Cats and Dogs

"My cat started talking to me."

Writer: Tom MacRae

Format: Short Story

Released: August 2007

Printed in: Doctor Who Storybook 2008

Featuring: Tenth Doctor

Synopsis

When a cat owner is startled to find their feline friend talking to them, it opens up a whole ordeal between talking and psychic cats and dogs. War-like species are ready to wage battle on a new planet in their unlikely new bodies...

Verdict

Cats and Dogs was a pretty decent little story to kick off my reading of the 2008 Doctor Who Storybook, but it was let down by quite a serious continuity error which really impacted my enjoyment of the story at the end. It's a shame as whilst I must admit that the title of this adventure didn't have me too excited, it was turning into a pretty decent tale! Having a Doctor Who take on the eternal and humorous battle between cats and dogs is pretty fun and definitely worked on this small scale kind of story, but I must admit it isn't something I would like to see in any longer or more mainstream format. I was also a little surprised that the first story in this collection was a solo outing for the Tenth Doctor. I was almost half expecting the narrator to be Martha until the illustration of the hands holding the note to self and sonic screwdriver were hairy, white, and quite clearly male. It still took me by surprise that it turned out to be the Doctor! It made sense for storyline purposes and the explanation was strong regarding his involvement in delivering a verdict on whether Species 7 and Species 29 could return to inhabiting physical bodies. It's just such a shame that Biggles the cat didn't recognise its owner considering the research on the computer literally showed the Doctor as being the Tenth! That's such a glaring error and the illustrator has got it massively wrong. Judging from the Doctor's explanation and recap of the regeneration events in The Parting of the Ways, the image on the computer really ought to have shown the Ninth Doctor. That would have been much better but instead it just didn't make much sense for Biggles to not react when seeing its owner when searching for the Doctor on the internet! I couldn't get past that to be honest and that's a big reason why the story rating drops considerably for me. If that didn't happen, I think it would be much higher. The illustration quality itself was excellent which makes it even more annoying as they certainly add to the text. It's not an ordinary prose adventure and that really helps. I thought the humour in Biggles talking with Sampson was good and it soon turned from just ordinary cat and dog matters to raging war and how glorious it was. It was all very Sontaran and Rutan like with them which was fun. It was a little to take seriously though thinking that cats and dogs were just speaking in English! They were almost a little too descriptive and full in conversation for my liking. The theme of the two weeks was good and explained a lot as we delved into the story more. The narrator having a note to self and it containing the words 'you are the Doctor' was fun stuff and I liked how he knew when it was time. It just was. It was akin to Human Nature in that regard but not quite going to the species level, just memories. It was a fun plan of the Doctor to essentially put in a trial to test whether Species 7 and Species 29 had good intentions or if they would abolish the peace and return to war. The Doctor had his answer and the Ageless arrived to see them return to their non-physical form and maintain the peace. Overall, a decent tale but a glaring continuity error in the illustrations really hurts it.

Rating: 6/10