Doctor Who: 11 Doctors, 11 Stories (Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Collection)
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 8/1/2020
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 8/1/2020 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I got this ex-library softcover from Better World Books - and of course I had to use one of the "TARDIS" bookplates to register it! It's part of the Doctor Who 50th anniversary collection, and features stories about each of the first eleven doctors, by different authors, with contributors ranging from Eoin Colfer to Neil Gaiman.
Later: I enjoyed this collection very much; all the tales felt part of the Who-niverse, and did justice to the characters. Among my favorites:
"The Nameless City" by Michael Scott, featuring the Second Doctor (portrayed by Patrick Troughton): this one features companion Jamie, who gets to use his bagpipes at a key point in the story - and it also features the Necronomicon, which tickled me very much. The idea of the Doctor going up against Lovecraftian eldritch horrors was great fun - and effectively presented!
"The Roots of Evil" by Philip Reeve features the Fourth Doctor (played by Tom Baker - he was "my" Doctor, the first one I saw and the one whose adventures I followed the most up until the show's resurgence). His companion here is warrior woman Leela, my favorite of the companions - and the story's a dandy one. The Doctor winds up on a planet formed from a living tree, and inhabited by a tribe who are all named some variation of "Something-Horrible-Should-Happen-to-the-Doctor". Seems the Doctor interacted with them on their home world, and banished them to this place - and they aren't one bit happy about it... Turns out it was a future Doctor who did all this, but when this Doctor tries to explain that as he hadn't done anything to them *yet* they shouldn't try to punish him, they don't seem to find the argument persuasive. [Amusing bits include the Fourth Doctor's distaste for the fashion sense of his future self; "who thinks bow ties are cool?" {snerk!}]
"The Beast of Babylon" by Charlie Higson is about the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston, my favorite of the New Doctors) - and, in a neat little twist, takes place in between the moment he first left Rose behind when she balked at being a companion and the moment when he popped back in again to explain to her about the whole time-travel bit. Here, he's on his own again, and meets a precocious young girl who really, really wants to come traveling with him... He decides to bring her along despite his own reluctance, and they wind up in ancient Babylon ready to defend against a massive starman/creature - but the locals assume the Doctor is an enemy threat, and young Ali gets to save the day! [Though "save" might be the wrong word... turns out there's an excellent reason why the Doctor didn't want to bring her along.] I'd have loved to see this one as a TV episode!
"Nothing O'Clock" by Neil Gaiman features the 11th Doctor, played by Matt Smith, and his companion Amy Pond. They turn up on Earth only to find that it's been sold (!). It seems that mysterious masked beings have been offering tremendous sums to the locals to buy whatever property they own, and this has taken place everywhere in the world - with some rather nasty kickers for those who try to stick around once the sale is made. The foe here is the Kin, a "clan" consisting of one being who can jump in time so quickly and easily that it can effectively act as a huge crowd, and it wants all the time there is...
The other tales were fun too, whether hinting at the inspiration for "Peter Pan" or placing the Doctor inside a cheesy second rate children's-book world or introducing cuddly truth-speaking critters whose arrival causes mayhem.
[There's a TV Tropes entry on the collection, with links to other "Doctor Who" pages. And it seems that new stories exist for later Doctors, with new editions of the book containing those.]
Later: I enjoyed this collection very much; all the tales felt part of the Who-niverse, and did justice to the characters. Among my favorites:
"The Nameless City" by Michael Scott, featuring the Second Doctor (portrayed by Patrick Troughton): this one features companion Jamie, who gets to use his bagpipes at a key point in the story - and it also features the Necronomicon, which tickled me very much. The idea of the Doctor going up against Lovecraftian eldritch horrors was great fun - and effectively presented!
"The Roots of Evil" by Philip Reeve features the Fourth Doctor (played by Tom Baker - he was "my" Doctor, the first one I saw and the one whose adventures I followed the most up until the show's resurgence). His companion here is warrior woman Leela, my favorite of the companions - and the story's a dandy one. The Doctor winds up on a planet formed from a living tree, and inhabited by a tribe who are all named some variation of "Something-Horrible-Should-Happen-to-the-Doctor". Seems the Doctor interacted with them on their home world, and banished them to this place - and they aren't one bit happy about it... Turns out it was a future Doctor who did all this, but when this Doctor tries to explain that as he hadn't done anything to them *yet* they shouldn't try to punish him, they don't seem to find the argument persuasive. [Amusing bits include the Fourth Doctor's distaste for the fashion sense of his future self; "who thinks bow ties are cool?" {snerk!}]
"The Beast of Babylon" by Charlie Higson is about the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston, my favorite of the New Doctors) - and, in a neat little twist, takes place in between the moment he first left Rose behind when she balked at being a companion and the moment when he popped back in again to explain to her about the whole time-travel bit. Here, he's on his own again, and meets a precocious young girl who really, really wants to come traveling with him... He decides to bring her along despite his own reluctance, and they wind up in ancient Babylon ready to defend against a massive starman/creature - but the locals assume the Doctor is an enemy threat, and young Ali gets to save the day! [Though "save" might be the wrong word... turns out there's an excellent reason why the Doctor didn't want to bring her along.] I'd have loved to see this one as a TV episode!
"Nothing O'Clock" by Neil Gaiman features the 11th Doctor, played by Matt Smith, and his companion Amy Pond. They turn up on Earth only to find that it's been sold (!). It seems that mysterious masked beings have been offering tremendous sums to the locals to buy whatever property they own, and this has taken place everywhere in the world - with some rather nasty kickers for those who try to stick around once the sale is made. The foe here is the Kin, a "clan" consisting of one being who can jump in time so quickly and easily that it can effectively act as a huge crowd, and it wants all the time there is...
The other tales were fun too, whether hinting at the inspiration for "Peter Pan" or placing the Doctor inside a cheesy second rate children's-book world or introducing cuddly truth-speaking critters whose arrival causes mayhem.
[There's a TV Tropes entry on the collection, with links to other "Doctor Who" pages. And it seems that new stories exist for later Doctors, with new editions of the book containing those.]
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at Little Free Library, Ohio Rd. in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts USA on Saturday, October 31, 2020
GoryDetails at Little Free Library, Ohio Rd. in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts USA on Saturday, October 31, 2020
Released 3 yrs ago (10/31/2020 UTC) at Little Free Library, Ohio Rd. in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.I left this book (of course!) in this handsome "bigger on the inside" TARDIS-themed Little Free Library; hope someone enjoys it!
[See other recent releases in MA here.]
*** Released for the 2020 Tick Tock challenge. ***
*** Released for the 2020 Science Fiction challenge. ***
*** Released for the 2020 TV Series challenge. ***
