A collection of short stories by Jacqueline Rayner, Mike Tucker, Paul Magrs, Richard Dungworth, Scott Handcock and Craig Donaghy

Just in time for Halloween!

While Doctor Who definitely has some scary moments, considering the old saying was that children would watch the show “from behind the sofa”, I was somewhat skeptical of an anthology of Halloween tales from the franchise. I’m kind of iffy on most short story collections, and ones with themes are generally not the greatest quality, so I went into this with lowered expectations. In a similar manner to just about every short story anthology out there, the twelve stories included in this book are diverse and highlight every era of the show up to this book’s release, so there’s something for everyone. There is a bit of care to try to put various Tardis in situations that highlight their respective time periods, however they do play around a bit – for example, a Fourth Doctor story featuring the Davies Era creation, The Reapers, or the Celestial Toymaker popping up in a couple of stories. I liked how the various authors plaited around with everything with everything here quite a bit.

“A new spine-chilling collection of twelve short illustrated adventures packed with terrifying Doctor Who monsters and villains, just in time for Halloween 2017! The six authors featured are Jacqueline Rayner, Mike Tucker, Paul Magrs, Richard Dungworth, Scott Handcock and Craig Donaghy. The illustrator is Rohan Eason. Each short story will feature a frightening nemesis for the Doctor to outwit, and each will star one incarnation of the Doctor with additional appearances from favourite friends and companions such as Sarah Jane, Jo and Ace.”

The stories are:

1. Murder in the Dark -1st Doctor
2. Something at the Door -2nd Doctor
3. The Monster in the Woods -3rd Doctor
4. Toil and Trouble – 4th Doctor
5. Mark of the Medusa – 5th Doctor
6. Trick or Treat – 6th Doctor
7. The Living Image – 7th Doctor
8. Organism 96 – 8th Doctor
9. The Patchwork Pierrot – 9th Doctor
10. Blood will Out – 10th Doctor
11. The Mist of Sorrow – 11th Doctor
12. Baby Sleepy Face – 12th Doctor

This will likely run counter to other’s thoughts, but I really enjoyed some of the stories from the older characters simply due to most of them not being utilized too much in the other Doctor Who media out there. While not the most atypical of plots, my favorite story was probably The Monster in the Woods, a Third Doctor story featuring the a lone Dalek. While the TV series has presented the threat of a Dalek left on their own more times than I’d care to count, the added layer of having it interact with some kids gives it the vibe of something akin to a Stephen King story or Stranger Things episode. There wasn’t really any bad stories on here either, all are fairly enjoyable. I actually quite enjoyed this, and may try some of these out – I know there are a few Doctor Who and Star Wars books like this, so this gives me hope they aren’t all weird cash-ins.