The Fourteenth Doctor #06

'The Giggle' from Target Books.

A decent read, and I definitely applaud the unique format of it, with it being primarily from The Toymaker's point-of-view, including puzzles, and a choose-your-own-adventure segment. I just don't think I'm particularly over-the-moon with the story itself for a novelisation to be able to elevate it much higher and it's all a bit nauseating after a while. I appreciate how this adapts the material however and it gives me great hope for the adaptations of the Douglas Adams stories which are helmed by the same writer.

Glad to have concluded the short-lived run of the Fourteenth Doctor in prose. He's an interesting Doctor, but one that I feel is rather undercooked and I don't necessarily agree with all of the parameters of his happy ending but hey ho. Back onto Fifteen.

The Fourteenth Doctor #05

'Wild Blue Yonder' from Target Books.

Despite being an incredibly faithful novelisation of the televised story, with only a select moment or two here adding new details, less even than the previous The Star Beast novelisation, I actually thoroughly enjoyed this. Whereas The Star Beast is a story that I already mostly enjoyed in televised format, and a novelisation didn't do much to add onto it, here with Wild Blue Yonder being a story I didn't enjoy very much televised, it sure worked in prose significantly more for me. The grotesque descriptions of the Not-Things' contortions and of the liminal feeling of the Spaceship worked much better for me here than with not-very-good CGI. It doesn't feel goofy when written, it feels scary, and unnerving. You really feel the betrayal of the Not-Things as they trick The Doctor and Donna into opening up to them instead of each other, because it's not undermined by lacking effects. After revisiting the story in novelised format, I'm certainly intrigued to see it again televised however, and seeing as it's the only one of the three 60th anniversary specials that I haven't seen twice, I think it's warranted it.

The Fourteenth Doctor #04

'Wild Ride' from Doctor Who Magazine 598.

A nice brief interlude between The Star Beast and Wild Blue Yonder. Nothing extraordinary, more of a clip show highlighting a few places that The Doctor and Donna accidentally wind up as the TARDIS goes on the fritz. Leads up to their appearance at the beginning of Wild Blue Yonder quite nicely though, making it seem like just another landing in a series of many. Wilf and Slyvia's appearance at the end is cute also. Can't quite say if I'm hoping to see more of Fourteen in comics or short stories in the future, but it's cool to have this gap filled where it could.

The Fourteenth Doctor #03

'The Star Beast' from Target Books.

As my first Target Books novelisation I have to say that The Star Beast was a slight disappointment. Aside from getting a bit more of Sylvia's perspective on the story, this is pretty much a direct script-to-novel adaptation, including a couple of extra moments and a new character that were omitted from the televised story. All of the same pros and cons with the 60th anniversary special aside from that for me, with it being a short and fun story, the Meep is a fun little villain, and the Doctor and Donna's relationship is nice to see unfold, but the forced gender politics and strange "let it go" stuff doesn't work for me at all. Glad that the "non-binary" moment seems to be one of the only omissions from the televised story here, but the scene still plays out the same. It's just odd.

The First Doctor #12

'The Sleeping Blood' from The Companion Chronicles.

Possibly my favourite story so far in my non-televised First Doctor adventures. Lovely to have a Doctor-lite serial here, really giving Susan the reigns to handle a situation all by herself. Great set-up in the medical research facility location here, with an intriguing time following Susan as she explores looking for medicine for The Doctor as he lies feverish in the TARDIS. Learning about the planet and the nanotech alongside her is fun and her intelligence shines nicely here. Kendrick is a very appropriate Doctor Who side character, and his way of dealing with The Butcher at the end really feels like a modern story with the way it explores themes of soldiers and terrorism and Susan's interference is a nice viewpoint into this. The Butcher is a tad lousy but that's almost entirely just due to a voice performance that doesn't work for me personally. His motives and descriptions are all very interesting stuff.

The Fourteenth Doctor #02

'Fleeting Faces' from Fifteen Doctors 15 Stories.

Three stories in one here, the first being a novelisation of the Children in Need Destination: Skaro minisode, which doesn't really do anything to expand upon the source material in any way unfortunately and really just makes you re-experience the exact same scenario but just a little bit longer because you have to read it. The next two stories coming from both Doctor Who The Official Annual 2024 and Ten Days of Christmas, Under Control is an intriguing set-up with Into Control being a satisfying enough conclusion bringing back the Sycorax in an appropriately cyclical fashion, being the Tenth Doctor's first enemy encounter. Neither of these stories particuarly stand out to me in any way, but they're a decent short time spent with the Fourteenth to add to his character ever so slightly more.

The Fourteenth Doctor #01

'Liberation of the Daleks' from Doctor Who Magazine 584-597.

My second read here of this story as I couldn't really remember anything about it from when I read it around this time last year. I'm glad to have grown a larger appreciation for it than I had back then. Probably one of the better simulation-related plots I've seen in Doctor Who, with Daleks within multiple adjacent simulations being used as tourist destinations for the public, all fighting one another to be the ones to make it out to take over the Earth. Fourteen's personality here really shines well, and there are actual consequences of the story, with thousands dying on a version of the planet in the future and The Doctor leaving those responsible to decide whether or not to keep going with their tourist trap or not. Pretty brutal stuff. A very nice introduction to this new incarnation of the Doctor, and I'm glad that they destroy Thirteen's horrible sonic screwdriver not only once, but twice for good measure.

The First Doctor #11

'The Monsters from Earth' from The Dr Who Annual 1966.

A fun enough short story, fairly well written in its structure, with a nice scenario of the TARDIS and The Doctor being caught in large spider web. The involvement of the Sensorites is rather a disappointment compared to how good they are in their self-titled serial. Their hairy designs and spider worship, along with their apparently abundant criminal activity and inhumane convictions, all add up to make them something very different. Would be cooler if it wasn't the Sensorites really. But I'm accepting that these annual stories contemporary to the time aren't going to adhere to any kind of consistent narrative like I hope the Short Trips and Big Finish media will at least attempt to.

The First Doctor #10

'The Lost Ones' from The Dr Who Annual 1966.

Slotting into the canon by ways of the fact that The Doctor mentions he has been to Vortis before in The Web Planet, I was hoping for a bit more of a friendly interaction, as that serial implies he used to have. So to have this story here be quite the opposite, where he is captured by the Menoptera, kind of doesn't make any sense, and seems to be a waste of a grand opportunity presented in the original serial itself. The Doctor's interactions with the Menoptera are fairly simple and uninteresting, with them wishing to dissect him like an insect in the same way that he describes to them what Earth-people to do insects, which is a humourous set-up, but the lack of consistency with it's own source material was a little disappointing. The Doctor's supposed "humanity" is also wishy-washy, as is to be expected in these pre-Time Lord stories, but it's funny how even in this story it contradicts itself, both stating that he is from Earth and then in a footnote stating otherwise. The Atlanteans are a fun additional element, worldbuilding inconsistency aside, and The Doctor's final dilemma of helping them or not was interesting too. Funny that this is the second story so far following Frayed in which The Doctor is stripped naked. Not an image I want to keep reoccurring...

The First Doctor #08

'Dr Who Travels in Space' Painting Book.

Briefly including this at the beginning of my review here for the sake of my ordering, as it hasn't been added to the database here quite yet. A simple story of The Doctor meeting a robotic alien race that have an inter-racial war and The Doctor saves the day, maybe. A touch nonsensical and hardly worth mentioning.

The First Doctor #09

'The Sons of the Crab' from The Dr Who Annual 1966.

An engaging short story about The Doctor's capture in a shape-shifting society that brought about its own demise. Intriguing to hear description of The Doctor's fear, and a strikingly brutal ending for a story in a children's annual. Some comical commentary opposing IVF also, but it's just an interesting result of the time period.

The First Doctor #7

'The Five O'Clock Shadow' from Short Trips: A Day in the Life.

Quite an irritating little poem - not much of a fan of the way that it's written, nor of the storybook villain that has no visual descriptors and its only other description is a bunch of vague themes. I was hoping that The Five O'Clock Shadow would be in some way related to the man that Susan saw in the mirror in The Exiles but alas it seems not to be. I suppose the inclusion of the Peter Cushing Doctor and Susan is a fair way to attempt to draw them into the First Doctor's canonical timeline, but in a one-note and too brief story that doesn't do much else for me it feels like a bit of a wasted concept.

The First Doctor #6

'Frayed' from Telos Novellas.

It's intriguing, I suppose, that this novella pushes Doctor Who into significantly darker places than I've ever seen it go before, however, I really cannot say that I am a fan of Jill, and her whole dream world, filled with blood and uncomfortable imagery, as she talks about Gods and her love for a veterinarian. The nightmare world that we return to frequently throughout the story is a very unpleasant place to be in, although it feels very far away from the medical colony and the "Future Deviants" and is tonally especially more icky than the rest of the story, which, dark imagery aside, is mainly focused on the with the medical staff having to become soldiers and all going a bit doolally and betraying one another and whatnot. Perhaps it's me but the novella really lacks descriptive detail, at least during action scenes, it kind of just says that things are happening and expects you to be able to picture it, which created another feeling of disconnect for me. The Foxes are an intriguing villain, a bit spooky, and I quite like the ending which isn't really a good or bad one.

The Doctor's involvement in all of this is fairly standard, and he feels much more like Ten or Eleven here, maybe just because this kind of metallic space station-type setting is frequent with them, due to the kind of jargon that he's spewing here being much more precise than I can imagine William Hartnell being able to relay without significant flubs, which other stories up until now have managed to represent better than here. Susan is put on the back-burner quite heavily, despite being put into a situation that explores her telepathy even further, it doesn't really do anything with it, she's just a bit of a helping hand. The explanation of The Doctor and Susan gaining their names here is a nice element, obviously overlaps other canonical events, but it's a fun idea and a cute way to make it more significant to them in their timelines.

The First Doctor #5

'The Beginning' from The Companion Chronicles.

As my first ever Big Finish I can't say this was a great introduction, although Carole Ann Ford's performance was plenty fun. Can't say I'm a huge fan of the narrator-style storytelling - not sure if Big Finish is gonna be more like this or more like audio-only television episodes, but I'm hoping more for the latter in future listens. The sequence of The Doctor and Susan's escape is great albeit just about on a par with The Exiles, but once Quadrigger Stoyn and the main narrative is introduced, it becomes quite bare and I was finding myself gradually more disinterested as it went on. The Archaeons are whatever, and - maybe it's because it's so similar to the Caged story from this year - the themes of a race creating another race, here specifically the Archaeons creating humanity, just doesn't do much for me. Stoyn is pretty irritating also, although I do like how The Doctor is instantly shown to be pretty cold by locking him out of the TARDIS at the end, but perhaps he gets better in the two Big Finish stories that narratively follow this one. I suppose I'll see whenever I eventually get around to them.

To call it out again though, Susan's alien-type powers arise here once more with her being able to pick up The Doctor's thoughts as he's laying unseen beside her, so it's exciting to know that this is something that's going to be explored in the extended canon much more than it was too-briefly touched upon in The Sensorites.

The First Doctor #4

'The Exiles' from Short Trips: A Universe of Terrors.

Really love the writing for The Doctor here; it totally nails William Hartnell's speech and even his line flubs. The sequence of them getting onto the TARDIS and aquainting themselves with it is lovely and feels very appropriate to what we see in An Unearthly Child, and the focus on Susan is great with her talking about wanting to dance. Cool to have another hint at The Doctor's previous career as an "ambassador", and even another small hint at Susan's clairvoyance with her seemingly knowing what the instruction manual of the TARDIS is going to look like, although whether this is because she may have seen it before in the past or not is unclear, but it certainly adds to the much more alien-like nature of her when compared to The Doctor. I can't say I'm that enthused by the man with fangs in the mirror portion of the story - it's chilling although it feels somewhat out of place tonally with the rest of the story - but I'm curious to see if this is something that will come back in some other form of media down the line. The Doctor's way of shrugging it off is still very in character however.

The First Doctor #3

'One Virtue, and a Thousand Crimes' from Adventures in Lockdown.

The Corsair is an intriguing character, and the situation of this Star Wars-type smuggler character being hired by The Doctor is fun. The wider narrative scope of the reasons as to this surrounding a "little" Time War and a future incarnation of The Doctor being the primary client of The Corsair amongst other things is a tad arduous for me, but I can see the enjoyment of that kind of approach for sure. I'm seeking out for more humble beginnings stories rather than greater Time War seeming plot-points that feel a bit like deep lore.

The First Doctor #2

'The Longest Story in the World' from Short Trips and Side Steps.

A very intriguing story about Susan and The Doctor, presumably on Gallifrey, but told with a frame story which allows the specific details to be not wholy accurate in a good way. Here The Doctor doesn't seem to have any understanding of his regenerating capabilities or time-travelling urges, and Susan seems to be somewhat clairvoyant and attempts to convince The Doctor to create a time machine and travel away. She's also an adopted grandchild and her race is different to The Doctor's. All interesting details and actually a gripping alternate-history story of The Doctor, but you believe it because it's well told, so when the frame story comes back it quite smartly makes you kick yourself for getting so into it.

The First Doctor #1

'Doctor Who and the Daleks' from Cadet Sweets cigarette cards.

Beginning my inconceivably massive challenge of engaging with the entirety of the First Doctor's media, according to the EYESPIDER chronological ranking, and it feels a little odd to be starting with what really feels like an alternate-dimension incarnation. However, I actually kind of love it. Seeing The Doctor rocking a cape and colourful outfit is a really exciting design, and I do like the concept of him being a Time Lord Ambassador or Fugitive Doctor or whatever and going on missions for the Time Lords before they wipe his memory of it all and he escapes. It really shows how much potential The Timeless Child concept had if it was handled better to be honest. The story here is fairly simple and a tad silly but that's part of the charm of it all, and with some sick art also.