Doctor Who - The Eight Doctors
I've been inspired to read more - I've been wasting away doom scrolling most evenings and felt the need to do something new. So, I've set myself the challenge of reading all the original BBC novel in publication order. This list includes the new Eighth Doctor Adventures and Past Doctor Adventures, stories set with familiar faces in between the TV cannon. These stories ran from 1997 to the start of the new tv show in 2005 and actually were the main reason for my reintroduction to Dr. who after picking one up to read in Bristol airport on the way to a conference. I'll save that story for when I get there ... I'm also going to review the books, spoiler free,
The Eight Doctors (3/5)
This is rarer than chicken teeth so I read it here on the open library.
This book was an introduction to the new world of the Eighth doctor but ended up feeling like a closing off of the old cannon rather than diving into a new universe. This is best highlighted by a retcon on the 3rd page for the TV Movie and the book seems to continue in this style. Characterwise, I didn't learn much about the Eighth Dr, He was more described by appearance than personality with little mystery/magic or sparkle. It felt that He was just the narration tool for which the well-known and loved author used to try and retrospectively tidy up the previous Doctors' mild plot holes.
One of the key themes started here is the redemption of the Sixth Doctor. Mid 80s, Doctor who was suffering in ratings, budget and internal politics at the BBC, so the sixth Doctor was pushed into new territory. He started off harsh and was supposed to mellow but was axed before he could finish this arc. The stories he was in were also quite poor. My perceived idea was that the sixth Doctor appeared brash but actually was very soft but had a strong stance on justice, fairness and being good. He just didn't suffer fools
The story itself is ok - Nothing amazing, nothing terrible so a 3/5
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