“Well, I doubt you’ll ever see a bigger insect.”
Gabby Nichols is putting her son to bed when she hears her daughter cry out. ‘Mummy there’s a daddy longlegs in my room!’ Then the screaming starts. Kevin Alperton is on his way to school when he is attacked by a mosquito. A big one. Then things get dangerous. But it isn’t the dead man cocooned inside a huge mass of web that worries the Doctor. It isn’t the swarming, mutated insects that make him nervous. With the village cut off from the outside world, and the insects becoming more and more dangerous, the Doctor knows that unless he can decode the strange symbols engraved on an ancient stone circle, and unravel a mystery dating back to the Second World War, no one is safe.
Having been a fan of Mike Tucker’s work since the BBC Past Doctor Adventures in the 1990s and his profilic partnership with Robert Perry, The Crawling Terror was one of the more anticipated of the latest Twelfth Doctor releases here at DWW.
The Doctor and Clara arrive in Ringstone, a village that is literally undergoing a crawling terror, infested with gigantic spiders, beetles and all manner of insects. Acting in an almost militaristic manner, the crawling legions have trapped the local population and the Doctor soon discovers links to secret experiments during the Second World War that could be about to lead to a full scale alien invasion
Like the previously reviewed Blood Cell, The Crawling Terror is a gripping tale that keeps the reader enthralled throughout, as has been the norm with much of Tucker’s previous Doctor Who novels, very much in the tradition of the classic “base under seige” stories of the Classic Series. The novel has more in common with the darker tales of Series 8 thus far however such as Into the Dalek and Listen, there is little of the fun and adventure of Robot of Sherwood and Time Heist here, Peter Capaldi suitably cold and detached and yet as a possible criticism, not as harsh or belligerent as we’ve seen so far during the ongoing series.
With gigantic insects, stone circles, secret military experiments, alien invasions in littlest England and a siege atmosphere, the reader will find nothing radical here in a highly traditionalist take on the new Doctor, The Crawling Terror dripping in a classic atmosphere and Doctor Who lore despite contemporary references to Coal Hill and even Danny Pink.
A page turning creeper of a tale, The Crawling Terror is another recommended purchase in the early days of the Twelfth Doctor range.
The Crawling Terror is available now via the Amazon link below and from all good book stores.
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"Well, I doubt you'll ever see a bigger insect." Gabby Nichols is putting her son to bed when she hears her daughter cry out. 'Mummy there's a daddy longlegs in my room!' Then the screaming starts... Kevin Alperton is on his way to school when he is attacked by a mosquito. A big one. Then things get dangerous. But it isn't the dead man cocooned inside a huge mass of web that worries the Doctor. It isn't the swarming, mutated insects that make him nervous. With the village cut off from the outside world, and the insects becoming more and more dangerous, the Doctor knows that unless he can decode the strange symbols engraved on an ancient stone circle, and unravel a mystery dating back to the Second World War, no one is safe.
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