Doctor Who: The Spear Of Destiny book review .
Puffin’s 50th Anniversary ebook range by “big-name writers” is turning out to be a series of underwhelming vignettes by YA authors you’ve probably never have heard of.
This story starts promisingly, as the Third Doctor and Jo come up against machine gun-toting museum guards, but goes a tad trad once they head to the second century to take a second crack at pinching the titular magical MacGuffin, this time from the Vikings.
Marcus Sedgwick nails Pertwee’s patrician speech patterns (it’s all “My dear” and “Old boy”), but other continuity points are obvious or unwelcome. You won’t need to know your Norse to guess the identity of a mystery antagonist, and the fact that a TARDIS function not mentioned until the Davison era ultimately saves the day feels oddly anachronistic.
Calvin Baxter
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