Rosa's Reviews > Doctor Who: Winner Takes All

Reading this book again for the first time in about 15 1/2 years. It's my Whoniversary which means that for the next 24 hours, it's all DW all the time. And it also means revisiting adventures from what was *my* era of the show: Nine and Rose.

And, man, what a fun adventure to read through again to remind me how much I love these two. (Not that I ever forget, but the sheer amount of happiness that reading about them gives me is sometimes underestimated by my own mind.)

Rereading this years later, I noticed that the general plot of this story can be seen somewhat in a visual format in the season 1 Sarah Jane Adventures episode "The Warriors of Kudlak." Only in that one children who win champion levels of laser tag are physically transported to a ship that's taking them to a battlefield on the other side of the galaxy. But there are very similar themes explored in both and they both are just really fun adventure stories.

As usual, Jacqueline Rayner shows why she was labeled the queen of the Doctor/Rose shipping community by making Rose the center point of all the Doctor's decisions, even this early on in their friendship. As with Monsters Inside, we as readers aren't told exactly when this adventure takes place, but we know it's before "The Empty Child," (cos Jack isn't traveling with them), and after "Aliens of London/World War III." No references are made to Daleks, but it could simply be that there was no reason to bring them up. I would say this is definitely set before "Father's Day" though because Rose thinks about her father numerous times throughout the adventure, hinting that this may be leading up to the request she makes of the Doctor that leads to that whole story.

The strong point of this story is very much the interaction between the Doctor and Rose, as well as the relationship between Rose and Jackie and the development of Mickey as a character. This is in the early days of Mickey discovering everything that he can possibly be, but we can definitely see how he's changed since even just World War III. Robert is also a great one-off side character that, while he doesn't seem to have much going for him as a character when he's first introduced, became very much a mental younger brother for me by the end of the story and I was happy to see him make it through the adventure okay.

We're not given any Doctor POVs in this adventure, so everything that he does while Rose is forced to play her way through the video game is told to us through Robert's perspective. And, as anyone who has watched the show would expect, the Doctor's angry stillness when he thinks about how the Quevvils are forcing him to manipulate Rose is completely terrifying. Anyone who has seen Dalek knows what look Robert is referencing and it sent wonderful shivers down my spine. The Doctor went full Oncoming Storm with no one to aim that darkness at and I wish I could see it on a screen.

Also, we get Rose sticking up for other people and for herself numerous times, and I love to see it. That's my girl! (Or, y'know, technically, that's the Doctor's girl, but I root for her, too!)

The only downside to the novel (and what keeps it from 5 stars) is the very rushed ending. The Doctor saves everyone very quickly after a lot of buildup, finds Rose in the TARDIS, and then he and Rose just kind of swan off. While that is very true to how the show works, there's also usually some sort of conversation to substantiate how this adventure helped them grow as characters. That's kind of missing from this one and it all just feels kind of hollow because of it.