This is the first story in a bigger collection, starring the First Doctor and his granddaughter Susan. The story was okay, but I didn’t find the find the writing to be that engaging or characters to have much depth, and for someone who hasn’t seen much Classic Who (and no episodes with the First Doctor), it didn’t feel like I had much to work with as far as visualising the scenes and getting a feel for the characters. The ending was alright, although it seemed like some things that lead up to it were forced for the sake of the ending… The whole losing his hand thing was a bit pointless, too. It could have not happened and the ending would have made the same amount of sense. I feel like this was a short story that just had too many small elements that were all fairly independent of each other, instead of helping to create a bigger picture… It just didn’t seem like good use of the limited page/word count. This story doesn’t start the collection off on a good start, but luckily it does get better from here. I really loved the concept of these short stories - building up to the fiftieth anniversary, a short story for each iteration of the Doctor, written by a different children's author. The collector in me had to wait for the set to be finished before I even embarked, and I was a bit dissapointed that the first was written by Colfer - having not particularly enjoyed the first of the Artemis Fowl series.This was good though, a nice little short story regarding the Doctor getting into a scrape and having to save humans, including his granddaughter. I suspect there were a few references I didn't get, having not really indulged in pre-comeback Doctor Who. There were several I did get though, and that always adds to the enjoyment.A strong start, and definitely an encouragement to read the remaining ten stories.
Do You like book A Big Hand For The Doctor (2013)?
I loved the story premise but it was to short a version to do it justice.
—Shynelle
As a stand alone novella, great. As a Doctor Who story, not so much.
—nola
really makes me want to watch the old doctor whos
—joy
