Scratchman

"You need to understand fear."

Writers: Tom Baker & James Goss
Format: Novel
Released: January 2019
Series: BBC Books Specials 06

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane, Harry

Synopsis

"We're not really here for a picnic, are we, Doctor?" asked Sarah.
"No," I agreed. "Something's brought the TARDIS here."
"Something good? Something evil?" She paused, and sighed.
"It's going to be something evil, isn't it?"

The Doctor, Harry and Sarah Jane Smith arrive in a quiet Scottish village, but their holiday is cut short by the appearance of strange creatures – living scarecrows who terrify the local population. The scarecrows are the work of the sinister Scratchman, a cosmic force that enslaves planets and turns them into nightmare worlds – and he has set a series of traps for the Doctor, to get inside the Time Lord's head.

What is the Doctor most afraid of? If Scratchman can learn that, then no force in creation can stop him. The fate of the universe hangs in the balance. And the Doctor's worst nightmares are coming out to play...

Verdict

Scratchman was an excellent novel and a real treat to celebrate finishing my second semester of my Masters! Hurrah, the end is certainly in sight now as I have the summer to do my dissertation and barring some holidays away to Edinburgh and Budapest, the blogging should increase a great deal now and it's something I'm very excited about. I'm not usually a fan of stories in the first person, but when Tom Baker is the author I couldn't help but enjoy it! Having a novel from the perspective of the Doctor was terrific and one thing that really shone through was his love and admiration of his companions. That was just marvellous and it was lovely to read. The plot was sublime and I really liked the split between books with the first concerning the quiet Scottish village and the swarming of Scarecrows. They have obviously been used before in Human Nature/The Family of Blood but as this is based on a movie idea from the 70s, I guess this technically pre-dates that. The horror style of this book was tremendous and I loved how scary the Scarecrows were able to be made. I was very impressed. The village siege was fantastic and the church being the base of defence was very good. Mrs Tulloch was a humorous character due to her self-centred nature but my favourite character of the villagers was certainly Sophonisba. Her return in the Land of the Dead was an emotional moment when the Doctor confirmed that she and the rest of the village population were dead. The Doctor fighting with himself that he was not responsible for their deaths was emotional to read but I do wish they got rid of the line where the Doctor stated he was never too late. Clearly that was not the case here. The ending of book one with Sarah and Harry becoming scarecrows and being taken into the realm of Scratchman was outstanding. It really was fantastic. The story being told as the Doctor's defence for putting the universe in incredible danger by going to the Land of the Dead was just superb and the way he toyed with his fellow Time Lords in making them care about the villagers and his companions was magnificent. They went from wanting to wipe out the Earth to save the universe to feeling shocked that the Doctor left the villagers and companions to die. He knew he'd won the battle from that point on. The Doctor's taxi ride to meeting Scratchman was terrific and I liked the referencing of the three previous incarnations of the Doctor having also taken the ride. It was quite humorous. Despite only being minimal and an unexpected arrival at the end of book one, the Cybermen's role in this book was actually marvellous! They were the ones that had offered Scratchman a way into this domain as they were given the scarecrows as a means of turning everything into Cybermen very quickly. I thought that was great. Scratchman feeding off dreams was good and his desire to know the Doctor's fear was fantastic. The Doctor wouldn't give it to him in the form he'd expected. I loved that the Cyber Leader had to hep the Doctor and his companions in a way he was experiencing his greatest fear. Harry was splendid throughout the book with the Doctor's thoughts on his utter determination to follow the rules really great. The moments in the giant pinball game were quite something with the images of the neon wording. Sarah Jane being in the TARDIS and seeing the jigsaw room and some preview of her future, in things we would come to see in The Sarah Jane Adventures was marvellous and I liked that she got a little note in at the end. The way the Doctor defeated Scratchman was not too surprising but it worked excellently. He showed him all of his biggest fears and targeted them at Scratchman, draining his resources and seeing him become nothing. It was highly efficient. The cameo appearance of the Thirteenth Doctor at the end as she was revealed to be the nameless woman we had previously met in the story was an unexpected but delightful treat. Overall, an excellent book!

Rating: 9/10