Time & Relative by Kim Newman
Dr. Who
Telos Publishing Ltd - November 2001
No ISBN (see below)
Horror/TV Tie-in
London 1963

Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde, MyShelf.com
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Also obtainable from Telos Publishing Ltd, 61 Elgar Avenue, Tolworth, Surrey, KT5 9JP http://www.telos.co.uk

Few British TV series have been as loved - or as long running and consistently popular - as Dr Who. Although it is now just a glowing memory Telos Publishing are keeping the dream alive with this new series of novellas and the first one has been written by esteemed horror writer Kim Newman. It is 1963 and London is in the grip of one of the coldest winters in living memory. The Tardis has arrived for the first time and the Doctor and his 14-year-old granddaughter Susan are living in a junkyard. Susan wanted to fit in and decide to go to school but as this story written in the form of her diary shows she is regretting it. All seems normal enough though until the weather takes a turn for the worse and Susan and her classmates (as well as a lot of other people) start wishing they hadn't built those snowmen when the come to life! For an ancient lifeform has awoken for the first time since the Ice Age and wants its planet back - minus the humans.

The first few pages made me wonder if this was just going to be another school story as the Doctor didn't seem to be in evidence at all but when those snowmen appear that peculiar mixture of half-cosy, half-sinister that made the series so special gripped me. Ordinary things turn against ordinary people and the familiar becomes a nightmare that can only be sorted out by Dr Who. This novella also contains a wonderful evocation of 1963 with its ton-up boys, beehive hairdos, Wimpy bars, the Beatles and recent memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis. In short nicely done, just the right length and perfectly in keeping with the spirit of the early episodes.