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A review by isabellarobinson7
Doctor Who : Thirteen Doctors 13 Stories by Naomi Alderman
3.5
Rating: 3.54 stars
So that's my average rating based on my individual ratings of each story. Here's a quick synopsis of each short story and my brief thoughts (emphasis on brief because there's 13 to get through here):
First Doctor: The Doctor loses his hand and has to wait for a replacement. Plus the author uses his own made up language from his own independent series in this story, which is a tinsy bit obnoxious. Otherwise it's kind of boring.
★★½☆☆/★★★★★
Second Doctor: Jamie gets a weird book. The Master sells the Doctor out to get money, fame, power, the works. So not too different for him. Much better than the first one. Also I just love the Second Doctor.
★★★★☆/★★★★★
Third Doctor: The Doctor steals Odin's spear (yep, Norse mythology Odin) from an exhibition on 1973. And the Master is Frey, because of course he is. And that is even more hilarious when you think that Magnus Chase from Rick Riordan's series is the son of Frey, so technically Magnus is part Timelord. It's a really cool short story, but its high rating is 100% influenced by my mythology nerd brain.
★★★★★/★★★★★
Fourth Doctor: A whole planet of people hate the Doctor and the planet isn't Gallifrey and the people aren't Timelords! There is also a giant killer tree. Kind of a let down story-wise. I was pretty disappointed. The Fourth Doctor honestly deserves better.
★★★½☆/★★★★★
Fifth Doctor: It's 1945 and the new craze is Truth Tellers, which do as their name suggests (that is they bypass the human filter and tell the truth regardless of whether it is appropriate or not). And naturally, everyone goes crazy. A great short story, perhaps attributed to its concept, but not very specific for the Fifth Doctor. Any of the other Doctors could have been swapped in and little would change. Also, it was more on the minimalist side in terms of the sci-fi elements, which I am not particularly adverse to, it was just a surprise more than anything I think.
★★★½☆/★★★★★
Sixth Doctor: There's a wedding and the Doctor turns up to find someone quite familiar. As much as it would be a spoiler to say who the Doctor meets, it is really not much of a mystery as to who it is. (Hint: starts with M...) Anyway, I kind of skim read this one (I allow myself to do this in anthologies when I'm not really feeling a story) because I'm not a huge fan of the Sixth Doctor. The story was better than I thought it would be though.
★★½☆☆/★★★★★
Seventh Doctor: Daleks are nice and the Doctor is confused. The timey whimey-est story here. Also one of the best! I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Though, I may be biased, because I really love the Seventh Doctor (which may in turn be influenced by me being unduly partial to the number seven and the fact that Sylvester McCoy played Radagast in The Hobbit movies and was one of the only good parts of the films).
★★★★★/★★★★★
Eighth Doctor: An alien-space-virus-thing wants to wipe out the human race. A story that hits a little too close to home given the world's present state. Also not a fan of the Eighth Doctor, so I wasn't hugely into this one.
★★☆☆☆/★★★★★
Ninth Doctor: Remember how in the first episode of the new Doctor Who called Rose when the Doctor asked Rose to travel with him in the TARDIS and she declined so he left? Then remember how he came back, told Rose the TARDIS also travels in time, and so she joined him? (That part where she ran in cringey slow motion, yeah. Give them a break, it was 2005.) This was what happened in between those two visits (because five seconds in a time machine can be five days). The concept was perhaps better than the execution.
★★★½☆/★★★★★
Tenth Doctor: The Doctor and Martha get trapped in a book, and it's nothing like all us bookworms dreamed it would be. When I saw that Martha was the companion here I'll admit I was a little disappointed, but I think Ten largely makes up for it. (Though, I have come to appreciate Martha more reading some books with her in them. Maybe it's just her writing in the show that bothered me.)
A generous ★★★★☆/★★★★★
Eleventh Doctor: Some creepy mask-wearing dudes buy this guy’s house in the 80's and then try to buy the world. Amy's there being awesome and Eleven does all his goofy things (which were written wonderfully by the way) and it probably made me laugh the most out of all the stories.
★★★★½/★★★★★
Twelfth Doctor: All the Claras get stories! Yes! The thing everyone has been waiting for is finally here!! Another case of the concept topping the execution, but in this case the concept was so good I think it largely made up for it.
★★★★☆/★★★★★
Thirteenth Doctor: The (female) Doctor did some stuff, I guess, and cracked some jokes that probably don't land and... that's it. Despite this being the last story, I don't remember much about it at all. I guess I could chalk that up to me not liking the Thirteenth Doctor (and I'm a female too so I'm not being one of those sexist, snobbish guys just hating all feminist advances) which is pretty much entirely a result of the poor scripts she got in these latest two seasons. I really really hope and pray they can iron out all the issues surrounding the disconnect between the writing and the acting for Jodie's last season, because she is an incredible actress (just watch Broadchurch, all the evidence is there) and she deserves a shot at fulfilling the roll of the Thirteenth Doctor like I know she is absolutely capable of doing. Anyway, (tangent over) in terms of this anthology, it's sad not to end on a high note.
★★☆☆☆/★★★★★
So what I have learned is that I am very picky about my Doctor Who content. Eh, what's new?
So that's my average rating based on my individual ratings of each story. Here's a quick synopsis of each short story and my brief thoughts (emphasis on brief because there's 13 to get through here):
First Doctor: The Doctor loses his hand and has to wait for a replacement. Plus the author uses his own made up language from his own independent series in this story, which is a tinsy bit obnoxious. Otherwise it's kind of boring.
★★½☆☆/★★★★★
Second Doctor: Jamie gets a weird book. The Master sells the Doctor out to get money, fame, power, the works. So not too different for him. Much better than the first one. Also I just love the Second Doctor.
★★★★☆/★★★★★
Third Doctor: The Doctor steals Odin's spear (yep, Norse mythology Odin) from an exhibition on 1973. And the Master is Frey, because of course he is. And that is even more hilarious when you think that Magnus Chase from Rick Riordan's series is the son of Frey, so technically Magnus is part Timelord. It's a really cool short story, but its high rating is 100% influenced by my mythology nerd brain.
★★★★★/★★★★★
Fourth Doctor: A whole planet of people hate the Doctor and the planet isn't Gallifrey and the people aren't Timelords! There is also a giant killer tree. Kind of a let down story-wise. I was pretty disappointed. The Fourth Doctor honestly deserves better.
★★★½☆/★★★★★
Fifth Doctor: It's 1945 and the new craze is Truth Tellers, which do as their name suggests (that is they bypass the human filter and tell the truth regardless of whether it is appropriate or not). And naturally, everyone goes crazy. A great short story, perhaps attributed to its concept, but not very specific for the Fifth Doctor. Any of the other Doctors could have been swapped in and little would change. Also, it was more on the minimalist side in terms of the sci-fi elements, which I am not particularly adverse to, it was just a surprise more than anything I think.
★★★½☆/★★★★★
Sixth Doctor: There's a wedding and the Doctor turns up to find someone quite familiar. As much as it would be a spoiler to say who the Doctor meets, it is really not much of a mystery as to who it is. (Hint: starts with M...) Anyway, I kind of skim read this one (I allow myself to do this in anthologies when I'm not really feeling a story) because I'm not a huge fan of the Sixth Doctor. The story was better than I thought it would be though.
★★½☆☆/★★★★★
Seventh Doctor: Daleks are nice and the Doctor is confused. The timey whimey-est story here. Also one of the best! I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Though, I may be biased, because I really love the Seventh Doctor (which may in turn be influenced by me being unduly partial to the number seven and the fact that Sylvester McCoy played Radagast in The Hobbit movies and was one of the only good parts of the films).
★★★★★/★★★★★
Eighth Doctor: An alien-space-virus-thing wants to wipe out the human race. A story that hits a little too close to home given the world's present state. Also not a fan of the Eighth Doctor, so I wasn't hugely into this one.
★★☆☆☆/★★★★★
Ninth Doctor: Remember how in the first episode of the new Doctor Who called Rose when the Doctor asked Rose to travel with him in the TARDIS and she declined so he left? Then remember how he came back, told Rose the TARDIS also travels in time, and so she joined him? (That part where she ran in cringey slow motion, yeah. Give them a break, it was 2005.) This was what happened in between those two visits (because five seconds in a time machine can be five days). The concept was perhaps better than the execution.
★★★½☆/★★★★★
Tenth Doctor: The Doctor and Martha get trapped in a book, and it's nothing like all us bookworms dreamed it would be. When I saw that Martha was the companion here I'll admit I was a little disappointed, but I think Ten largely makes up for it. (Though, I have come to appreciate Martha more reading some books with her in them. Maybe it's just her writing in the show that bothered me.)
A generous ★★★★☆/★★★★★
Eleventh Doctor: Some creepy mask-wearing dudes buy this guy’s house in the 80's and then try to buy the world. Amy's there being awesome and Eleven does all his goofy things (which were written wonderfully by the way) and it probably made me laugh the most out of all the stories.
★★★★½/★★★★★
Twelfth Doctor: All the Claras get stories! Yes! The thing everyone has been waiting for is finally here!! Another case of the concept topping the execution, but in this case the concept was so good I think it largely made up for it.
★★★★☆/★★★★★
Thirteenth Doctor: The (female) Doctor did some stuff, I guess, and cracked some jokes that probably don't land and... that's it. Despite this being the last story, I don't remember much about it at all. I guess I could chalk that up to me not liking the Thirteenth Doctor (and I'm a female too so I'm not being one of those sexist, snobbish guys just hating all feminist advances) which is pretty much entirely a result of the poor scripts she got in these latest two seasons. I really really hope and pray they can iron out all the issues surrounding the disconnect between the writing and the acting for Jodie's last season, because she is an incredible actress (just watch Broadchurch, all the evidence is there) and she deserves a shot at fulfilling the roll of the Thirteenth Doctor like I know she is absolutely capable of doing. Anyway, (tangent over) in terms of this anthology, it's sad not to end on a high note.
★★☆☆☆/★★★★★
So what I have learned is that I am very picky about my Doctor Who content. Eh, what's new?