As the final Twelfth Doctor novel in my queue from the September 9th publication, I finally got around to The Crawling Terror by Mike Tucker. There was no real method to the order I read them, I just picked them pretty much at random according to my mood when I read the description. This happened to be the third one I got to. Like the other three, I received this galley from Blogging for Books by way of Edelweiss in exchange for a fair review. It is now time for my standard Doctor Who review disclaimer: I write this review under the assumption that the reader is a fan, or at least familiar with the current Doctor Who TV series. If not, I suggest stopping here, this review will mean nothing to you and the books will be lost on you as well. If you wish to read my reviews of the other two Doctor Who novels released along side this one, See my review of Doctor Who: The Blood Cell, and Doctor Who: Silhouette.
The TARDIS brings our two (current) favorite time travelers to quiet English town. As any Who fan would expect, it does not stay a quiet little town for long. The town begins swarming with giant insects, bug of unusual size, if you will. The village becomes cut off and isolated, so it it up to the Doctor to get through this. As the body count rises, the Doctor investigates the insects, uncovers covert WWII experiments and an ominous stone circle as he tries to discern if the events are otherworldly, supernatural, or the result of human tampering.
Crawling Terror, more than some of the others, gave me a very familiar “Who” feeling. Oddly enough, I did not feel that out of the three, this necessarily captured Capaldi’s Doctor the best of the simultaneous releases, but it did not do a bad job either. It read as though it could be a script for a really good episode. It actually felt a lot like the episodes “The Poison Sky” or “Partners in Crime.” For lovers of the 2005-present Who, this novel will certainly remind you of the show you know and love. The reason I do not feel this took Twelve’s personality is that the Doctor did not seem as detached and obliviously inconsiderate as Capaldi’s portrayal. He is more of a curious detective in this book a la Tennant’s Tenth or even Eccelston’s Ninth Doctor, as opposed to the grumpy, unintentionally callous old bastard he has become. I do not mean this as a negative criticism though. As I said in previous reviews, when these novels were released, we barely had a feel for the new Doctor. On top of that, I can understand the author writing the character with his great memories of Doctor in general.
I gave this story 4/5 stars. It was a really good Doctor Who story, that could plausibly be a really good episode. It is a great read for any fan. If you are looking for a fix in between seasons, I can’t imagine being disappointed with Mike Tucker’s The Crawling Terror.