The Doctor and Ace arrive at a soggy British naval camp in 1943, into which the Time Lord confidently strides, not even attempting to conceal his presence. He mingles with the base's disturbed commander and the brilliant but paranoid Dr. Judson, creator of the Ultima code-breaking device. The Doctor and Ace later encounter a small platoon of Russian commandos who plan to steal Ultima - a move which has been anticipated. In the background lurks a devious ancient evil with whom the Doctor has an old score to settle - provided that the humans in the naval camp, merely pawns in a much more complex game, don't destroy their own world first.

Normally, I don't spend valuable disk space on a review of a novelization of something covered elsewhere on this site, and especially not on something from a series of novelizations which are considered rather lightweight - a reputation well-earned by the Target Books Doctor Who novels, which started life as a series of children's books. But Ian Briggs' novelization of his own complex script for The Curse Of Fenric, a brilliant story from the show's final season which is generally regarded as one of the two quintessential classics from Sylvester McCoy's brief reign as the Doctor, lends the already mature and tightly-plotted story even more layers of intrigue.

Every other chapter of the book diverts from the main thrust of the storyline as seen on TV in an interesting way, adding many layers of background information that help things along and add a completely different flavor to the story. These alternating chapters of new material make The Curse Of Fenric a novel, not a transcript (which so many of the Target novelizations really seem to be). They detail everything from the Doctor's untelevised first encounter with Fenric to Ace's thought process in the final scenes. If anything, it helps to read the book before watching even the extended home video version.

I've always liked The Curse Of Fenric, and most fans probably agree that the greater depth of storytelling and intelligence in this novelization as well as the printed version of Remembrance Of The Daleks, helped to build the template from which many wonderful New Adventures sprang. It's a surprisingly good work of truly original fiction.

Reviewed by Earl Green
theLogBook.com webmaster

• Year: 1990
• Author: Ian Briggs
• Genre: franchise science fiction

• Length: 188 pages
• Publisher: Target