Doctor Who: Twelve Doctors of Christmas

By: Jacqueline Rayner, Colin Brake, Richard Dungworth, Mike Tucker Cor Pas, Scott Handcock, Gary Russell

Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh, Chris Addison, Rachael Stirling, Sophie Aldred

Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's Summary

Penguin presents the unabridged downloadable audiobook edition of Doctor Who: The Twelve Doctors of Christmas, read by Sophie Aldred, Adjoa Andoh, Rachael Stirling and Chris Addison.

A new collection of Christmas adventures, starring 12 incarnations of the Doctor plus many of his friends and enemies.

Inside this festive audiobook of Doctor Who stories, you'll find timey-wimey mysteries, travels in the TARDIS, monster-chasing excitement and plenty of Christmas magic. Find out what happens when the Third Doctor meets Jackie Tyler, the Seventh Doctor and Ace encounter an alien at Macy's department store, and the Ninth Doctor tries to get Rose a red bicycle for Christmas.

With stories by Jacqueline Rayner, Colin Brake, Richard Dungworth, Mike Tucker, Gary Russell and Scott Handcock.

©2016 Adjoa Andoh, Chris Addison, Rachael Stirling, Sophie Aldred (P)2016 Penguin AudioBooks

A Whovian Christmas treat!

Generally with anthologies, there are a few clunkers in among the gold, but here every story is enjoyable. Christmas and the Doctor just seem to go together.

A delightful set of Stories

This is a fun little set of lighthearted tales each featuring one of the doctors and either including or tying into one of their companion's lives.

Fun Quaint Holiday Read

I’m not a huge Doctor Who fan having just watched 2 or 3 seasons of the reboot, but I wanted to read something nerdy holidayish for winter break. For this anthology, you don’t need to be intimately familiar with the Doctor Whoiverse to enjoy these stories. I loved how the tales were all over the place, from space to Earth, from the past to the present. I especially loved the story with the Loch Ness monster. All told, it was fun. 4/5 stars.

The Narration: There were several narrators for this anthology, though each story has only 1 narrator. Some narrators were great; some needed to add some variety to their voices or add some femininity to the female characters. The pacing was good for all stories and there were no technical issues with this recording. 4/5 stars.

My Little Notes on Each Short Story (no spoilers)

1. All I Want for Christmas by Jacqueline Rayner, n. Sophie Aldred
Barbara, Vicki, Ian, & the Doctor. 1963. England. Snowed in with Robersons for Xmas. Things all wrong.
2. A Comedy of Terrors by Colin Brake, n. Rachael Stirling
Jamie, the Doctor, & Zoe. Actors working for Mrs. Butlend, who farts a lot. Princess Treana, stepmom rules in her name.
3. The Christmas Inversion by Jacqueline Rayner, n. Adjoa Andoh
Cpt. Mike Yates, Jo, & the Doctor. Call for help. 21st century Earth. Future version of Doctor in same time & place.
4. Three Wise Men by Richard Dungworth, n. Chris Addison
1968, Apollo 8 astronauts Borman, Lovell, Anders. Dark side of moon. Doctor in his technicolor scarf appears.
5. Sontar’s Little Helpers by Mike Tucker, n. Rachael Stirling
Tegan, Turlough, & the Doctor. Dec 24th. Distress call. They respond. Unmanned supply ship. Plus a fighter craft. And a cloaked ship, big spherical thing, captained by the Sontaran, Brast.
6. Fairy Tale of New New York by Gary Russell, n. Adjoa Andoh
Melanie & the Doctor. Catkind, abbey, cat nuns, human kids. Catkind have taken over medical care on New Earth because humans like cats. Kids are not allergic to cats & Catkind are trying to figure out why so they can make all of New Earth unallergic.
7. The Grotto by Mike Tucker, n. Sophie Aldred
Ace & the Doctor. New York. Mysterious space craft. Escape pod into old department store. Monster running loose.
8. Ghost of Christmas Past by Scott Handcock, n. Chris Addison
Conflicting timelines damage Tardis but spit it out at Earth 2016 Dec 24th. Time loop. Something in Tardis leaving Xmas cards.
9. The Red Bicycle by Gary Russell, n. Adjoa Andoh
Doctor discusses breaking time laws with Susan. Decides to give it a try by sneaking in a gift of a bicycle to young Susan.
10. Loose Wire by Richard Dungworth, n. Sophie Aldred
Doctor breaks into Alice’s room & destroys her cell phone. He’s hunting The Wire. P
11. The Gift by Scott Handcock, n. Rachael Stirling
Mazzey & her mom. Carolers & the Doctor. He’s hunting a lengo which turns up in Mazzey’s bedroom.
12. The Persistence of Memory by Colin Brake, n. Chris Addison
CJ & the Doctor. Loch Ness, Scotland, in August. Meet a Nessy hunter, Robbie.

FANTASTIC

Love all the stories, I especially loved chapter 8 it was creepy and sad. IT WAS FANTASTIC!

Meh

Pretty run of the mill stories designed to be cute and fluffy. Sadly, not all of the actors or writers were up to the job. Might have been better to try to get Big Finish to do these as full-cast stories. Or maybe I've been spoiled and jaded by their top-flight work.
Very little of this is particularly memorable or all that interesting. It's not that it's bad--just that it's not that good.

Loved it

I really loved this book. I am already familiar with the 9th - 12th doctors so listening to stories with the previous doctors was quite enjoyable

A great book!

The story's in this book are great because they're so varied some funny some scary and some exciting. The 1st doctors story is a bit alarming at the end but still very interesting.The second doctors story is a bit odd because it used a ninth doctor alien in a second doctor story.The 3rd doctor is absolutely hilarious but a bit of a sudden end. The fourth makes no sense at all so I am just gonna skip it. The fifth one has so much action it is so good!!! The sixth one is a bit boring but still interesting

Doctor Who: Twelve Doctors Of Christmas Review

I loved this audio book very much and I hope we get more like these in the future.
By Orkneyislands

interesting, but simplistic

Well told stories, but a little too childish in nature. A 5 year might feel a little insulted.

For fans only

A collection of rather weak Christmas themed short stories. May be fans would enjoy it more.

On the 12th day of Christmas

I for one thought it very easy going and enjoyed the readers telling the story.

A fun title for the price/credit

I mainly got this on a whim as I had some credits to use up. It’s a collection of stories set around different Doctors. It was very enjoyable and it wasn’t too taxing on the brain. Good if you are a fan of Doctor Who.

Fun and festive

The Twelve Doctors of Christmas is a great, fun collection of seasonal stories about each of the Doctors (from Hartnell to Capaldi). Each chapter features a new story, and a new Doctor (whose number corresponds to the chapter). The stories themselves are a bit of a mixed bag, with some being better than others. Some identify the 'version' of the Doctor very particularly through mention of their attire or hairstyle, and others by recognisable companions, so there's always enough to call to mind each iteration of The Doctor as you listen. Some of the narrators are better at capturing the spirit of their doctor better than others, but Chris Addison did a particularly good job with this.

I really enjoyed listening to each individual story, and they reminded me of the televised 'specials' and mini-episodes around things like Red Nose Day or Children in Need. Definitely a book I can listen to again, and one that makes it simple to go straight for my favourite stories, or favourite Doctors!

A game of... 12 halves

Some of these stories were good. Not great, but good. Some of them were...not.
Chris Addison was superb, but unfortunately others weren’t fantastic. If you’re ‘doing the voices’, messing up a well known voice just doesn’t cut it- and because of that, the casting got in the way of the stories a little. Not knocking the artists, but it’s a little like asking BB king to play Van Halen. Not bad, but not the right artist for the job.
If it’s on offer and you have some spare time, why not. Otherwise, save your pennies.

Familiar, not challenging

This collection of Christmas themed short stories is my chosen (guilty?) pleasure. I go elsewhere for high ideas, but this was pleasantly diverting

Doesn't transfer to the spoken word very well.

I think the narrators had much to do with it but the TV programmes are so very much better than these short stories. I love Dr Who but was very disappointed with this.