Is there a greater legend in Doctor Who lore than the one and only Tom Baker? Arguably not, which is what makes this new BBC Books release so special: the Fourth Doctor himself has penned a brand new story based on a mythical script for an unmade Who movie he wrote with co-star Ian Marter back in the 1970s. The result is a unique tale that stands apart from the rest of the Whoniverse.
Scratchman sees the Doctor, Sarah Jane and Harry arrive on a sleepy Scottish island where the locals are being transformed into hideous living scarecrows. The culprit is an extradimensional evil force known as Scratchman, who might just be the basis for our Earthly concept of the Devil. Before long, the TARDIS trio are fighting for their lives in Scratchman’s universe, where the laws of physics have decided to take a holiday.
Scratchman is a wonderfully inventive and imaginative novel that recalls the wit of Douglas Adams, the scares of Steven Moffat, and the pure delirious weirdness of the middle episodes of The Deadly Assassin. Its readiness to throw logic to the wolves and instead spin a nightmarish yarn with quasi-religious themes is thrilling and makes you jealous of the parallel universe out there that has the Scratchman movie, which apparently could have been an amazing piece of avant-garde 70s cinema.
Not that the book simply replicates the script, as there are many brilliant touches used to translate Baker and Marter’s screenplay into a novel that really enhance it. The Arabian Nights-like framing device which has the Doctor telling the story to the Time Lords (during yet another of his trials) captures the fable-esque quality of the tale, while the decision to choose a first-person point of view, putting us squarely in the Doctor’s mind, is usually a big no-no in Doctor Who fiction but feels like a suitable rule-break in a book actually written by the Doctor.
Yes, it’s known that prolific Who author James Goss was Baker’s co-writer on the project, but the bonkers ideas and perfect grasp of the Doctor’s personality and outlook could only have come from dear old Tom himself. With ample chills, surprises and humour, Scratchman is a must-read for any fan of the Fourth Doctor. Grab a bag of jelly babies, sit back and enjoy.
DOCTOR WHO: SCRATCHMAN / AUTHOR: TOM BAKER / PUBLISHER: BBC BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
