Fiction Reviews
Doctor Who: Space Babies
(2024) Alison Rumfitt, BBC Books,
£9.99 / Can$19.99 / US$13.99, pbk, 145pp, ISBN 978-1-785-94884-8
In space, something can hear you scream. And that something is coming. On her first adventure in outer space, Ruby learns that the universe is bigger, more colourful, and crazier than she could ever have imagined. She also learns that even the Doctor can feel afraid – and that certain nightmares are all too real…
Be afraid, be very afraid, because in space no-one can hear you…gurgle, or can they? But don’t worry, other bodily function noises are available. The Doctor is giving Ruby her first outing in the TARDIS and they land on a space station, and there’s a monster. No surprises there, but what is surprising is that the space station hasn’t been abandoned, there are people on board, people who look like babies, and they have been abandoned by the planet they orbit. They have the minds of six-year-olds, in the bodies of babies who are six months old which doesn’t make it easy for them to try and maintain the station, especially when they daren’t go down to the lower decks which is where the “Bogeyman” roams.
First-time Whovian author, Alison Rumfitt delivers a fast-moving version of Russell T. Davies story told over a prologue, and epilogue with fifteen chapters squeezed in between to deliver a slightly different story from that broadcasted by the BBC. The reason for these differences is that she is riffing off earlier drafts of the screenplay so we get variations in some of the scenes with some additions and some subtractions from the screened episode; this adds to the laughs and the thrills and the scares. Rumfitt is able to get inside the head of the Doctor and Ruby and Jocelyn, the adult-in-hiding, who is trying to keep the babies alive. She even manages to get into the head of the Bogeyman who has the power to create fear in those that he/it encounters. Even the Doctor falls under its spell, despite the more rational part of him knowing that he shouldn’t, but the Bogeyman, as hinted at in Rumfitt’s prologue, might be a universal force, brought into being to dwell in the dark as a counterbalance to all the love and joy that newborn babies bring. Apart from this surprising theory, Rumfitt has a great, descriptive turn of phrase when describing places and events, and demonstrates a real flair for fleshing out characters and expanding on the plot, or perhaps, giving the reader some of the plot that didn’t make it to the screen, even providing us with some laughs in places – cue for a Sugababes’ song anyone?
Personally, I found the TV version of 'Space Babies' to be great fun, if a bit icky in places – no spoilers here, although I know it wasn’t universally loved, so it would be interesting to go back and watch it again after reading Rumfitt’s adaptation. I have the sneaking suspicion that the book might actually be better than the TV version which is a testimony to Rumfitt’s writing and she makes a great addition to the ranks of Target authors so hopefully we’ll see more adaptations from her in future. Finally, hats off to Dan Liles for his cover depicting the Doctor and Ruby in the foreground and several monitors in the background featuring some of the babies and that monster.
Ian Hunter
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