The latest in Penguin’s series of books in which various incarnations of the Doctor encounter variations of famous characters from history and/or fiction sees writer Jack Heath create a fearless and sometimes surprisingly raw re-invention of Mary Shelley’s legendary Modern Prometheus. The book hurls us back to 2005 and the rebirth of Doctor Who in the 21st century as the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler pitch up at a small village just outside Cardiff in the 19th century. Something strange is stalking the misty woods and graveyards, and locals have gone missing. The travellers encounter a scientist named Vincent Frankenstein who, inspired by Shelley’s novel (and, conveniently, sharing the lead character’s surname), has been experimenting with creating a new type of life. But his experiments with his “Patchwork Man” have allowed an ancient electrical sentience – the Voltigrades – to awaken and turn its attention to dominating the human race.
Frankenstein and The Patchwork Man clearly takes its lead from 2005’s classic Unquiet Dead episode – swap the gaseous Gelth with the electrical Voltigrades, swap Charles Dickens with Dr Frankenstein – and it even borrows the Cardiff-centric location (although Heath, writing in Australia, clearly has no idea about the geography of Wales as his descriptions later in the book are far more Universal movie Romania than 19th century Wales, all rugged terrain, wreathing mists, Gothic castles and… err… lochs). It’s surprisingly dark, though, for a book aimed at any kids who might still be interested in Doctor Who, with its body horror themes and imagery of a mongrel monster animated by electricity looming out of the gloom. Heath adopts the Season One tone of telling stories largely from the perspective of Rose Tyler and she very much leads the narrative here, often energising the Doctor when he’s run out of steam and ideas. He’s captured the perky relationship between the two with the dialogue sparking and sizzling, and it’s easy to imagine Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper striding through the story, which has much of the vibrancy and energy of the best episodes from that first season. As the current show becomes ever more cluttered and convoluted, it’s actually a little nostalgic reading a story that evokes so well the freshness and energy of Doctor Who when it first emerged from its near-sixteen-year TV exile. Ah, them were the days…
A brisk and action-packed read, Frankenstein and The Patchwork Man is a welcome addition to this quirky new range of novels, and we’re rather looking forward to the next title as Paul Magrs takes the first Doctor and his team to Whitby in October’s Dracula!
DOCTOR WHO – FRANKENSTEIN AND THE PATCHWORK MAN is available now from Penguin/Puffin Books
