The Moon Cruise

"Everything you enjoy, they want obliterated."

Writer: Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson

Format: Novel

Released: November 2025

Series: NSA 71

Featuring: Fifteenth Doctor, Belinda

Synopsis

Step right up for the most sensational cruise in the galaxy!

The TARDIS lands on board a luxury space liner owned by the interstellar shipping magnate, Marilyn Moon. The Moon Cruise offers its wealthy passengers up-close views of astounding cosmic wonders and the Doctor and Belinda are soon high rolling it on the top deck.

But there is a sinister side to life on board. What is the secret of the smiling, blonde-haired mannequins? What happens to the cruise ship workers when they go off shift? The Doctor soon learns that not all prisons come with bars on the windows, while Belinda faces one of the greatest cruelties in the universe – a zero-pay contract in retail and hospitality that can never be broken...

Verdict

The Moon Cruise was an excellent novel! This is the last original novel currently published and whilst it has taken me much longer than I would have liked to get around to it, better late than never! I'm keeping up with the adventures of the Fifteenth Doctor as well as I can and I don't think there's much at all left now other than the ongoing Corruption of the Daleks and The Prison Paradox which has not yet been released in collected form. I've always wanted to stay up to date with the current era but is that even true anymore? It is a little strange to think of where Doctor Who is at the moment because we don't know who the current Doctor is and there's intense speculation on its future. Will the Christmas Special even happen this year? The lack of noise around it feels unfortunate but I hope that whenever it does come back to screens, it gets done right and with a clear plan. That didn't feel like the case in the latest series but thankfully this novel just slots in nicely after The Well. Belinda as a companion that doesn't really want to be one is a fun dynamic because she's a lovely person but that attitude is so counteractive to the Fifteenth Doctor's bubbly and exuberant personality. That was presented really well in this book and I must give kudos to the author for absolutely nailing the characterisation of both the Doctor and Belinda. That was tremendous and really gave the book some feeling of authenticity for the era. No complaints at all in that regard. I thought the setting the Moon Cruise was pretty excellent and I love that it certainly had vibes of Mummy on the Orient Express and Voyage of the Damned, but it felt so much bigger. It was really great to explore that setting and the way Belinda and the Doctor were thrown into action almost immediately was great stuff. When everything seemed like perfect relaxation, I thought it was good that the conversation between Jax and Vanessa showed that not everything was as it seemed. Far from it in fact! I thought the presence of Marilyn Moon was really well done and she became a sublime villain despite only actually physically appearing for the last fifty or so pages. She was a woman rich beyond anyone's comprehension and her use of the memory eraser was very strong. That's such a good weapon and being in the twenty-sixth century makes technology like that seem viable. The works on the Moon Cruise all being criminals serving a sentence that was done forcibly and the mind control to serve Marilyn was pretty brutal. Also the scale of sentence extensions for violations was incredible! No wonder nobody ever got off. I thought there were a few random and fun moments in the story as Belinda worked her way through the ship evading mushrooms and centipedes, but it just highlighted the scale and depth of the Moon Cruise. The Doctor befriending Jax was great even after she placed the bracelet on Belinda which forced her to take up a job as a shop assistant. She really did just want to go home. I thought the mannequins being copies of Marilyn Moon was fun stuff and I was half expecting them to be Autons at one point! The moment they were all revealed to be copies of Marilyn based on a real life copy herself was pretty disturbing. The extent to which Marilyn was undergoing any means necessary to stay in control and literally on top of the financial world was horrifying and that made her a phenomenal villain. I actually listed to the Power of 3 podcast episode for this novel between finishing the book and writing this block and I was intrigued to find that this was initially envisioned as a graphic novel! That would have been spectacular as the visuals here were striking. I thought the ending with Marilyn firing the memory eraser and it reflecting back to herself off Belinda's bracelet thus freeing it was pretty neat stuff and rounded things out very nicely. Vanessa and Jax taking it upon themselves to take over things and broadcast to the cruise and beyond was a lovely touch and I would love to revisit them! They made for a great pairing who are definitely companion material. Overall, an excellent read! 

Rating: 9/10