Trevor Baxendale’s Doctor Who: Fear of the Dark features the Fifth Doctor as portrayed by Peter Davison, Tegan Jovanka as portrayed by Janet Fielding, and Nyssa of Traken as portrayed by Sarah Sutton. The story takes place sometime during season 20 of the original run of Doctor Who based on references to the stories “Snakedance” and “Kinda.” In the story, the Doctor, Tegan, and Nyssa arrive on the moon of Akoshemon, a planet believed to be cursed. They find a rogue mining group there trying to find valuable ores in order to stake a claim before the Consortium uses its power to jump their claim. As they dig, they uncover an old evil created by scientists who used genetic modification in the search for a better method of suspended animation. Now the Doctor must help uncover the mystery and save the miners from the creature.

Baxendale’s portrayal of the Fifth Doctor and his companions honors their appearances in the show while also offering opportunities for character exploration. For example, Nyssa muses of the Doctor, “Sometimes she felt as though there was more to learn about life than could possibly be squeezed into just one lifetime. She envied the Doctor his seemingly limitless knowledge and experience, and had tried to learn as much from him as she could” (pg. 49). The Doctor himself continues to feel the effects of Adric’s death, weighing on his decisions as he and his companions face danger (pg. 233). The story is great for longtime fans as well as those who have only seen a few adventures starring the Doctor. This edition of Baxendale’s book came out for the fiftieth anniversary of Doctor Who, but it’s worth revisiting with the approaching sixtieth anniversary. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. Trevor’s portrayal of the 5th Doctor (Peter Davison), Nyssa and Tegan was spot on! It was like watching an episode in my mind.

This book gives me a whole new reason to be scared of the dark ( )

Warning: this review contains spoilers.

****

The Doctor, Tegan, and Nyssa confront an ancient evil on one of the moons of Akoshemon in this spine-tingling tale. This moon is reputed to have been a haven for depravity and corruption over many centuries, and a team of archaeologists is on hand to learn more about the civilizations that lived through such terrible times. But their presence on the moon reawakens that evil… that monster that all living creatures instinctively fear… The Dark.

Overall, I liked this story. The Dark is terrifying. Properly scary. And its sidekick, the Bloodhunter, is so disgusting and scary that I am glad it exists only in book form and not on television, otherwise I would have nightmares. This is also a high-stakes adventure for the Doctor, as Tegan and especially Nyssa are placed in significant danger and there seems less of a guarantee that everyone will come out alive. (We know that they all should, but this adventure comes shortly after Earthshock, in which Adric died, so another companion death is not out of the question.) Nyssa faces a great deal of peril because of her telepathic capabilities, which the Dark uses to lure them to Akoshemon's moon in the first place. She also gets to use her scientific brain and even fight on occasion. Tegan, meanwhile, never lets the Doctor deter her from getting involved in a fight. And the Doctor has met a catastrophic enemy in the Dark. The fact that we know he has future selves may detract from the suspense a little bit, but this adventure takes a great toll on him.

This story was originally published in 2003 and reprinted in a 50th Anniversary Collection, which was my edition. This publication spanned just over 300 pages -- I'm not sure how long the story was in its original edition, but this edition felt overlong. There were also puzzling spelling errors that seemed to suggest a slightly faulty OCR conversion.

I would recommend this book for those who like really creepy Doctor Who villains, with the caveat that it does run a bit long. ( )