'Doctor Who: The Curse of Fenric' – Ian Briggs (Target)

I always seem to find an excuse not to come up with a 'My Top 10 Doctor Who Stories' list but if I ever do, it's a safe bet that 'The Curse of Fenric' will be sat very high up that list. Easily in the top five. I love all Doctor Who stories (well, not all of them but you know what I mean) but I have a real soft spot for 'The Curse of Fenric'. I won't go into the 'whys' again, you can either take my word for it or read my review over Here ;o)

I used to have a copy of the novelisation, back in the day, which I loved to pieces but had to get rid of it during one of many house moves so as soon as it finally settled in that I could be in my current flat as long as I wanted, I had a little look on Amazon and found another copy to replace it :o)

I found myself with a couple of hours to kill, yesterday evening, so settled down for a read... You can probably guess which way this post is going but bear with me ;o)

'If this is a top secret naval camp, I'm Lord Nelson!'

Ace has a poor opinion of the security arrangements at Commander Millington's North Yorkshire base – and she's less than comfortable in 1940s fashions. But the Doctor has graver matters on his mind.

Dr Judson, inventor of the Navy's ULTIMA code-breaker, is using the machine to decipher the runic inscriptions in the crypt of the nearby church.

Commander Millington is obsessed with his research into toxic bombs that he insists will hasten the end of World War Two.

A squad of the Red Army's crack Special Missions brigade lands on the Yorkshire coast with instructions to steal the ULTIMA device – unaware that Millington has turned it into a devastating secret weapon.

And beneath the waters at Maiden's Point, an ancient evil stirs...

The Doctor uncovers mysteries concealed within villainous plots – but what connects them all to a thousand year curse...?

I love this book. There, I said it. I won't be letting this copy go the way of the last one. Again, I won't go into that too much as a lot of it is about the story which I've already covered in the post about the TV serial. A lot of that still applies here, its' a Doctor Who novelisation and there are certain rules that have to be followed. You tell the story as it appears on the screen.

Where this book really stands out for me though is its willingness to go beyond being 'just another Target novelisation'. Don't get me wrong, I owe a lot to those books but 'The Curse of Fenric' steps it up a gear.by taking the time to look beyond events and really take a dive into the characters themselves. The tense relationship between Millington and Judson, on screen, becomes so much more here and really adds to what was already a rich plot. Ace, in particular, gets a lot of attention and as a result, becomes so much more than the companion that your Dad fancied. Even the supporting cast (I'm looking at you Russian soldiers and you as well, Miss Hardaker)get fleshed out feel important to the plot because of it.

And it's not just the characters who get their time in the sun. Where the TV show could only hint at a wider history between the Doctor and Fenric, the book has plenty of time to take us back and forth between the 'present' and a past where the Doctor may have locked Fenric away but its curse managed to live on. There's a wider world out there and this book just delights in showing it all to you.

I've yet to come across a Doctor Who TV novelisation that does as good a job as 'The Curse of Fenric' does (without even trying that hard). You probably need to enjoy Doctor Who to really get the most of it and if you're that into it, you've probably read the book already. But if you haven't, give it a go.