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October 31st, 2019 29 comments

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Doctor Who At Childhood’s End by Sophie Aldred

Available to order from www.amazon.co.uk

Past, present and future collide as the Thirteenth Doctor meets classic Doctor Who companion Ace – in the first epic novel from the woman who played her, Sophie Aldred.

Once, a girl called Ace travelled the universe with the Doctor – until, in the wake of a terrible tragedy they parted company. Decades later, she is known as Dorothy McShane, the reclusive millionaire philanthropist who heads global organisation A Charitable Earth.

And Dorothy is haunted by terrible nightmares, vivid dreams that begin just as scores of young runaways are vanishing from the dark alleyways of London. Could the disappearances be linked to sightings of sinister creatures lurking in the city shadows? Why has an alien satellite entered a secret orbit around the Moon?

Investigating the satellite with Ryan, Graham and Yaz, the Doctor is thrown together with Ace once more. Together they must unravel a malevolent plot that will cost thousands of lives. But can the Doctor atone for her past incarnation’s behaviour – and how much must Ace sacrifice to win victory not only for herself, but for the Earth?


Categorised under: Books, Story books

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29 comments

  • Seanoff

    September 2nd, 2020 - 10:50pm

    For anybody who’s interested, this is currently 99p on Amazon Kindle.

    Reply
  • Anonymous

    November 12th, 2019 - 7:27pm

    I like the look of this, Will there be any signed copies going up for preorder as well?

    Reply
  • Anonymous

    November 9th, 2019 - 8:52am

    Be great if following this she makes a return to the new tv series would be great to see her on screen come face to face with the 13th Dr!

    Reply
  • Whofan44

    November 8th, 2019 - 12:52pm

    I do wonder if the upcoming Big Finish audio Dark Universe which also features an older Ace deliberately being release probably less than a month before this book is intentional or coincidental. I would probably lean towards the latter. I also hope one does not contradict the other.

    Reply
  • Daz

    November 5th, 2019 - 12:29am

    Ace meeting the thirteenth Doctor sounds great I will have to get this, and it’s by Sophie too who better to write about Ace!
    It’s great when the classic and new series cross over hopefully we will get Ace on the show again one day too.

    Reply
  • The Flying Shark

    November 1st, 2019 - 7:42am

    Yes Yes Yes! Definitely buying! Hope she does signings for the book too, and an audiobook as well as she has a wonderful voice.

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      November 1st, 2019 - 3:43pm

      Audio book confirmed. Sophie is the reader.

  • Anonymous

    November 1st, 2019 - 1:26am

    Love the striking cover as well. Ace is back! Sounds good. Like how the title spells out ace as well. To those concerned about whether it contradicts previous who lore I wouldn’t worry to much as ace’s continuity is confused anyway. Look at it like this, the crack in time means all history is in flux so that all timelines count. In one timeline ace follows the comics, in another virgin books, another BBC books and another big finish. The crack in time gives you the opportunity to accept all potential timelines or if for the sake of argument you don’t buy big finish CDs then you just forget about them. I don’t worry about continuity (never really have) but now we have the perfect answer. Crack in time changed it!

    Reply
    • Adam

      November 1st, 2019 - 10:22pm

      It does make a handy explanation 🙂 [as do others – Time War, etc.]

    • Anonymous

      November 6th, 2019 - 3:51am

      As far as I can tell, it seems to be
      -Traveled with Doctor.
      -Stayed on Gallifrey to become a Time Lord
      -Became involved with Time War (BF Gallifrey)
      -Following her involvement with the tine war, made her way back to modern day earth, where she started the ‘A Charitable Earth’ foundation (Sarah Jane Adventures, Class audios and Season 26 bluray trailer which, yes, I am counting as canon!)

  • Anonymous

    November 1st, 2019 - 12:10am

    Wonderful! So pleased about this

    Reply
  • I Cotterill

    October 31st, 2019 - 11:36pm

    Will this end up contradicting the New Adventures books and the Big Finish audios?

    Reply
    • Phasergrim

      November 1st, 2019 - 12:11am

      Maybe, but there are in universe ways of explaining such inconsistencies away. The popular one being that ripples from the time war changed things or created alternate time lines. But it could weave within the lines of pre-existing stuff, I imagine she’s had a bit of help on this like Tom Baker did with Scratchman and they could well have made sure it stayed true. But time will tell, it always does.

    • Simon Cooper

      November 1st, 2019 - 3:30pm

      They already contradict each other. And that’s before getting into that fact that she dies as a teenager in “Ground Zero”…

    • Xisco L

      November 1st, 2019 - 8:38pm

      This actually seems to be in keeping with the BF/SJA continuity what with her having A Charitable Earth (Class, Gallifrey: Time War).

    • Anonymous

      November 1st, 2019 - 9:06pm

      First mentioned in death of the doctor I believe

  • Andrew

    October 31st, 2019 - 10:44pm

    Been hoping for a thing like this ever since the Nice Season 27 blu-ray trailer.

    Wonder if Sophie will be referring to said trailer and/or her Ace stories with Big Finish to any degree in the plot.

    Reply
    • Adam

      November 1st, 2019 - 10:26pm

      I quite like the idea of that scene in the trailer, where you see the 7th Doctor’s silhouette through the window, being the very final scene of this book 🙂

  • Jamie D

    October 31st, 2019 - 10:20pm

    Now this sounds very interesting.

    Reply
  • Sean Bassett

    October 31st, 2019 - 10:17pm

    Pleasantly surprised that this is a Thirteenth Doctor novel. I assumed it was a Seventh Doctor one.

    Reply
  • bryan

    October 31st, 2019 - 10:03pm

    I have been waiting for the info for this, since it first appeared on Amazon.

    And it was worth the wait. Never for a moment did I think this would be a 13th Doctor novel.

    Fantastic news. Brilliant sounding Plot.

    Reply
    • Adam

      November 1st, 2019 - 10:38pm

      Yeah, I’m gobsmacked. I wonder how 13’s “fam” will react to Ace – I don’t think she mentioned travelling with other people before them at any point last series, so will they already know that or are they in for a shock like Rose was?

      Likewise, the subject of the Doctor’s gender change is bound to come up and I’m not sure the new lot know about that yet. I know they hear her mention being a man before, but do they realise she’s being serious or just think she’s joking? I don’t recall her even telling them she’s a Time Lady, so it’s not really clear how much of the basics they know about her.

      So many questions (and reasons to buy this book)…

      I hope this trend of actors from the show writing novels continues, too.

  • Son of Skaro

    October 31st, 2019 - 9:59pm

    Interesting. An Ace and 13th meet up.
    Intrigued to see how different the older Dorothy McShane is to The Ace we last saw in survival.

    Reply
  • Anonymous

    October 31st, 2019 - 9:54pm

    WhyisthisnotaTVepisode

    Reply
    • Adam

      November 1st, 2019 - 10:45pm

      I know, right?!

      That’s really my only concern – what if the show brings back another old character or ex-companion? They’ll almost certainly treat it like THAT’s 13’s companions first time meeting someone like that (for the sake of anyone who hasn’t read this) and contradict what sounds like is going to be a great read :/

      I know that’d hardly be the end of the world, but still.

  • A4geek

    October 31st, 2019 - 9:04pm

    On Amazon: ‘At Childhood’s End’
    Past, present and future collide as the Thirteenth Doctor meets classic Doctor Who companion Ace – in the first epic novel from the woman who played her, Sophie Aldred.

    Reply
  • Anonymous

    October 14th, 2019 - 2:34pm

    No info yet, but presumably a seventh doctor novel

    Reply
  • Sean Bassett

    October 14th, 2019 - 1:03pm

    Interesting. A new original Seventh Doctor novel?

    Reply
  • Sean Bassett

    October 14th, 2019 - 1:03pm

    Interesting. A new original Seventh Doctor novel?

    Reply

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