Doctor Who: Twelve Angels Weeping

Doctor Who New Series anthologies

by Dave Rudden, Alexis Snell (Illustrator)

Twelve extraordinary Doctor Who stories, each featuring a monstrous villain from the Doctor Who world.

On every planet that has existed or will exist, there is a winter…

Many of the peoples of Old Earth celebrated a winter festival. A time to huddle together against the cold; a time to celebrate being half-way out of the dark.

But shadows are everywhere, and there are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things, lurking in the cold between the stars.

Here are twelve stories - one for each of the Twelve Days of Christmas - to remind you that to come out of the darkness we need to go into it in the first place.

We are not alone. We are not safe. And, whatever you do: don't blink.

Written by popular children's author, and lifelong Doctor Who fan, Dave Rudden.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Christmas, Fantasy, Time Travel

416 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 11, 2018

About the author

I began my arts career as a storyteller in Dublin at nights like The Monday Echo and Milk & Cookies, before realising that it might be a good idea to try writing some of this stuff down.

From then, it was submitting to journals and anthologies, getting rejections, and then occasionally getting accepted by nice places like Bare Hands, the Stinging Fly and The Quotable.

In 2013 I won the Fantasy Book Review Short Story Prize, which was lovely, and I’ve had short stories short-listed for the Hennessy New Writing Award and the Bath Short Story Prize. I graduated from the UCD Creative Writing Masters with the first chapter of what would become Knights of the Borrowed Dark and signed with rockstar agent Clare Wallace of the Darley Anderson Children’s Agency soon after.

Since then, I’ve released the second two books in the KOTBD trilogy, written Doctor Who books for the BBC, and written plays and TV and music videos and RPGs .

I teach creative writing at UCD, currently serve as DCU’s Artist in Residence, and have travelled to more than nine hundred schools and libraries all over the world to talk about writing, mental health, and monsters. I also have two new series coming in 2025.

Follow me on Twitter at @d_ruddenwrites or on TikTok at @daveruddenwrites

Reviews

[Nemo ☠️ (pagesandprozac) · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book was insanely good. insanely good. so good, in fact, that i am considering emailing chris chibnall and demanding he let dave rudden write an episode for series 12.

although all of them were incredible, one stand-out for me was Celestial Intervention, which in what must have been less than nine thousand or so words managed to introduce an extraordinary new concept to the whoniverse, and introduce a villain that is astonishingly good and astonishingly plausible, and i lowkey need that villain in the TV show IMMEDIATELY. like, i am craving this. craving it.

tl;dr if you like doctor who this is a goddamn must-read.

[Stephen Robert Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect time to read this is over Christmas as it's is the 12 days of Christmas or the 12 villains of the different Doctors
12(1) The Twelfth Doctor on plague world.
11(2) Leela fights an Ice Warrior over the cause of Honour while the Doctor eats his jelly babies..A surprise as though would be the 2nd for Ice Warrior never had 4th & the Ice Warriors this good one.
10.(3)The biggest villains ever, no not The Daleks The Celestial Intervention Agency oh S- The Gallierreyan hit men the scum on top of shit pit. Back to the beginning a type 40 has been stolen. An odd story.
9(4)Jingle Bells Jingle Bells all silver men no Gold in sight.
8(5)///// //// Oh I /// //// //// why do I /// /// /////////………a So///n////////////g
7(6)Here is my favourite how to creature a baked potato SONTAR-HA!
6(7)Sherlock Silurian Or that Woman ghastly funny pun story On the Red Hair league.
5(8)A rather Ood robbery.
4(9) Rory &the Doctor crash a party without the Mrs But Its a hunt for Zygons.
3(10)The Time War is on & The Daleks have the High council at a standstill. Davros is happy. Background on the lost years.
2(11) Judoon in child's garden.
1(12) The Master is back.
I found this collection ok but Also it didn't have any Troughton, Pertwee, Davison.
It didn't deliver on some stories & on some like the Leela story or Rory it was great. As I said the Sontaran was very funny but Thought the silliest thing was the title, I was hoping that each story had Weeping Angle theme as said 12 angles weeping but Of let down their.
I enjoyed this collection & if Doctor who fan as need to be it is useless to anyone else.
Unlike lot Star Trek or Star Wars books this is if don't watch the early stories this waste of money & time.

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really strong collection of short stories featuring The Doctor's best known billions counting down just like the carol.

What makes this collection really standout is they way each story feels so different despite them all been written by the same author.

I actually quite liked the ones where The Doctor is only mentioned, with The Sontaran one being the absolute highlight of the collection.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Twelve days. Twelve stories
Every light casts a shadow.
And every story needs a villain.

A collection of twelve stories in a somewhat Chrismassy mood-light, as the stories admit that the midwinter celebrations have been transplanted throughout the known universe, because according the Cybermen humanity as like mice as they move through the universe. Nice thing we are compatible with their measurements.
The stories all carry some link with the Doctor in his various guises or his companions, they are amusing, but some are more miss than hit.
The weeping Angels a nice starting story that delivers a decent Doctor story with him partaking actually, not as menacing as one would the Angels to be.
Ice Warriors The doctor and Leela find a lone survivor of a crash of a ship containing the Ice warriors thrown into slavery and they restore his honour.
Time Lords A story about a PI former member of the Celestial Intervention Agency (from then on called the CIA) gets the job tracking an rogue timelord called the Doctor after stealing a TARDIS. And it turns out to be more difficult than expected as the Timelords chase the Doctor they meddle with the timestream in which the Doctors origin become muddled.
Cybermen A cyberman keeps seeing Peri through all of his battles. he could see worse people I'd see.
The Silent A matter of disappearing heavenly bodies involving River Song.
Sontarans the birth of a Sontaran warrior and easily the most amusing of Tales in the book.
Sillurians Madame Vastar meets another of her race who has been woken by accident and this new Sillurian has clearly got other ideas about the current state of Earth. A touching story about one of the more interesting cast created in recent Who-verse.
Ood Everybody underestimates the role of the Ood.
ZygonsThe Doctor and Roy stop the Zygons from interfering with a rather grand coronation and Roy gets to share thoughts with the King to be.
Daleks The War Doctor and the Time Lords face the end of the Universe during the first year of the Time War, Davros invited the Doctor to such a event.
JudoonA ten year old Girl in 1966 Ireland sees a Rhino in her garden and as inquisitive as she is finds out that she cares. And get taught a question.
The Master The Master sets a trap for the Doctor and learns again that he does not understand why the Doctor does what he does best.

Overall a fine collection of short stories that mostly fail to get you really enthralled, when the Doctor is such an iconic figure he somehow feels lackluster in most of these stories. You want to know more about the various Doctors and yet end up with seeing him through the eyes of the various travel companions which is perhaps how it should be.
It was an easy interlude reading these stories, but they are not essential or even the best the Who-verse has to offer, it does pass the time. The book and the art look great and that is perhaps the highest praise I can give. My daughter bought it because she loves the Doctor, the female version she really digs, but she has not finished reading because as she says the book looks great but the content was failing her interest.
Perhaps that was why the book took such a long time to be read. With people liking this book I felt the obligation to finish the book.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. The stories are of a very high standard. These stories stood out for me: the Dalek story, which also involves Davros and the War Doctor; the Cyberman story, involving a Cyberman haunted by visions of a mysterious girl; the Zygon story, which also features the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory; The Weeping Angels story (which seemed to me like it was influenced by Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death"); and the final story concerning the rivalry between the Doctor and the Master. This is a great read, though it is probably aimed more at long-time Whovians than new fans. I actually feel the Thirteenth Doctor's first word - "Brilliant!" - is applicable to this book.

[April Mccaffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book, few friends recommended it to me and I'm glad I picked it up.

I loved all the stories in this from the villains perspective and there was a lot of continuity across the classic who, new who and big finish format. I also loved how it subtly mentions Braxiatel and Narvin in this and the General.

The judoon story was especially adorable.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

overall, these were really not good and didn't capture the essence of doctor who the way the other tie-ins i've read did, but they were all unique so i guess it could be worse

grey matter: i love the weeping angels but this just didn’t feel like them. this plague idea is kind of stupid and i’d never see it in an episode

red planet: i don’t know anything about the fourth doctor but this was really boring. also i read kyrss as chris the entire time, and having the “villain” be a fearsome ice warrior with the name chris just doesn’t do it

celestial intervention: ok i thought this was actually good. seedy gallifreyan underworld, yes please. but the ending was dumb as hell and ruined it

ghost in the machine: this was meh, nothing really stood out, thought the reveal of the girl’s identity was interesting enough

student bodies: i love river, what a legend

a soldier’s education: ok so i started out thinking this was completely stupid, we’ve all seen the sontaran episodes, this is nothing new, but then the reveal at the end was kind of cool so i didn’t completely hate it

the red-eyed league: i like the stories about characters we know and there’s not enough vastra, jenny and strax in the show. it was great to see them again, even if the whodunnit was obvious

the heist: when the doctor rebooted the universe, everything that happened with the pandorica was reversed so there wouldn’t be any autons left. dislike

the king in glass: this wrapped up a little confusingly but i love rory so i’ll take it

the third wise man: this was nothing special. daleks are daleks, etc

the rhino of twenty-three strand street: the mental image of a little girl petting a judoon is so ridiculous but this was actually pretty sweet

anything you can do: ok it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out who it was but this was actually good!! the first story i didn’t hate and of course it was the master (my nightmare child) and the last one of the book

[Kathi · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars! That was SO GOOD!!!! Honestly, I'm not a super-duper big Doctor Who-Fan. I love love looove the seasons with Eleven, Amy and Rory (long may they live), but that's all that's Doctor Who for me, as far as I'm concerned. While I do enjoy the earlier and later seasons as well, they don't feel like home to me, as cheesy as it sounds. So while the cover is ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS I was very suspicious about the book; if my reading material from this year hs taught me anything, it's that you should never trust a beautiful cover, they're beautiful for a reason (to distract from an often lacking content, still looking at you, @Bitter Orange). But thank god this book turned out to be a pleasant surprise for a a change! I often have very mixed towards short story collections, but thankfully in this case every single story was absolutely brilliant in its own way. Of course I still have favourites (Celestial Intervention, Student Bodies, A Soldier's Education, The Heist, The King in Glass, The Rhino of Twenty-Three Strand Street, Anything You Can Do - as you can see those are SEVEN from twelve stories, which should speak for itself!), and some stories were obviously better than others, but the general quality was (surprising for a short story collection!) really really high. I can definitely recommend this to everyone, even if you aren't exactly a Whovian. While it doesn't hurt to at least know a couple of episodes to know some of the "villains" and grasp a general sense of the setting and the show, the stories all manage to stand on their own. Really well done, I'd really love to read the other collections now as well!

PS: Does anyone else's cover also lose its colour? It's very weird. I actually had to use a black pencil to draw over some of the newly white spots. Just nooooo

[Danika at The Lesbrary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun, but not particularly memorable, and not as Christmas-y as I was hoping for. I did like the Vastra/Jenny story, and I liked that the last story had a main character that uses they/them pronouns. Some of the stories would make for great episodes. I liked the noir investigation of a TARDIS that had been stolen by a man and his granddaughter...

[Jammin Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book - the stories were fun and filled with the main villains in the Doctor Who world - Daleks, Weeping Angels, Cybermen and more. We also get to spend time with several of the doctors which is a blast. I highly recommend this book, and if you get it on audio even better.

[Don Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to meet Dave himself and asked him if I needed to know anything about Dr. Who to read it. I'm a big fan of Dave's Knights of The Borrowed Dark series and wanted to read this, even though I don't watch the Dr. While Dave was answering a number of people in earshot said "No" so I picked it up. And they were right, I really enjoyed it. Although it may have convinced me I should jump on the Dr. Who wagon.... If you like Sci-Fi in any way, this is one you should give a go.

[MaryBrigid Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

The wealth of knowledge of, and love for, Dr Who that Dave Rudden has, comes thru in each of these 12 engrossing tales. Having read Rudden's Knights of The Borrowed Dark, I was expecting(and hoping) to be terrified. I was not expecting to laugh out loud numerous times, fall in love or have my heart broken. A must have read for any Whovian

[Christopher Galvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A spectacular read. Rudden writes with the wit of Stephen Moffat and the emotion of Russell T Davis. Fun, engaging, heart breaking and full of wibbly wobbly timey wimey adventure. He would suit writing an episode of the show done to the ground. As the Doctor herself would say, this is 'Brilliant'.

[Adia · Rating 4 out of 5]

12 stories featuring the most famous of the Doctor Who monsters and aliens. a Christmassy theme in most of them.

The Weeping Angels: Gray Matter. A terrible plague has overtaken the planet Gehanna: a gray dust continually fills the air and city after city has fallen silent in a matter of days. Each person on the planet is connected to the chief medical officer, Perinne, through plague masks that record their vitals and allow Perinne to access their brains. The Twelfth Doctor arrives on Gehanna as the last remaining city quarantines itself completely from the outside world. He discovers that Perinne has acquired a weeping angel and has been running tests on the monster; the angel, in turn, has projected its image into the minds of every being on the planet through Perinne's eyes and mask, turning them to stone.Sort of a "Masque of the Red Death" situation follows, in which Perinne sacrifices himself for the good of the universe. 4 stars.

Ice Warriors: Red Planet. The Fourth Doctor and Leela land on a Sycorax planet destined for destruction by meteor and are caught up in the barbaric gladiator games of the species. An Ice Warrior named Kyrss is the best of the fighters. Separated from his people, burdened by guilt, the Ice Warrior fights because he has no will to live. The Doctor manages to convince Kyrss to lead the Sycorax slaves in uprising, and the Ice Warrior dies with the knowledge that he is not the last of his people. 3 stars.

Time Lords: Celestial Intervention. Whovian noir? Strange but fun. A retired Celestial Intervention Agent named Maris is hired to find a stolen type 40 TARDIS. As she follows the trail of the machine, a strange tale unfolds: of a Time Lord about whom everything and nothing is known, a man who calls himself the Doctor. Maris decides, in the end, that someone out there needs to be doing good. 4 stars.

Cybermen: Ghost in the Machine. A Cyberman haunted by the ghost of a child from his human past. At every world Cyberman 9.9P-VIV conquers, he sees her: a small girl that is not really there, a glitch in his system that no upgrade can erase. Desperate to rid himself of the the child, 9.9P-VIV pushes himself too far and is destroyed; as he dies, he asks: Is this a punishment?. I liked this one. 5 stars.

The Silence: Student Bodies. A University student named Claire decides to preserve the memories of her last weeks at Luna University and begins to audio record her experiences over Christmas break. strange things begin to happen: people and planets disappear as if they have never existed, unidentifiable noises and strange figures and forgotten encounters...nice and creepy. 5 stars.

Sontarans: A Soldier's Education. A recording of the Sontaran Subliminal Matrix System's message to a new Sontaran (Strax) as he is launched into battle on an enemy planet. Data entries include the glory of the Sontarans, Sontaran enemies, and, of course, the Doctor. Funny. 3 stars.

Silurians: the Red-Eyed League. Vastra encounters another of her species newly awoken from sleep and is torn between her sympathy for the humans and a longing for the old ways of her people. A murder, however, pulls her back to the present, and the cold-hearted Silurian is put to rest. the title's a play on The Red-headed League, fitting for the time period. 2.5 stars.

Ood: the Heist. Three criminals of intergalactic renown plan a heist on the Maldovarium, a casino and black market highly guarded by cybermen and alarms: a risky venture with almost immeasurable payouts. the trio includes Kiz Head-taker, an assassin with a troubled past; a Krillitane called Agrakos, a mercenary; and Vertebrae Rax, a Silurian whose specialty is safecracking. Their perfect plan is derailed by the Ood, who have infested the Maldovarium. 3 stars.

Zygons: the King in Glass. a Rory and Eleven story. Amy wants to enjoy some sun and suggests that "her boys" spend some time together. the Doctor takes Rory to the coronation of the crown prince of Numina Vitri, a planet whose castles and buildings are made solely of glass. They inadvertently stumble upon a murder, and uncover a Zygon plot to overthrow the king. 3 stars.

Daleks: the Third Wise Man. features the war Doctor: the death of Davros and the Nightmare Child from the pov of a Timelord military General. Interesting. 4 stars.

Judoon: The Rhino of Twenty-Three Strand Street. an adolescent Judoon is discovered by a inquisitive young Irish girl, who takes care of the alien even as she struggles with the grown-ups in her life. an appearance of 13 at the end, which is unusual. 3 stars.

The Master: Anything You Can Do. The Master takes the Doctor's form and name and sets out about the galaxy, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. the true Doctor finally catches up to the Master at the edge of the universe and sets things straight. 3 stars.

Overall: a great collection of stories, interesting and fun. 4 stars.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best Doctor Who collection of short stories I've ever read. I inhaled these stories; they were full of black humour, vibrant emotion, vivid characters, frightening situations, and a dark & surprising intensity. Superb work from start to finish. The story involving the Paternoster Gang in particular is one of the most beautiful "Doctor Who" stories I've ever read.

[Cathy Geagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this collection, it’s like a wee Whovian selection box - unsurprisingly my favourite stories starred my favourite Doctors/Companions/Villains; and although I’m not mad about the Judoon my favourite story featured 1) a baby Judoon stranded in Dublin 2) judgemental nuns 3) feminism 4) my first print encounter with Thirteen ❤️

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is me trying to sneak in my Doctor Who novels into a reading challenge. Hah! Thank god for one of my whovian friends who read this.

This would have been 5 stars if not for some stories that I just couldn't enjoy.

[Anka · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish they would make all of the short stories into episodes.
I enjoyed every single chapter and loved how Dave Rudden made them all unique. And of course, I always feel extra happy when River Song makes a cameo.

[Mikey · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the short and simple review: I loved this! It’s a collection of stories filled with spooks, laughs, action, great character moments, and some nice little twists along the way!

As I was reading, I scribbled down some (spoiler-free) notes on each story, so for the slightly longer review, read on...

The Weeping Angels: Grey Matter - a strong opening story with a great creepy atmosphere all the way through. As it unfolds, it’s still enough of a mystery to kind of keep you guessing throughout. I could easily imagine this as a TV episode.

The Ice Warriors: Red Planet - I’m always a sucker for an Ice Warrior story, especially when it sprinkles in some nice lore for them, and this delivers! Dropping the Fourth Doctor and Leela into this story is a great choice too as we get to see how Leela’s own life as a warrior sees her empathising and attempting to get through to Kyrss. There’s also a bunch of appearances from other Who races which I always enjoy as it makes the universe feel bigger and more connected.

The Time Lords: Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir - some great world building for Gallifrey straight off the bat! It’s that same planet we’ve known for decades but with a refreshing new look at it as the undercities and TARDIS repair shops are explored. This also ties rather nicely into the idea that the Doctor has multiple (and all equally valid) origins, which is a concept that I adore, and then for good measure I believe it also sort of serves as a prequel to a certain Fifth Doctor audio story...

The Cybermen: Ghost in the Machine - a teeny bit genius here, and some great characterisation which is extra impressive when the ‘protagonist’ of this story is a Cyberman. Really good for portraying the Cybermen as a kind of terrifying, relentless force. There’s a revelation that feels a teeny bit cliche but hey, this is Doctor Who, it’s allowed!

The Silence: Student Bodies - a fun change-up of the format, written in the style of an audio transcript. It’s very creepy and atmospheric, but I feel like I’d have to hear it in an actual audio format to really get the full effect of it. Might have to pick up the audiobook at some point!

The Sontarans: A Soldier’s Education - I’ve been fairly vocal in the past about how I feel that in recent years the Sontarans have mainly been reduced to comic relief and how that kind of takes away from them as a proper threat. And, okay, this story goes for the comic relief angle. So by all rights I should be sighing deeply because that’s what Doctor Who fans do. But, nah, this is just too good. In the style of a seven minute ‘Sontarans for Dummies’ crash course, a newly cloned Sontaran gets educated, providing probably the funniest story of this whole collection. I love it, and I’m only mildly grumpy that I love it!

The Silurians: The Red-Eyed League - it’s always nice to get a bit of focus on Vastra, but Jenny and Strax still have a strong presence throughout. It nicely kind of fills out the Paternoster Gang’s little world, and nicely kind of explores those themes of identity and belonging that just works so well with this trio.

The Ood: The Heist - possibly the most fun story of the collection as we see a motley crew of aliens (including a Krillitane and a Sea Devil) attempt to rob the Maldovarium. It’s a very classic heist storyline with some great Doctor Who twists along the way. My only complaint (besides Dorium being called Dorian the whole way through, he nitpicked, nitpickingly) is that each story billing the featured alien can sometimes kind of rob a teeny bit of the full effect of the way some of the stories unfold. But hey, there’s enough going on that it doesn’t detract too much!

The Zygons: The King in Glass - the Eleventh Doctor, Amy, and Rory are possibly one of my all time favourite TARDIS line-ups, so imagine my disappointment when Amy disappears just a few pages in! Nah, this is actually pretty funny, and her brief appearance here is something that I could totally have seen happening in the cold open of a Series 6 episode had they decided to give Karen Gillan a couple weeks off. Really, Amy being out of the way actually benefits the story, as we get a chance to really focus on Rory and take a look at where his head’s at after the past 2000+ years of his life/not-life. The story set up is good fun, and the mystery element unfolds nicely, with Eleven in full investigative mode.

The Daleks: The Third Wise Man - as much as I loved those few short years we got of John Hurt performing as the War Doctor, I really feel like prose has been the best medium for fully doing justice to the whole concept of his ‘era’ as it attempts to capture the sheer scale and terror of the Time War. This story nicely expands on what could have easily just ended up forever being a throwaway line, and it does it brilliantly.

The Judoon: The Rhino of Twenty-Three Strand Street - a proper lovely story that gave me like big nostalgia for the kind of movies you’d maybe watch with your family at Christmas when you were a kid. Patricia’s a great protagonist here, and the way this story explores her thoughts and feelings is really touching and heartfelt. Also contains possibly my favourite line from the whole book: “Caring is the first thing people feel silly for, and the very last thing they should.”

The Master: Anything You Can Do - really great fun, with a bunch of little snapshots building up to a dramatic end! The Master plays a particularly fun role in this. I’d totally take an entire novel expanding on this!

Aaaaand, done! Yeah, so basically in conclusion, this is a genius collection of stories and I’m super excited to read Dave Rudden’s next entry to the Whoniverse with next month’s The Wintertime Paradox.

[Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

My ratings for the stories

Grey Matter - 4 stars
Red Planet - 5 stars
Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir - 4.5 stars
Ghost in the Machine - 3 stars
Student Bodies - 3 stars
A Soldier's Education - 5 stars
The Red-Eyed League - 4 stars
The Heist - 3 stars
The King in Glass - 4 stars
The Third Wise Man - 4 stars
The Rhino of Twenty-Three Strand Street - 4.5 stars
Anything You Can Do - 5 stars

Overall rating: 4 stars.

A very solid collection of stories. It's interesting though that a few of them didn't feature the villains too strongly or they weren't the star of the story. I almost wished the stories could have been written by different authors as well instead of just one, but Dave Rudden is a pretty competent writer.

[Stefan Zondag · Rating 4 out of 5]

Realizing shortly before the end of the year that the reading goal was not met. Well, we've got some time now... Had this book in the Christmas decorations for years now, and finally read it. Some nice short Christmas-themed stories focusing on specific villains. A very nice concept, where some stories work better than others, but very cool that the writing style/genre is so different for each, from noir to hard sci-fi to heist. One story about a PhD student "losing their mind" shortly before finishing their thesis, so good on me I did not read this earlier... Merry belated Christmas and a Happy New Year all

[Karina · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who has only recently come back to watching Dr Who - and by 'recent' I mean since Dr Who was a woman - I should start this review with the caveat that I know little about the world of Dr Who & remember less. So this book is probably not aimed at me - nevertheless, I enjoyed it, and would probably have utterly adored it if I knew more about the Whoniverse.

For me, the story that gripped the most is the one based in Dublin, and on the personal experience of a woman who was mocked for being a fan of Dr Who in the 1960s, as 'science isn't for girls'. This story had such heart and power - I loved it.

Others had me gripped also - the induction training of a Sontaran was brilliant & the Holmesian Silurian living in Victorian London was great. The Cybermen one was fascinating and tragic...

Anyway, point is, this is really good and you should read it.

[Monita Roy Mohan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried so hard to read this book but I couldn’t get into it. There seemed to be no context for the words on the page and I was lost most of the time. I’m not a huge Whovian—my only knowledge comes from Torchwood and the 13th Doctor—so I’m probably not the right audience.

Other fans may love it, but I found the writing listless and clipped. Thoughts didn’t flow as easily and the reader isn’t given much of a sense of space or place.

I liked the first story as it was full of suspense and an eerie atmosphere. The stories nosedived after that. I struggled to get through each story because they felt directionless. The climaxes often fell flat.

I gave up after four stories. I just couldn’t any more. Whovians, though, will love these little asides.

Edit: I read the book review at Women Write About Comics, so I went back and read the stories they recommended. I would highly recommend checking out their review if you’re wondering which stories to choose. https://womenwriteaboutcomics.com/202...

I loved the first story and the Sontarans one—that was equal parts funny and suspenseful.

I think the Judoon story was engaging and had an important underlying message. But the interesting parts kept being quashed by the boring writing. I think the Doctor entered too late in that story. She should have come earlier and been a more impactful mentor to the scared little girl.

That being said, her final line was brilliant and in keeping with the character.

The story with Rory and the Zygons had an emotional punch. But I wish it had dealt with the emotional impact of the Prince’s decision even more.

I loved the last story but it dragged on too long. Also, it needed a different title. Talk about a spoiler!

[Ned Netherwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really strong collection of very distinctive Who stories with a unique voice

[Ellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most of the time Doctor Who anthologies are very hit and miss - usually a couple of fantastic stories amongst a lot of meh ones - but this collection was just really bloody good.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute and fan-servicey book but it was fun to hear new stories.

[Debby Kean · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were 3 excellent stories, 4 absolute stinkers, and 5 were adequate. The author's prejudices showed through in some cases. Hence the disappointment I felt.

[James Bowman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short story collection where each story features a Doctor Who villain. (There's also some very thin Christmas theming.) Only a few of the stories feature the Doctor, with the rest focusing on other characters - usually originals facing the villains on their own. Overall the stories are very good, with the story featuring the Silence being particularly effective. (The only shaky one features the Fourth Doctor and Leela; the author didn't quite have a handle on their style.) Definitely recommended for Doctor Who fans, especially fans of the monsters. (A-)

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of these stories definitely worked better for me than others. Someone better versed in Who lore than me would probably appreciate the book more.

Christmas present from Karie and Dave

[Jason Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sort of Christmas special, lightly referencing rather than heavy wearing and thus fresh and different Christmas takes on dw