Doctor Who at Christmas: The Wintertime Paradox

Originally published: 2020
Acquired: December 2021
Read: January 2022

Doctor Who: The Wintertime Paradox
by Dave Rudden

 

As I did last year with Rudden's Twelve Angels Weeping, I started reading this book on Christmas, and read a story every day until I finished. It was a fun way to do it. Rudden has a strong, unique voice as a Doctor Who short fiction writer, and does a good job of capturing the series's tone while not feeling beholden to how things would be on screen; he also does a good job of tying each story into Christmas without making it feel repetitive.

Highlights for me included "Father of the Daleks," chronicling a series of Christmastime meetings between the eleventh Doctor... and Davros!? Good Christmas fun, but also a dark peek into the psyches of the Daleks and their creator. "For the Girl Who Has Everything" was a story of Osgood's first week at UNIT, before Kate Stewart was in charge and before Osgood was chief scientific advisor; she has to rely on her wits to defeat a Sontaran plot. Rudden perfectly captures Osgood's personality and voice. "Visiting Hours" does a great job of filling in the Rory/River father/daughter relationship that Steven Moffat kind of neglected; Rory comes to visit River at Christmas in Stormcage, only for them to have to fight their way through the facility unexpectedly. Genuinely touching stuff about parenting and family. "A Perfect Christmas" was a charming story about Madame Vastra trying to give her ersatz family a perfect holiday at all costs, and "A Day to Yourselves" was a great story about an immediate post–Time War ninth Doctor trying to find consolation by saving planets, only no one will let him do it.

The book only really had two misfires for me, "He's Behind You," which felt like it didn't lean into its panto premise enough, and "We Will Feed You to the Trees," which while well told, didn't seem entirely convincing in the way it explained everything. But really, Rudden has an excellent grasp of tone, theme, and character, and I must seek out his original fiction, but I also hope he keeps writing Doctor Who because he has a markedly interesting voice that goes beyond your average Justin Richardsesque fellow.

It was Christmas 2011 where I first made a point of reading a Doctor Who Christmas-themed book at Christmas; now ten years later, and I have finally exhausted them all! Doctor Who and Christmas go so well together, so I am disappointed to have to put this tradition to an end. Maybe next Christmas I will do some kind of roundup or ranking.

I read a Doctor Who Christmas book every year. Next up in sequence: nothing!!!???