Ruth's Reviews > Doctor Who: Winner Takes All

Winner Takes All is only my second Doctor Who read, and my first to feature the adventures of the ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and Rose (Billie Piper). Rose convinces the Doctor to make a quick trip back to present-day Earth to visit her mother, Jackie, who’s just won a holiday in a sweepstakes competition. The Doctor, who has little patience for Rose’s family and her on-again, off-again boyfriend Mickey, soon suspects that this trip to Earth may not be wasted time after all. The newest videogame craze, Death to Mantodeans, is taking Rose’s neighborhood by storm, and when people start disappearing – including Jackie – the game turns out to be a very real, very alien threat to humans. Since Christopher Eccleston only brought his unique and unforgettable spin to the Doctor’s character for only one season, it’s nice to have additional adventures available that help flesh out his time and relationship with Rose. This story itself started off a tad slowly for me, and it took a couple of chapters for me to really get “hooked.” Once Rose and the Doctor reach the Mantodean stronghold for the final showdown, Rayner had my attention – particularly in the superb way she revealed just how much Rose’s friendship has grown to mean to the Doctor over the course of their time together. Rayner does a fantastic job with all of the series’ character voices – the Doctor, Rose, Jackie, and Mickey are all true to character and fit seamlessly within the context of how they are portrayed on the show. The new characters – especially Robbie, with his Harry Potter-esque fantasy life – fit well within the context of the story and interact well with the canon characters. While porcupine-like aliens are a trifle silly, even by Who standards IMO, this novel works immensely well as a ninth Doctor adventure and I – somewhat surprisingly – thoroughly enjoyed it.