Doctor Who: The Haunted Windmill

The Second Doctor Adventures #5

by Alan Barnes, Michael Troughton (Narrator )

To escape the Time Lords' justice - or lack of it - the Doctor, Jamie, Zoe and Raven take a desperate gamble: a jump to planet Earth, in 1963. But this is not the Earth as the Doctor knew it. This is the world as it would have been if he'd never, ever landed there at all. An Earth free of his influence, in which old friends are strangely changed. If he tries to save this Earth, or escape it, the Time Lords will find him. Hidden away in a haunted windmill, on the edge of a marsh, all he can do is observe. But the monsters are coming.

1. The Haunted Windmill - An Emergency Beacon Alert from Gallifrey means trouble for the Doctor, Raven, Jamie and Zoe. Their only possible escape is a desperate plan that seems to change everything. The TARDIS arrives in a strange land. Strange, but uncannily familiar too.

2. The Crystal Ship - A failed rocket-plane mission crashes to Earth. But where are the crew? The Doctor and Raven encounter Professor Quigley and his trusty, undervalued assistant, Liz Shaw. Will scientific hubris lead to the end of the human race? A certain Miss Heriot has other plans in mind.


3. The Hungry Glass - A mysterious mirror, a glimpsed figure and powerful static electric discharges form a web of intrigue that draws in friends and foes from history.

Genres: Doctor Who, Audiobook

Audiobook

First published August 4, 2026

About the author

Alan Barnes is a British writer and editor, particularly noted for work in the field of cult film and television. Barnes served as the editor of Judge Dredd Megazine from 2001 until December 2005, during which time the title saw a considerable increase in the number of new strip pages. Among other strips, Barnes originally commissioned The Simping Detective. He also wrote a handful of Judge Dredd stories involving alternate universes or featuring a young Dredd.

He worked for five years at Doctor Who Magazine and progressed from writing strips to becoming joint editor in 1998 and sole editor from 2000 until 2002. He subsequently contributed the ongoing Fact of Fiction series of articles to the magazine. Barnes has also written or co-written a number of Doctor Who audio plays for Big Finish Productions.

He has written a number of books on cult films (including James Bond, Quentin Tarantino and Sherlock Holmes) and his book The Hammer Story, co-written with Marcus Hearn, was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Non-Fiction in 1997.

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a refreshing change to the 2nd Doctor Adventures Range.
The premise of having a Doctor in a timeline of Earth untouched by his interference is brilliant, with he himself unable to interfere or risk discovery is *chefs kiss*

Storys are amazing, bringing in characters from past and future but with that alterted timeline twist.

Although i will say... getting ever so slightly tired of the Daleks in this range... but it was a necessity for a certain character to hopefully become a series regular.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Each of these stories are divided into two parts, making this whole narrative a longer six-part epic.

The Haunted Windmill - A fascinating look at what might have happened had The Doctor not helped earth stave off various alien threats before 1963. Thus The (Second) Doctor finds himself trapped without Jamie and Zoe in an era and a reality not of his making or his own. (4/5)

The Crystal Ship - And now with the TARDIS damaged and the manual destroyed, can the Doctor ever hope to escape? (3/5)

The Hungry Glass - This feels almost as surreal as The Doctor’s adventures in the Land of Fiction. It’s definitely a wild ride. (3/5)

[Chris · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

Very odd that the Doctor mentions a flux capacitor as part of the TARDIS