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In his first-ever Doctor Who novel, Tom Baker’s incredible imagination is given free rein. A story so epic it was originally intended for the big screen, Scratchman is a gripping, white-knuckle thriller almost forty years in the making.
The Doctor, Harry and Sarah Jane Smith arrive at a remote Scottish island, when their holiday is cut short by the appearance of strange creatures – hideous scarecrows, who are preying on the local population. The islanders are living in fear, and the Doctor vows to save them all. But it doesn’t go to plan – the time travellers have fallen into a trap, and Scratchman is coming for them.
With the fate of the universe hanging in the balance, the Doctor must battle an ancient force from another dimension, one who claims to be the Devil. Scratchman wants to know what the Doctor is most afraid of. And the Doctor’s worst nightmares are coming out to play…
Reviews with the most likes.
I really didn't enjoy this, which is why it took so long for me to finish - nowhere near as good as The City of Death, it tries to hard to be funny and falls far short. The last quarter of the book is better than the rest, but it's a low bar.
The end of the book contains some interesting information about the Douglas Adams archive in Cambridge, though, and the bits that weren't in the TV version show Adams's creative process in an interesting light.
DNF ~ 50%
I wasn't enjoying the story as much as I had hoped to. I feel like I would've enjoyed this more if this had been turned into an episode of the show.