Review: Doctor Who: Books: Something Borrowed (Puffin 6th Doctor)

By Richelle Mead

Puffin ebook, out now

Peri and the Sixth Doctor are invited to the wedding of an old friend…

There are some nice departures from the previous entries in the series in Richelle Mead’s tale for the Doctor and Peri – for a start it’s narrated by Peri, so for once (and with no disrespect to those who have written so well for her recently!) she’s being written by an American. Mead catches the right tone, both of her speech patterns and her internal thoughts, and the combination of jousting and teasing that characterises the relationship between this TARDIS team.

There are plenty of clues thrown up as to the villain’s identity before it is revealed, and again Mead has obviously watched the episodes closely, since this feels like a natural sequel.

Mead has commented that the darkness of the sixth Doctor coupled with the requirement to do what’s right is what attracts her as a writer to the character and there are definite flashes during this story of the bleaker version of the Time Lord we saw in the early episodes, but the ending shows the kinder side.

Verdict: The story’s deft characterisation of its heroes and villain marks this as one of the best of the series to date. 8/10

Paul Simpson

 

Click here to order Doctor Who: Something Borrowed from Amazon.co.uk