‘Doctor Who: The Giggle’ – James Goss (BBC Books)


Page Count: 219 Pages

I’m pretty rubbish at staying all caught up with ‘Doctor Who’ on the TV; I can’t even remember when the David Tennant specials were aired but I finally managed to get round to watching them, on DVD, over Christmas and… I thought they were really good :o) This probably isn’t the post to go into that in too much detail but to cut a long story short, the specials resolved a lot of stuff with Donna and gave David Tennant’s Doctor the send off that he deserved. You can’t ask for a lot more than that really, can you?

Each of the stories had a lot going for it but ‘The Giggle’ was the one that really caught my attention so naturally, that was the first book I picked up when they were released. It felt like a good book to dive into yesterday, both for the commute and chipping away at the ol’ reading slump. After all, if it was anything like the TV special, I wouldn’t have any problem seeing it through to the end… Would I? There were no problems at all, I totally read the hell out of ‘The Giggle’. Let me tell you about it.

A sinister toyshop. The Earth erupting in violence. Shockwaves travelling through history.

With old friends powerless to help, the Doctor is drawn into a deadly duel against an old nemesis who can bend reality to his will – and change the Doctor’s future for ever…

This is a really difficult post to write as I really don’t want to give too much away about the book. I’d thoroughly recommend that you read ‘The Giggle’ but at the same time, you’re going to get the most out of it if you go in fresh (as it were). What can I say then…?

Well, first up, definitely give this book a go. I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun with, and was so captivated by, a ‘Doctor Who’ book. I mean, I usually do but never quite like this.

If you’ve been around these parts for a while, you’ll know that while I’ve got nothing against the old Target novelisations (I owe them a lot in fact), I much prefer the books that step beyond a simple retelling and give the reader something new. And that is exactly what James Goss does with ‘The Giggle’. While the plot is still the same, Goss comes at it from a new direction, giving us a tale that is familiar yet unsettlingly different all at the same time. I’m not just talking about content either, what Goss does with the structure of the book itself gives us fresh insight into the mind of the Toymaker while at the same time, encouraging you not to take your eye off the page just in case something happens. It couldn’t though… Could it? Some of it made my skin crawl, lets leave it at that.

‘The Giggle’ is an unsettling read for more than one reason then but at the same time, does all the good stuff that it did on the screen. I’ll say it again, if you enjoyed the TV special, you really need to pick up the book as well. Trust me.

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