Written by: Jacqueline Rayner
BBC Books
£9.99
The latest Doctor Who books featuring the 10th Doctor and Martha Jones. As these can be read in any order The Last Dodo was the first book read in the 3 book series. This book was written a little differently from its predecessors as it’s partially in first person, or written as Martha’s journal. It gives us a more in depth look at Martha’s personality and her feelings towards the Doctor which mostly seem confused.
It starts out with the Doctor asking Martha where she would like to go and Martha getting overwhelmed with where and when to pick. She does what a lot of us would do in the same situation and picks something she knows. The Zoo. Well, the doctor who is one to go just about anywhere takes a bit of offence to this but in the end they end up at a Museum of the Last Ones. A museum of every last species in the universe run by a mad person by the (apt) name of Eve. No bars hold these animals no fences just a presplex field holding them forever in a frozen moment.
To date this is by far my favourite of the new Doctor Who books – I’ve not read more than one of the previous books. Not only is it light and very much a young adults book (I won’t label it as a kids book, as most are geared toward a younger audience but they never say actual age) it does look into the darker side of the Doctor and Jacqueline manages to find that fine line between friend and possible love interest with Martha’s character. We’ve seen a bit too much of a would be (through Martha’s eyes) relationship between the two and it is nice to see a way of having it done that doesn’t come off as a soap. An interesting and different take on the nearly-Doctor Jones, this is a fun, idea heavy look at the Doctor’s world through slightly different eyes.
Sabrina Peyton- Newly migrated to the UK to be with her husband. After working for Diamond Comics for a short time she ended up immersed in a few comic book forums and ended up moderating two of the largest, the Warren Ellis Forum (WEF) and Mark Millar’s forum Millarworld).
She’s written for Sequential Tart, The Vampirella Magazine, and is Editor in Chief of Fractal Matter.