Doctor Who: New Series Adventures - The Feast Of The Drowned Review

This is Stephen Cole’s second attempt in the New Series Adventures and I have to say it’s an improvement.

There’s a layer of imagination, or rather inspiration, on show here that wasn’t before.

What hasn’t improved, however, is the portrayal of the Doctor and Rose along with the pacing.

The Doctor has his whit and charm but that’s it. Rose is the back talking yet caring side kick and not really anything else. Don’t get me wrong it’s enough but that’s only because Cole didn’t set the bar very high in the first place.

I referred to this story feeling more inspired than imaginative and I’m still unsure if that’s true. Lovecraftian themes are something that seems to be quite strong throughout this book. As a fan of Lovecraft’s work, this could add another layer of hit and miss for me and yet I’d only be comfortable applying that opinion if the inspiration was taken. If so then I’d say the creepy tone is definitely there to begin with but once the cast and plot start to roll properly it dies down to a less suspenseful story. If it isn’t true, and this all turns out to be a coincidence, then I’d say that the first half had something unique to this series of novels and had the flaw of not keeping to it for too long.

Cast of characters are forgettable, with Mickey among them, supposedly because they’re on Earth in the present day but he’s never vital to the plot.

I did like the call backs to previous Doctor Who stories and the ramifications caused by them to still be felt but the ones chosen felt a little old for lack of a better word.

Mickey and Rose continue their little spat about breaking up without actually breaking up and yet the events they’re actually talking about in this occurred in Aliens In London, the fourth episode of the Ninth Doctor’s run.

Having something a little more present would’ve been nice but instead we get answers to an episode that aired a year prior with quite a bit occurring in between.

With all of that out of the way let’s talk about something that was truly on point here. Horror.

The Monsters Inside, Cole’s last Doctor Who novel chronological, tried to push the mature themes through explicit descriptions that were a bit over the top for my liking. Here I believe he finally nails the tone and atmosphere he was trying to in the first place.

Whilst characterisation might not be the best the true horror here lies in the scenarios they’re placed in and the turmoil that leads to.

I haven’t read a book in this series yet that has made me want to finish it so I can get to the cosy finale these novels normally have.

Speaking of finale, we have another novel that doesn’t really give us too much to reflect on. The characters just sort of walk off the terror they’ve been through and the World pretends like it never happened.

Cole makes an effort to localise the issue to make this believable but it’s happening in London... I hardly think that the sheer number of people this involved would just shrug their shoulders and forget about it, let alone the consequences for this novels final act.

Still it was a fun ride.

Stephen Cole has thus far been good at making the junk food of Doctor Who novels. The kind of stories where you’re not meant to think too much about what’s going on and just have to short of accept that whilst it isn’t anything to special it’s still kind of comforting to read. It was a unique adventure that had me entertained for a day or so.

7/10