David Bishop (1) (1966–)

This is a Doctor Spin off novel featuring the Jon Pertwee incarnation and Sarah Jane Smith, set between the TV stories The Monster of Peladon and Planet of the Spiders, his swansong. It is set during a real historical incident, a great smog in London in December 1952 which for several days combined natural weather with the effluvia of thousands of coal fires to blanket the city in a choking smog. Several thousand excess deaths occurred, mostly among the very old and very young and those already vulnerable to breathing problems. Here the Doctor is already established in situ at the start of the novel as an East End watchmender ("Fixing Time"), with Sarah incongruously working as a barmaid in a dodgy club The Red Rooms. The main backdrop though is East End gang warfare, centred around Tommy Ramsey's gang, and indeed the first third of the novel was really a gangster story with almost no science fiction elements. But after a Friday noon confrontation between Tommy's and a rival gang, the latter's leader turns into a shape shifting alien. The Xhinn have come to Earth to conquer and absorb it into their empire, adding poisonous gas to the existing smog to wipe out more people, while also taking over the local police forces and using them to capture and kill the population under the guise of evacuating them due to the weather. There are some gruesome set piece scenes here and the Doctor and Sarah must work with Tommy Ramsey to defeat the aliens. Tommy is an interesting and quite an appealing rogue in some ways, despite also being a murderer and extortionist. There are one or two other interesting and rounded characters too, making this a very good and dramatic read.… (mere)

Content warning for suicide and murder (rather gruesome murder by Doctor Who standards)

London, December 1952. Tommy Ramsey has just served a six-month prison sentence and is looking forward to retaking control of his East End gang. But his group of racketeers, bookies and gangsters are no match for the alien threat that looms over London, weaponizing smog for its own ends… The Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith will have to help him out.

This was surprisingly grim and violent for a Doctor Who novel. Even for a novel about gangsters, I found some of the death scenes deeply disturbing. The atmosphere was grey and menacing, much like the smog choking London. This smog is an actual historical event: the Great Smog of 1952. I liked the use of this event to create a vivid Doctor Who story, and the use of a time not too far away from Sarah’s own illustrates just how much change can happen in only 20 years.… (mere)

When Sarah Jane Smith discovers a picture from 1952 of the Doctor shaking hands with an East End mob boss, the two travel back in time to investigate events. They arrive in a London on the eve of an environmental disaster and a neighborhood on the brink of a turf war. But who is organizing the homeless young men into a new gang? And how is it related to the American priest whose sermons are galvanizing the community against the sin in their midst?

Given the Doctor's propensity to become entangled in key moments of British history, it was probably inevitable that at some point he would make an appearance during the Great Smog of 1952, when thousands of Londoners died as a result of air pollution concentrated by weather conditions. And by thrusting the Third Doctor (one of my favorite incarnations) and Sarah Jane Smith (easily the all-time best companion) into a situation mixing gangsters and aliens into a historical event, the stage is set for a memorable adventure. Yet in the end it's a mixture that doesn't quite catalyze. Perhaps this is because of the mobsters, whose involvement often distracts from the activities of the Doctor and the main threat he is addressing. Or perhaps it is the aliens Bishop creates, which prove a curious combination of power and triteness. But in the end it's a novel that doesn't live up to expectations given the elements involved and wastes a prime historical moment in the process.… (mere)