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‘Night of the Whisper’ is a rare thing indeed, a non-televised adventure for the Ninth Doctor.
Other than the half a dozen novels and handful of comic strip appearances that appeared at the time, Christopher Eccleston’s short stint as the Time Lord has not seen much expansion. AudioGO tend to make audio adventures for the incumbent Doctor and Big Finish’ license precludes anything pre-2005.
After last week’s supernatural shenanigans, we are back to the gruesome bread and butter of Whitechapel with a serial killer who has a penchant for skinning their victims.
Striking a decidedly supernatural tone, Series 4’s opening two-part tale drew to a close with a rational, scientific explanation for the Witchfinder murders, before expertly throwing all the cards up in the air once again.
Modern Doctor Who loves its literary spin-offs. Sometimes in-universe and sometimes not quite, we have had an adventure for Melody Malone (aka River Song) and a Christmas curtain raiser starring Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax.
Neverwhere began life as a six-part BBC Two series in 1996. Sadly, a limited budget restrained its potential and it was in prose that the story truly came alive. Neil Gaiman, then known primarily for his comic work, is now a world-renowned author whose work straddles the worlds of prose, film and television. Neverwhere has never gone away though, with a comic version, stage adaptations and attempts at a movie in the intervening years.
If Season 25 experimented with the tone of Doctor Who, ‘The Greatest Show in the Galaxy’ counts as one of the more offbeat offerings, with ‘Paradise Towers’ writer Stephen Wyatt returning to provide a tale of sinister clowns, a Psychic Circus and an audience with an insatiable appetite.
August brings the ‘Destiny of the Doctor’ series to the Eighth Doctor. While there have been various companions to draw on for other eras of the show, choices are rather limited here with Paul McGann’s single television outing. Luckily the job can fall to one of his audio companions.
The inclusion of a Target Books novelisation in BBC Books’ 50th anniversary collection seems most appropriate. With the scarcity of repeats during the show’s original run, before the advent of home video, many fans will have experienced older stories and earlier Doctors through the pages of just such a book.
In a world of bloggers, long lenses and tabloid tattle, Doctor Who casting news and storyline leaks attract the same scrutiny as the soaps. Wonderfully, thanks to the misdirections of the production team, a few things still sneak to air undiscovered.
Reliably gritty and gruesome, it is time for another slice of serial killer action on the mean streets of Whitechapel.
After two series, each which followed on a single story, last year’s run settled into a more digestible two-part format with each pair of episodes focussing on a new case.