What? I'm not late again, what are you talking about...
This month I'll be reviewing the Target novel of Peter Capaldi's final story as the Twelfth Doctor, "Twice Upon a Time" written by Paul Cornell. As always, there will be spoilers, so if you haven't seen the episode, then... What are you doing here?
Summary:
It's exactly the same as the televised episode, if you haven't watched it, again, what are you doing here?
Review:
Boy oh boy, let me tell you when I say this book made me cry.
I mean, seriously, watching the episode was hard enough, reading about it at 1 in the morning while also watching Star Trek: Voyager was HEARTBREAKING.
It was fantastically written, there were enough comedic aspects in the book to make me forget that 12 dies at the end and is replaced by the most poorly written Doctor we've had since Colin Baker, and they slapped every time. My personal favorites were on page when the Twelfth Doctor talks about why he doesn't want the First Doctor to see his browser history, and on page when Bill makes the point that she, too, has experience with the "fairer sex".
I also liked being able to get inside the Twelfth Doctor's head, both so we can get a better understanding of his fear and hesitation to regenerate, but also to see his revulsion to the First Doctor's sexist attitudes.
Reading certain parts of this novel (ie. The Doctor remembering Clara, the regeneration speech, 13 blowing up the TARDIS for no reason) were really heard to get through because of the weight that Cornell was able to bring with each word. During the regeneration speech in particular, while we're probably used to seeing those scenes from an outside perspective, those few lines when we can see inside the Doctor's head while he's saying goodbye to himself just makes me want to curl into a ball and wish I had never found this show in the first place (in a good way).
I'll give this novel a 8/10 TARDISes, just because I've read better Target Novels (looking at you, Day of the Doctor by Steven Moffat). However, this is going into my top three Target Novels, along with 1. Day of the Doctor and 2. The Christmas Invasion by Jenny T. Colgan (which I've also done a review of, in case you missed it). One day I'll muster the strength to review DOTD, but for now I am left weakened by this novel.
Thanks Paul Cornell :)))