This is, every year, the book I read first. Or, I suppose, the relevant year’s edition is the book I read first. I get this every year from Mum (or Santa) (I think it was around 2014 or so that Mum migrated from The Simpsons Annual to the Doctor Who annual), and it acts as a nice jumping off point to read when I go to bed on New Year’s Day, inevitably very tired, maybe a little hungover, and conscious that I have work the next day. It’s a quick. easy read.
As a result of this tradition, I have an opinion on the comparative quality of Doctor Who annuals. I’m not saying this is my proudest ability, but we play the hands we are dealt. It’s not a matter of caring, or a strongly held opinion, but I’d be able to make an argument if pushed.
So where does 2024’s sit in the pantheon? It’s fine? I guess? For me it lives and dies on the quantity and quality of the fiction/prose, rather than the filler. 2022 had three quite good stories as I recall; 2023 was down to one good story; this year, only really half a story - the second half told in comic strip. No one involved in this seems to have really nailed the voice of David Tennant’s latest incarnation of the Doctor, which lends it a real lack of versimilitude.
It’s not exactly salvaged (nor does it overly need salvaging, let’s not be melodramatic) by the presence of some hints from Russell T Davies as to what lies in store next series, but it’s fun to have it and to feel that some care has been paid by those overseeing the franchise, such as I suppose it is now.
I do find it funny, though, that if RTD cares, no one in the proofreading process seemed to notice that they’d printed the answer key to the spot the difference puzzle in the main body of the book, rather than the unadorned version in which you might have to actually spot the differences yourself.