Book Review: Doctor Who: Keeping Up With The Joneses

Author: Nick Harkaway
Title: Doctor Who: Keeping Up With The Jonese
Publisher: Random House UK
Publish Date: Feb 6, 2014
Buy: Amazon
Review Copy Provided By: Net Galley
Book Blurb: 
Deep in the gap between the stars, the TARDIS is damaged by a temporal mine. It's not life-threatening, but the Tenth Doctor will need a while to repair the damage. But he's not alone. The strangely familiar-looking Christina thinks the Doctor has arrived in her bed and breakfast, somewhere in Wales. In fact, the TARDIS seems to have enveloped Christina's entire town - and something else is trapped inside with it. A violent, unnatural storm threatens them all and - unless it's stopped - the entire universe.

Review:  Keeping Up With The Joneses is a Tenth Doctor Time Trip. It would be almost perfect if not for one thing. Nick Harkaway had to keep the whole "Pining for Rose" theme going at the beginning. Sure I liked that he allowed Ten the opportunity to miss all his companions, but gah, that was one of the things I hated the most about Ten. (And I really loved him)

What was cook about this story was how Nick brought back Christina from "Planet Of The Dead" in a round about way. It was her, but not quite. And since she was a past companion, it made the story a bit easier to enjoy. I've never been a fan of stories without a companion from the show.

The TARDIS gets damaged by a temporal mine, quite a bit of damage when a whole town seems to be part of the TARDIS.

I loved Christina, possibly more in this story than in Planet Of The Dead. (I did love the reference to the red bus from that episode). Her character felt a little more true to form than Ten. (Aside from the Rose pining)

I really enjoyed discovering how they saved Jonestown and the TARDIS, it wasn't quite what I was expecting, but when is it, when The Doctor is involved.

Quite a fun read and a little longer than the average Time Trip!

Rating: 4 flowers