By David Solomons

Puffin Books, out 1 November

When Graham’s begonia starts communicating with the Doctor and TARDIS crew, only a trip to a mysterious ancient vault on a frozen planet can save the galaxy.

Author David Solomons freely admits that he borrowed (and never returned) his older cousin’s Target books some time ago, and this lifelong love of Doctor Who comes through strongly in his Who debut. With a chapter title like ‘Diddly-dum Diddly-dum Woo-woo’ and references to Krynoids, Calufrax and the Leisure Hive on Argolis – ‘Had a few issues with their tachyon generator’ – it’s clear that David knows his stuff; he evens cheekily references Star Trek’s Prime Directive and Radagast’s bunny sled from The Hobbit.

But this isn’t a story written for fan service, as there’s a lovely quest structure to follow as the Doctor and her friends deals with environments and characters that tap into Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. Some of the ideas are beautifully bonkers, dialogue by way of Monty Python, and always engaging. Solomons captures Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor well, and Bradley Walsh’s Graham also comes alive helped by his Cockney dialogue and references to ‘Doc’. It’s always hard to write for a character before you’ve seen them on screen, but all four leads feel authentic to their TV personas. As with the first couple of screened episodes, Yaz hasn’t quite come into her own yet, though there’s usually a casualty with this many new characters finding their feet.

The author wrote the screenplay to the 2004 movie version of Five Children and It and the successful My Brother is a Superhero series, though writing a Doctor Who novel fulfils a lifetime ambition. Hopefully more will follow, but if not, there’s every evidence that he threw everything into this adventure. And he lives in Dorset… as does Chris Chibnall… as do I. Move over Cardiff, the Rift in space has just just shifted 100 miles to the South!

Oh, and the page edges serve as a flicker book, meaning that the TARDIS appears up and down its length. A happy throwback to Peter Haining’s 1983 A Celebration.

Verdict: Sold as a middle-grade adventure best suited for 7+ and families to share, it’s still an impressive 290 pages long and there’s nothing juvenile here to put off adult readers. Great fun – I’m now waiting fingers-crossed for a spin-off series: My Cousin is a Whovian. 9/10

Nick Joy