Doctor Who: Caged

Doctor Who: New Series Adventures #65

by Una McCormack

Are aliens ever abducted by aliens? And if they were, would anyone believe their story?

When the Doctor and Ruby arrive on Cavia, they meet a gentle local who is certain that she has been taken for study by creatures from the stars. The Doctor is concerned to find mysterious meteors appearing in the sky, while strange robotic creatures crowd the forests, watching everything and waiting for… what?

Who is interested in Cavia, and why? What is the sinister truth of the abductions? The Doctor and Ruby must discover the secrets of this mysterious world – and those who would seek to destroy it…

Genres: Doctor Who, Fiction, Science Fiction, Audiobook, Novels

185 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 27, 2024

About the author

Una McCormack is a British writer and the author of several Star Trek novels and stories.

Ms. McCormack is a New York Times bestselling author. She has written four Doctor Who novels: The King's Dragon and The Way through the Woods (featuring the Eleventh Doctor, Amy, and Rory); Royal Blood (featuring the Twelfth Doctor and Clara), and Molten Heart (featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan and Graham). She is also the author of numerous audio dramas for Big Finish Productions.

Reviews

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Considering the length, it might be closer to 4 of 4.5 stars...but I'm rounding up for the achievement. Given far more limited page/word count, Una McCormack takes the challenge and produces a wonderful story that channels sci-fi's most Asimov sensibilities to produce a story about avoiding genocide, first encounters with alien life, and facing the consequences of one's actions. In the midst of all this, a note-perfect depiction of the 15th Doctor & Ruby Sunday. This was a joy to read from start to finish.

[Joe Kessler · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid Doctor Who adventure, mostly notable for the entirely non-humanoid cast outside of the Fifteenth Doctor and his companion Ruby Sunday. That's the sort of approach I love to see from the wider canon of this franchise, taking advantage of the freedom from visual budget constraints to go wild with the creator's imagination. Why shouldn't our Time Lord hero encounter hulking many-limbed intelligent beings and smaller furry ones that look like guinea pigs? It's also nice to see an alien abduction story without a human element in the relevant power dynamic: one species covertly studying another and ultimately getting called out for it and forced to recognize their research subjects as people too.

But all that aside, this novel never rises past the general level of competence to something special for me. The protagonists feel like a generic TARDIS team rather than anything informed by the season 1 writing or Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson's performances therein, to the point where I'm honestly not sure whether author Una McCormack was able to watch those episodes before filing this book with the BBC. There aren't any significant additions to the series continuity or insights into the major characters here, nor any particularly dire straits or brilliant solutions executed by the Doctor. No clever plotting or distinctive narrative voice. It's just straightforward Doctor Who -- which isn't the worst way to spend a few hours, especially with Bonnie Langford narrating the audiobook, but isn't really much worth highlighting in the end.

Oh... and this is a truly minor detail, but I don't understand what exactly the title is supposed to refer to, either.

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[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do aliens ever get abducted by other aliens? That’s the question at the heart of Una McCormack’s “Doctor Who: Caged”. Featuring the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday, “Caged” tells a story of first contact, xenophobia, and hope. As is often the case with these more recent “Doctor Who” books, “Caged” moves a bit too briskly for McCormack to really dig into any of the story’s themes, but the tale she weaves is a compelling one. Very alien in the best of ways, and with a very timely message at its heart. The Doctor and Ruby feel a bit under-defined here, especially when compared to Georgia Cooke’s “Ruby Red” - a problem only exacerbated by the narrative separating the duo for tue bulk of the story. But still, this is a strong “Doctor Who” tale, one well worth diving into while waiting for the Doctor and Ruby’s further adventures.

[Emilija · Rating 4 out of 5]

2018 52 Reading Challenge - 52) A Book About A Current World Issue

I don't really have much to say about this novel. It was a standard, average Doctor Who novel, which honestly makes it a little bit of a disappointment because Una McCormack normally writes decent Doctor Who novels, however, this would have been written before the series aired, so I can understand the blandness of both the Doctor and Ruby.

Honestly laughed when the enemy turned out to be the housing crisis. How very UK of them.

[Lucy-May · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much preferred this to Ruby Red & read it in one sitting! The Doctor & Ruby aren’t fully themselves but this must have been written before they’d appeared on-screen so Una could only know so much about their personalities at the time. A cute, interesting story that left me pondering how I could create my own Experiment.

[Kyle Theobald · Rating 5 out of 5]

A large part of this book features the Doctor being accompanied by a giant fluffy alien guinea pig as a companion, and I'm tempted to give it 5 stars just for that alone (incidental nitpick but I don't know what the monster on the cover is supposed to represent as it does not resemble either of the aliens depicted in the book).

There's also some great thematic exploration of othering, through the lens of the two alien races making first contact. On one hand there's Chirracharr, the aforementioned fluffy companion who is tragically naive and can barely comprehend the notion that other life forms would want to do anything else except make friends, so much that the word "invasion" is not even in her vocabulary. Then there's the Ixites who are bit more complex and whose responses range from pure xenophobia to more subtle forms of dehumanisation such as treating other life forms as laboratory specimens. What I took as the main message of the book, and it's a VERY important one right now, is that if we all took the time to just go talk to each other and learn about each other, we'd discover that we actually all have a lot more in common than we might first realise.

The Doctor is very enjoyable in this story too. Apart from saying "honey" a few too many times, McCormack has really captured the energy and enthusiasm of Ncuti Gatwa's portrayal of the character.

[Gabriel Mero · Rating 4 out of 5]

The names were hard for me to mentally pronounce but I loved the space guinea pigs!

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doctor Who: Caged, was definitely more intrigued by this book than Ruby Red and it delivered. I do really love the idea of Aliens abducting other Aliens, only to find out the species of Aliens that abducted the other Aliens, aren't all aware of other Aliens at all, and then what happens when you throw in 2 more Aliens, that being the Doctor and Ruby? For something that already has a intriguing surface level plot, it really does throw you for a loop what exactly is actually going on in the first act.

That being said, it's obviously not the grandest story ever told and plenty of parts are predictable, but overall it's just a fun read. My only problem is the names of characters, just give me easy to pronounce names dude, but that's a fault at the heart of sci-fi novels, not necessarily exclusive to this novel in particular.

[mary]

I love doctor who stories where the companion splits off, and Ruby is always a blast. I kind of forgot to finish the last couple chapters and just got to it now so I kind of forgot some little points but ummm very good

[Goodreeds User · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great Who. High-concept and wide-ranging, but still emotionally grounded and relevant to today. An exciting and ambitious multi-planet story with TWO very interesting alien societies. Exactly the kind of thing a Disney budget would have been suited for.

[Dee Marsden · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun Doctor Who romp that should be a quick and easy read. It does have pacing issues at times especially towards the end, but it's an enjoyable addition to the Doctor Who novel line.

[Alex Sarll]

The back cover does a good job of selling this without giving too much away: "Are aliens ever abducted by aliens? And if they were, would anyone believe their story?" And for the most part this is a really nicely thought-through, and frequently adorable, response to that question. As is often the case with first few spin-offs from a Who era, there is the slight handicap of the writer not having had chance to see the performances yet, or even if they got a preview in a high-security Bad Wolf facility, certainly not to live with them; very occasionally the Fifteenth doesn't quite feel like Ncuti, though he always feels like the Doctor. My only real complaint is that towards the end, a story that had been proceeding along beautifully idiosyncratic lines comes close to derailing itself with a halfhearted genuflection to the tropes of default nu-Who resolutions.

To come a little closer to spoiler territory: I really appreciated how, for quite a while, neither set of aliens is described, or named, because why would they be, any more than litfic specifies human characters or describes their baseline characteristics? After all, each people believes themselves alone in the universe (how can the abductors think that? Bear with it, it works in the end). And even once it is revealed, turns out they're all really cute: a race of giant sentient guinea pigs* are being quite gently studied by land octopods, and even the cover is a bit of a misleading introduction to the robot armadillos who also feature. The emotional core of it, though, is that the cavies in particular are living in a world that's confined, but also kind of idyllic; the point of view character is your classic companion type, dreaming of something bigger, looking at the stars and wondering, but more than most Who this acknowledges the flipside of that; there's a heartbreaking moment of the Doctor not wanting to have to explain to these gentle souls what 'invasion' is. And for the most part - aside from the aforementioned brief derailment - Caged retains that humane** tone throughout; threats come from insularity, ignorance, disappointment, good intentions compromised by short-sightedness, rather than classic villainy. And relocating the action to distant worlds allows Who to do a proper first contact story for a change, usually a bit of a problem when it spends so long hanging around Earth, with its Schrödinger's awareness of aliens. I hadn't planned to pick this up, got it out of the library on a whim, but I'm very impressed by it; sweet, funny, wise.

*Longtime Who book fans: no, not those ones.
**So much easier for a book to be humane when only one character is human.

[Owen Townend · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit faint-hearted but definitely more engaging than the current TV storylines.

Doctor Who: Caged is the first novel for the Fifteenth Doctor's run. It imagines a world where one species (the glowing, globular Ixites) abduct another (the large, fluffy unnamed species) for closer study. Inevitably this leads to one innocent abductee named Chirracharr to become obsessed with finding out who would take her from her home and conduct experiments on her. Throw the Doctor and Ruby into the mix and you have a high-energy and deeply compassionate adventure.

McCormack excels at creating a perfectly lovable character in Chirracharr and using her to accentuate the easy acceptance and absolute supportiveness of the Fifteenth Doctor. Caged gives this incarnation more agency and ingenuity than the last TV series did, and even gives Ruby her own diplomatic mission.

That being said, Caged barely follows through on the premise promised by the blurb. The residual trauma of the alien abduction theme doesn't really get explored, nor the full impact of Chirracharr's family not believing her. The fact that they encourage her to leave home is downplayed and doesn't really get commented on when she ultimately returns. Also the eventual threat of forced migration is resolved a little too cleanly for my taste.

Then again, it's not often that the books in this series delve so deep into social change and the slow process of two cultures accepting one another. Caged isn't perhaps the best book I've read by McCormack but I welcome her ability to take two imperfectly-defined characters and make them feel like the Doctor and his companion. I hope she gets a chance to write for this era again.

In the meantime, I recommend Doctor Who: Caged to Whovians who want to see the Fifteenth Doctor take command and actually save the day like his predecessors.

[Kribu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite enjoyed this one.

[Logan Shirley · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

As a Doctor Who story, this is probably more a 4 or 4.25, but as a book, it's a 3.75. I don't know if that distinction makes sense to anyone but me.

I like when Una McCormack isn't constrained by the confines of fanservice. Her DW comics are rife with references to only the most popular and beloved moments of the revival. I don't think that's her fault necessarily, I think those were the marching orders.

This is so completely its own thing. There are a couple of references here and there, but they enhance the story McCormack tells instead of being the focal point. If Ruby Red couldn't be made on TV for format issues, this couldn't be made for budget issues. There are so many moving parts, many of which are giant sentient guinea pigs and robotic armadillos.

McCormack lets her imagination shine in this fun 15 and Ruby story that I will definitely revisit in the future.

[Declan O'Keeffe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one so much more than Ruby red.

I loved the themes, even though I thought they were a little cliche at first, they build into something so much more special and enjoyable.

I loved the characters, though mysterious at first they became so loveable.

I was so much more invested in the story, for what is essentially just a side quest for the Doctor and Ruby's story, after we already knew the ending of their first season.

This was the bonus Doctor and Ruby content I had been craving, despite them being apart for a lot of the story, I just love them as individuals, and they still stand out as great parts of this story.

Best of the 2 15th Doctor novels so far, by far.

[Nicola Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m beginning to love spending time with Ncuti’s cheeky doctor and his energy and fun always transcends screen (and book too).

I love the who books as they give us a whole new adventure with doctors and companion and after series 1, I’m intrigued to spend more time with them. I don’t feel like there’s been enough.

I’ve enjoyed getting to know them both and Ruby is a great companion. She’s so likeable and they’ve both got a lovely rapport.

And given we get a bonus furry companion in this one, it was super cute. Added the adorability factor, the story was interesting and I really enjoyed the audiobook narrated by the epic Mel (Bonnie Langford herself).

[Chris Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Close to a 5, Una is one of the more reliable writers. The message of tolerance is kept subtly within the wider story, rather than being hammered into the foreground. I thought thd ixites had understandable flaws and misunderstandings.
My only criticism is it doesn’t feel like the Guinea pig people would have advanced telecommunications but no other apparent manufacturing base - they didn’t come across as that advanced, and surely the watching ixites would have noticed this level of tech! They didn’t even realise the gps actually communicated yet, but tech would have inferred some level of intelligence they could communicate with.

[Paul Griggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve found myself away from home and without access to the series for the finale, so this has accompanied me poolside and, as always, with Una’s writing it doesn’t disappoint. A romp for the Doctor and Ruby as they encounter not one, but two alien species, who are in many cases unaware of the nature of their relationship with each other and the universe. Cute, VERY alien, characters lead an underlying discussion of race politics, immigration and other important things.
(Note that I would give six stars if I could for the acknowledgment for my friend the late Matt Dale. Thanks, Una)

[Gi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is basically what happens if you drop The Doctor into a Star Trek episode - complete with layered philosophy, science and politics! McCormack absolutely nails the unique voices of Ruby and Gatwa's Doctor, and tells a unique and strong story, which, just like the best DW books, isn't structured like a normal episode and centres the opening of the story on two different alien perspectives before crashing the gang into them!

Also, I listened on audio and Bonnie Langford was just incredible as narrator! She brought so much energy to it!

[Toby Sutton-Long · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will admit that compared to most Doctor Who tie-in novels, I did find this a little hard to get into. There's an awful lot of set-up for something that's less than 200 pages but I do admit to enjoying the story's ending where there is a very strong message. The side characters are a good collective, and this is something I can very much seeing as part of the RTD2 era.

[Marcel Driel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this one! It was very well written, with reveals every couple of chapters on how the different species lived and thought, and with a great main character in Chirracharr. The Doctor and Ruby are almost secondary characters in this, and that actually worked. Not sure if Una McCormack has the 15th speech pattern completely right, but that’s a minor quibble. Lots of fun, this one!

[Kelsey Hayes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Initially starting this book in July, I was a lot more interested than the last Dr Who Novel. I lost touch with reading for a bit but it was so easy to pick this back up again. Do I think it is the best? No. But Una McCormack always creates a good story.

[Anmol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked reading this novel and listening to the audiobook with it as it made it easier to what came. I got sad near the second half as it reminded me of the Palestine people getting their land destroyed and stolen to build new houses for the other lot.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book of the 15th Doctor's run that I have read. I quite enjoyed it which I hope bodes well for the rest of them. I loved the concept of the experiment. Chirracharr was delightful and I thought the Doctor and Ruby worked well together. I hope to read more in the future.

[Christopher Addison · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thrilling adventure with standalone characters I fell in love with, and actually better than some of the episodes this season

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A charming little yarn.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this on Audible, where it's read by Bonnie Langford. I think I liked this a bit more than Ruby Red. Funny enough, the armadillo reminds me of the Emerson, Lake & Palmer album Tarkus.

[Graeme O'Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

The strongest of the two original 15th Doctor stories so far, CAGED is inventive, well-crafted, and is paced exactly like an episode of the series.

[Tarz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read, what if aliens were abducted by aliens? Definitely a question to ask the doctor….