Doctor Who: The Crawling Terror: A Novel

The first set of Twelfth Doctor novels, released by BBC Books concurrently with Peter Capaldi's first season of TV stories, concludes with this novel of time-traveling bugs. The author is Mike Tucker, a name very familiar to long-time readers of the various BBC Books' Doctor Who lines, and to those who obsessively watched the end credits to Doctor Who serials in the late 1980s. Tucker (with co-author Robert Perry) penned several Seventh Doctor novels in the late 1990s, and has written several solo novels under the New Series Adventures banner since the New Series debuted. Prior to that, he worked as a visual effects person on the final years of the Classic Series run, which explains why this novel contains a reference to the 1989 TV story "The Curse of Fenric".When you name your novel "The Crawling Terror", that can mean only one thing: Bugs -- really big bugs! The TARDIS brings the 12th Doctor and Clara to a quintessential English village in the present day; we quickly learn that enormous genetically-engineered bugs have been terrorizing and enslaving the local populace. There's a time travel element as well, as the mad scientist responsible for these bugs is much older than he appears to be; soon, the Doctor and Clara are split up in time, and the Doctor finds out just what the bugs are doing on Earth.In keeping with the early understanding that Peter Capaldi's Doctor was going to be heavily influenced by Jon Pertwee's portrayal of the Third Doctor in the early 1970s, this book contains numerous homages and allusions to the Third Doctor's era; of the first three Twelfth Doctor novels, this one is easily the most Pertwee-esque. On page 17, Tucker even describes the Doctor in a way that's highly evocative of the writing of Terrance Dicks, #2 man on the show during the Pertwee years and the most prolific Doctor Who writer of them all.While "The Crawling Terror" is hardly life-changing fiction along the lines of something by Thomas Pynchon or Umberto Eco, it does exactly what it's supposed to do: tells a hard-charging science fiction story with lots of bugs, scares, chills, and knowing nods to "Doctor Who"'s very long past. In short, it's very traditional and reassuring, and will provide a quick, fun read.

Author Mike Tucker brings us an adventure with the 12th Doctor and Clara as the TARDIS lands in a small village of Ringstone. Pryor to the Doctor and Clara showing up several of the villagers went missing thanks to some externally large insects. But once the Doctor and Clara were on scene they start to find out that that the insects are from another planet and they are trying to form a beach head in the small village. Soon they find out that the the circle of stones near the edge of the town is a transmat and that a mad scientist who was at the original experiment seventy years ago is responsible. The Doctor and Clara team up with the local constable and several villagers, one who was there during WWII when the original experiment took place and attempt to stop the scientist from using the German version of the key to the transmat. This is a great book and one that reminds me of the fourth series two-prater with the Sontaran's. I highly recommend it to all Doctor Who fans.

I can imagine that this book was difficult to write, especially when the author doesn't have the resources of the new season show the story is based off of that has detailed information on how the main character has been renewed. Yet when I read this story, I could almost hear Peter Capaldie's voice when I read the Doctor's dialogue. The plot was and conclusion was perfect for the new ways of the 12th Doctor. Mr. Tucker also got the character of Clara Oswald perfect, and the development of the other characters in his book was stunningly impressive. They were all fun to read about, and it felt like you knew them to some extent. I look forward to seeing this author writing for the 12th Doctor as Doctor Who books continue to be written.

This is not a bad book particularly if you are a fan of the monsters and a well thought out plot. The reason I did not rate it any higher is because it is character light regarding the Doctor and Clara, who is hardly present during a good part of the book. I am not sure how much of a character outline the author had while writing this but this is a pretty generic Doctor; only 150 pages in does the Doctor sound like the Twelfth. The sonic screwdriver falls into the wrong hands and he calls it an 'idiot detector' to the man holding it. Now, that's the Doctor we have come to know and love. If you are a fan of the give and take between the Twelfth Doctor and Clara, this is not the book for you, as there is none. If you prefer a more monster dominated plot, you will enjoy this.

This was a great Dr Who take it captured the quirkiness of both the Doctor and Clara. The cool thing to me is that Center of the story "the bell" was based on real world war 2 Nazi research in there hunt for a super weapon even though it is used for something else in the story. This story was well developed and very interesting. Tucker in my opinion really captured the series and has written a whomping good yarn it is a page turner. I really enjoyed this story and would read more stories by this author. If you like Dr Who you will like this story.

It does approximate a Dr. Who episode,you know, a pretty good one, not a classic. Monster bugs, interplanetary portals, Nazi experiments, has a little bit of everything. Have to say that Clara doesn't have much to do, and I was a bit worried early in the book, it seemed too take a while to get everything together. But it tied up things nicely in the end, could have used a bit more in depth characterization though.

The Doctor and Clara arrive in a village swarming with giant insects! After a slow start, this story moves at a brisk pace. I felt like I was watching an actual episode of Doctor Who while reading this. This is your basic Doctor Who adventure through and through. Instead of a base under siege, it's an entire town.This is my first DW book featuring Clara and the latest version of the Doctor.

A good idea. I found this to be the weakest of the first 3 12th Dr stories. Some editing complaints but a nice Incorporation of the English village setting. Lots of thrills and a great monster.

i liked the story, but there were several pages in the book that were so faded that I couldn't actually read them so missed a page or two that were really bad and another 1 or 2 that were not the best quality...

A very good Doctor Who story. Very true to my Doctor Who experiences. And a lot fun. Giant insects? Awesome!

J'adore Mike Tucker, et cette histoire est merveilleuse. On frémit avec les personnages au fur et à mesure que le récit avance et on est plongé dans le suspens ! Que demander de plus?