by Steve Cole

BBC Books, out now

The Doctor travels back to ancient days, an era where life flourishes and death is barely known. Then come the Kotturuh – creatures who spread through the cosmos dispensing mortality.

After comic strips from Titan and DWM, the Time Lord Victorious multi-platform project hits full-length book with Steve Cole’s Tenth Doctor adventure The Knight, The Fool and the Dead. When I say full-length, this is more a Target-sized read at 178 pages, with many chapter breaks, and it takes no time in getting going. Cole is a dab hand at this sort of thing and it really does rip along, but… it does end on a corker of a cliffhanger, to be continued/resolved in December’s All Flesh is Grass.

That’s not say there’s a problem with a cliffhanger – the show has used the device for over 55 years – it’s just the suggestion I’ve read elsewhere that you can pick up any Time Lord Victorious content at any point, in any order, and dive in… I think that’s only strictly true between complete strands. But what a great story this is, introducing us to the bringers of death, the grim reaper-like Kotturuh.

We’re back in the Dark Times and the Doctor is still processing the events of The Waters of Mars. He has a certain arrogance about him, looking at things in black and white, determined to right the wrong that is the Kotturuh’s power to judge and set a destruct date on worlds. There’s an Ood assassin in a tux, a lovely running interlude telling a cautionary tale, some very Tenth Doctor-authentic dialogue, and of course that ending.

Verdict: There’s every chance you’ll devour this exciting, first Time Lord Victorious novel in a single sitting – and an equal chance that when you finish it you’ll be shouting ‘What? What!’ in your best Tennant voice. Roll on December. 8/10

Nick Joy

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