Doctor Who: The Good Doctor

By: Juno Dawson

Narrated by: Clare Corbett

Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's Summary

Clare Corbett reads this exciting original adventure for the Thirteenth Doctor

'To distort the purity of the Good Doctor is an abomination!'

On the planet of Lobos, the Doctor halts a violent war between the native Loba and human colonists. The TARDIS crew departs - only for Ryan to discover he’s left his phone behind. Again.

Upon returning, the Doctor finds that the TARDIS has slipped hundreds of years into the future - and something has gone badly wrong. The Loba are now slaves, serving human zealots who worship a figure known as The Good Doctor.

It’s time for the Doctor to face up to the consequences of her last visit. With Lobos on the brink of catastrophe, will she be able to make things right?

Clare Corbett reads this original story featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, Yasmin, Ryan and Graham, as played by Jodie Whittaker, Mandip Gill, Tosin Cole and Bradley Walsh.

©2018 BBC Worldwide Ltd (P)2018 BBC Worldwide Ltd

The Good Doctor is Good Stuff!

Considering that this came out mere weeks into Jodie Whittaker's first season as The Doctor (and thus must've been written and recorded while the TV season was in production), it's amazing how well "The Good Doctor" fits in with that season. Both in its mixture of lightness with a message, and well as in narrator Clare Corbett's spot-on take on Whittaker's 13th Doctor.
TV show tie-in novels are often a mixed bag. Many of them are written by authors with no direct ties to the specific show, whose oeuvre runs the gamut of a wealth of genre TV show tie-ins. As such, my expectations are typically low, and the average book ends up an enjoyable take-it-or-leave-it diversion. I've read a handful of Doctor Who books, dating back to the 1990's, and they are very hit and miss. This one, for me was a hit - particularly in the audiobook format. I know that I said it before, but seriously Clare Corbett's 13th Doctor is spot-on. And author Juno Dawson puts the perfect words into her mouth.
The plot, which loosely reminds me of the First Doctor serial "The Ark" - as far as returning to the same place centuries later and discovering that the littlest thing has unintentionally turned an entire society on its head - is presented lightly, with a level of humor akin to that of the 2018 TV season. And similar to the TV season, there some are some seriousness social concerns, just beneath the surface.
Considering how 2019 has been devoid of all but one new episode of Doctor Who on TV, "The Good Doctor" has been a more than welcome filler in that empty spot. I only wish there were more by this author/narrator combination.

3 people found this helpful

Ever Wonder How It Went After the Doctor Helped?

Loved this story! It opens with Doctor resolving a situation on a distant planet and returning to that same planet centuries later.
Tax, Graham, Ryan, and The Thirteenth Doctor all get their moments to shine in this story. No one feels underutilized or ignored.

The Reader is great! I could totally hear the gentle sarcasm from Bradley Walsh's Graham. And the reader's Jodie Whitaker impression is almost spot-on!

Will definitely want to revisit this story in the near future...pun intended!

3 people found this helpful

Truly a Good One

Great story, wonderful performance - honestly I think I liked this better than any recent episode of Dr Who. It takes everything I love about Jodie’s Doctor (the compassion, her non-violence, her love for her companions) and houses it a great story that rides its themes well but also tells a well written and engaging story.

Also can’t say enough about the great performance by Claire Corbett. She gets the Doctors voice perfect and has a great range for the wide variety of characters in the story.

3 people found this helpful

The best 13th doctor story yet

Absolutely love the book. would recommend to any fan of Doctor Who. There was one brief moment where the sound effects were a bit annoying but it lasted only 30 seconds or so. wouldn't let that discourage you from giving this one a try.

I think the book was great hope on more.

I have been listening to two of the 13th doctor audiobooks and they are great and i hope there will be more on the way, when the 12th doctor came out in audiobooks i bought them all ad they were great too i still hope there will be more but havent seen any new books yet of the 12th doctor.

Excellent reading performance and tight story

The writing style is compelling and original. Ryan is particularly well written and is well developed, realistic as well as funny and charming.

The Doctor is SUPERBLY crafted and performed with absolute conviction (The accent is also bang on!!). I would even say this is a more realized and three dimensional character than we have seen in the TV show.

Some of the parallels with real life emancipation struggles may seem a little obvious to older readers but maybe this reflects the way that real life history is repeating itself in ways that might previously been considered as trite and obvious.

Would definately reccomend!

3 people found this helpful

Doctor Who: The Good Doctor Review

I loved this audio book very much and I want more like these in the future. Thank you Juno Dawson for Narrating this audio book and I loved your narration of this audio book.
By Orkneyislands

1 person found this helpful

Great full length story featuring the 13th Doctor

A cracking book that not only captured the feel of the new series but took things a little further than the 7pm TV show can. The Doctor took on the legacy of her actions and a particularly nasty religion. All done in a grown up style. definitely not a book for children.

1 person found this helpful

Captures the characters perfectly

Clare Corbett is brilliant, the characterisation of the four principles is almost spot on, Graham is a tiny bit off, but that's minor. Overall the plot reads like a 60,s 70,s adventure, all the stereo typical characters and situations are there, and that's nice, feels familiar. My issue is the plot. So, Ok, I may not be the intended audience, probably 30 years olde than I should be...but withiut giving away any of the plot, there are clumsy plot devices that grate, 2dimensiinal characters who are predictable, and no real threat.

That said the central theme about unintended consequences is very good.

1 person found this helpful

Story is ok but

I thought I’d try an audio book to see if i liked the character of this Doctor any better than on tv. The story is ok, a bit predictable and the performances are good. Sadly the ditzy, slightly manic characterisation which has been given to this doctor still really irritates me as does the Yorkshire accent. I’m from Yorkshire and Jodie Whittaker’s accent which is faithfully reproduced by the excellent Clare Corbett sounds to me like an actor “doing” the accent and not authentic. Yes I know JW is also from Yorkshire.. I was so excited at the prospect of a woman doctor but this character and it’s inhabiting by JW is a massive disappointment. I’ve known each Doctor from William
Hartnell on and 13s flippancy in the face of pretty awful events is just wrong and there’s a lot of it in this story.

I’ll just have to wait till 13 regenerates into a better actor (of any gender) with better writers.

No criticism of Clare Corbett - one of the best narrators on Audible imo.

Near Perfection

The Good Doctor by Juno Dawson is a brilliant book and is the perfect book for fans of either Bradley Walsh or the character of Graham. The story is nearly 100% perfect and Claire Corbett does the characters proud. My only slight problem is her Graham but as an audiobook the voices are open to interpretation and it is certainly distinguishable as Graham

Amazing performance! Characters brought to life

I enjoyed this reading of the book more than some of the televised adventures.

Clare Corbett does a great job bringing this story to life. Hope she gets to read more of these.

Story excellent. With a great mix of funny and poinant moments.