Review - Doctor Who: The Witch Hunters

This review is about “Doctor Who: The Witch Hunters”, the second Doctor Who book I have reviewed. This is a BBC publication dealing with a classic Doctor Who story but not corresponding with any of the shows. It deals with the first incarnation of the Doctor and his first companions Susan, Barbara and Ian. This book is out of production and I had a little trouble finding it but finally tracked one down on Amazon. I got it for just about $5 and with shipping came up to just under $10. A little pricey for a paperback book but going to dealers and looking online at some specialty stores I couldn’t find one for under $30 so I was fairly happy to find it.

The cover of the book of course has the Doctor Who logo but it also has images of the Doctor, Susan (his granddaughter), and a burning crucifix done up in mostly reds and blacks. It has a total page count of 282 pages. This book was written by Steve Lyons who has written several Doctor Who novels and has done some various other works in science fiction. This particular tale of the Doctor has to deal with him and his companions traveling back to the time of the Salem witch trials. While there the group is very excited about being there during a time when history is about to take place but as usual the Doctor warns all of them that must not interfere with the time line and try to change history no matter what or the consequences could be dire.

Of course like any good Doctor who story his warning goes unheeded and through a series of unfortunate events our group of time travelers find themselves in a mess’o’trouble. There is also a mystery that is unfolding as you read which was also a quite common theme in a Doctor Who story. Lyons does a great job of rolling out the clues to that mystery as you read with out giving the mystery away. I was rolling around several different scenarios to cover the mystery but was surprised when none of what I had chosen was his scenario. I like a good mystery and like it even more when I can’t figure out what is going on. Lyons also does a very nice job of keeping the story suspenseful. I suppose that his strength in mystery writing is what lends to the story being suspenseful.

He also seems to have done a significant amount of research on the subject and even references in the back of the book of the materials he used. Because of this research he was able to combine true events that took place during the witch trials and interwove them into this fictional story. Often at time he would write the story as if it was from the perspective of real people that were affected by the trials. The story especially dealt very heavily about the trial and conviction of Rebecca Nurse. This woman was found guilty of being a witch through the superstitious and archaic forms of proof of that time. She was put to death while proclaiming her innocents every second of her horrendous ordeal. Her conviction was later over turned stating that she was unjustly killed and found completely innocent of any crimes against her. A very tragic but true story which is the basis of the story “The Crucible”.

Lyons knows his Doctor Who characters just as well as he knows his Salem witch trials history. All of the characters were true to their television counterparts. They all acted and did what they would have normally done in any Doctor Who episode of that time I’ve seen. I reviewed “Doctor Who: Byzantium!” not too long ago and these were the parts that the author of that book Keith Topping missed out on. He didn’t follow the standard Doctor Who story formula and his characters were not recognizable as their television counterparts. Lyons got both of these points down perfect and as I said blended his fictional story with the historical happenings effortlessly.

There was an interesting part in this story that was a bit uncommon for a Doctor Who story. The Doctor at one point shows some real emotions about a situation he can not change and while he can not rectify the problem he does something that is very unDoctor like yet you find that he has done it, acceptable. In fact it makes him a better Doctor.

I really enjoyed this story and found that although it dealt with a bit of history that was horrible you find yourself happy at the end. I won’t tell you why…..you’ll have to read for yourself. So I recommend you read this book and I am giving it 9 out of 10. Lyons has written several other Doctor Who books and I look forward to trying to find some of them and read them as well.