Here is the third Dr Who novella from Telos Publishing - the first two have already been featured on this site. Fantasy author Tom Arden has dished up a treat of a tale featuring the third Doctor (this reviewer's favorite era of the series), the dandy debonair character played by Jon Pertwee during the early 1970s ably assisted by the attractive Jo. These characters took rather a back seat, though, in this tale as Tom Arden does his thing and conjures up a planet populated by Gormenghastly characters and does a delightful take on A Midsummer Night's Dream complete with Puck and "mechanicals" staging a rustic play. It is the eve of the wedding of beautiful Ria, the Duke's daughter, and the evil Lord Esnic - but Ria loves Tonio and strange things are happening on Perihelion Night as gravity goes awry and everything seems to be coming apart. It is down to the Doctor to find out what "Nightdreamers" are and find out what the Duke is up to - or did the Butler do it?

I found myself wishing that they had done this on television, although this is essentially a very modern form of fantasy and back then couldn't have been imagined, but that is the beauty of having Doctor Who live on in book form. Tom Arden manages the novella form beautifully but perhaps inevitably the fantasy folk come to the fore while the Doctor and Jo remain appendages, a deus ex machine to make all right, which is the only unsatisfactory thing about an otherwise delightful book. Telos have another novella out in August - this series is essential on any SF fan's shelves and I love the way they have updated the series without spoiling it's essential magic.