"Eh, Doctor lad, or something like that. Now, I haven't got long and before you have a go, yes, I know that this is breaking several laws of time, but this is extremely important..."

Such is the nature of the Ninth Doctor era in its brevity that we viewers can tend to reduce it to its most memorable tropes and lines of dialogue. For better or for worse, Christopher Eccleston’s incarnation of the character is generally recalled for his use of the phrase “Fantastic”, his darker portrayal after the increasingly more jovial and whimsical classic incarnations and ultimately the fact that we only spent thirteen forty-five minute instalments of time in his company. Not since 2005 have we received any fully-fledged new outings for the Ninth, a term of absence which inevitably places pressure on the latest entry in the Destiny of the Doctor series to deliver. Perhaps more so than in the case of any of the other releases in the range, the cast, writer and director of Night of the Whisper had an entourage of lofty expectations thrust upon them from the outset.

At the same time, though, from the outset it’s immensely reassuring to discover that the range’s writers have re-established an accurate interpretation of their designated era of Doctor Who. Whereas Alan Barnes’ take on the Eighth Doctor in Enemy Aliens last month was a little unsteady, this month’s representation of the Ninth by Cavan Scott, Mark Wright and reader Nicholas Briggs seems completely true to the televised version of that incarnation. Particularly, the representation of the Ninth Doctor’s post-Time War isolation and scarred psyche are handled with respect and dramatic power, as we get the sense once more of a tormented soul who has committed atrocities beyond depiction (until this November, at least). One instance where Police Chief McNeill confronts the Time Lord regarding his understanding of regret and the ramifications of omnipotence works magnificently, going far in terms of replicating the dark and raw emotion that Eccleston brought to the role eight years ago.

Another area in which Scott and Wright have managed to replicate past elements of Who is in the case of Night’s adversary, although this reviewer has to hope that this connection was unintentional. The scribes’ depiction of the antagonist menace, the cunning and manipulative Whisper, echoes beats of A Town Called Mercy's Gunslinger at times. Yet where Toby Whithouse produced a layered and emotionally complex villain in his Series Seven televised episode, the Whisper carries none of the same emotive gravitas or any memorable traits to allow for any enduring impact on the listener once the credits roll. This is one of the only arguable major setbacks in the piece, which is certainly a pleasing contrast to the legions of caveats to be found with its immediate predecessor.

Strangely enough for a release which does such a fine job of capturing the motifs and moral complexities of its era, one of Night's most memorable elements by far is its mandatory Eleventh Doctor cameo sequence. Though Nick Briggs (and arguably no other actor bar the man himself) can't quite fully capture the quick-witted and rapidly shifting portrayal that Matt Smith lends the Doctor, his attempt is valiant and both the soundtrack and the script work superbly in capturing the bold message the Time Lord's future self transmits in order to help avert a future crisis. Briggs can’t be faulted, however, in the midst of his other portrayals- replicating Chris’ Northern tones, Billie Piper’s grounded London accent and John Barrowman’s broad Scot-American quips all at once must have appeared a rather daunting challenge, yet the man behind the voices of the Daleks and Cybermen pulls off that feat with aplomb and this reviewer would be eager to see Briggs take up the roles of the TARDIS trio again in future audios.

On supporting duties this time around is John Schwab as the increasingly mysterious MacNeill, a figure whose relevance in the Doctor’s own future will only become clear in two months’ time come the final release of the range. Schwab isn’t given a wealth of content until the final sequences of the narrative, at which point the American voice actor comes into his own, presenting the listener with one of the most compelling and realistic portrayals of a secondary character yet in the Destiny series. Again, should Schwab be so inclined as to return beyond this isolated storyline, he’s sure to gain credits aplenty regardless of the role he is afforded by AudioGo and/or Big Finish in the future.

When all’s said and done, Night Of The Whisper isn’t completely devoid of blemishes. The momentum of Scott and Wright’s narrative falters at times during the action sequences, and in addition those characters Briggs is left to develop other than the TARDIS crew aren’t always as memorable as the main ensemble. This time, though, there’s such a plentiful amount of impressive content on offer for the listener that the experience can’t help but be a pleasure. The reprisal of the accuracy with which the production team are attempting to represent the various eras of Doctor Who is greatly refreshing, setting a high precedent for the final two Destiny Of The Doctor releases to match. With any luck, after the slight misstep of Enemy Aliens last month, Night Of The Whisper will have set us on a captivating path to be traversed in Death’s Deal and The Time Machine. Much as the Ninth Doctor era does tend to be reduced to its most memorable tropes and catchphrases, in this case it really is fair to say that the assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn’t stop this from being an utterly fantastic experience.

Amongst the greatest by-products of Doctor Who’s revived success since 2005 has been the re-emergence of the ‘Classic Novels’ range, with recent literary instalments such as The Wheel of Ice and Shada proving qualified hits for fans new and old alike. With Harvest of Time, author Alistair Reynolds returns to the Third Doctor era in the midst of the show’s 50th Anniversary for a nostalgic, intergalactic adventure. It’s a shame, then, that Harvest is a somewhat inadequate endeavour in audio form, only likely to inspire fans to return to Jon Pertwee’s televised adventures in order to reassure themselves of their superior quality.

That Reynolds’ characterisations of those firm fan favourite constructs from the Pertwee days aren’t wholly consistent with what we remember certainly doesn’t build a strong foundation for the piece. Much as recent entries in the Eleventh Doctor’s New Series Adventures novel range have appeared to struggle with clearly defining their portrayal of Matt’s take on the Time Lord as opposed to Chris’ or David’s incarnations, so too do some of the colloquialisms and speech mannerisms of Reynolds’ Third Doctor seem more befitting of more recent incarnations than the temporarily Earth-bound 1970s take on the alien hero.

Such notable representational inaccuracies are made all the more striking when we consider that Harvest is set in conditions purely indicative of the aforementioned era of the programme. Still working with UNIT and Jo Grant, the Doctor’s encounters with the Master and the sinister extraterrestrial Sild feel as if they have been ripped out of a ‘lost’ adventure at the time. Given that Harvest is coming to retail in audiobook form during the 50th Anniversary year, one can assert it to be only natural that Reynolds reprises the most memorable elements of the Pertwee era, yet his dedication to producing a tale accurate to its dramatic context is arguably the undoing of the piece in terms of the lingering sense that there’s a general lack of narrative innovation on offer here.

To its credit, one notable factor of the audiobook version of Harvest lends it an air of superiority over its published source material. Geoffrey Beevers does a sterling job as the narrator of this particular release, his relish at the opportunity of portraying both a classic Doctor and another version of the Master clear from the outset. At the very least, Beevers ensures that the interest of the listener is rarely lost in the midst of the rather predictable and linear narrative thanks to accomplished differentiation between his various character portrayals in terms of dialect and speech patterns, as well as plenty of confident and varied levels of emphasis even in the more mundane moments of description and depiction.

If only Beevers was able to be afforded more engaging content on a regular basis by this ever-so-slightly abridged aural rendition of Reynolds’ latest Who text, the resulting impact of the product as a whole would not likely be as dissatisfying. Instead, he’s simply offered a storyline which rarely has any highlight moments, the most notable sequences ultimately being those where the book’s scribe manages to effectively capture the intricate relationships between Pertwee’s Doctor with the likes of the Brigadier and Jo. Certainly, the seamless manner in which the plot segues between the situations on Earth, in the realms of the Red Queen and elsewhere keeps things fresh from time to time, but it’s hardly enough to compensate for the general lack of momentum present as the audiobook progresses over the course of five discs.

What we’re left with overall, then, is a mixed bag to say the least. Without a charismatic and engaging narrator such as Beevers on hand to carry the weight of its in-depth science-fiction narrative, Harvest of Time would likely suffer far worse as a result of its lacklustre storyline and unfulfilling characterisations. Thankfully, with the dedicated ex-Master lending his vocal talents to this production, Harvest is presented to listeners in a digestible form that makes for a far more compulsive experience than it has any right to be.

A more apt title for the second instalment in Big Finish’s latest trilogy of Seventh Doctor adventures would perhaps be Starlight Treasury. For within this follow-up to Persuasion, the listener is offered a metaphorical vault of contributory delights which combine to form one of the production team’s strongest efforts yet. It’s rare that a reviewer can so fully complement an audio drama as to assert its shortcomings as purely negligible, yet in this particular case that’s precisely the situation which has presented itself.

What remains a surprise throughout the duration of the story is the effectiveness with which its scribe Matt Fitton develops upon what is a fairly traditional premise. The action picks up moments after the conclusion of Persuasion, with Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor, Tracey Child’s Klein and Christian Edwards’ Will all intent on discovering the whereabouts of the lost Persuasion device and its creator Kurt Schulk. Their search leads them to an intergalactic auction featuring a plethora of galaxy-threatening weaponry, forcing the TARDIS crew to engineer a devious heist in order to gain access to the ultimate prize.

Unless listeners manage to somehow experience Starlight Robbery without glancing at its cover art, they’ll already have noticed that the Sontarans are due a comeback in this piece. Sure enough, faster than you can yell ‘Atmos’, the classic adversaries make their entrance heard in the midst of the auction and pose an additionally dangerous dilemma for the Time Lord at its heart. Dan Starkey is rightly offered full vocal control over the various soldiers of this particular Legion and he manages to intelligently differentiate between the dialects and colloquialisms of each of the different soldier roles he inhabits. Naturally, there are instances where Starkey’s recent regular work as Strax on the show has an influence on his portrayal, yet this only serves to enhance his contribution to proceedings rather than acting in any detrimental manner.

Before the Rutans’ most notorious foes even take to the stage, though, this release’s finest asset is introduced in subtle but sublime fashion. Jo Woodcock takes on the role of the flirty and rather vivacious entrepreneur Ziv with a zestful and enriching energy that allows her to dominate each and every sequence she appears in, regardless of the extent to which she appears or indeed the level of challenge the dialogue places before her. Refreshing as it is to see McCoy in particular on such strong and consistent form as his incarnation of the Doctor, always the prospect of discovering fresh and invigorating new blood on-screen or in these audio releases is just as thrilling, doubly so in the case of the supremely talented Woodcock here.

Similarly unexpected and yet beneficial is Fitton’s capability to relax the arc stands of the 2013 Seventh Doctor trilogy so as to allow himself to convey a standalone, layered tale without the restraints of specific narrative elements holding back his own creative vision. Whereas Persuasion occasionally seemed confined by the expectations of the events it had to fulfil and pre-empt, Starlight Robbery serves as a great interlude before a presumably climactic confrontation of wits in the upcoming finale. Despite the return of Black And White’s elusive conman Garundel (played marvellously by Stuart Milligan once again) and the continuation of the search for Schultz’s masterpiece, there’s plenty of standalone content here that won’t likely leave newcomers to the range too confused as to exactly ‘what’s occurring’, in the elegant words of Gavin & Stacey’s Nessa.

Undoubtedly, the metaphorical glue which holds it all together is the intelligent structure that Fitton engineers as the backbone of his drama. At no stage in the four ‘episodes’ of the piece does any notable lapse in momentum occur, even in the more intricate and reserved exchanges between main and supporting characters aboard spaceships, storage crates and the various other modes of transportation which they hop aboard. Plot twists are dispensed equally in such a manner that listeners will frequently find themselves lulled into a false sense of security or foreknowledge, only to eventually discover that their understanding of events to come is minimal and inaccurate at the best of times.

If a minor inferior element of this second instalment must be uncovered, then it is arguable that a singular flaw lies in its climax. Fans of the Doctor Who stories broadcast in the show’s first decade may find themselves experiencing déjà vu as Starlight Robbery draws to a close, with a familiar spaceship cruiser’s interior sound effect employed in the final scene as a teaser of what’s to come next time. For this reviewer, the conclusion of Frontier In Space came to mind, although on the whole the effect of this supposed shortcoming is minimal, with the scene in question handled in such a manner that its dramatic impact is intense enough to justify its relative familiarity.

When Daleks Among Us does arrive in stores later this month, then, it faces a battle on dual fronts. On the one hand, writer Alan Barnes must engineer resolutions to narrative arcs such as the Klein mystery, the manipulation of the Persuasion machine and the foreboding trap which the titular antagonists and their creator have set for the Doctor. On the other hand, in following on from Starlight Robbery, Barnes acquires the unenviable task of matching or bettering what is to this reviewer’s mind one of the greatest single releases that Big Finish have produced since their inception. Starlight Robbery represents everything that makes the programme a success fifty years on- the intricate narratives, the accomplished performers, the supreme dramatic impact of it all- and without a doubt Fitton’s finest hour writing for the range. If you’ll pardon the pun, it’s stellar in every sense of the word, and for this reviewer Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary Special has truly come early.

“Hello there, Doctor- this is the Doctor speaking! Now the fact of the matter is, you’ve caught me in a bit of a jam, a fix, you might say, a tight spot, quite frankly...”

In every chain, it seems, there must be a weak link. For seven months, across a variety of accomplished instalments, the Destiny franchise has succeeded in engaging this reviewer’s interest thoroughly thanks to strong characterisation, defined and unique performances from each cast member involved and above all the faithfulness of the restorations of Doctor Who’s various eras. However, Enemy Aliens struggles to retain these contributory aspects in any great measure, resulting in the weakest instalment of the series so far.

Perhaps the most notable shortcoming of this lacklustre Eighth Doctor adventure becomes present as early as the premise set-up in its opening moments. Much as in the Sixth Doctor entry Trouble In Paradise, the Doctor and Charley are called upon by the Eleventh Doctor to unravel a mystery in 1930s London. Whether it’s the familiarity of the scene in which the inter-Doctor discussion first takes place, or indeed of a pre-war setting such as this, either way there’s a sense instantly that the narrative material being covered here isn’t particularly fresh.

Paul Cornell once proved with aplomb that science-fiction storylines taking place before a World War can be suitably compelling, his Series Three two-parter Human Nature/The Family of Blood a particular shining reminder of this. It’s truly a shame, then, that writer Alan Barnes’ script doesn’t appear intent on recapturing any of the same emotional resonance, foreboding tension or effective satire of that beloved televised story, instead electing to provide listeners with an ill-paced romp that features predictable plot twists and generally ineffective action-driven setpieces.

Not all of the blame can simply be placed on Barnes, though- it seems safe to assume that this veteran writer in the Who audio range was commissioned with a specific narrative structure and tonal direction in mind by Big Finish for this release. What comes as a surprise this time around is that neither regular star India Fisher nor her supporting performer Michael Maloney seem particularly enthused in their portrayals. While naturally it becomes difficult to assess whether India held a blasé attitude towards her return as Charley Pollard when we don’t have access to behind-the-scenes footage, that’s certainly the impression given by her performance here, a factor of the release which stands in direct contrast to its predecessors.

In fact, that concerning contemplation of a blasé attitude held by a performer in this release seems to extend further than India in the grand scheme of things. No doubt honing a structure for an eleven-part series such as Destiny must have been a challenging prospect for those involved with producing this range, yet more than any of the past seven releases, Enemy Aliens merely comes off as a stop-gap entry intended only to further minor elements of the overall narrative arc ahead of presumably major developments in the final three instalments. This is not unheard of in the realms of televised or audio-based Who, yet rarely has such a trait proven so notable as it does here, with tedium setting in rather rapidly over the course of the sixty minute running time.

While this reviewer cannot confess himself as a regular follower of Big Finish’s Eighth Doctor adventures, even hardened fans of the range are unlikely to find much in the way of incentives to pick up this instalment. Neither the dialogue Barnes affords Paul McGann’s incarnation nor India’s lacklustre portrayal of the character seem to do this one-off Doctor justice, an aspect of the Destiny range which its other writers have seemed to pride themselves with in past entries. Certainly, fans who come to this particular chapter having only seen the TV Movie won’t be offered much in terms of defining how far this incarnation has developed since his first and last televised outing in 1996.

If Barnes had managed to create a suitably grand climax for this tonally diverse outing, then arguably all would not have been for nought. Sadly, referencing this release’s conclusion only serves to highlight further flaws within, seeing as Enemy Aliens ends with such startling brevity that the listener may barely realise the credits have rolled. There’s a near-total lack of closure to be found as Barnes rushes to explain various loose plot threads before the finish line, and that virtually no further contribution to the future of the series is offered in the tale’s final scenes does it no help, either. Those fans who claimed that Asylum of the Daleks and The Power of Three were constrained by their forty-five minute running times may think twice after experiencing this adventure, where proceedings come to an end at an alarmingly abrupt rate that’s difficult to commend in any way, shape or form.

Reassurance can at least come here in the knowledge that rarely have disappointing entries in Big Finish audio franchises resulted in a negative impact on a series’ momentum- quite the opposite, generally. Indeed, the Destiny range has hit one or two speed bumps and hitches over the course of its run so far with Vengeance of the Stones and Trouble In Paradise, yet has bounced back without fail in successive months after those mediocre outings. There’s little doubt that the production team will manage the same feat after this misstep, it’s simply disheartening that such a notable descent into quality had to occur when the franchise began to enter truly innovative territory with last month’s Shockwave.

The positive message that can at least be fathomed from Enemy Aliens is that at least if every chain must have a singular weak link, then in the words of a crazed inmate in Victorian London, “it is discovered” and has been dealt with. Newcomers to the Eighth Doctor audio range should rightly be underwhelmed by a below-average introductory adventure such as this, but there’s plenty of other great Paul McGann adventures to be found elsewhere in Big Finish’s back catalogue. While Enemy Aliens is most certainly not the weakest release in the studio’s history thanks to a somewhat ambitious narrative and assured direction, it lacks each and every one of the key elements which have made the Destiny of the Doctor franchise so far a success, and thus must be considered its weakest link as a result.

When the British Film Institute announced their series of monthly screenings throughout 2013 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, I thought that they sounded like a nice idea, but I wasn’t particularly fussed about attending any of them myself. I hadn’t been to any Doctor Who events for a very long time, and thought that they weren’t necessarily my sort of thing.

However, last month I had the opportunity to attend the Remembrance of the Daleks event, and I absolutely loved it. The chance to watch a great Doctor Who story on the big screen, with a large and enthusiastic audience who love the series just as much as you do, and to hear more from some of the people who made it happen with the interview panel afterwards… I was hooked, and despite having come to these BFI events rather late in the series, was determined to try and get to more of them before the end of the year.

I was very fortunate, then, to be able to pick up a couple of returns on the BFI website in the week leading up to the Ninth Doctor event, and went along with a good friend of mine on Saturday to enjoy that Doctor's grand finale, the two-parter Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways. The observant among you will have spotted that this is the Ninth Doctor, but in the eighth month. Presumably due to the availability of guests for the screenings, they’ve got a little out of order now, with the David Tennant event following next month, and Paul McGann finally getting his moment at the beginning of October. At the beginning of this month’s event, compère Justin Johnson announced that both Tennant and McGann will be attending their respective screenings.

Probably to nobody’s great surprise, there was no appearance from Christopher Eccleston at this month’s showing, although he did send along a note for Johnson to read out before Bad Wolf. It was short, but definitely sweet, and although Eccleston doesn’t often make any statements or appearances related to his period with Doctor Who, you do sense that he remains proud of his time on the series and the work that he did to help establish its successful return. In his note, Eccleston joked that if Joe Ahearne – who directed the two episodes being screened – were to return for the 100th anniversary special in 2063, he’d take part and bring his stair-lift, providing the Daleks do not bring theirs!

You do sense that there was a great bond formed between Ahearne and Eccleston during the five episodes of Doctor Who which they made together. Ahearne, remember, wrote to The Guardian to rebuke those who’d criticised Eccleston for his departure from the show after only one year, and he and Eccleston collaborated on the ITV drama Perfect Parents soon after their work on Doctor Who. Ahearne has rightly won many plaudits from fans down the years for his work on the 2005 series, but has oddly never returned to the show. It does make you wonder whether the fact that Eccleston left has anything to do with his not wanting to come back and do more, but sadly during the question-and-answer session which followed the interview panel, nobody put that one to him – and I wasn’t brave enough to ask him myself!

Nonetheless, Ahearne did give many interesting insights, such as his observation that Doctor Who was a pleasure to work on because it was one of the few British television dramas of the time where the camera could help to tell the story, rather than just being pointed at people having conversations in kitchens. And he did dispel the long-standing fan myth about his having been born on November 23rd 1963 – not true, evidently!

Representing the actors of the Ninth Doctor’s era was Bruno Langley, who played short-term companion Adam Mitchell in Dalek and The Long Game. I felt a little sorry for Langley, as there wasn’t a great deal for him to say, given the fact that he wasn’t actually in the two episodes being screened. Nonetheless, he came across as likeable enough, and another person proud to have been associated with Doctor Who.

Also present as a guest was visual effects supremo Dave Houghton, who was interviewed between the two episodes, and it’s odd to hear someone from that side of things talk about how much more can be done these days – we’re used to hearing those who worked on the classic series day that, but these 2005 episodes themselves are now starting to seem old!

There is no question, however, that both the interview panel and the question-and-answer session were dominated by day’s other guest – Phil Collinson, who was the producer of Doctor Who when it returned in 2005. Collinson is, of course, an old-school, dyed-in-the-wool Doctor Who fan, but he was also the sure head and steady hand who made sure that the whole thing didn’t fall to pieces in those early days when nobody had made a series like this in the UK for so very long, schedules were falling behind and elements both inside and outside of the BBC were predicting an embarrassment. It was anything but, of course, as Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways go to show.

Collinson was a witty, informative and hugely enthusiastic guest, proud not just of these two episodes, not even just of his era, but of all of Doctor Who. Even after everything that’s been said and written about the show and how it is made, he still had some fascinating new insights, too – such as the fact that the first cut of Rose, the first episode of the new series, came in at a mere 28 minutes, necessitating some frantic additions and reworking!

On a technical level, while it was very impressive to see the episodes on a film-sized screen, oddly I thought that they didn’t stand up to it quite as well as Remembrance of the Daleks last month. I don’t know if it’s because I was sitting nearer the front this time, or whether it’s an artefact of the field-pairing process used to ‘filmise’ the video, or simply my imagination, but I thought that the jagged edges you’d expect when 625-line video is blown-up to cinema-screen size were more apparent.

Perhaps it was simply the contrast with some of the high definition Matt Smith-era material we’d seen only a few moments before, when we were treated to a sneak preview of a montage from BBC One’s Doctor Who Prom broadcast. On the basis of that, I’d expect An Adventure in Space and Time and whatever 11th Doctor story is chosen to look fabulously lush on their showings here at the BFI.

Such quibbles aside, I can only thank the BFI once again for putting on this series of celebrations for Doctor Who’s anniversary, and repeat my recommendation from my Remembrance of the Daleks review that if you have the chance to attend one of these events, you should grab it with both hands.

This review contains plot spoilers and is based on the UK edition of the ebook. 

This is an effective short story which builds tension smartly and offers an interesting pay-off. But as a tribute to the era of the eighth Doctor it falls a little flat. Beyond details of his costume, this is barely recognizable as the Paul McGann Doctor, instead feeling very generically ‘Doctor-ish’ rather than resonating with this incarnation’s appearance in the TV Movie or indeed with any of his lives beyond television. Also, the Doctor is depicted as travelling alone, meaning that none of his TV, novel or audio companions are acknowledged. All of this makes Spore a rather pale shadow of earlier entries in this series, for example Philip Reeve’s Roots of Evil, which perfectly captured the spirit of its Doctor Who time. However, nor is this eshort comparable to Eoin Colfer’s opening story which actively reworked the first Doctor’s character – this isn’t so much a revisionist eighth Doctor as a reduced or thinned-out character denuded of distinguishing features.

More authorial energy has been expended by Alex Scarrow on realizing the Doctor’s opponent – the spore of the title which threatens the American town of Fort Casey. This organism breaks any living matter down into a black sludge which it can then use to create a network of biomass connections and defences. However, the alien pathogen isn’t simply intent on invasion: it has a further purpose which Scarrow gradually reveals, and which sets the stage for an intriguing denouement. And there’s also some back-story to cement the Doctor’s involvement, as it becomes apparent that this entity has been faced by the Time Lords before. As a plot device this feels slightly in danger of becoming a Who cliché, mind you: it offers an instant way of raising the stakes, and the Time Lords have had a motley collection of enemies and invaders over the years. But Scarrow’s decision to pit the US military against a creature previously encountered by Gallifreyans means that the Doctor can play a more intimate role in repelling the spore than might otherwise have been the case.

Given that he’s travelling by himself, the Doctor rapidly acquires a makeshift companion, Evelyn Chan, part of the US forces sent in to investigate events in Nevada. By name-checking UNIT the Doctor gets himself sent in as a troubleshooter, and works alongside Evelyn to discover how the alien creature can be tackled. But Chan is given little sense of fleshed-out characterisation, and in an eshort such as this, which needs to constantly keep hitting plot beats, there is precious little space to develop her as a rounded, three-dimensional figure. Consequently she ends up as a companion cipher, there to give the Doctor somebody to talk to. Perhaps this tale would have worked better as an equivalent to The Deadly Assassin, pitting companion-less Time Lord against unusual antagonist.

There’s an interesting moment where cosmic timing is discussed: had the creature arrived on Earth some years later then the Doctor realizes a very different outcome would have arisen. It’s tempting to wonder if Scarrow is smuggling in a reference to the TV Movie’s fate: in 1996 Doctor Who’s timing was off, and just a few years later it would meet with a radically different outcome... but the parallel isn’t really made strongly or playfully enough to hold water.

Unlike last month’s Puffin ebook, Malorie Blackman’s magnificent and formula-challenging Ripple Effect, there’s little in the way of social commentary this time round. By contrast, this is an adventure firmly in the mould of B-movie antecedents, and although it darts along with plenty of narrative energy it ultimately feels rather insubstantial. The eighth Doctor has been poorly served in certain ways in the past (the TV Movie can hardly be described as having a well-plotted conclusion, for instance) and this strikes me, overall, as another disappointment. You get the feeling that Scarrow isn’t sure of what he should be building on from Doctor Who’s past, and his Doctor ends up feeling excessively generalised rather than specific.

It wouldn’t be fair to describe Spore as poor, however, but for me it is one of the weaker Puffin ebooks in this anniversary range. I expect the remaining titles will grab a much firmer hold of their source material, meaning that ninth, tenth and eleventh Doctors will most likely feel ‘authentic’ in a way that this eighth Doctor simply doesn’t. And although I realize the brief for this range was to use new authors, thereby reaching out to YA readers, perhaps the Paul McGann Doctor would have been better served by a writer who’d already established a feel for this incarnation across the “wilderness years” of the interregnum. Instead, Spore presents an oddly generic Doctor alongside an equally generic companion. The fact that it is starkly named in honour of its extraterrestrial invader shows in a single word where the story’s centre of gravity really lies.

And as rumours continue to circulate about who might have agreed to write for this series, it will be interesting to see which authors contribute to Puffin’s run of ‘new Who’ adventures…