Doctor, how very nice to see you again. Seems like only 474 years since we last met.

Probably one of the Fourth Doctor's best stories, it serves as both a cerebral exercise and a very fun romp. Most people probably know this as a Douglas Adams vehice but this one also has the presence of the very underrated writer David Fisher within it (if only because Fisher wrote the kernel called A Gamble with Time that eventually grew into this serial). All of the actors in this are also quite good.

Tarie walked over to the window. All she could see were the hundreds of spaceships and the marvellous, swirling majesty of hyperspace.
Though I don't like Jonathan Morris' overreliance on that line from The Aztecs about not changing one line from history, I think the first story that he used this trope (as far as I can tell) is one of his best. In fact, I think its one of the best Fourth Doctor novels in general. It's able to match the tone of the latter half of Four's era while also having a very good plot and putting in some menace and even making me feel for quite a few of the characters. I might put Managra or Krikkitmen over this one but it is very very good. Highly recommended.

Pretty good story from Mike Tucker (who I think is a somewhat underrated writer). I like a lot of the ideas used in this one though it might have went on a bit too long. Briggs does some of his best Dalek voices while the rest of the voice cast are pretty good.
Viewed this through Josh Snares' animation, which I think is a bit too reliant on real-world models but still quite impressive for something made by what I assume is one or a few people.

Rhian mentally kicked herself for misreading the signals. She wasn’t very good at relationships; well, at least that’s what she said when explaining to herself why she hadn’t had any yet.
A good romp that's quite experimental. Tonally, this is basically like an adventure from the "RTD2" or "DisneyWho" era though its plot is the sort of thing Moffat would write. Though it only has like three original characters, I think they're all done pretty well. I genuienly want to see the Doctor meet Carmodi again (though I could say the same thing about Kopyion from The Pit). I don't know if its ideas and set pieces congeal together but I think they're quite good. Overall, pretty solid though maybe not the best EDA.

Do you ever feel, with all the pain and suffering you have experienced and seen, that there is no hope?
I am probably in the minority that does not absolutely hate and despise this novel. Admittedly, I don't love or maybe even do not respect it (on that front, I am not sure) but I don't think it's terrible. For sure, there are worse novels (in my eyes).
While this novel is largely remembered because Andy Lane said it was the template of what not to do within the New Adventures, I lean more towards the view of Stacey Smith? who described it as a "historical curiosity". If this thing was published later in the NAs, its view of the Doctor (who is more of a piece than the chessmaster) might be as a purposeful subversion of Seven's character. Its tone prefaces the grimdark tone of Jim Mortimore and bleak (though not the comedic) tone of Dave Stone. Indeed, this can be viewed as a preface to pieces of The Book of the War.
Beyond this, though, the novel is... alright. The sections on Nicaea don't really have anything to do with the plot at large, the Doctor's reverence of Kopyion is... weird. In the hands of someone like Lawrence Miles or maybe Jim Mortimore or Dave Stone this would be a really good novel but Penswick is not as skilled (at this point in his career) as them. I do think that the biggest flaw of this novel is that Peter Darvill-Evans didn't give it enough time for its plot threads to congeal and Penswick to improve as an author. As it stands, this is just a historical curiosity when it could have been something much greater.

Omnipotence! The mind behind this bag of tricks operates on a grand scale!

Time and the Rani is one of the weaker links of the Seventh Doctor's reign on TV and almost certainly the oddest story within it. The entire plot does not exactly disregard logic but more refuses to believe in its existence and flogs itself to make sure that it can never and will never exist. This is also one of the best examples of a story in which someone should have asked "how do we make people care about the interpolitics of the natives?". By Part Four, I had basically tuned out completely and refused to acknowledge its existence as a piece of media (and I watched each part separately). That being said, I did like the set designs (when we weren't trudging through a quarry painted pink) and the recurring cast give some decent performances.

He no longer had a name. He inhabited a world without sequence or names; the meat machine like a philosopher's axe; replace the head and change the pole...
This is a somewhat odd book. If you think that this is solely a Bernice Summerfield adventure, you are solely mistaken. This is a book about the somewhat vast cast of characters that Dave Stone has had some influence on over the years (such as his creations Jason Kane and the crew of the Schirron Dream along with Chris Cwej and Roz Forrester). While I was reading it, I was a bit frustrated by the shorter chapters (not because I thought they were poorly written but because I wanted more dephth from the fictional worlds shown in this novel) but I think the story congealed together by the end quite nicely. There's also quite a bit of very experimental/poetic Jim Mortimore-esque prose which I quite liked. The short story in the appendix is very weird and I'm not sure if it clicked with me or not.

'And you'd be right to think so,' said the Doctor. 'Myths tend to be one part truth, two parts metaphor and five parts corruption, and patriarchy had always been a particularly vulgar form of corruption. The actual truth of it would have been something far different, probably, if truth there actually was. I'd concentrate on the central metaphor if I were you - and particularly how it relates to limits and aspects, and how the mind must react to the truly horrifying if it wants to survive.' He smiled, reminiscently. 'Zeus had the unfortunate habit of blowing everybody's head off wherever he went, but Dionysus had few problems getting on with everybody, as I recall.'
One of my favorite Doctor Who novels of all time. Also possibly one of the best Doctor Who novels of all time, though this is more debatable. The tale of a fetch quest across a dimension of sheer comedy and tragedy reveals a sublime genius at its center. The ending is one of the best within Who.

I told you: the history of the Amber Room is a trail of death stretching back to when it was first made. Like the Herr Doktor who was murdered by the Stasi in his wilderness hideaway for daring to search for it?
A pretty good short story from Halliday, who wrote the Doctor Who novel History 101 (which I also quite enjoyed) featuring an original character who (sadly) has seemingly never appeared again.

Catherine had left Lechasseur, and by taking the belt with her she might condemned them both to death. But all she could think about was the memory of him in the darkened corridor, of her launching herself at him, desperate to escape. Catching the belt that he wore around his waist and activating it, jumping them all...

Though this is quite late into the Time Hunter series (with only two other novels following it), I feel that this is actually quite a good introduction to the series - or at least its vibes and potential. I find the non-linear time travelling narrative within this one to be one of the best within the wide world of Doctor Who spinoffs, if not within Doctor Who as a whole. I wish that more stories were written like this. It is also quite short, but uses its short lenghth perfectly. It is not too long but it does not feel too short.