Book Review: Doctor Who - Tales of Terror

Had time for one creepy book in the run-up to Halloween, and chose to make it a Doctor Who book. This anthology is comprised of stories for each Doctor up through the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) (also, he's technically the 13th Doctor since the David Tennant Doctor once regenerated into himself...okay, timey wimey and all that).

So, as a Halloween-season treat, this book was...serviceable. Nothing spectacular in it, although nothing all that bad either. Had some nice touches, such as the First and Sixth Doctors' stories corresponding, and the story with the Fifth Doctor containing Easter eggs about how ridiculous (but enjoyable!) the series was by then. One thing that stood out was how well the "modern" Doctor stories were told - especially the Tenth (David Tennant) and Eleventh (Matt Smith) Doctor stories. I don't know if that's the writing, or just reflective of how well the actors and writing on the show has been to create versions of the Doctor that you want to spend time with. Also, big shout-out to including the index cards of nice sayings in the Twelfth Doctor story - I laughed out loud at seeing those again!

So, to borrow from another great work of science fiction from across the pond, this book is "mostly harmless". It's a trifle, and you shouldn't expect too much from it...except that the similar holiday book Twelve Weeping Angels was tremendous, and actually more terrifying than the Halloween book. So believe it or not I went into this book with somewhat high expectations, only to find it to be a much less intense experience.

But hey - if you're into Doctor Who, and you love Halloween, why not give it a read? Six out of ten hot dogs.