Doctor Who: New Series Adventures - The Deviant Strain Review

Round two for Justin Richards and had high expectations.

His previous work is currently the bar for quality in regards to this series so far and banking on him repeating his former success would be a casual thing to do.

Instantly the cold opening sets off a recognisable tone, with the sense of danger creeping around the corner of every page. The idea to place a tense thriller with horror elements in a Post-Cold War environment is near inspired as I could very much feel tired souls of every character in this tale.

Richards hits us with his charm as each character becomes memorable from the get go, but don’t be fooled into thinking that means they’re fleshed out. Unfortunately this cast of side characters don’t have the same spark as Richards’ previous work although that doesn’t mean they’re not fun to read.

The Doctor, Rose and Jack’s interactions with the cast might have something to do with that as they’re written near on point here, as every decision they make feels exactly like something they’d do.

The Doctor and Rose do their parts just fine, even if we’re not floating about in their minds this time, and the inclusion of Jack was a great one as he carries a sense of authority and charisma in every section he’s in. It would’ve been nice to read his thoughts on The Doctor and Rose although that’s more of a personal preference rather than something that was left out.

In terms of how this book played out, I was perfectly fine with Richards’ choice to go with a more run of the mill story instead of the deeper tale he wrote last time.

Characters have their time to shine, and no one is left out, although not much time is given to how this cast lives their lives. We are merely given a glimpse and no more before the running begins.

And run they do. This felt like it was travelling at a break neck pace passed the midway point and, whilst I was initially concerned with the sudden change, I quickly went along with it.

My main issue with how this is executed comes from my previous point of not having anytime in these characters’ heads. There’s no time to stop and assess the situation which means a lot of the direction for this book comes from characters making choices on the fly. There has been a number of adventures that have done this in the past so I’m not too disappointed, and I’m fully aware this is more of a personal preference thing, but 150 pages of just fleeing can seem like a tiring feat to read through.

It’s saved partially by the smaller moments of survival which Rose and Jack have to make on several occasions separate from each other and The Doctor. This is what hooked me and what I consider to be Deviant Strain’s triumph.

Reading how many close calls these characters have turns this tense thriller into a near horror at times and for that reason alone I think this is worth the read.

Doctor Who has attempted to up the scare factor previously and, whilst I do acknowledge its occasional success, I don’t think anything has come as close to the levels of visualising the events of this book.

There’s definitely a lot of fun to be had with this story and whilst it certainly doesn’t reach the heights I expected it to I still think this was a great effort overall.

8/10