Review: Doctor Who: 1001 Nights In Time & Space

This is a strange one. It's simultaneously a novel and a short story collection, but it's actually far more the latter. From the title, one might expect that it's a riff on the old collection of Arabian folk tales 1001 Nights where Scheherazade tells unending stories to the King each night to stave off her execution ... but it's not really that.

Steve Cole and Paul Magrs have crafted a tale of a travelling storyteller who wanders the wastelands with his talking horse (Chuzzlewit - from the novel by Charles Dickens) and talking raven (Evermore - presumably from the bird in Edgar Allan Poe's 1845 poem, 'The Raven', which croaks 'Nevermore'). The storyteller tells stories and when he comes across another traveller (the 15th Doctor) sitting by a campfire, then he starts to tell tales about creatures this traveller has experienced.

Overall these stories are retellings of various Doctor Who adventures from the points of view of the aliens and creatures within them. So we get 'Robot' retold from the Robot's point of view, 'The Happiness Patrol' from Helen A's viewpoint, 'The Web Planet' from Nemini's perspective ... and so on through the Wirrn, one of the villagers of Devil's End, the Meep, Ohika, Condo ... and many more.

The problem really is that we know these stories - you just have to watch them on DVD or iPlayer - and the alternate viewpoint doesn't really add anything much. The best one for me is one which unexpectedly diverges from this format and has a tale of a Toymaker who's daughter is fascinated by his work. And when a life size Tin Soldier appears in the workshop, she is fascinated. The Soldier comes alive and they converse. This is actually a lone Cyberman left over from the battles in 'The Invasion' and it's a great little tale, probably because it doesn't just retell the story that we already know. I would have liked more like this.

The whole book is set during the period that Sutekh destroyed all life (during the 15th Doctor's first season), and there are interludes where the Storyteller and the Doctor ponder on the events. The conclusion is nice and life affirming with perhaps more than a hint that the old Storyteller is in fact the Doctor as well.

There are some of Paul Magrs' charming illustrations throughout the book, and as with all the BBC's Doctor Who related output at the moment, it's aimed young, so it's simple words and ideas and easily told.

Designed as a 'Christmas Book', I can see youngsters enjoying these retellings of some of the Doctor's adventures, and perhaps being intrigued enough to look up some of the more obscure ones (Visians anyone?), and as such it's a nice addition to the range.

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