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A review by otherwyrld
Doctor Who: The Good Doctor by Juno Dawson
4.0
In the world of writing TV adaptations, the hardest books to write are the ones with brand new characters because the author has little more to work with than a description of what the character should be about. The essential spark - what the actor makes of the bare bones of their written character - is missing at this early point.
It is therefore to the authors credit that this book turns out so well, all the characters in the book feel like the ones we have watched over the latest series of Doctor Who where we get to meet not only a new Doctor but three new companions as well.
The story is a pretty basic one, where The Doctor visits a place once then returns centuries later to find himself being worshipped as a god. This theme has been explored by Doctor Who in the past, most notably by the 4th Doctor in the classic story The Face of Evil (though in that case The Doctor is reviled as an evil god rather than a good one).
I deliberately used the word "he" in the previous paragraph because gender politics plays a major part on this story. In this case our new female Doctor is superseded as god by companion Graham, and women are distinctly second class (which is still above the third class status of the original natives of the planet, later colonised by humans). This idea of people deferring to the older male companion while ignoring the female Doctor is explored in the series, where for the most part The Doctor is shown to be clearly in charge and Graham is in a secondary role. The most notable exception is in the episode The Witchfinders where The Doctor expresses frustration with not being in charge. It was something of a concern for me when I first read about the cast list for the 13th Doctor, as seemed that the BBC was putting in extra companions to shore up a Doctor that they didn't have total faith in (they did the same with the 5th Doctor, who at the time was the youngest Doctor and possibly didn't have the same authority in the minds of the public as the previous older incarnations). Of course Jodie Whittaker is clearly in charge in the series, but this doesn't come across as strongly in the book.
It helps that the author has a unique perspective on how such a story might play out, given that she has previously written other books before she transitioned. I was intrigued enough by her own story to borrow a copy of her autobiography from the library.
So this is my long-winded way of saying I really enjoyed the book and I am looking forward to more stories as strong as this one.
It is therefore to the authors credit that this book turns out so well, all the characters in the book feel like the ones we have watched over the latest series of Doctor Who where we get to meet not only a new Doctor but three new companions as well.
The story is a pretty basic one, where The Doctor visits a place once then returns centuries later to find himself being worshipped as a god. This theme has been explored by Doctor Who in the past, most notably by the 4th Doctor in the classic story The Face of Evil (though in that case The Doctor is reviled as an evil god rather than a good one).
I deliberately used the word "he" in the previous paragraph because gender politics plays a major part on this story. In this case our new female Doctor is superseded as god by companion Graham, and women are distinctly second class (which is still above the third class status of the original natives of the planet, later colonised by humans). This idea of people deferring to the older male companion while ignoring the female Doctor is explored in the series, where for the most part The Doctor is shown to be clearly in charge and Graham is in a secondary role. The most notable exception is in the episode The Witchfinders where The Doctor expresses frustration with not being in charge. It was something of a concern for me when I first read about the cast list for the 13th Doctor, as seemed that the BBC was putting in extra companions to shore up a Doctor that they didn't have total faith in (they did the same with the 5th Doctor, who at the time was the youngest Doctor and possibly didn't have the same authority in the minds of the public as the previous older incarnations). Of course Jodie Whittaker is clearly in charge in the series, but this doesn't come across as strongly in the book.
It helps that the author has a unique perspective on how such a story might play out, given that she has previously written other books before she transitioned. I was intrigued enough by her own story to borrow a copy of her autobiography from the library.
So this is my long-winded way of saying I really enjoyed the book and I am looking forward to more stories as strong as this one.