Review: A fun, mildly horror-tinged Second Doctor romp
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 27, 2013
Not being a fan of Michael Scott's The Alchemyst and not rating the Second Doctor among my favourite incarnations of the adventurous Time Lord, I didn't expect much of this short story - but I have to say The Nameless City worked a whole lot better for me than A Big Hand for the Doctor.It was obvious that Scott knows the Second Doctor's character well, as well as his companion Jamie and the era in general; there was no attempt to "reimagine" everything here in order to make it more palatable for the younger/newer readers - The Nameless City was simply  a straightforward, fun adventure with a bit of horror.I wouldn't say it was either very deep or amazingly brilliant - I don't think the short story format really lends itself to in-depth characterisation or multilayered plots - but it had a very "authentic" Second Doctor era feel. Unlike with the first short story where the First Doctor's physical description was about the only thing about him that I recognised, here it was very clear this was Two we were dealing with (behaviour, speech patterns, etc). And the plot, somewhat meagre that it was, was coherent and rather well thought out. Definitely a thumbs up from me!