An anniversary e-book featuring the first Doctor, William Hartnell, written by Eoin Colfer. When I first heard about the latest anniversary celebration idea for Doctor Who I thought it was genius. The programme has always had children at the centre of its hearts and for Puffin Books to have a different successful childrens author write an adventure each month is a wonderful idea. Then I got even more excited as Eoin Colfer was revealed to pen an adventure featuring the very first Doctor, William Hartnell. Sadly thats about where the smart ideas end, as this little e-book, running to around fifty pages in length, just isnt a William Hartnell adventure. Im a little old school and dont like my Hartnell stories to talk about regenerations and Time Lords as these werent developed when he was the face of the show for the first half of Whos sixties run. Talking about regeneration too much is also one of the reasons the eighties got into a lot of trouble with audiences, so to have it chucked about all over this story just brings it down. Sometimes people just dont learn with time. Reading the novella, its also easy to gain a sense that Colfer hasnt actually watched any Doctor Who before David Tennants era, as this feels crafted for a new Doctor and certainly not for the first Doctor, who gets into a fight, calls the TARDIS old girl (something that didnt come around until after Doctor Ones tenure) and doesnt call people child, get peoples names wrong or hmm anywhere near as often as he should do, in fact he gets every name right. This is not the William Hartnell I love to watch on TV. At one point he even sees his mother and reveals how he sometimes has premonitions of how future incarnations of him look like. The story itself is a bit poor as well, having the Doctor lose a hand prior to where we start reading, this all smells a bit like the tenth Doctor losing a hand and gaining a new one, whereas this Doctor isnt in the first fifteen hours of a regeneration cycle, he instead has to have a new hand surgically attached to his body via the help of an old friend in the year 1900. The Soul Pirates are a worthy idea, however, and despite being seen before in numerous forms of media, it is still a successful and loved menace today and fits in with the timeframe of this e-book. Whilst taking a strong dislike to the story (as a Doctor Who story), I must admit it all raised a smile to my face when I reached the epilogue, which I wont spoil here, but it does make the book worth a read as it only takes an hour of time away from you. And at an hours read, it is a good-looking buy at £1.99, you might as well get a good story from an insanely talented writer, but if youre looking for a Doctor Who adventure with the first Doctor, dont buy this e-book. A very disappointing start to what should be a fantastic series of eleven novellas from Puffin Books. If youd prefer more meat to your books, Id recommend BBC Books 50th anniversary reprint of the Hartnell adventure Ten Little Aliens, out this month!