Author: L.D. Lapinski

Originally published: November 2024

Read: April 2025

Context:I had this in the collection (i.e. my cupboard) and I wasn’t sure what to make of this one/had no plans to read them other than I would read them eventually in some distant point in the future, it being short and a puffin more child focused book. On the other hand due to the short story type of format, and it being a Puffin publication meant I could read this real quick, so before starting the next virgin new adventure I thought I would squeeze this one in before embarking on the final book of Timewyrm.

THE REVIEW

What I thought: I ended up enjoying this loads. I appreciate I am not the demographic this story is aimed at, so there isn’t much depth/complexity that i like best in my expanded Who reading, but this ended up being great fun. The 10th Doctor is captured really well and Charlie Darwin is great fun, him and the 10th Doctor are a great team. The Silurians are a little faceless but it’s good it doesn’t kick off in quite the way you would expect. Nice ending and it’s great to have a fairly small story that does have high stakes but is resolvable fairly easily by the 10th Doctor. Lovely stuff.

What I felt?.

Rating: 3.9 out of 5 evolutions – solid story, good fun, great writing and fun interactions with Darwin, 10 and the Silurian’s. Looking forward to reading the next one (13th Doctor and Frida) and I hope this line continues.

What am I left thinking?

• Who else will the doctor meet!?
• How do I get my head cannon around this story and BF 6th Doctors story Bloodtide….I don’t really care though, the more the merrier!

Memorable bits

• Darwin chancing upon the 10th doctor eating ice lollies on the Galápagos Islands (sitting in a stripey deckchair).
• The scale of the Silurians hibernation never ceases to amaze me