By Derek Landy
Puffin ebook, out now
The Doctor and Martha become embroiled in an absolutely spiffing adventure.
Derek Landy’s contribution to the Puffin celebrations gives us a new story for the Tenth Doctor and Martha as they find themselves caught up within an adventure of The Troubleseekers – a sub-Enid Blyton set of schoolkids who keep finding themselves investigating strange events (think The Secret Seven or The Famous Five but in the latter case without either a dog, or a future DWM editor involved). The Doctor immediately thinks that there could be a link with the Land of Fiction (The Mind Robber) but that’s not how things play out.
There are some accurate jibes at how Martha can see the faults in the sexist and racist actions of the 1950s’ books, while missing some faults of her own time, and Landy’s dialogue for the Doctor and Martha works well. He’s also clearly a fan – there are oblique references to a couple of Big Finish stories – and this tale fits neatly into this part of the Tenth Doctor’s life.
Hopefully, as with some of the other authors in this series, Landy can be persuaded to pen a longer tale – if only for more lines like, “From a certain point of view, the TARDIS is imagination.”
Verdict: A fun adventure with a few home truths buried within. 8/10
Paul Simpson
Click here to order Doctor Who: The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage from Amazon.co.uk
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