‘Doctor Who: Empire of Death’ – Scott Handcock (BBC Books/Target)

 

Page Count: 234 Pages

My mental health hasn’t been in the best place just recently and on Tuesday, I agreed with my doctor that the best thing to do was for her to sign me off work for a fortnight; give me a chance to ‘reset’ a little and come back in a better state to actually be able to do my job. I don’t think I moved from the comfy chair for most of yesterday, just sat there and let the TV massage my eyeballs with some classic ‘Doctor Who’ and some films that I can barely remember. Lets just say that you’re more likely to get a post on the ‘Doctor Who’ serials than the movies (the only thing that I can remember about the movies is that ‘Night of the Reaper’ was rushed but was fun to watch).

It was just what I needed but it did come at the expense of not finishing any of the books that I’ve got on the go (and that’s ok). So… I took a very quick trip to the HBR (Has Been Read) pile and that’s why we’re talking about ‘Empire of Death’ today. This is going to be a quicker post than normal. I’ll be honest, I’m feeling pretty fragile but I enjoy posting here so I’m going to try and strike a balance between doing something that cheers me up but not overdoing it.

Lets go.

What secret is the TARDIS hiding?

Enlisting UNIT in their search for an enigmatic woman who appears all throughout time and space, the Doctor and Ruby uncover deeper mysteries. What is the secret of Susan Triad? What happened on the night that Ruby was born? The answers lead the Doctor and Ruby to a horrifying confrontation with the greatest evil of all...

I don’t have a TV license, through choice, so I wasn’t able to watch the ‘15th Doctor’ stories as they aired. That may change in the future, Prime Video and all that, but for now, I’ve started working through the Target novelizations and while ‘Empire of Death’ isn’t the best place to jump on board, it features the return of a pretty big villain so that was enough for me.

What I enjoy about the recent Target novelizations is when the author decides to step beyond the confines of the story, as broadcast, and flesh out the plot and/or the world around it. There’s nothing wrong with retelling a tale but I love to jump into the detail and really feel like I’m a part of that world. Not having seen ‘Empire of Death’, I can’t comment too much here but it really feels like Handcock has really put the hours in with added flourishes around added characterization and plot. There’s stuff happening here that I suspect would have only been hinted at in the TV serial (i.e. Sutekh’s Empire of Death expanding across the universe) and that’s exactly what I turned up for. That and some exploration of the 15th Doctor as a character in his own right, especially as I’ve seen very little of him at this point. It’s a good introduction to a Doctor who is as brave as ever but perhaps a little more emotionally aware than a few of his earlier incarnations.

I’ll admit that I struggled with certain, more chaotic scenes, where it was difficult to keep up with who was positioned where. I wouldn’t let that put you off though as the state of me at the moment, that could just as easily be down to my reading as it is Handcock’s writing. ‘The Empire of Death’ is an engaging read that really grounds you in the setting; that’s all I’m after from my reading right now so I was more than happy with it being delivered here.