Those of you who think that Moffat is the king of Doctor Who horror, think again. Trevor Baxendale may have outdone even the Grand Moff himself in chills and thrills.

Fear Of The Dark was originally published in 2003 as part of the of the Past Doctor Adventures range at the BBC. It features the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa, a TARDIS Team from the early 1980's. It was re-published for the fiftieth anniversary as part of a set of other books, one about each Doctor.

The plot concerns an archeology expedition to a moon of the planet Akoshemon, an archeological expedition which uncovers something ancient and utterly evil.

Baxendale seems to take great pleasure in pushing this most human of all Doctors to the very brink of despair and sometimes beyond. The fifth doctors era is famous for being perhaps one of the darkest and grimmest of all. While Colin Baker had the more violent stories, it was Peter Davison who was thrust into horrific situations such as Earthshock and Warriors of The Deep, situations where there was no way to save everyone and the most they could do was barely survive themselves. In the introduction Baxendale explains that that was his intent, to push the Doctor to breaking point and see what happened then. This story features the Doctor at his most fallible and human and perhaps because of that, at his very best and most interesting.

But enough about the Doctor what of the companions and new characters? Well they are spectacular as well. Tegan and Nyssa are written appropriately so they aren't totally unlike the character from the show, but we get to see new sides and aspects to them. Tegan is written as more then jut a bossy motormouth (which makes a change) and her character gains some real depth.

Nyssa gets to do quite a bit in this which is nice, and gets quite a bit of emotion and sympathy given to her character, making you really care for her. Again, this is an exception from TV where she is normally overshadowed by the louder, brasher, Tegan. Perhaps this is an advantage of the written medium, you can explore more characters to a greater degree, and hindsight allows the author to see what could have been done better on TV and accommodate for that.

The cast of characters created for the novel are possibly even more brilliant. You have Stoker, the hard as nails female lead archeologist, Bunny, the strong explosives expert with a heart of gold, Captain Lawrence, a good man trying to do his best in a situation he is totally unprepared for and the mysterious Silas Caldwell. Every character is wonderfully drawn and utterly engaging. There are villains you love to hate and heroes you rejoice in the victories of. While the archetypes the characters conform to aren't particularly original, they are used in a brilliant way, and the inevitability of certain events give them an extra portentous power. Which leads me on nicely to one of the main selling points of this book: Fear.

Fear of the Dark is one of the scariest books I've read. It's not quite Dark Matter level Oh-God-Oh-God-The-Monsters-Are-Coming-To-Get-Me but it is quite chilling at times. The Dark is as mysterious as it is malevolent and is portrayed as utterly inhuman and evil. It achieves something few Doctor Who monsters have achieved. It comes across as being actually alien rather then just humans who speak funnny. The building dread of the novel is wonderfully crafted so that each new point of horror comes at exactly the right moment to destabilise you more. I started this book and then proceeded to read it all in one sitting, gripped and enthralled. Believeable and sympathetic characters who you love, evil and terrible villains who you fear and a horrific test of the Doctor's courage and ability.

Fear of The Dark is my new favourite Dr. Who book and it well deserves it. A brilliant piece of writing even when viewed with non-whovian eyes.

4/5

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