Review: Terrific story in spite of being Doctor-light
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 26, 2013
One of my favourites in this series of short stories so far - and one, I assumed already when reading, would divide opinions more than any of the others. Looking at the other reviews both here and elsewhere, it seems I was right - this is by and large one that people are going to either enjoy on its own terms, or dislike for being Doctor-light.Tip of the Tongue barely features the Doctor and Nyssa, but since Five isn't anywhere close to being my favourite Doctor, and Nyssa wasn't anywhere close to my top ten favourite companions (not that I disliked either of them; they were both just a bit bland to be memorable for me), that was not a bad thing - especially as it allowed for focusing more on the original characters and the story. Ness is a great writer (I loved his Chaos Walking trilogy) and he shows his strength as a writer here as well - in spite of the shortness, this instalment in the anniversary series felt more developed and better paced, with an actual start, middle and end and with even a bit of character development, than the previous offerings.My overall opinion is basically "a terrific short story, but not necessarily the best *Doctor Who* short story". For fans of Five and/or Nyssa, this may well end up feeling disappointing - and understandably so - but other than that, I'd not hesitate to recommend it to almost anyone.