OS Cover Image

OS Cover Image

Sunday 26 June 2011

Doctor Who: Touched By An Angel Review (5/5)

Strangely, Touched By An Angel is quintessential Doctor Who for all the reasons you wouldn't expect. Yes, there are several chapters based around building up tension for the return of Steven Moffat's classic villains the Weeping Angels, and yes, there is inevitably a final confrontation of wit and stamina where the Doctor must best his foes with all his wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey intelligence, but surprisingly, by no means is this a predictable horror romp. What we get here is in fact the story of a romance seemingly doomed, the tale of Mark Whittaker's lost love Rebecca and his strife to save her from an accident that happened eight years ago. Author Jonathan Morris does a perfect job of replicating Moffat's clever play on the sci-fi genre, really pulling out all the stops to give us a well-rounded read that barely ever stops to take a breath. More than ever, we can really empathise with the tragedy that Whittaker is dealing with, and through the eyes of Amy and Rory especially we can see just why the story's focal character is willing to stretch the timelines to bring his wife back. This is the true crux of the novel, despite what its cover may suggest, and Touched is all the more better for it. The combination of the romance threading its way throughout, the neat scenes of psuedo horror that harken back to the Angels' inception in Blink and the spot-on characterisations by Morris make this perhaps the best release in the New Series Adventures range so far, a gripping read that even newcomers can completely fall in love with!

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