‘Be careful, Aggie! Remember, ‘The Doctor is a Master of Deceit”.’
‘Aggie?’ said the Doctor thoughtfully. ‘I wonder what that’s short for.’
The girl’s nostrils flared proudly. ‘My full name is Agony-Without-End-Shall-Be-The-Doctor’s-Punishment.’
‘Ah,’ said the Doctor. ‘You know, Leela, just between ourselves, I’m starting to feel that I’m not entirely welcome here.’
Rejoice! Season 8 of Doctor Who starts in just two days; brand new season, brand new Doctor. And I can’t think of a better way to get ready for the grand entrance of Number Twelve than a collection of short stories about all eleven Doctors who came before.
11 Doctors, 11 Stories brings together eleven award-winning authors, each telling their own tale about a different incarnation of the wandering Time Lord. The stories are about as different from each other as the Doctors are themselves, and since they’re all extremely well-written, I really think the story you like best is going to depend on which one features “your” Doctor.
What impressed me the most about this collection was that the authors didn’t just try to capture the voice of each Doctor, they also told a tale that fit the style of the stories that were filmed for each era. I could easily see each of these made into an actual episode on TV.
The adventure of the First Doctor, if not exactly a children’s story, is definitely something which could have inspired a children’s story. The Third Doctor’s tale has some derring-do where the Doctor saves the world (and Jo) with flair and some TARDIS-related slight-of-hand, while the Fourth Doctor continues to be delighted at meeting new people, never mind that an ancient prophecy means an entire population has been raised since birth to kill him on sight. The Sixth Doctor’s story takes place in a setting almost as tacky as his clothes (almost), and Nine…well actually the trip to ancient Babylon was new for him, along with his choice of companion. It should come as no surprise though that Rose is an important part of Nine’s story, even if she never makes an appearance.
‘So now we’re landing on Earth,’ he shouted, ‘two thousand years before the birth of Christ…’
‘Who?’
‘He was a bit like Sherlock Holmes. Knew the answers to everything. Very good at solving mysteries. Some humans use him to measure time…’
I’d guessed before reading this that my favorite stories would be Ten’s and Eleven’s, Ten because I love Tennant’s Doctor, and Eleven because his story is written by Neil Gaiman. And they were both excellent, fun stories. “The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage” annoyed me a little at first (Ten came off as impatient and dismissive rather than charmingly manic) but it all smoothed out once things progressed to the frantic chase through an impossible landscape. And of course Neil Gaiman writes Eleven beautifully, and in “Nothing O’clock” created a very creepy alien race from Gallifrey’s distant past, who conquers Earth totally and completely. And almost legally.
Looking over all of the stories now, I have to admit that my favorite was Phillip Reeve’s story for the Fourth Doctor, “The Roots Of Evil”. The setting of a planet-sized tree in space is intriguing, there are plenty of fun details thrown in from the Fourth Doctor episodes, and Doctor himself is just the right mix of careless, valiant, friendly, and totally and absolutely enthusiastic. About everything. There’s also a tiny bit of timey-wimey going on, which always makes me happy. Probably the most important factor is that repeats of the Tom Baker episodes were how I first joined the Doctor Who fandom. So it makes sense that my favorite story would be the one that features “my” Doctor.