As a longterm Doctor Who fan who enjoyed Tom Baker's stories until the later ones which became rather hammy I was keen to read this. At first, it was interesting, and it was charming to see Harry Sullivan and Sarah Jane Smith accompanying the Doctor on a visit to a remote island with a beseiged community. Sinister scarecrows are stalking the island and, it seems, turning people into scarecrows like themselves. The story is told in a framing structure, where the Doctor is having to defend himself against the Time Lords accusations as he is on trial, something that cropped up a few times in the series and was here, I thought, a bit unnecessary and irritating.

In the second half of the book, where the Doctor confronts the force behind the happenings on the island, a thing that labels itself Scratchman (Old Scratch being a name for the Devil), things become rather more fantastical, taking place in a nightmarish world. I found this dragged a bit. There is a nod to the current Doctor who makes a couple of cameo appearances.

I believe the core of this story was an idea that Tom Baker and Ian Marter, who played Harry, had discussed in the 1970s as a possible film idea. The book is dedicated to Marter who died tragically young, though not to Elizabeth Sladen who also sadly died more recently. It appears to have been ghost written or maybe co-written with someone called James Goss. It is competently written but I found the whole fantasyland aspect rather over extended and it became a bit boring. The first half I could quite envisage being a Doctor Who story of the time. One irritation was the non grammatical use of 'sat' instead of 'sitting', as in "I was sat....".

One aspect that did not work for me was the omniscience of the Doctor who could describe in detail, including dialogue, what was happening to his companions when he wasn't present. This was necessitated by the clunky trial frame - if it had just been written in third person this would not have been necessary. I also don't think the first person narrative of the Doctor himself quite works: by necessity it can't be as alien as the Doctor really should be and makes him just seem human. So given these reservations, I can only award it an OK 2 stars. ( )

Reading this made me feel like Alice falling down the rabbit hole. Bizarre. Surreal. Far more wild and wacky than I was expecting, but who can fault the wild and wonderful imagination of Tom Baker? His sense of humour shines through? The theme of the book is fear, and this resonates by the end. I’m tempted to get the audio, just to hear this brought to life by the author/Doctor. ( )

I'm a bit disappointed that it's another "making dreams/fears real" kind of story. I'm kind of sick of those. A lot of this could've come from a Celestial Toymaker story with no changes. ( )

MEU DEUS DO CÉU, QUE LIVRO É ESSE???? O.O

QUE TROÇO DIVERTIDO!!!! ( )

A Doctor Who novel from the Fourth Doctor himself! (Well, with a little help from James Goss, apparently. Which is a good choice. He's definitely one of the best writers doing DW tie-ins these days.) Apparently this began life way back when Baker was filming the show, when he and Ian Marter, who played companion Harry Sullivan, started kicking around their own ideas for a script. Eventually he worked up a very rough version of a screenplay, which was considered for a movie version, but, of course, never actually made.

I am glad we finally got to see a version of it, though, because it's very enjoyable in novel form. The first half really feels like it would fit perfectly into that era of the show, with pitch-perfect characterization and just the right blend of scariness, silliness, and humor. I found it utterly delightful. The second half takes kind of an unexpected turn and gets downright surreal, which didn't work for me quite as well as the first part, but it was still imaginative and interesting, and entertaining in its own completely bonkers way.

I do recommend it for fans of Classic Who. ( )