Books 206-207: The Beast of Babylon and The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage
Book 206: The Beast of Babylon (Doctor Who 50th Anniversary E-Shorts #9).
Author: Charlie Higson, 2013.
Genre: Science Fiction. Time Travel. TV Tie-in.
Other Details: ebook. 40 pages.
When a girl called Ali pockets a silver orb that falls from the sky, little does she realise it’s her ticket to seeing the universe! Desperate to retrieve the mysterious object, the Ninth Doctor agrees to let her join him on a dangerous trip to ancient Babylon. Together they must join forces to stop a giant Starman from destroying Earth before it’s too late! - synopsis from UK publisher's website.
I am familiar with the episodes featuring the Ninth Doctor and was quite impressed that Charlie Higson placed this short story spanning both time and space within the known time line of the series and that the Ninth Doctor's brief friendship with Ali influenced his person future. It has a very clever twist in it so anyone reading do avoid spoilers.
The Ninth Doctor
Book 207: The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage (Doctor Who 50th Anniversary E-Shorts #10).
Author: Derek Landy, 2013.
Genre: Science Fiction. Time Travel. TV Tie-in.
Other Details: ebook. 54 pages.
When the TARDIS lands on a planet that looks identical to Earth, the Tenth Doctor and Martha are amazed to find it packed with fictional characters from her childhood. But who has the power to create an entire world out of books and why? The Doctor and Martha must solve the mystery before their story ends! - synopsis from UK publisher's website.
An amusing and innovative instalment in this series of e-shorts for the 50th anniversary. Landy clearly had a lot of fun having his characters trip lightly through a number of literary worlds representing Martha's reading. I did wonder if it was feasible that Martha would have been young enough to discover Harry Potter when young . Sure that she would have been a teenager when the first books in the series appeared but maybe she did have some years of non-reading between childhood and the Potter books. I had to laugh when one pair of characters caused her to say to The Doctor 'don't judge'.
The Tenth Doctor and Martha.
Cross-posted to 50bookchallenge.