Review: Doctor Who Annual / Whodle / The Adventures Before

Three new Doctor Who titles from Penguin, and as usual these are all aimed at the younger set ... I'm never sure quite which age group that is, but I suspect it's the sort of 6-12 year old mark ... though of course fans of all ages may enjoy them!

First up is the 2025 Doctor Who Annual, and this year the book seems a little more 'together' than previous fare and is quite enjoyable as an overview of the previous season, plus assorted extras. We get a double page for each of the stories, written to tie in with the themes of those stories, lots of photos, some great puzzles (I loved hunting for the goblins hidden throughout the book) and other bits and pieces.

The design is smashing and really complements the written material. It's slight but visually rich and there's a lot for the young fan to enjoy here. I like the printed endpapers - very nice design - and the little novelisation by Steve Cole of Russell T Davies' Children in Need skit from 2023 featuring a non-Dalek Base-sitting Davros and the 14th Doctor getting to add a plunger arm to the first Dalek, is a nice addition.

So a great Annual this time around ... entertaining and visually exciting!

Next up is Whodle. Now I had no idea what this was, and it took me a little time to figure it out. Basically it's a book of logic puzzles. They range from Easy to Extreme, and do you know, I cannot figure a single one out!

So to take an Easy one for example: you have three 'Characters', three 'Enemies' and three 'Objects' and through a series of observations (like for example, 'Character A was holding Object B', 'Character B would never touch Object B', Character C is fond of Fruit'... you work out who was actually holding Object C (which is an Orange, for example), and this was Character C ... but you also have to figure out who is where, again through more observations. There's also a list of 'Character/Object traits' to guide you. The harder ones have more of each item, and more categories to work out.

So it's a sort of figure it out as you go thing ... ie there should only be one answer which matches all the observations and traits - ie one solution to each puzzle. It sounds tricky, and yes, I found it very tricky ... and time consuming. So if you're looking for something to make a young fan really use their grey matter and deductive skills to the max, then this might be the book for them!  There are 61 puzzles in here covering stories from every era of the show. 

It must be hard to sort this all out to create the book, and I pity the poor editor/proof reader who possibly had to solve every puzzle themselves in order to check it was all correct. And to add to the puzzlement, the authors say in the front that 'we have to deviate a little from canon', so having an encyclopaedic knowledge of Doctor Who won't necessarily help you!

Finally we have a new fiction anthology called The Adventures Before, and as it suggests, these are eight short stories which act as 'preludes' to 'the greatest adventures of the Doctor'. Hmmm ... a little hyperbole there perhaps given that the list includes 'Arc of Infinity' and 'Planet of the Dead'.

The tales are OK, but they are patchily written, and many aren't really 'preludes' at all, just another adventure which happens to be placed timewise before the one stated.

There's an odd mix here. Mark Griffiths contributes 'The Boy and the Dalek' which starts with the 2nd Doctor, Jamie and Victoria finding a lone Dalek on Skaro which shows them a story of its past, where it meets a young boy and helps it. We conclude with a surprise ending which leads into the start of 'The Daleks', the first ever Dalek story on television ... but it's a little clunky. Steve Cole's 'The Roots of Evil' is basically a retread of 'The Seeds of Doom'. A rather good tale about Scorby and a fellow heavy falling foul of another plant-based threat when they try to deliver it to Harrison Chase. Gary Russell brings us 'The Four Faces of Immortality' which is a prelude to 'The Five Doctors', and has Borusa having a sort of daydream about the other three Time Lords trapped on Rassilon's plinth at the end of the story in question. There's some nice ideas in here. Beth Axford's 'Becky's Impossible Day' is ostensibly a prelude to 'Rose', but is actually a straightforward little side adventure for the 9th Doctor. 'Smiley's Mirror Exhibit' is by Janelle McCurdy and prequels 'Planet of the Dead' and features the 10th Doctor visiting the titular attraction (which is in the same museum as Lady Christina steals the cup from at the start of said story) and rescuing a girl and her friend Jake. Finally, there's 'The Fall of Apalapucia', a prelude to 'The Girl Who Waited' by E L Norry. This is 'proper' science fiction, detailed and with alien creatures, things, environments ... all sorts. It's also hard to summarise simply: a story of the fall of a futuristic planet and its inhabitants. Probably the best in the book as it doesn't rely at all on anything from Doctor Who itself apart from the name of the planet the following story took place on.

There are two stories written by cast members. Janet Fielding (Tegan) contributes 'Little Did She Know' which follows a return trip to an evocatively described Australia by Tegan to see her father as a prelude to 'Arc of Infinity'. If anything it is more a prelude to 'Snakedance'. It also slips from past tense into present in the middle and then back again: maybe this is deliberate to try and up the tension, but it jarred with me. And Ingrid Oliver (Osgood) contributes 'The Morning of the Day of the Doctor' which pretty much tells you what it covers: Osgood's morning before the Doctor arrived on the scene in that story. Quite enjoyable, especially as The Curator (as played on telly by Tom Baker) makes another appearance.

Overall I found the collection slightly disappointing. The ideas are simple (apart from 'The Fall of Apalapucia'), and it really doesn't fulfil its stated aim of providing actual preludes to the specified stories. Again, it's aimed at young readers, so this might be the reason for the simpler plotting and writing ... but when I was young, I know I wanted material which was actually more complex to get my teeth into. 

As with the other titles reviewed here, this would make an ideal 'starter' for any young Who fan at Christmas, and as this is why Penguin are publishing this sort of book, then I'd say they succeeded!

Review: The Time-Travelling Almanac

Another title from BBC Books tying into Doctor Who is a smallish hardback tome called The Time-Travelling Almanac. 

This is something like the eleventh factual book to be authored or co-authored by Simon Guerrier, and as usual the depth of research is impressive. Simon really knows his Who and so at least we can be sure that the facts that are present are all correct.

But this is a strange beast ... it reminded me of the old Doctor Who Annuals where new stories and comics spinning off from the show sit side by side with articles on the Sun or Space Travel or Spaceships or whatever - material which actually has nothing to do with Doctor Who (aside from maybe some tangential references).

This is an Almanac, and as the introduction explains: it contains 'useful information and fun stuff to help enliven and illuminate your journey through 2025'. So we have the transmission dates of all the Doctor Who episodes to date (though a little frustratingly those with no episode number on screen have none here, so for most of the Hartnell stories, you need to know which episode title is which, for example, The Ark: 'The Steel Sky' or The Dalek Invasion of Earth: 'The Waking Ally'. It also includes the spin off series like Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood (and, pointing to the fact that the book is aimed at a young audience, there's a helpful note pointing out that 'Torchwood and Class are aimed at an adult audience and contain adult themes, violence and upsetting scenes' - just the same as Doctor Who does then ...)

There's birthdates of some of the cast noted, and also for some of the fictional characters (but the text doesn't distinguish between them) and also 'firsts' in Doctor Who, like the first appearance of the Daleks, of Vicki, of K9 and so on.

For the astronomy and science buffs, there's articles and entries for various real life meteor storms, comets and the like, phases of the moon, descriptions of the planets of the solar system and how and when to see them ... There's entries on decimalisation in the UK, on eclipses and equinoxes ... but there's also fiction from the worlds of Doctor Who, suggesting how the fire of London started, or when Auderly House was invaded by Daleks and Ogrons.  All of these things sit side by side ... any child reading this to perhaps research for their history homework could come up with some very interesting elements in their essays.

I have to mention too, that the gravity/mavity joke is perpetuated, with it being called mavity throughout. Even when talking about how the moon affects the tides. Again, sitting somewhat uneasily with the 'real world' information that the book also contains. 

There's some factual items in here as well, for example about some Doctor Who spin off records, or about the Guinness World Record for William Russell having the longest time between appearances as the same character in the same show (57 years and 120 days), but as with the material from the fictional side of the show, and indeed science fact, there seems to be no rhyme nor reason why some things are included and some are not. It seems a little scattergun.

However.

Given that it's clearly aimed at the young set (those who might be upset or offended by Torchwood or Class), then it is a fun and diverting book to flick through. Day by day you can see what was transmitted (and maybe crank up iPlayer to rewatch those episodes) and it may spark an interest in children to turn their gaze to the skies and watch some meteors pass by, or to try and spot Mars or Venus or Mercury in the sky (at one point the text even suggests downloading an App to help them!). 

Probably an ideal Christmas gift for the burgeoning Who Fan!

Review: Doctor Who: The Gold Archive: Invasions of Earth: A Secret History

The latest large format hardback Doctor Who title from Ebury/BBC Books is a step up from some of the recent fare. True it still focusses exclusively on the 'in universe' information, but the presentation is attractive and the content raises a smile or two along the way.

What impresses me is the breadth that the show now encompasses. My area of favour is the so-called 'classic' series, but there's many, many more episodes now from the new series, and keeping track of them all is something of a challenge! Indeed, there are a couple of characters and plotlines outlined in this tome which I simply do not remember at all! I suspect that a rewatch of the whole of New-Who is in order! (I really need a TARDIS myself!)

The 'conceit' of this book is that it's a file pulled together by Kate Lethbridge Stewart of UNIT of all the available information on all the many and varied invasions, incursions, and alien monsters which Earth had encountered over history. There's some nice tie in with The Great Serpent, and that he (and his operatives) may have corrupted and changed information over the years, and so this is a complete review and brush-up of what is termed UNIT's 'Gold Archive'.

The book breaks all these alien incursions down thematically: Prehistoric Incursions; Recurring Threats; Pre-UNIT Incursions; World Extinction Danger: Nuclear Events; Falling to Earth; Biological Hazards; Rogue Time Travel; and more, and within each presents a 'dossier' written by Kate Lethbridge Stewart, or Shirley Anne Bingham, with contributions from Ace, Tegan, Mel, Rose Noble, Christofer Ibrahim, and the robotic Vlinx (who provides succinct summaries of the various incursions). There are further pieces by the Doctor, and the text is scattered with post it notes from Kate and the Doctor and others which comment on the information within.

Pictorially it's gorgeous, and this is probably where the book wins out. The illustration is well chosen and clever, as it also uses a particular love of mine: 'faked' newspaper cuttings, memos, transcripts and so on from people involved in the various adventures. These are smashing. I only spotted one which was (to my mind anyway) 'wrong' and this was a news report of someone in Devesham finding a cache of fake 50p pieces. This is all referencing the story 'The Android Invasion' and of course the 'fake' 50ps were in the till of the pub and were found there by the Doctor and Sarah ... but this pub and village were recreations of Devesham on an alien planet, not on Earth, and so the fake coins could never have been found on Earth. These documents are also a neat way of showing UNIT's involvement in providing cover stories and so on for the various alien (or home-grown) incidents and monsters.

At 312 pages, this is a chunky tome, and there is a lot to read and digest. As I say, I'm impressed at the 'whole world' knowledge of the writers, Steve Cole and Mike Tucker, and at how they draw it all together in the various dissertations and articles within. There's even some explanations for some of the obvious 'issues' with the show: like for example why the Silurians, Sea Devils and Zygons changed their appearance, motivations, weapons and abilities between the 'classic' and 'new' Doctor Who stories to feature them (other than the production team(s) just missing the point/not realising/getting it wrong).

Although I might be in the minority for not really liking the fairly plain 'graphic' approach cover, the book is perfect for the Who fan looking to find out and read more about the in-universe happenings of UNIT. And for the more knowledgeable fan too - a refresher course on all the various UNIT/Earth related happenings over the show's 60+ year history.

The Soul Thief - by S L Howe - Interview!!

BEWARE THE SOUL THIEF

We all love a creepy novel for the winter, and 2024 brings a new, terrifying book from S L Howe. The Soul Thief is described as a Gothic Thriller, and promises to chill the bones and get you looking back over your shoulder.

The author is no stranger to the horror genre. As Sam Stone she has penned over 20 novels involving vampires, alien invasions, space zombies, a series of Young Adult novels about a Victorian Steampunk heroine, and much, much more. As Samantha Lee Howe she penned the multiple-award winning, and USA Today Bestseller The Stranger in Our Bed (also filmed and starring Samantha Bond, Emily Berrington and Ben Lloyd-Hughes) along with the acclaimed espionage thriller series The House of Killers.

‘The Soul Thief came out of my love for Gothic literature,’ explains Samantha. ‘I have been particularly influenced by 19^th Century gothic writers such as Bram Stoker, Sheridan Le Fanu and Mary Shelley. Gothic means different things to different writers but one of the outstanding features in books traditionally described as ‘Gothic’ is a sense of place: the huge manor house; the dark and dreary parsonage; the crumbling and brooding architecture; all of which were elements that feature strongly in the city of Manchester where I was born.’

The book is set in and around Victorian Manchester, in particular the author uses the real life Heaton Hall. ‘Growing up I visited Heaton Hall many times. In those days the Hall was open every day to visitors but it is now only open at certain times a year and there have been many steps taken to protect the house and the land. There was, therefore, every chance that this influential location would appear in one of my books and it was perfect as one of the locations used for The Soul Thief.’

The book follows a gentleman detective, Mitchell Bishop, and his fiancé, Laura Carter, as they investigate the strange deaths of Laura’s brother Warren and their sister Sara. They realise there is nothing natural about these deaths, and Mitchell becomes haunted by demons from his own past which may well have an influence on the present.’

‘I love writing horror,’ smiles Samantha, ‘there’s something cathartic about the process of dealing with things that scare you. I’m not afraid of old houses and exploring abandoned places: in my childhood I did both frequently; but there’s something about ghosts from the past reaching out to influence the present which is very pervasive. One of the things that has always unnerved me is demonic possession: losing control of your own body and soul. This is an element, along with some invented horror folklore, that I wanted to explore in the novel.

‘Manchester was a pivotal city during the Victorian technological boom, but also there was a great deal of crime, as there is in any major city. In this book I wanted to explore that seedy side of Victorian Manchester: prostitution; gangs; and the rise of photography, which seemed magical, in an era ready to exploit it in all ways possible.’

The Soul Thief is by S L Howe and published on 5 December 2024 by HarperCollins One More Chapter.

Signed Copies are available from Samantha's website at www.samanthaleehowe.co.uk