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Doctor Who: Tales of the TARDIS
Featuring eight stories, with introductions from the actors and writers from the Whoniverse, this is the ultimate collection of memories from across time and space.
Somewhere out there, in the gaps between time and space, is a TARDIS like no other.
In its console room, controls cover the walls and ceilings. And over the years Doctors and old friends have reunited here, to remember their travels, from the dawn of human history to distant alien worlds. They are like ripples on an eternal pond that are forever moving and forever repeating.
Now you can discover eight incredible tales from the Memory TARDIS, scattered across the seasons of earth. Susan and the Doctor reminisce on a bonfire night to remember, Yasmin Khan and her old friend talk about terror at the summer solstice, and the Doctor and Clara remember Christmas and killer toys.
Somewhere out there, in the gaps between time and space, is a TARDIS like no other.
In its console room, controls cover the walls and ceilings. And over the years Doctors and old friends have reunited here, to remember their travels, from the dawn of human history to distant alien worlds. They are like ripples on an eternal pond that are forever moving and forever repeating.
Now you can discover eight incredible tales from the Memory TARDIS, scattered across the seasons of earth. Susan and the Doctor reminisce on a bonfire night to remember, Yasmin Khan and her old friend talk about terror at the summer solstice, and the Doctor and Clara remember Christmas and killer toys.
- GenresDoctor Who
Hardcover
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November 7, 2026
The creation of the "Tales Of The TARDIS" spin-off series for the 60th anniversary was an exciting, niche idea. It allowed surviving actors from the classic and modern era like to reunite with respective Doctors/companions/other guests. Naturally, being live action and a physical, visual series, the series was very much limited to actors that were still alive, but now, three years later, the series continues in prose form, where there is no limit to who can show up in the Remembered TARDIS.
This anthology goes through the various seasons of the year, starting with Autumn and Halloween and looping all the way back round to summer. That's a very fun theme to play on.
1. The Red Haching: A story that finally sees the Tenth Doctor directly confront his borderline neglectful treatment of Martha during her time in the TARDIS. It has a bittersweet epilogue and also crosses over into the infamous "Blink" in a clever way. The core story was nothing great but the prologue and epilogue were endearing and nostalgic.
2. An Unearthly Bonfire: The First Doctor and Susan are taken from *the* TARDIS to feed a memory of bonfire night into the Remembered one. It's always fun to have glimpses at what the First Doctor and Susan's lives were like on Earth prior to "An Unearthly Child", but honestly I think this one has done it the best so far, keeping Susan as a naive young Time Lady and the Doctor as her rather grumpy granddad. It's also quite wholesome and satisfying to know that Carole Ann Ford contributed to the prologue and epilogue of this tale, and I hope that was quite nice for her to do.
3. The Moving Mountain: The core story here is all right, but the actual pairing I thought was a wasted slot because we already saw the Seventh Doctor & Ace reunite in the televised spin-off (as well as technically in "The Power Of The Doctor"), though on the upside they are one of the best Doctor-companion duos in my opinion at least. But yes, the main story of this one was fun but nothing particularly outstanding.
4. Invasion Of The Buffles: The Eleventh Doctor and Clara reunite for a "Christmas special" of sorts to defeat the Boglins--I mean, the Buffles. A light-hearted story, which suits the festive theme it was going for, but probably the weakest one of the stories up to this point in the anthology. I would personally have preferred to see a Twelfth Doctor and Clara reunion because her time with 11 was fairly short-lived, but it's an interesting, new reunion all the same. It does feature a somewhat obscure return of a background monster from a televised episode, but I honestly love it when these niche continuity references happen.
5. The Great Hunt: The Fifteenth Doctor and Belinda end up in a Squid Game-style Easter egg hunt. This is quite a fun one, with a very suitable modern and active duo to match it. We see some Vinvocci and (I think) Silurians among the players, and some Macra as an obstacle in one of the rounds. This also technically the most "recent" story, with the prologue/epilogue having 15 and Belinda directly address and discuss the outcome of "The Reality War"... Which makes its placement somewhat more confusing than the others here, but I'm sure someone on Reddit will figure it out. And respect to Inua Elams for an unapologetic reference to his TV episode!
6. Simulata: The Fifth Doctor and Nyssa are forced to reckon with their losses, including Adric, Traken, Tremas, the regeneration and Tegan's temporary departure. The flashback story shows how tense things were between the pair after "Arc Of Infinity" and gives us a rather melancholic story that shows how they respond to the grief of losing half the TARDIS crew. A very good tale.
7. The Citrus Cycle Conundrum: A reunion for 13 and Yaz is great, but this story is a bit "meh" in my opinion, and is already quite similar to another story in this anthology ("Invasion Of The Buffles")
8. A Vampire In Climping: Easily the best of this collection, the Third Doctor and Jo reunite to recount an adventure in which Jo works with 3's first companion, Liz, to contain a Saturnyne. The conclusion is a bit of a cop out, but this is a good pairing with a welcome return for a likeable but forgotten monster.
One thing I picked up on is that each of the guest writers for the prologues/epilogues seem to have a different interpretation of what the Remembered TARDIS actually is, which just adds a whole other layer of confusion to something born out of an already confusing and poorly written era. This is more indicative of whatever prompt the guest authors were given rather than their own writing talents, however, but maybe organising a group call with everyone so they could have some consistency over how exactly the Remembered TARDIS works would have been a good idea.
So overall, this is an okay anthology. Not the best but not the worst either. It may have benefitted from some returning villain stories (multiple already had a TV appearance), a greater variety of Doctor/companion pairings, and perhaps just someone more than only Beth Axford writing the core stories; maybe even a role reversal where the guest authors wrote the core stories and Axford wrote the intros and outros?
This anthology goes through the various seasons of the year, starting with Autumn and Halloween and looping all the way back round to summer. That's a very fun theme to play on.
1. The Red Haching: A story that finally sees the Tenth Doctor directly confront his borderline neglectful treatment of Martha during her time in the TARDIS. It has a bittersweet epilogue and also crosses over into the infamous "Blink" in a clever way. The core story was nothing great but the prologue and epilogue were endearing and nostalgic.
2. An Unearthly Bonfire: The First Doctor and Susan are taken from *the* TARDIS to feed a memory of bonfire night into the Remembered one. It's always fun to have glimpses at what the First Doctor and Susan's lives were like on Earth prior to "An Unearthly Child", but honestly I think this one has done it the best so far, keeping Susan as a naive young Time Lady and the Doctor as her rather grumpy granddad. It's also quite wholesome and satisfying to know that Carole Ann Ford contributed to the prologue and epilogue of this tale, and I hope that was quite nice for her to do.
3. The Moving Mountain: The core story here is all right, but the actual pairing I thought was a wasted slot because we already saw the Seventh Doctor & Ace reunite in the televised spin-off (as well as technically in "The Power Of The Doctor"), though on the upside they are one of the best Doctor-companion duos in my opinion at least. But yes, the main story of this one was fun but nothing particularly outstanding.
4. Invasion Of The Buffles: The Eleventh Doctor and Clara reunite for a "Christmas special" of sorts to defeat the Boglins--I mean, the Buffles. A light-hearted story, which suits the festive theme it was going for, but probably the weakest one of the stories up to this point in the anthology. I would personally have preferred to see a Twelfth Doctor and Clara reunion because her time with 11 was fairly short-lived, but it's an interesting, new reunion all the same. It does feature a somewhat obscure return of a background monster from a televised episode, but I honestly love it when these niche continuity references happen.
5. The Great Hunt: The Fifteenth Doctor and Belinda end up in a Squid Game-style Easter egg hunt. This is quite a fun one, with a very suitable modern and active duo to match it. We see some Vinvocci and (I think) Silurians among the players, and some Macra as an obstacle in one of the rounds. This also technically the most "recent" story, with the prologue/epilogue having 15 and Belinda directly address and discuss the outcome of "The Reality War"... Which makes its placement somewhat more confusing than the others here, but I'm sure someone on Reddit will figure it out. And respect to Inua Elams for an unapologetic reference to his TV episode!
6. Simulata: The Fifth Doctor and Nyssa are forced to reckon with their losses, including Adric, Traken, Tremas, the regeneration and Tegan's temporary departure. The flashback story shows how tense things were between the pair after "Arc Of Infinity" and gives us a rather melancholic story that shows how they respond to the grief of losing half the TARDIS crew. A very good tale.
7. The Citrus Cycle Conundrum: A reunion for 13 and Yaz is great, but this story is a bit "meh" in my opinion, and is already quite similar to another story in this anthology ("Invasion Of The Buffles")
8. A Vampire In Climping: Easily the best of this collection, the Third Doctor and Jo reunite to recount an adventure in which Jo works with 3's first companion, Liz, to contain a Saturnyne. The conclusion is a bit of a cop out, but this is a good pairing with a welcome return for a likeable but forgotten monster.
One thing I picked up on is that each of the guest writers for the prologues/epilogues seem to have a different interpretation of what the Remembered TARDIS actually is, which just adds a whole other layer of confusion to something born out of an already confusing and poorly written era. This is more indicative of whatever prompt the guest authors were given rather than their own writing talents, however, but maybe organising a group call with everyone so they could have some consistency over how exactly the Remembered TARDIS works would have been a good idea.
So overall, this is an okay anthology. Not the best but not the worst either. It may have benefitted from some returning villain stories (multiple already had a TV appearance), a greater variety of Doctor/companion pairings, and perhaps just someone more than only Beth Axford writing the core stories; maybe even a role reversal where the guest authors wrote the core stories and Axford wrote the intros and outros?
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