor tricks them but aside from that it's just as unremarkable as it's predecessor.

Hardly the most interesting story you could come up with for the Fourteenth Doctor, in rare form this short forms a two-parter with the follow up which is hardly any better but it at least is more interesting and has a thematic tie-in with the Fourteenth Doctor having David Tennant's face. This opener is really just one buildup scene with the Doctor running from room to room seeing a bunch of different aliens being tortured in order to keep a spaceship running.

Next we have the official 60th Anniversary Special, The Giggle, one of the biggest and most anticipated Doctor Who episodes to date; the Fourteenth Doctor’s final story as he bows out to make way for the Fifteenth played by Ncuti Gatwa, but much bigger than that though, after over 50 years, the Doctor has a rematch with one of his most powerful foes.

The world has collapsed into chaos with everyone, barring the Doctor, Donna and UNIT, gone completely mad. The source of which emanates from a sinister giggle from one of television’s earliest recordings, a puppet named Stooky Bill. When the Doctor tracks the recording of the giggle back to 1925, he finds himself in a bizarre toyshop run by one of his oldest and most powerful enemies, a cosmic entity he has not seen since his first incarnation, a lover of toys and games and one who delights in turning his victims into his own playthings, the Toymaker.

There is so much to unpack with this story, both the good and the bad, there’s a lot to love and a lot to hate about this one. One of those being the Toymaker himself, on the one hand he is the most entertaining part of the story with a great performance from Neil Patrick Harris. The Toymaker as a concept does benefit from Modern Who’s emphasis on visuals as we get some very creative and bizarre moments and imagery, also the highlight of the story being the puppet show he puts on going over each companion from the Moffat era and their horrible fates while mocking the Doctor’s excuses for them. Somewhere out there is a 7 hour cut of this scene that I’ll pay an arm and a leg for! Just the Toymaker going over every terrible thing that has happened to someone close to the Doctor would be a joy to sit through! But on the other hand, he does suffer from being a villain remade by Russell T. Davies in that he is very over the top and even gets a dance number to Spice Up Your Life by the Spice Girls, kinda similar to the issues I had with John Simm as the Master. The Toymaker portrayals I prefer are the more reserved kind with occasional moments of childish insanity when things don’t go his way. At the end of the day, Solitaire is still the best Toymaker story. I will say though, a lot of people were let down by the climax being the Doctor(s) challenging the Toymaker to a game of catch and while the sequence is overplayed, I gotta disagree, I think it’s very in line with Doctor Who to have the Doctor stake all of reality against a cosmic god in a game as childishly simple as catch.

Speaking of the climax, that brings me to the most controversial part of the story, the Fourteenth Doctor is killed a lot sooner than expected as the Toymaker decrees his third and final game to be against the next Doctor. But as the Doctor starts to regenerate, the energy suddenly dissipates, feeling something very different this time round, the Doctor tells Donna and Mel (oh yeah, Mel’s in this too) to pull his arms, which results in the next Doctor being pulled out of him like an amoeba! So now you have two Doctors existing simultaneously in an event termed “bi-generation”. So quite a few points to go through, firstly I get it, it’s the 60 year anniversary, you want to do something different with the Doctor’s regeneration this time round, the whole story up until this point has been completely batsh*t crazy anyway so why not. As for the whole bi-generation being impossible, you can sort of explain it away by the Toymaker’s prolonged presence in our reality having lasting effects on it that would allow unusual and impossible phenomenon to occur (of course Russell as usual went with a dafter explanation in The Reality War he clearly didn't put much thought into). Also the ending thematically does tie in well with the Fourteenth Doctor’s character arc with having all the weight of recent events weighing heavier on him than before and there’s some good themes of self-healing. Particularly the idea of the Fourteenth Doctor retiring and the new Doctor being completely separate from him physically carrying on their adventures completely fresh and free of all the emotional baggage. That said though, I do understand why people hate this idea, as with anything that breaks with tradition people are just instinctively going to have a negative reaction, it plays itself safe with the Fourteenth Doctor to have him go on living, it leaves a lot of questions unanswered such as can Fourteen regenerate again, is he mortal now, is he gonna grow old and die, why give him his own TARDIS if the whole point is that he’s retired from his adventures??? Also what Russell said in an interview about the idea of the bi-generation event bringing all the past Doctors back to life, yeah f**k off with that idea Russell! But if I’m being honest, the biggest issue I had with this regeneration was, the Toymaker is a cosmically powerful being who can manipulate reality and use toys and games as his weapons, and of all things, he kills the Fourteenth Doctor with a f**king laser?!?!

Another thing I absolutely hated about this episode was the payoff to the big mystery around the Fourteenth Doctor’s face. I’m sure this wasn’t intentional but on top of these specials mostly celebrating the Russell era instead of 60 years of Doctor Who, the big reveal as to why the Fourteenth Doctor looks like the Tenth Doctor felt like a massive f**k you to every other Doctor and companion! That explanation being that the Doctor subconsciously wanted to be like his Tenth incarnation again and also subconsciously wanted to find Donna again! Because of all the Doctors and companions in the show’s 60-year history, the two that matter the most deep in the Doctor’s hearts and soul are the two main ones from Russell’s most popular series, f**k off RTD!!! And I’m sure that explains why the Doctor’s clothes regenerated with him!!! And the fact that they don’t even resemble the Tenth Doctor’s outfit!!!

If I’m being honest here, I still can’t decide if I liked this special or not; The Giggle is very well made and performed with some great and striking imagery whilst living up to being this massive epic special with creative, imaginative and even daring ideas. But at the same time, it is Russell T. Davies at his most egotistical, it’s somehow more self-indulgent than The End of Time and to do this for what’s supposed to be Doctor Who’s 60th birthday, whether intentional or not, just rubs me to wrong way. I think The Giggle is just one of those rare episode that is best left for time to decide where this story stands when looking back on Doctor Who’s best or worst.

Of all the Target Novels in the last few years, this one's more traditional as it's basically a scene by scene retelling of the original with little to no new things added. The only bit of fun the book has at standing out from the original is all the chapter titles are named after the countdown in the episode. It does a solid job with building the tension in writing form for that first portion of the story where the Doctor and Donna are wandering around the ship, but where it stumbles is that sequence of them unknowingly having conversations with the Not-Things, which was always gonna be difficult to pull off in prose format and really was the sort of twist that could only work onscreen. The way that sequence was paced and inter-cut between the two conversations made it seem like we were watching a montage over a period of time, only to throw in that shocking reveal. The book however while trying to convey the same vibes, does make it obvious that we're reading two different conversations playing out at the same time.

Again like The Star Beast, this was a solid read, I enjoyed it more than the latter mainly cos of how much I already loved the TV version, but the book falls short from choosing to be an exact scene by scene recreation and stumbling with the strongest moment of the episode

It's crazy to think that The Star Beast now has a version in every medium, starting off as a comic from the 80s before being adapted into audio by Big Finish in 2019, then an onscreen adaptation for the 60th anniversary and now a novelisation. I think that's a first in the franchise! My feelings on the novel are more or less the same, unlike most Target novels of the last few years, this one doesn't really add much or takes it's time with the plot, if anything it goes at the same speed as the episode. The only new additions is including the milkman from The Stolen Earth, each chapter ends with varying documentation (i.e. text messages, UNIT files, emails, galactic Wikipedia etc), the novel also gives a brief nod to Sharon, a lead character from the original story and I liked that the book got more in the head space of Sylvia and her constant anxiety throughout the story of the dangers of Donna's memory returning. It's a solid read.

Next we have the most recent Fourteenth Doctor story and I gonna assume the last for quite some time. This is part of a collection of stories for each Doctor, a set that gets re-released whenever a new Doctor takes over so as you can imagine it gets bigger and bigger each time. Probably not ideal when the incumbent Doctor has already been around for a couple years and is likely leaving soon, you’re better off just waiting for the next edition with the next Doctor. But in any case, these stories are honestly just average, nothing that special or worth recommending. The Fourteenth Doctor’s entry is probably the laziest out of all the stories, Fleeting Faces isn’t so much one story but a collation of three stories, two of which already exist. These being Into Control and Under Control, also written by Steve Cole which were released in 2023, the other and only new addition is a novelisation of Destination Skaro, which was a five-minute Children in Need Special released prior to the 60th Anniversary specials. So not really a lot to go off of.

For the sake of giving the other stories their own talking points, I’m focusing mainly on the Destination Skaro portion, and if anything I can talk about Destination Skaro in general. Destination Skaro is one of the most baffling things I’ve ever come across in Doctor Who, and I don’t mean because of what it involves, more about all the discussion around it. Just when people were beginning to hope all the mudslinging in the fandom was in the past with the Jodie Whittaker era, this comes along and says “Nope! The playground online bickering is still just as strong!” I mean it’s insane just how much discourse came from this short episode. To summarise, the story is set on Skaro where Davros, pre-accident, has created his first Mark III travel machine, demonstrating to his new assistant Mr Castavillain, Davros shows off all the features of this machine including a multi-functional claw weapon. Mr Castavillain takes the opportunity to awkwardly suggest several names for this machine before Davros is called away by a surprisingly good impersonation of Nyder’s voice and warns Mr Castavillain not to touch anything. No sooner does he leave the TARDIS crashes into the lab, completely breaking off the claw weapon. Out comes the new Fourteenth Doctor to a stunned Mr Castavillain who inadvertently helps him find the perfect name for this new machine, and before leaving, the Doctor gives Mr Castavillain a substitute for the missing claw, that of course being a plunger. Which when Davros returns goes from menacingly shocked to actually liking the new look.

As you can tell this is very comedy focused which was one of the things people complained about given it’s ties with Genesis of the Daleks, I dunno, call me crazy but you’ll forgive me if I had enough sense to know going in that a five minute Children in Need Special with a character called Mr Castavillain was surprisingly not going to be Genesis of the Daleks 2!!! In fact, we already had a Genesis of the Daleks 2 in Destiny of the Daleks and it was written like a skit from Monty Python!!! There’s the complaints about Davros being featured pre-accident when most accounts suggest he based the Dalek design off his own life support machine, I don’t disagree but if you thought Julian Bleach was gonna sit in a makeup chair for several hours for a five minute special he’s only in two minutes of and not get paid for it, you’re deluding yourselves! Then there’s the whole “controversy” about Russell announcing that going forward Davros will only be shown able-bodied, and the wheelchair look is gone. Firstly, we don’t even know when Davros will be back in the show, this was his first appearance since 2015 which was eight years prior, for all we know it’ll be another eight before he shows up again. Secondly, much as I’m not a fan of this idea myself, there is actually an opening to allow this to happen, which again goes back to his last appearance in 2015. During the events of The Witch’s Familiar Davros tricked the Doctor into giving him a large amount of regeneration energy to help extend his lifeforce. It’s entirely reasonable to suggest that over time the energy gradually healed his body as regeneration energy is meant to do, so if you’re gonna be mad at anyone, who should probably blame Steven Moffat. Again, I don’t like it either, but the opening is there for it to make sense in-universe, though given Russell’s history he’ll probably forgo the sensible explanation in favour of something dafter he didn’t put more than ten seconds thought into.

As mini-episodes go, given some of the ones they used to do during the Matt Smith era, this is nowhere near the dumbest mini-episode I’ve ever seen (have you watched Good as Gold recently!). I chuckled once or twice, both of which involved Julian Bleach, when he stops mid-sentence and notices the plunger, his face does crack me up. Honestly even without the makeup and wheelchair, Julian Bleach still looks great as Davros, his talent is suited to villain roles and a lot of his work comes from facial acting, both humorous and intimidating, something that’s partially restricted by the Davros makeup. If the show is genuinely serious about retiring the iconic wheelchair look of Davros going forward, I could probably stomach it if it’s Julian Bleach still in the role. He’s still second best after Terry Molloy. But yeah, this is by no means a good mini-episode, it’s just silly, and as far as pre-Genesis of the Daleks stories go, if you want a proper Davros origin story, I recommend Big Finish’s four part mini-series I, Davros. It chronicles Davros’s life from childhood to wheelchair and is some of Terry Molloy’s best work in the role.

……….Oh yeah I was meant to be talking about the novelisation, it’s fine, it pretty much nails the TV version so in that regard it’s a success. It’s a five-minute mini-episode for crying out loud, it doesn’t take Rob f**king Shearman to put that on a couple pages!

Doctor Who does Mr Men!.............Sure why the f**k not!!!

It's hard not be charmed by the Mr Men books, even when you've grown out of them and mixing with Doctor Who makes for a fun little read for the youngsters.

I'll admit in my endeavour to look into some of the Thirteenth Doctor's highest rated stories on TARDIS Guide, this was not something I was overly keen on looking into, I mean it's hardly something one would proudly display in their collection given the obvious target audience it was intended for. But having said that, as a story meant for little little kids, yeah it works very well, it's kept very basic, has some nice illustrations and surprisingly quite poignant with its theme. Having gone through quite a number of Thirteen's books and stories, I feel had she been written on TV more like how she is in prose form I'd have liked her a lot more. I mean being "socially awkward" and dismissive about Graham's cancer was a huge deal breaker for me when I feel Thirteen in a lot of these books I've covered would've had something better to say.

So yeah, The Runaway TARDIS is an ideal read for your very very little children, now I can go donate this to a local library or school and maintain some dignity.

This one's a fun little short story where the Doctor gets into a bidding war for possession of his TARDIS and of course the title plays a huge factor in the ending. We even get a blink and you'll miss it cameo from everyone's favourite trans-temporal adventuress

Another heartfelt tale for the Thirteenth Doctor despite not being in it for the majority of the story as a young girl finds herself caring for a stranded Judoon. It's a great little character piece with a well executed appearance from the Thirteenth Doctor towards the end

Far from being one of the best Magazine Comics but certainly one of the most historically significant; the first comic to portray the beginning of a new Doctor's life as it takes place in the 60 minute gap between the ending of The Power of the Doctor and Destination Skaro which gets a direct reference in the latter. It's also the first Magazine Comic since 2002 to feature the Daleks as the main villains as well as being the longest comic in the magazine's history.

Oh how I miss Scott Gray, Alan Barnes is a significant name in the comics and he is admittedly a reliable writer in that you give him a task and he'll see it done. But he's not exactly an ideal writer if you're looking for a great story. I'm just gonna say it here, I hate the Alan Barnes style, I like Barnes, he's done some great works, mainly with Big Finish in the early years , but I hate the Alan Barnes style. Making everything way too silly and comedic, goofy characters (which in his audios means goofy voices), the dated pop culture references, and constantly changing the plot on the go to the point where it doesn't even resemble the story when it began. Which is a style that has gotten more and more overt in recent years and Liberation of the Daleks falls into those same pitfalls.

Now I will say as a story meant to put a spotlight on the Daleks for Doctor Who's 60 year anniversary, it gets the job done, it features quite the showcase of Daleks throughout Doctor Who history and even some decent callbacks to the old Dr Who Annuals of the 60s and the TV Century 21 books. Plus I'll admit the Nicholas Briggs cameo made me laugh. It is crazy to think that as of now and with no word on the show's future confirmed and until we get possibly an expanded universe story, this is chronologically the last encounter the Doctor has with the Daleks! The story is fine, has a interesting premise but again it keeps changing itself every issue to the point where it starts to get tiring. Also despite being the longest serialised comic in the magazine, I managed to get through it in half the time I takes for me to get through stories like The Glorious Dead or The Flood. Mostly cos there's not much substance and the dialogue feels very basic.

I wouldn't be against this being potentially the only Big Finish Fourteenth Doctor audio we ever get, I'm sure David Tennant would have a blast bringing this to life and it be nice if after six years Big Finish can give us that elusive Volume 2 of the Comic Strip Adaptations.

It's decent overall, just hardly something you'd put among the best of the Magazine Comics, which I doubt we'll ever see the likes of again with Scott Gray gone and Alan Barnes seemingly being the main writer now.

A surprisingly very sombre and heartbreaking tale centred on one of the most iconic names in music where the Doctor has to confront a past mistake she made that has caused a huge change in history that all stems from the King himself doing everything in his power to keep his mother alive. It's quite an unexpectedly powerful emotional tale.