‘COMBAT MAGICKS’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Atilla the Hun with the Thirteenth Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yaz
At last! I’ve finished the trilogy of Series 11 ‘New Series Adventures’ books with the Thirteenth Doctor! 🙂
It’s fascinating how I’ve checked out these ‘Doctor Who’ books by the BBC, featuring Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor. In 2018, I read and listened to ‘The Good Doctor’ by Juno Dawson. I reviewed it in time for the 55th anniversary celebrations of ‘Doctor Who’. I’m very pleased I was able to do that.
Later in 2020, I read and listened to ‘Molten Heart’ by Una McCormack, which I shared my review on in time for the ‘March of the Thirteenth Doctor’ season on ‘Bradley’s Basement’ in 2021. And here, I’ve read and listened to ‘Combat Magicks’ by Steve Cole, which I’m sharing my review on in 2023. 🙂
Very fitting I’m sharing this review for the 60th anniversary celebrations of ‘Doctor Who’, especially as this is after the Thirteenth Doctor era ended in 2022. In 2018, when I reviewed ‘The Good Doctor’, Jodie Whittaker was quite new as the Thirteenth Doctor. I had no idea how her TV era would end up.
I was enjoying the middle of her era when checking out ‘Molten Heart’ in 2020. Reviewing the three Series 11 ‘Doctor Who’ books by the BBC in three different points in time wasn’t the intention. I wanted to check out and review the three Thirteenth Doctor era books all in a row in the year 2018.
After enjoying ‘The Good Doctor’, I purchased ‘Molten Heart’ and ‘Combat Magicks’ at Waterstones in Cardiff in December 2018. Sadly, I became busy and wasn’t able to find the time to check out all three books one after the other. I’m still glad I’ve been able to check out all three books in the end. 🙂
‘Combat Magicks’ is of course the third in the trilogy of Series 11 ‘Doctor Who’ books featuring the Thirteenth Doctor and her friends Graham, Ryan and Yaz. Arguably, this ‘Doctor Who’ book adventure takes place between the TV stories ‘It Takes You Away’ and ‘The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos’.
Mind you, Steve Cole and the two writers Juno Dawson and Una McCormack didn’t have much to go on when writing these ‘Doctor Who’ adventures for BBC Books. ‘Combat Magicks’ had been commissioned by Steve Cole himself and was written before Series 11 began airing in October 2018.
The only information that was available to the three authors writing these ‘New Series Adventures’ in book form was a character crib sheet, script extracts from ‘The Woman Who Fell to Earth’ and some images. It must have been very challenging for the three writers to come up with their stories.
Despite that, having watched Series 11 and the rest of the Jodie Whittaker/Chris Chibnall era, I found myself enjoying ‘Combat Magicks’ very much. I was able to get into the characters of the Thirteenth Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yaz, as you could easily get the tone of their voices when reading the text.
It also helps that Mandip Gill, who plays Yaz in the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, is the narrator of the ‘Combat Magicks’ audiobook, which I enjoyed listening to whilst reading the book in my hands. She doesn’t do exact recreations of the TARDIS regulars’ voices, apart from voicing Yaz herself of course.
But she does get the tone of what Jodie Whittaker, Bradley Walsh and Tosin Cole sound like as the Thirteenth Doctor, Graham and Ryan, especially from working them with them in the TV series. Mandip Gill is great as the narrator of ‘Combat Magicks’. I enjoyed listening to her in the audiobook.
Mandip Gill and Tim Bradley at the ‘London Comic Con Spring 2022’, February 2022
I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting and seeing Mandip Gill in real-life at the ‘London Comic Con Spring’ in February 2022. Mandip is suited as a narrator for this Thirteenth Doctor adventure compared to Clare Corbett who read ‘The Good Doctor’ and Dan Starkey who read ‘Molten Heart’. 🙂
‘Combat Magicks’ happens to be a pseudo-historical adventure in ‘Doctor Who’. This is in keeping with the tone of what was happening in Series 11 at the time, as there was a blend of historical and futuristic adventures for people to enjoy, which I appreciated during Jodie Whittaker’s first TV season. 🙂
In the story, the TARDIS lands in Gaul in the year 451 A. D. The Thirteenth Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yaz find themselves on the eve of battle between the forces of Attila the Hun and those of the crumbling Roman Empire. The Doctor soon learns that both sides are helped by sinister creatures. 😮
These creatures happen to be witches called the Tenctrama. Our TARDIS heroes are separated from each other, with Graham being allied with those in the Roman camp; Ryan meeting up with the Legion of Smoke, and the Doctor and Yaz forced to serve Attila as his brand-new personal sorcerers.
The story itself happens to be divided into 34 chapters. I read and listened to ‘Combat Magicks’ at a leisurely pace, mostly reading a chapter per day from October to November in 2023. I even read and listened to the story whilst I was away attending the ‘Scarborough Comic Con’ event in November. 🙂
Apparently, the Thirteenth Doctor TARDIS team find themselves taking part in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. This is an event that occurred on the 20th of June in the year 451 A.D. between a coalition led by the Roman general Flavius Aetius and the Visigothic king Theodric I against the Huns.
The Huns are led by their king Attila – better known as Attila the Hun. I didn’t know much about Attila the Hun before checking out this ‘Doctor Who’ story. The only time I’ve heard it mentioned is in a ‘Jeeves & Wooster’ Series 1 episode where Aunt Dahlia called Bertie Wooster ‘Attila the Hun’. 😀
Once again, this is in keeping in tone with the Jodie Whittaker/Chris Chibnall era, where some episodes introduced us to historical figures. Say what you will about Chris Chibnall’s ‘Doctor Who’ era, but I enjoyed being introduced to historical people that I had no idea about in the new TV series.
Attila is fascinating as a historical character, as he’s the leader of the Huns who’s against the Roman forces and their allies. Attila comes across as quite ruthless. The author Steve Cole must have done plenty of research in writing up Attila the Hun and the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in ‘Doctor Who’.
Apparently, the Doctor observes that Attila should have seen her last face when he’s commenting on that the Doctor and her friends don’t look Roman. This is supposed to be a reference to the Twelfth Doctor looking like Caecilius in ‘The Fires of Pompeii’. I wonder if many readers got that reference. 😐
Actually, when we’re introduced to Attila, he isn’t him straight away. Early in the story, the Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yaz meet him when the TARDIS is parked between the towns of Orléans and Chalons, near the small town of Catalaunum. He calls himself Bleda, who happens to be his brother.
It took a while for Bleda to be finally revealed as Attila the Hun and it’s shocking that Attila actually killed his brother. Attila forces the Doctor and Yaz to be his new witches, which causes a stir when the witches who have been helping the Huns and the Romans – the Tenctrama – come to the forefront.
The Tenctrama are interesting as an alien race, especially when they pose as witches. This put me in mind of ‘The Witchfinders’, which was an episode transmitted in Series 11 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. There are also echoes of ‘The Shakespeare Code’ whilst hearing and listening to this story.
When Mandip Gill voices the Tenctrama, which includes Inkri, Queile, Enkalo, Mekimma and Naesla, there’s a distortion effect to make them sound menacing in the audiobook. It’s interesting the Tenctrama sound distorted when speaking whilst interacting with the Thirteenth Doctor and friends.
As mentioned before, there are other historical figures appearing in the book like Flavius Aetius and Theodoric I. I didn’t know anything about the Visgoths when checking out ‘Combat Magicks’. There are characters like Vitus and Licinia Postuma, who are members of the Legion of Smoke in the story.
A certain character that gets the spotlight quite a bit is a horse called Bittenmane. He’s a male horse belonging to Attila the Hun, whom the Thirteenth Doctor and Yaz get to ride in the story. The image of Jodie Whittaker riding a horse was easy to visualise. I’m surprised it wasn’t done in the TV series.
Bittenmane also put me in mind of the horse Snowmane, whom King Théoden rode in ‘The Lord of the Rings’, both in the books, the BBC radio series and the film trilogy. A pity Bittenmane was killed, as the Tenctrama absorbed his life-force. The Doctor gave him some healing gel beforehand though.
The Thirteenth Doctor as a character is great to read and listen to in the story. Despite having very few resources to work from, Steve Cole gets her character spot-on. This is especially when she’s being heroic and tries to ease tensions between the forces on the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. 🙂
It’s also interesting that the Thirteenth Doctor tries to give the Tenctrama a fair chance when trying to persuade them to stop killing people as she could provide them an alternative source of energy to sustain themselves. I could easily visualize Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor in this book story.
Graham is equally a joy as a character in ‘Combat Magicks’. It’s intriguing how he and Ryan get separated from the Doctor and Yaz before he ends up separated from Ryan and is in the company of the Romans. Inadvertently, he provides healing gel when tending to some wounded Roman soldiers.
The Romans, of course, think that the healing gel is a form of magic – or ‘magick’ as the guest characters would call it in the story – whereas Graham says it’s ‘science’. The healing gel becomes significant in defeating the Tenctrama. Graham also happens to watch Harryhausen films. Intriguing. 😀
Ryan gets an intriguing character journey, especially when he’s interacting with Licinia Postuma – Liss, as she’s commonly known. I couldn’t help being reminded of the friendship/semi-romance Ryan had with Bella in ‘Orphan 55’, a Series 12 episode transmitted after ‘Combat Magicks’ was published.
I wonder if Ed Hime was inspired from reading ‘Combat Magicks’ to include the semi-romance between Ryan and Bella in ‘Orphan 55’. I say that because Ryan spends quite a lot of scenes with Liss in ‘Combat Magicks’. Not that they end up kissing each other by the story’s end, but it’s an intriguing comparison.
Something to mention is when Ryan first mentions the Doctor and the TARDIS, Liss tells him reports of a blue box found outside Rome when Nero was emperor (a reference to ‘The Romans’) as well as in Pompeii (references to ‘The Fires of Vulcan’ – a Big Finish audio story – and ‘The Fires of Pompeii’).
Liss mentions a carving of the TARDIS with a man and woman, who served as a family’s household gods. Naturally, Ryan assumed the Doctor was Donna Noble instead of the Tenth Doctor in the carvings. 😀 I really like how these ‘Fires of Pompeii’ references pop themselves into ‘Combat Magicks’.
Yaz spend a lot of time with the Doctor in this adventure. In 2018, I didn’t anticipate that Yaz would end up having romantic feelings for the Thirteenth Doctor, as established in ‘Eve of the Daleks’. When reading and listening to ‘Combat Magicks’, I couldn’t help keeping that story aspect in mind. 🙂
It’s clear how very fond the Doctor and Yaz are of each other, especially when the Doctor rescues Yaz from the Tenctrama and they’re riding on Bittenmane, before they get caught up in the story’s historic battle. Mandip Gill also provides her drive and energy as Yaz when she’s reading her dialogue in the audiobook. 🙂
It’s interesting how in the story, the Doctor gets the Huns, led by Attila, and the Romans, led by Aetius, to work together in order to defeat the Tenctrama. It isn’t an easily alliance, especially as Attila and Aetius are bitter enemies. I’m also reminded of ‘The Wrath of the Iceni’ audio story by Big Finish here. 🙂
The story of course ends with the Tenctrama defeated and the Thirteenth Doctor TARDIS team parting ways with Attila and Aetius. The TARDIS is off for another adventure whilst Attila and Aetius’ brief alliance will be short-lived. Their fighting will resume, but not for long, according to the Doctor.
‘Combat Magicks’ is a good ‘Doctor Who’ book to check out, and it showcases the Thirteenth Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yaz very well. It took some time to check out this story, especially with it being 34 chapters long, but I enjoyed reading it, especially with hearing the audiobook, well-read by Mandip Gill, in the background.
In some respects, this would make a good TV episode, if there hadn’t been a story about witches already in ‘The Witchfinders’. It was very intriguing to learn about Attila the Hun and his part in Earth history, and it was nice to check out this Thirteenth Doctor story for ‘Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary.
‘Combat Magicks’ rating – 8/10
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