Lights Out

"In the darkness, everything is different."

Writer: Holly Black

Format: Novella

Released: November 2014

Series: 12 Doctors, 12 Stories: 12

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor

Synopsis 

The Doctor is sucked into a murder investigation on the International Coffee Roasting Station, the most caffeinated place in the universe. A killer is on the loose; one who only emerges in the dark. Can the Doctor solve the mystery before the lights go out forever?

Verdict 

Lights Out was a pretty good ending to the fantastic gem of a collection that has been 12 Doctors, 12 Stories. As you can tell from the photos of each story's blog entry, I received the postcard edition of this set which pleased me greatly as I was always in favour of having each story with each Doctor as a separate copy rather than just one anthology as it was when originally released. Having its own little novella and story title to go along with the quite marvellous front covers of the books really does give each story its own identity and that was something that I strived for. I much prefer reading in a format like this rather than the assortment of Short Trips novels which have been scattered in small places across the blog. It has been a while since I've done one of those though I must say. The stories in this collection though were considerably longer and makes things a whole lot easier to blog because there's just so much more to talk about. I was rather disappointed that Clara did not make an appearance in the story as I was hoping for a fourth consecutive story with the latest TARDIS pairing. It's no coincidence that I read this story today as I mentioned in my blogging of The Dragon Lord yesterday that I had done every story there is, that I consider canonical, with the latest pairing until I suddenly remembered about this little story! That's the main reason for my disappointment in her not appearing but I can't blame Holly Black for not including her because I don't think she'd have fitted in to the story she wanted to tell. The story was told from the point of view of 'fifty-one', as the Doctor dubbed her, someone we found out to be a mixture of Ogron, Axon and Pyrovile. Quite the unexpected mix! That was a revelation I was not expecting, nor one I thought was fantastic either. The story itself was pretty good to be fair though I could have done without the constant references to coffee! Did I really read a Doctor Who story that was centred around coffee? Well, this wonderful show just keeps on springing up all kinds of surprises across the formats! There really are no limitations for the Doctor. I thought the characterisation of Peter Capaldi's Doctor was magnificent which really pleasing. It's a large part of why the story still receives a pretty good rating, even if I frown upon scores of less than 8/10. We had quite a few species get name-dropped which was excellent but whilst that pleases me greatly, it's not the sole basis of making a good story. However, reading the likes of Graske, Silurian, Blowfish, Vinvocci, Tereleptil and Plasmavore in a Twelfth Doctor story was superb. Quite the assembly of species there! I thought the concept of a murder every time the lights went out was fantastic and I liked how that was multiplied by 'Fifty-One' and her absolute fear of the dark. Her liking to space was a very apt description I must say. The character herself seemed likeable enough at the start when the story only featured her in the first chapter but I just found myself losing touch as the pages turned which was a real shame. The International Coffee Roasting Station seemed a bit of a far fetched setting it had to be said - and it was only the third best coffee in the universe! The Doctor having another motive for his presence on the station was majestic. The climax seemed a little rushed which was unnecessary as this was actually one of the shorter novellas from the collection. It could easily have been extended to provide a less ambiguous finish with the story's main character and the Doctor's escape. Overall though, a decent adventure but I do feel there was room for improvement. 

Rating: 7/10