Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor: The Sapling Volume 1: Growth by Rob Williams

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Doctor and Alice are joined by a sentient baby tree.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part of the book sets up the main plot as the Doctor follows some messages from the and Alice's friend Jones where they encounter Scream, a member of the Silence who is so effective even fellow Silents forget him. But he has an evil to steal the Doctor and Alice's memories in part using a powerful alien sapling. Jones once again enjoys the TARDIS, returning after a season away, now in his prime as a famous musician. This story is good as far as set up tales go. The big detraction is Scream. He looks really creepy, but one of the benefits of the Silence and what makes them creepy is they don't talk a lot and it's barely intelligible. He has a multi-page monologue, not good.

The Doctor, Alice, and the Sapling return to find Earth's timeline fractured with a neighbor of Alice's having past versions of himself having fled to his apartment. The Doctor has to things right and to do that, he has to get back to 1968, and when the TARDIS breaks down, it means taking a bus. This is a clever story and it works beautifully in comic format in a way it wouldn't work on the screen. The reveal of who the 1968ers are is very clever and has a nice message about it.

Overall, this is probably the weakest start for an Eleventh Doctor series Titan has done, but it's till pretty good.



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