The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Collection. Eleven Classic Adventures. Eleven Brilliant Writers. One Incredible Doctor. Festival Of Death by Jonathan Morris is NuWho Series Six. Or, to put it another way, Series Six of NuWho is Festival Of Death. First published in 2000, Morris novel sees the Doctor arriving somewhere hes already saved only to find he made the ultimate sacrifice to do so. Realising his fate and accepting it in less than Moffats year-long storyline, the fourth Doctor travels back in time to the same place to meat his destiny. This novel is a classic example of having to read a book more than once to get everything out of it, as it contains more time travelling confusion than anything the television series has cooked up. Near the halfway mark I was getting frustrated by the novel, not being able to understand a great deal, which conflicted with my level of enjoyment massively. But by the second half, where the Doctor starts travelling backwards to the start of the book, answers start to emerge and you find it amazingly satisfying and oh so smugly clever that one man can pull off a narrative this exhausting. The book isnt the greatest, mainly because of the high maintenance plot and level of questions hurled at you in the first part, but Festival Of Death really does shine and become a gem the further through you get, meaning it is un-put-down-able by the end at which point you want to travel back in time as well, just to discover some of the bafflingly brilliant revelations that come page after page. The fact that this novel was written over a decade before Matt Smiths Eleven dies in Utah is incredible. I really want to know if Moffat has read this book and used it for influence or inspiration as it really is close to his view of the show. One big point of criticism is where the novel fits in with the television counterpart. The Romana featured here is Lalla Wards, although it reads more like Mary Tamms incarnation at times, when she keeps barking at the Doctor about not passing exams and the first law of time. Also, whilst Morris is good at pulling off Douglas Adams style of humour for which Series Eighteen is so magnificent, he doesnt quite get it, with some of the Doctors jokes falling under par. It missed that magic which Adams injected into his script, however this contained a much stronger sense of danger and seriousness at times, which the series badly needed at the time. Whilst talking about comparisons between Series Eighteen and Festival, I couldnt help but spot little bits of plot here and there that felt similar to each story from that series. Im not putting this in a bad way, it felt like Morris paid tribute to the 1979/80 series and it reads as though hes a true fan of what is, possibly, the most underrated and funny series of Doctor Who ever, whilst also, in true Who style, paying tribute to the future, showcasing some of Moffats great stories due twelve years after the novel hit the bookshelves. A difficult yet very worthy read and one that reflects the best of Tom Bakers fourth Doctor, both the humour and the darkness. On a final note, prepare to get your magnifying glass out to read this, as the BBC seem determined to keep each novel at the same page count by making this novel near-impossible to see. Smart thinking, Auntie! The Doctor returns in...Fear Of The Dark by Trever Baxendale.