Aimed squarely at the Christmas market for younger fans, BBC Children’s Books have released a few Doctor Who related stocking fillers, in addition to October’s entertaining volume The Time Lord Letters and the stunning Impossible Worlds art book.
Being young at heart, we decided to dive in and connect with our inner child…
Doctor Who: The Dangerous Book of Monsters
Ostensibly penned by the Time Lord himself, with the strapline of “The Doctor’s Official Guide”, this is an excellent spotter’s guide to the galaxy’s nastiest monsters and how to survive an encounter with them.
Presented in the Twelfth Doctor’s acerbic style, each of the creatures is granted a write-up drawn from story elements, an annotated picture and advisory ‘survival tips’. They are also given a ‘speed’ and a ‘dangerous’ rating, as well as a graphical size guide against the Doctor.
Obviously, there is more to say about some monster than others so the average creature gets a one or two page spread, while the big names such as the Daleks and Cybermen have their various versions charted over a number of pages.
Understandably, the book is mainly focussed on post-2005 creations, with some lovely throwbacks to earlier monsters such as the Draconians, the Ogrons and the Jagaroth. There’s even a coup, with a profile of the oft-mentioned but unseen ‘Terrible Zodin’
Packed full of terrific sketches by illustrator Dan Green, and plenty of amusing text from Justin Richards, this is both an impressive little volume and a bargain at the RRP of £9.99 too!
Doctor Who: Time Lord Fairy Tales
Doubtless inspired by the Doctor’s reference to “Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday” in ‘Night Terrors’, a jokey in-universe call back to the title of the 1960s stage adaptation, this anthology purports to contain tales that Time Lords read to their Time Tots.
Written by Justin Richards, this novel take on a short story collection takes the familiar elements of popular stories and transposes them into the Doctor Who universe, relishing the chance to pull them into unexpected directions… thus a version ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ becomes an interplanetary affair with involving a Nimon wormhole.
While most employ familiar monsters and set them against quick-witted ordinary folk, a few of the stories feature the Doctor himself. It is in those that we found the approach inconsistent; ‘The Scruffy Piper’ grants him the role of Pied Piper – leading off an invasion of Cybermats – but appears to be at pains not to directly reveal his identity. In other tales, introduces himself by name.
As well as the big name tales popularised by Disney films, such as Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, there are a few less obvious choices; we loved ‘Little Rose Riding Hood’, which features a Zygon wolf and a rather familiar Woodcutter. Playing rather loose with the definition of fairy tale, we also enjoyed the Arthurian inspired ‘Sirgwain and the Green Knight’ which ends the book.
Praise must be given to the illustrations by David Wardle too, which are intricate and lend the book a gothic air. However, their placing did cause a spoiler on one occasion, giving away the monster before we had realised it, which is half the fun.
Offering more of a reading experience than the fact-based fun of ‘The Dangerous Book of Monsters’, this anthology will be ideal for older children, and is sure to hit the sport for Who infused bedtime stories.
Doctor Who: The Official Annual 2016
An Christmas tradition in many households, this year’s official Doctor Who annual will be unwrapped by a generation of young fans on December 25th (and doubtless a few not-so-young ones too).
Mainly rooted in the events of Peter Capaldi’s first season, with the occasion earlier reference and some up to date Davros information from the Season 9 opener, the book offers the familiar mix of picture content and fact-based spreads.
Monster guides are framed as information from UNIT’s Black Archive, with files on favourites like the Daleks and the Weeping Angels, as well as the Foretold, The Boneless and the Dream Crabs from ‘Last Christmas’. There is also an amusing page devoted to the Master, penned by Missy and describing her former incarnations… the beardy one, the sneaky one, the snakey one, etc.
For more interactive content, and that’s pen and paper interactive – none of your red button nonsense, there is a ‘Design your own Dalek’ feature as well as UNIT codes to break throughout.
Also a ‘Time Heist’ board game, a word search and the good old staples of odd one out and spot the difference, as well as a spread where you can match the quote to the Doctor, which might just send young fans in the direction of the classic DVDS – here’s hoping!
In days gone by a Doctor Who annual would be full of stories and this is where we feel a touch let down; there is only a two-part comic strip and a short Doctorless prose tale ‘The Pest of Paternoster Row’.
Still, running to roughly 60 pages and with plenty of activities, this should keep even the most ardent of young fans busy until the end of the school holidays!
What do you think of these new books? Let us know below…