33) The Doctor Who Storybook 2007, edited by Clayton Hickman
34) The Doctor Who Storybook 2008, edited by Clayton Hickman
Great fun for the Who fan of any age. Each of these features seven lavishly illustrated text stories and a comic strip, perhaps particularly aimed at the 9-13 age group; authors in both books include Gareth Roberts, Tom MacRae, Robert Shearman, Nicholas Briggs, Justin Richards and Jonathan Morris, with Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss in the 2007 volume and Paul Magrs and Nicholas Pegg in the 2008 one. The 2007 volume features Rose in all the stories, the 2008 volume has Martha in most of them.
The two best stories are the top and tail of the 2007 volume, by Gatiss and Moffat respectively. The first is a standard enough plot of the child central character getting involved in the Doctor’s adventure, but Gatiss has given Jason a convincing narrative voice in his diary. The other is a particularly creepy Moffat tale told ostensibly as an IM conversation, with a twist at the end which raises it to a higher level.
Two minor points that grated a little with both books. First, several of the stories, as noted above, feature a child getting involved with the Doctor for the duration of the story. The child is always a boy. I know that this is not invariably the case, as with Sally Sparrow from the 2006 book (which I haven’t otherwise read), and of course you have Martha or Rose as senior kickass females, but it just struck me. Second, the artwork is sometimes a little wobbly – particularly Billie Piper’s features seem difficult to capture. On the other hand Brian Williamson’s art is particularly good, as in this illustration from Robert Shearman’s 2007 story, “Untitled”.
Isn’t that brilliant? Note especially the past Doctors’ faces in the goo!
Here via James Nicoll:
Part of the problem, it seems immediately to me, is that there is no reason whatsoever why the votes should be tallied by someone drawn from a “small pool”. It shouldn’t be difficult to find someone willing to do it who is unattached to anyone involved, since tallying votes doesn’t require any knowledge of the books and stories being voted upon.
If, somehow, the entire population of Britain can supply no-one both competent and willing to tally a few votes on a volunteer basis, then offer a fifty quid fee to get it done. And/or invite interested parties to be scrutineers.
If you want your awards to mean anything or do anything, the voting process must not only be above-board, but must be seen to be honest.
In some situations, honesty means nothing unless it’s witnessed.