11 Doctors, 11 Stories

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For Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary, the BBC published a series of ebooks of eleven stories each featuring each of the first eleven Doctors (not including The War Doctor).
The BBC subsequently published all these stories in an omnibus book 11 Doctors, 11 Stories.



A Big Hand for the Doctor:
A Big Hand for the Doctor is the First Doctor story.
Written by Eoin Colfer
It was subsequently released as part of 11 Doctors 11 Stories omnibus book.
Also featuring the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan and takes place before the series’ very first story.
While Eoin Colfer is a welcome addition to Doctor Who storytelling what I find unsettling about this story is that the Doctor had lost his hands and was eventually replaced by artificial ones, ones that look indistinguishable from real ones. It is therefore hard to comprehend that throughout the entire history of the First Doctor he was living his life with artificial hands.
This revelation about the First Doctor’s hands made this story unsettling reading for me.
The Soul Pirates makes for good villains here and the amusing part of this story was when the First Doctor expressed his dislike for Blake’s 7 thinking it was “patently ludicrous”.
There seems to be an in-joke irony with this reference to Blake’s 7 because the Blake’s 7 episode Assassin originally broadcast on November 9 1981 had guest starred Richard Hurndall.
Then Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner had seen this Blake’s 7 episode with Hurndall in it and it led to Nathan-Turner to cast Hurndall as the First Doctor in the 20th anniversary story The Five Doctors (1983) the same Doctor, retrospectively, who dislikes Blake’s 7!

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The Nameless City:
The Nameless City is the Second Doctor story.
Written by Michael Scott.
It was subsequently released as part of 11 Doctors 11 Stories omnibus book.
Also featuring Jamie and from what I can gather it takes place when it was just the Second Doctor and Jamie travelling alone together between the Second Doctor’s trial in The War Games and prior to his regeneration into the Third, basically it is the period of season 6B.
It featured an cameo from a familiar enemy of the Doctor using an alias he used once in a TV story and his part in the story served the plot very well as it led to the Doctor and Jamie meeting their adversaries here the Archons.
Scott naming the aliens here the Archons is without a doubt an in-joke to the fact that Second Doctor Patrick Troughton had played the character of Archon, leader of the Dorchons in the final Space: 1999 episode The Dorchons.
Quite clever on how the Doctor defeat the Archons and the part that Jamie’s bagpipes played in this story was quite amusing.

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The Spear of Destiny:
The Spear of Destiny is the Third Doctor story.
Written by Marcus Sedgwick.
Also featuring Jo and an enemy whose true identity is revealed late, but given this is a Third Doctor story the villain’s identity should not come as a surprise.
As the story title says this story deals with the Spear of Destiny. Coincidentally at the same time of reading this story saw the first The Librarian TV movie Quest for the Spear which also dealt with the Spear of Destiny.
Sedgwick writes well with this story which also involves Vikings in it and the denouement of what the Doctor does with the Spear in order to defeat the said villain.
However I do have one criticism is that of Sedgwick having the Doctor describing the Gospels as apocryphal as I feel it is an area that Doctor Who should never touch on.

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The Roots of Evil:
The Roots of Evil is the Fourth Doctor story.
Written by Philip Reeve.
Also featuring Leela. K9 also appears briefly and is incapacitated in this story as he was recharging his battery.
The Doctor and Leela arrived at the Heligan Structure which is a tree space station where they meet a society that knows of the Doctor as they revile him because of what he did in their past.
However the events described to the Doctor of what he did takes place in his personal future and by a future Doctor.
The Fourth Doctor sees the statue of his future self and quite amusing on how he reacts to his personal appearance.
Quite impressive of Reeve coming up with a tree space station, hence the name of this story, in the Heligan Structure and tying the Fourth Doctor with what took place with the aforementioned future Doctor was pretty neat.

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Tip of the Tongue:
Tip of the Tongue is the Fifth Doctor story.
Written by Patrick Ness.
It was subsequently released as part of 11 Doctors 11 Stories omnibus book.
Also featuring Nyssa and it takes place specifically in the gap between Time-Flight & Arc of Infinity.
Tip of the Tongue takes place in small town America where kids there are taken in by a phenomenon known as the Truth Tellers.
The Truth Tellers have proven how inconvenient the truth is something that has been utilised by spoiled rich schoolgirl Annabelle.
This is a Doctor-lite story as the Doctor and Nyssa makes a limited appearance here and this story is carried mainly by school kids Jonny and Nettie and somehow I should not be surprised by the offer the Doctor made to them at the end.
Wasn’t convinced on initial reading whether the Doctor-lite situation worked for the Doctor and Nyssa here but on several readings it is not bad use of this scenario.
Quite astounding how the entire premise of this story could have been prevented if the Truth Tellers hadn’t come to Earth way earlier than expected and personally I am someone who knows what it is like to be at a place earlier than I intended to be.

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Something Borrowed:
Something Borrowed is the Sixth Doctor story.
Written by Richelle Mead.
It was subsequently released as part of 11 Doctors 11 Stories and then the 12 Doctors 12 Stories omnibus books.
Also featuring Peri.
Something Borrowed is also the name of an earlier Torchwood episode as well as that of a non-Who movie in 2011.
Coincidentally I saw the movie during the time that I was reading its Doctor Who short story namesake.
In fact all three said narratives have something to do with a wedding. Presumably the authors of all three narratives derived the Something Borrowed name from the saying “Something old, Something new, something borrowed, Something Blue and a Sixpence* in her shoe” which indeed alludes to weddings.
The story is being told from Peri’s perspective and just like Peri, Richelle Mead is an American. So it is not implausible to suggest that Richelle Mead thinks herself as Peri whilst telling this story.
The Doctor and Peri arrives on the planet Koturia which looks like Las Vegas from Earth and found themselves attending a wedding but there is something off about this wedding.
It is implied here that the Fifth Doctor had been on Koturia before. As this is the first time that Richelle Mead has written a Doctor Who story and with her already an established author, it is impressive that she has demonstrated her knowledge of Doctor Who history.
Amazing revelation about one of the participants of this wedding and amazing how the villain was dealt with.

*Perhaps this was why this was written for the Sixth Doctor.

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The Ripple Effect:
The Ripple Effect is the Seventh Doctor story.
Written by Malorie Blackman.
It was subsequently released as part of 11 Doctors 11 Stories and then 12 Doctors 12 Stories omnibus books.
Also featuring Ace.
This story explores the premise of what it says in its title. This brought to mind the Seventh Doctor TV story Remembrance of the Daleks when coffee shop employee John asked the Doctor whether he wanted to have sugar in his tea. This led to the Doctor to start a philosophical discussion about the ripple effect of one’s actions in this case the production of sugar.
Somewhat curiously this particular scene from Remembrance wasn’t included in the video of Blackman talking about her story because it definitely reflects perfectly the premise of her story.
Along with the Seventh Doctor other things that The Ripple Effect has in common with Remembrance of the Daleks are that of Ace and the Daleks.
In The Ripple Effect the Doctor and Ace whilst travelling in the TARDIS unwittingly caused the creation of an alternate timeline and in this timeline the Daleks on Skaro are peace-loving and cuddly.
However the existence of this harmonious timeline for the Daleks presented dangers to the universe leading to …well…the Doctor’s dilemma.
Blackman has delivered a complex story in which good is bad and bad is good and the final decision that the Doctor has to make at the end.

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Spore:
Spore is the Eighth Doctor story.

Written by Alex Scarrow.

A new companion has been introduced for the Eighth Doctor here that of UNIT Captain Evelyn Chan and the Eighth Doctor is not the first Doctor to have an Evelyn as a companion as the Sixth Doctor had Evelyn Smythe.

Scarrow has written a thrilling story about an alien pathogen that has a history with the Doctor's people the Time Lords.

The Doctor and Evelyn Chan makes for a very good team in combating the titular spore.

The Doctor mentions real-life scientist John Von Neumann and coincidentally I have just seen the first episode of Humans which also referenced Von Neumann.

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The Beast of Babylon:
The Beast of Babylon is the Ninth Doctor story.
Written by Charlie Higson.
For this Ninth Doctor story it takes place within his debut episode Rose as this story ends just prior to the Doctor coming back for Rose and her joining him on his travels.
In The Beast of Babylon the companion for the Ninth Doctor is that of Ali, a college student from Karkinos.
The Doctor mentioned some previous companions including Prince Egon and Ella McBrien who are companions that are referenced for the very first time and there was no prior knowledge of who they were.
Interesting that because of her college education, Ali already has knowledge of Time Lords and TARDISes.
Ali makes for a good companion with the situation she encountered with the Doctor including dealing with the Starman.
The Beast of Babylon also makes a good segueway to Rose joining the Doctor on his travels.

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The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage:
The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage is the Tenth Doctor story.
Written by Derek Landy.

This story featured Martha as the companion. At least to me, the choice of Martha as the companion was quite unexpected as I would have expected the companion to be either Rose or Donna.

To be quite frank, Martha tends to gets overlooked when it comes to Tenth Doctor companions.

It is somewhat curious that Landy in his video interview about writing this story did not explain why he chose Martha but I can only imagine Freema Agyeman if she got told about this feeling very chuffed that Martha got chosen for this honour of this Tenth Doctor story for the said 50th anniversary.

This story has the Doctor and Martha arriving in a world in which fictional characters from Martha's childhood have come into life.

The premise of this story sounded very much like The Mind Robber.

In fact in the video interview Landy said he was told about The Mind Robber after he first submitted the proposal of his story.

So accordingly Landy had the Doctor mentioning his The Mind Robber experience to reflect on his present situation with Martha.

Quite surprisingly Landy incorporated references to a couple of Big Finish stories.

Very funny when the Doctor told Martha that he had once met Enid Blyton as he described her an odd woman with unusual ears.

Blyton incidentally got mentioned in the Tenth Doctor TV episode The Unicorn and the Wasp.

The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage is a very enjoyable story and despite similarities with The Mind Robber it is a very good story in its own right.

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Nothing O'Clock:
Nothing O'Clock is the Eleventh Doctor story.

Written by Neil Gaiman who has written for the Eleventh Doctor on television in The Doctor's Wife & Nightmare In Silver.

Also featuring Amy Pond.
In fact for Gaiman's video interview on writing Nothing O'Clock, it includes clips of The Doctor's Wife and not for the other Eleventh Doctor episodes. Most probably because The Doctor's Wife is the only episode that Gaiman wrote featuring both the Eleventh Doctor and Amy.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ULsXAz9urc




Nothing O'Clock is set sometime during the first Matt Smith season. Matt Smith did three seasons as the Doctor and for the two TV episodes that Gaiman wrote for this Doctor it was each for his second and third seasons.

As Gaiman did not write a TV episode for the first Matt Smith season it is very fitting that Nothing O'Clock takes place in that very first season of the Eleventh Doctor. This therefore completes a Eleventh Doctor-Gaiman trifecta, one each for those three seasons.

Curious references to what went on in the Eleventh Doctor's television adventures has Amy mentioning her friend Mels and Gaiman stating that the Doctor never had any interest on Mels and her exploits. Oh my the Doctor had no idea on wrong he was on his disinterest in Mels.

It also has the Doctor thinking about his eleven incarnations plus the one he does not like to think about which referenced a Doctor that got revealed at the end of The Name of the Doctor.

Nothing O'Clock is a fascinating story featuring the Kin as the villain here.

Ingenious on how Amy was used by the Kin to trick the Doctor and what a way for the Doctor to solve the problem that was the Kin.

A very good celebratory Eleventh Doctor story for the 50th anniversary.



Incidentally I wrote these remarks on November 28 2015, Karen Gillan's (Amy Pond) birthday which makes it my way to celebrate her birthday.