Review of Doctor Who: Festival of Death (novel)

Doctor Who can be a tricky series to write for. The series frequently ignores its own continuity (and some of it changes anyway; such is the nature of time travel), and it has a vast history of characters to choose from.

Jonathan Morris tackles Doctor Who with such amazing ease that this book, Festival of Death, feels like it could have come directly from the TV series. Tom Baker's Doctor is well-represented here, acting and speaking exactly the way we would expect him to, and his companions Romana (Lalla Ward's Romana, specifically) and K9 also perfectly echo their TV incarnations.

The story is, at its core, an examination of an infinite time loop in which something has gone disastrously wrong with a special attraction called "The Beautiful Death", which allows its guests to actually briefly experience what it is like to be dead. When the TARDIS arrives on the ship that hosts the attraction, the Doctor is treated as a hero, only to discover that he died rescuing the ship. In traveling further back, the Doctor means to save the ship again -- and himself.

This is a somewhat dark story, with some unsettling visuals well-described by Morris. It's clear he was paying very close attention to how all of the events happened, as he leaves no holes in the plot or inconsistencies to derail the story. And the puzzle is by no means an easy one for the Doctor to solve, and he evidently spends quite a bit of time inside the loop...

Fortunately, this book is still available. Fans of Doctor Who (especially Tom Baker's Doctor), will find a very enjoyable read here.