"Ghosts of India"
by Mark Morris

It's business as usual for the Tenth Doctor. His TARDIS has landed ten years later than he'd intended, and within minutes of arriving in India his companion has been separated from him, and he's heard stories of people disappearing at the hands of mysterious white figures. What's different, though, is that he's got a feisty temp from Chiswick at his side - the hugely-popular Donna Noble is at last starring in a full-length Doctor Who novel.

Mark Morris is at the helm for this story, Ghosts of India. It's 1947, and the Doctor and Donna's visit to Calcutta takes an unexpected turn when they discover that recent reports of lights in the sky coincide with visions of Shiva, and an alien energy source is affecting people and animals in worrying ways. Swept up in an increasingly complex series of mysteries, the pair are assisted in their investigations by a certain spiritual leader, who goes by the name of Mohandas Gandhi . . .

As a fan of Donna, my hopes were high for her first appearance in the books, but I was left slightly disappointed. On a number of occasions, especially in the earlier scenes, she seems a lot more like the loud comedy Donna from The Runaway Bride than the mature and mellowed adventurer we saw later on. I'd let this pass, if not for the fact that Donna's arrival in the books was delayed (the three novels released during her time onscreen featured Martha Jones) so that the readers and authors would have more time to adapt to her changed personality. There really is no excuse for the shaky characterisation which litters the first few chapters, and it's a shame that the Doctor's early description of her as "Long red hair. Shouts a lot" is about as far as Donna goes at times.

What Mark Morris has excelled with, though, is the interaction between Donna and the Doctor. Even though I didn't always buy into the way she was written as an individual, her relationship with the Time Lord is portrayed very faithfully indeed. They gently insult and tease one another, but deep down there's an affection and mutual respect which they share, and the bond is captured beautifully by Morris.

Donna aside, the other main "selling point" of this novel would seem to be the guest appearance by Gandhi, continuing Doctor Who's recent tradition for so-called celebrity historicals. As with the television appearances of Shakespeare and Dickens, Gandhi is presented as one of those rare people whose intellect and wisdom is on a par with that of Doctor himself. Morris depicts him as a calm, sympathetic, and open-minded individual, not visibly bothered or surprised by the Doctor's discussion of otherworldly life and space travel. Best of all, though, is that his character is made accessible to a younger modern audience, presented in a clear and simple context, without taking away any of the characteristics that made him such a great man. The final scene, in which the Doctor reveals Gandhi's fate to Donna as the TARDIS leaves, is genuinely quite moving, and Gandhi's appearances throughout the book are some of its highlights.

As a result of the effort Morris puts into Gandhi's character, and the Doctor/Donna dynamic, a few of the other characters suffer. The book has a relatively large supporting cast, and not many get decent development; the Campbell family, for example, are the embodiment of by-the-numbers "British family living in the colonies" stereotypes that have been seen in countless books and television shows. To an extent, giving characters familiar and predefined roles within the society and environment like this is understandable, because it's easy to see how each one fits in right from the start; but in contrast to the exemplary characterisations elsewhere, the deficit is more noticeable than normal, which is disappointing.

The monsters of the book are the Gelem Warriors, who are intimidating and mysterious at first, but become all the more gruesome when their origins are revealed. As with the very best Doctor Who monsters - the Daleks and the Cybermen springing to mind as two obvious examples - the horror of what these creatures do is then enhanced further by the horror of what they are, and they make a huge impact as threatening and unnerving creatures.

All things considered, then, this is a pretty good start for the latest set of novels. As Donna's literary debut, it's perhaps not as good as I'd hoped, but as a solid Doctor Who adventure, it's good high-standard stuff.