SCRATCHMAN

[Tony]

Here we are discussing Tom Baker's SCRATCHMAN! If you want to hear your review of or comments on this book read on the air, or you have a specific question about the book, please post it here by no later than 5pm CST on Friday, January 22!

[Damon]

I love this audiobook okay it's not going to win any awards but it kept me entertained the way that it incorporated the other Doctors was clever.

I don't mind admitting that the end extras about Harry and Sarah may have even caused me shed a little tear 4.5 out of 5

[Dave]

I found this book difficult to begin with, possibly because I'd become accustomed to reading novelisations of stories I was already well acquainted with. It's been a while since I've read any new Doctor Who.
By the time I'd reached the second chapter, however, I was immersed in the story.
I can't help wondering how much of the book was written by Tom Baker, whose name alone appears on the cover, and how much was written by his co-author, James Goss. Anyone who's read Baker's autobiography knows he writes absurdity well, but Goss does a passable impression of Douglas Adams' writing, and there are some lines that could be either, such as "a suicidally miserable carpet", which combines the slightly distasteful absurdity of Baker with the absurd economy of words of Adams, and therefore Goss.
It was chapter 18 that this book really got going for me, as it became more familiar. First there was a conversation with Charon, the cab driver, which reminded me of a story often told by Baker. At the end of his tenure on Doctor Who his hair had already started to go grey, and shortly after he left he got it cut. When he got into a black cab, the driver recognised him as "Doctor Who", which pleased Baker until the driver added "You were always my favourite Mr Pertwee!" Maybe Baker included this story so he could "correct" the ending!
Also in chapter 18 is the first of several surreal sequences. They are not particularly "Whoish", but, for me, they were reminiscent of the first Big Finish audio, "Oh No It Isn't", so felt reassuringly familiar.
One aspect of this story that made me reluctant to read it was, in all the reports I'd read, the adversary was the "real" Devil. Fortunately, despite this assertion being made a few times, including by the Doctor, there's enough room to dismiss the supernatural to allay such concerns.
The three main characters are treated well, though I initially thought Harry was being portrayed too much as a buffoon. He gets to be heroic though, so it's all balanced out nicely.
I'm glad this book was chosen for the podcast, as I might never have got round to reading it otherwise, and that would have been a shame, as I thoroughly enjoyed it.