Alex Scarrow – most famous for his TimeRiders series, but also a designer on Ultimate Soccer Manager (a brilliant game where you could take bungs and place bets on your own team) – seems an obvious choice as an author, but avoids covering similar ground to that range here. The depiction of an entire town being turned into viscous black soup as all organic matter is destroyed is gruesome and graphic. Yet, at the end, there is some interaction between the Doctor and the pathogen which gives it some character, and its back story is interesting and well-constructed. Unfortunately, this means quite a lot of the short story is exposition heavy and the resolution feels too simple. There are a lot of easy solutions that have been set up at length, so it isn’t a novel packed with revelation. Character wise, there are only four speaking roles, and three of those are soldiers investigating the pathogen. They’re somewhat utilitarian, none of them really have enough time to make an impact or be especially distinctive, even ersatz companion Evelyn Chan. Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor is an interesting one. Scarrow’s depiction of him is different to any of the various iterations (TV Movie, Big Finish, BBC Books, Doctor Who Magazine comic strip) of the incarnation, as the author has stated that he liked the blank slate element offered. As a result, we get a new – if somewhat generic take – on the Doctor. Some lines do shine through as feeling right and proper, but it feels somewhat closer to the Fourth Doctor than the Eighth. Considering the essence of the show is exploration, this range has been doing some interesting work with regards to expanding the situations and styles that Doctor Who can use. Hopefully that’ll feed back into other adventures in other mediums. Read Andrew’s review of the previous Puffin ebook in the series, Malorie Blackman’s The Ripple Effect, here.