This was a really great book! I love the idea of a planet out there inhabited with dogs ( )

With every new season of Doctor Who comes a new set of tie-in novels featuring the current Doctor. As season 11, the first season to feature Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor, just recently premiered, it's time for the tie-in books to be released. The first of these, The Good Doctor, was released October 26 and was written by the New-to-Who author, Juno Dawson. It's a novel that explores the impact the Doctor's visits can have on a world and how religions might spring forth from them. It's a pretty darn good book.

I love the idea of the Doctor inadvertently being the central figure of a religion. It only makes sense that someone who gets involved in the affairs of so many different civilizations would end up being a part of a religion or two. Former showrunner, Steven Moffat, briefly flirted with this idea during the Matt Smith Era (as it's hinted that the Doctor has become a legendary, mythological figure in lots of cultures and also basically ended up being a central figure in the creation of the Church of the Silence - a church literally created to make sure he never says his name to the Time Lords on Trenzalore), but there's never really been any meaningful exploration of the idea - in New-Who, at least - until now. Juno Dawson's novel is a remarkable exploration of how the Doctor's actions could influence a society to create a religion based around her, and then for that religion to get several facets of the Doctor completely wrong. I don't want to go into any real detail as to just how this religion gets these facets of the Doctor wrong, but let's just say that they get a lot of it pretty majorly wrong and that ends up fueling much of the conflict of the book.

The other major part of the book is a pretty typical Doctor Who plotline where there are two groups of people with differing ideologies for how their society should be run fighting against each other and the Doctor has to step in and sort it all out. The Temple, the main religious rulers who were inspired by the Doctor's acts on the planet six hundred years earlier, is in charge and rule with a pretty big authoritarian fist while an underground group of rebels, made up of Lobos (anthropomorphic dog-like beings) and humans who don't agree with the Temple's rules, are plotting ways to take down the Temple and give equality to all beings of the planet. Naturally, the Doctor, Ryan, and Graham end up getting captured by the Temple while Yaz is captured by the rebels and this separation of our core group is what ultimately brings these two warring sides together in a climactic clash.

Juno Dawson does a remarkable job at capturing the feel of Jodie Whittaker's Doctor and this new era of Doctor Who. This whole story feels like an episode we could see in this season and the Doctor and the companions all sound and feel exactly like they do in the series. Dawson perfectly captures and replicates the voices of the characters while also exploring and developing them some. We get a glimpse in this novel at how much Graham does care about Yaz, something we haven't really seen in the show as of yet. We get a sense that the four of them have been traveling for a while, so it's likely set some time after Arachnids in the UK. The novel trods along at a nice pace, never dawdling too much but also spending a good amount of time on each scene and allowing the story the room to breathe sometimes.

I love the idea of the Doctor influencing a planet so much that they develop a religion around her. I love the idea of that planet's religion getting much of the Doctor fundamentally wrong. I love how Dawson explores this idea. I love how this horrible religion based around the Doctor has ended up being a terrible thing for many of the inhabitants of the planet. I love how the Doctor reacts to this religion and how it propels her through the novel to set things right. So much of this book was definitely great. My one complaint would be its length. I wish it was longer and had a bit more time to explore the Doctor's relationship to religion and show us more of how the idea of her being the central figure of a religion actually impacts her on an emotional level. That's a very small complaint, though, as these novels aren't designed to be all that long and the authors who write them just don't have the room in the novels to explore themes like this as much as I'd like. For what it's meant to be, this novel is great. It explores this central idea in a really interesting and impactful way. It captures the spirit of this new Doctor and her companions perfectly and it gives the audience a new, interesting story that feels right at home with what they're watching on TV. It's great reading for anyone who loves this new Doctor!

4.5 out of 5 wands ( )

After the Doctor brokers a peace on the planet Lobos between the dog-like Lobans and human colonists, Team TARDS sets course for Earth . . . only to have to return when Ryan realizes that he has left his phone behind accidentally. When the TARDIS materializes, however, they find that they are off by six centuries — and that, in their absence, a religion has emerged that is centered around "the Good Doctor" and is used to justify misogyny and the enslavement of the Lobans. With Yaz arrested and Graham mistaken for the returned Doctor, the real one must get to the bottom of this before a new war breaks out that would lead to the deaths of thousands.

While I have read quite a few Doctor Who franchise novels over the past several months, this is the first one that I have read that is centered around one of the post-revival regenerations. Not only that, but it is one that involves the newest Doctor and her companions, a quartet that I have enjoyed but which I haven't formed a definite impression of in my mind. This may have helped me to enjoy the book more, as I was gauging the characters less by their on-screen portrayal and more by what the author provided. And Dawson's plot and characters combine to make for an entertaining novel with some interesting things to say about religion and gender politics. It's definitely a lot more fast-paced than the other Doctor Who novels that I've read, perhaps reflecting to a degree the more frenetic pacing of the post-revival show. This had both its strengths and weaknesses, but it never detracted from my ability to enjoy Dawson's rollicking adventure. ( )

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3201056.html

It's really rather good - the story starts at the end of an adventure, following which the Doctor and friends return to the same planet centuries later, to discover that their first visit has become the founding myth of the dominant oppressive religious cult, with Graham remembered as the Doctor, the Doctor herself largely forgotten, and their own past used to justify slavery. It is very well done and packs a lot of action and thought into 227 pages. Recommended. ( )

Juno Dawson’s Doctor Who: The Good Doctor focuses on the Thirteenth Doctor, Yasmin, Ryan, and Graham visiting the planet Lobos, where the native Loba (anthropomorphic dogs) and human colonists are at war. The Doctor works to bring the leaders of the two sides together, confronting them with the destruction from their war. She says, “No one ever wins at war. Not really” (pg. 9). After appearing to set things in motion for a lasting peace, the Doctor and her companions depart. They return when they realize Ryan forgot his phone, only to find that six hundred years have passed. The humans created a temple to worship the Good Doctor, who they depict as Graham. The human leaders keep the Loba in place as a permanent underclass and ascribe all sin to women. They hide behind their religious proclamations while working to maintain slavery and institutionalized misogyny. Dawson perfectly captures the effort required for people to maintain such a system when one of the Loba says to Yaz, “As children we haven’t yet learned who we’re supposed to hate” (pg. 125). As a Doctor Who novel, this displays the type of humanistic plot one expects of good Doctor Who with plenty of exciting sequences, made all the more possible since it’s not constricted by a television budget. ( )