Quite the improvement from the previous book! I don't think it's a controversial statement to suggest that Terrance Dicks knows how to write Doctor Who. There's a lovely frantic pace from the get go, which really adds a sense of tension throughout! The premise is pretty interesting and does break new ground for Doctor Who (what if the Nazis won WW2). There's a rather excellent villain too, who was long overdue a return. Dicks also takes advantage of the novel medium to jump around from location to location, something that he wouldn't have been afforded the luxury of when writing for TV.<br><br>If I'm to be critical, I'd say that Dicks doesn't fully grasp the Seventh Doctor and Ace as characters but he does have such a strong grasp of the generic Doctor and Companion dynamic he gets away with it. There is an argument to say too that perhaps this story does highlight why Doctor Who hasn't really tackled the Nazis before, because it reduces the actual threat they have. This story in particular perpetuates the myth that Hitler was a powerful speaker when in fact a lot of his rise to power had many more factors (one reason he had such big crowds was due to the fact he was one of the few politicians who used a public address system). Also reducing the Nazis to cartoon characters like this dimishes their very real horrors in some way. I'd also say that the Timewyrm elements feel like an afterthought, with it appearing in a few pages. It felt like there was already a story and the Timewyrm was thrown in just to fit the overarching narrative.<br><br>That being said, it's certainly an interesting story that should grip fans of Doctor Who. It's also good to see Terrance Dicks use the format to try new and interesting things that he wouldn't have been able to do with TV. Well worth a read!
