The Wonderful Doctor of Oz

"There's a lot of times you dream of going over the rainbow."

Writer: Jacqueline Rayner

Format: Novel

Released: June 2021

Series: NSA 67

Featuring: Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan, Graham, K9

Synopsis

When a sudden tornado engulfs the TARDIS, the Thirteenth Doctor and her fam find themselves transported to the magical land of Oz. With a damaged TARDIS and an unexpected stowaway from the 1930s, their only hope of getting home is to follow the yellow brick road.

But when an army of scarecrows ambushes them, they quickly realise that everything is not as it should be and are thrown into a fight for survival against an unknown foe. As each of her companions becomes a shadow of their former selves, only the Doctor is left standing.

Desperate to save her friends, she must embark on a perilous journey to seek help from the mysterious Wizard of Oz – and stop whatever forces are at work before she and her friends are trapped in the fictional world forever.

Verdict

The Wonderful Doctor of Oz was an outstanding novel! This is such a barmy and brilliant book and to be honest I wouldn't expect anything less from the ingredients of Doctor Who crossing over with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and having Jacqueline Rayner as the author. This is definitely my favourite Thirteenth Doctor novel so far which is testament to the quality of this novel as it's a strong collection that it joins from this era. The very idea of a literary crossover is great and whilst, to the best of my knowledge, I have never read nor watched The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, I feel that its stature in society gave me enough knowledge going in that reading that classic wasn't a prerequisite. Even if somebody had no knowledge of the famed tale, I thought Rayner did a fine job in catching the reader up with events in the fictional land of Oz. We even had some extracts from the book itself which were good and very helpful. I liked that its author Baum featured as a character and him actually ending up being the one in the role of the Master of the Land of Fiction was terrific. I suspected before reading that this location was where things would take us and it actually took longer than I expected for that to be confirmed. Still, the moment it was revealed was a real treat and just one of a number of nods back to the past. We had appearances from the likes of Chumblies filling in the role of the Muchkins which was really fun, and then there were also Cybermen and Cybermats when we got to the tin man section. Everything being a plan to make the Doctor less of what she actually was by taking her brain, heart and courage was quite horrific when you stop and think about it, and whilst it doesn't seem so twisted when it plays out in the realm of Oz, the fact that each of the fam suffered one of those fates was an excellent plot development. The humour that came from Graham being brainless was delightful, but it was a stark contrast to see Ryan without a heart and Yaz without her courage. They were almost unrecognisable as companions! Speaking of companions, the addition and return of K9 to the adventure was an unexpected treat and he really did fit in well. The humour that comes from his literal nature was as terrific as ever and it was lovely to have the image of him trundling along beside the fam and the Thirteenth Doctor. Theodore was also a good character to stowaway the TARDIS and I liked that he came from a timeline where The Wonderful Wizard of Oz had never been written. That sparking a trap for the Doctor and fam was great and I liked how he was an avid reader. He would get on really well with the Doctor in that case. I didn't think he would be that good but with the fates of three companions, he was a good sense of normal and I liked how he had a clear perspective with no knowledge of the film or book whose land they were within. The Emerald City was a very fun element of crossover with so much green from Doctor Who's past featuring, from the likes of Slitheen and Tereleptils to Silurians and the Absorbaloff! Terrific stuff. Of course, the cover makes it clear that Missy returns here and the whole idea of her encountering the Thirteenth Doctor was incredibly exciting. The way her arrival was teased was great and then I loved how the tree mines and the insects were used to make us suspect that the Witch was actually the Rani. But of course it was Missy! She actually only stuck around for seventeen pages, but that interaction with the Thirteenth Doctor was tremendous. I really loved how she accused her best enemy of copying her. That made me chuckle. Rayner's characterisation of the female incarnation of the Master was a sheer joy to read and her position as Mistress of the Land of Fiction was so much fun. She worked hard to take over but it was already collapsing. I liked the simplicity of Theodore becoming SuperTheo and smashing the hour glass to end up giving the companions their brain, heart and courage back, with us then having a heartfelt ending as Theodore offered himself to take over the Land of Fiction and rewrite himself as Dorothy. He was genetically male, but a female on the inside and now he could match both inside and out which was really nice. The comments from the Doctor and Missy about previously being male were used really cleverly for that unexpected ending. Overall, a truly wonderful read!

Rating: 10/10