Doctor Who New Series Adventures Novels by BBC Books

Doctor Who: Winner Takes All | Book Review

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Winner Takes All (2005) by Jaqueline Rayner is the third of the Doctor Who New Series Adventures novels and stars the Ninth Doctor, Rose Tyler and Mickey Smith. This time, the Doctor takes Rose back home to see her mum, Jackie, only to find all her neighbours are addicted to a strange new scratchcard with even stranger prizes. Why are so many people winning free holidays and never coming back? And why does the second-place prize – a video game called Death to Mantodeans – seem so realistic? The Doctor, Rose and Mickey investigate and find themselves caught up in an alien war, the outcome of which depends entirely on the Doctor’s gaming ability. (Minor spoilers below).

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Doctor Who The Monsters Inside Book Review

Doctor Who: The Monsters Inside | Book Review

Rating: 4 out of 5.

The Monsters Inside (2005) by Stephen Cole is the second in the Doctor Who New Series Adventures novels, and takes The Ninth Doctor and his companion Rose to the Justicia System, a huge 26th Century prison system spread over six planets that houses prisoners from Earth’s colonies.

Upon landing on the planet, The Doctor and Rose are immediately taken into custody and separated, and they spend the rest of the book trying to find each other. Rose is taken to a human-only youth detention centre that is frequently described as a “borstal” and her time spent there is very much Orange Is the New Black but with a sinister twist — some of the warders are not who they say they are and, in what is supposed to be a secure facility, kids are going missing seemingly at random. Meanwhile, The Doctor is taken to a for-profit scientific labour camp called the SCAT-house (dodgy name, I know — it stands for Species-led Creative and Advanced Technologies) and put to work on solving major scientific problems. Although he isn’t willing to help at first, he eventually reveals himself to be the brains of the bunch and has a scientific breakthrough, unwittingly advancing the plans of Justicia’s secret rulers. (Minor spoilers below.)

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Doctor Who New Series Adventures Book One The Clockwise Man

Doctor Who: The Clockwise Man | Book Review

Rating: 3 out of 5.

The Clockwise Man (2005) by Justin Richards is the first of the Doctor Who New Series Adventures novels that were initially released alongside the reboot of Doctor Who in 2005. The Ninth Doctor and Rose land in 1924 to visit the British Empire Exhibition in London, and instead find themselves running (as always) headfirst into danger, on the hunt for a mysterious assassin. After a case of mistaken identity — and multiple run-ins with a zombie cat — the plot thickens as they learn that some of their new friends may be lying to them. But which ones, and why? (Minor spoilers below.)

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Keanu Reeves as sentient tumbleweed, Sage

Review | The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Everyone’s favourite yellow sponge returns for his third movie debut alongside the usual cast of ocean-dwelling misfits in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run. After the kidnapping of his beloved pet snail Gary, SpongeBob sets off on a rescue mission with his best friend Patrick and a robot named Otto (Awkwafina). Headed for The Lost City of Atlantic City to confront the self-obsessed King Poseidon (Matt Berry) who is using Gary’s slime as a beauty treatment, the duo must undertake a series of increasingly bizarre challenges before they can reach Poseidon’s palace and save Gary.

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How to make money online: a beginner’s guide

Having recently become funemployed a couple of months ago, I have spent an almost unhealthy amount of time on the internet in an attempt to earn some extra money and stop my bank account from shouting at me.

At first I earned basically nothing – a lot of the online “jobs” out there are massive scams, and a lot of others pay next to nothing for a huge amount of work. Now, I’ve settled into a routine that, when I spend a proper amount of time on it, will earn me a decent amount of money each month (yay!). 

So, here’s a list of resources and tips that I’ve cobbled together in the past month or so – I hope it helps you start earning too!

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Jars of jam on a shelf

How to fix overcooked, overset, or too-thick jam in less than 30 seconds

I recently made several jars of jam to give as Christmas gifts, but had to keep the first batch as it came out so thick it was almost inedible.

I’m also very lazy, so shoving it all back into the pan and mixing in other things to try and thin it out was completely out of the question.

Luckily for me, though, this is 2018 and technology exists!

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