Jim Norton

Written by Cavan Gilbey

2003 saw the celebration of Doctor Who’s fortieth anniversary, but the show was still off air with only the audio dramas, books and occasional animation on the website to satisfy the demands of fans. Luckily enough it was announced that year that Russel T Davies would be bringing the show back to television with Christopher Ecclestone and Billie Piper headlining the series, but to just slap the cherry on top of this sweet pie; 2003 would see the first completely animated Doctor Who serial called Scream of the Shalka.

Now barely anyone actually talks about this story, mostly because it’s one of the more niche bits of Modern Who history but it does seem to get a hell of a lot of love despite its status as a strange bit of non-canon material. Although it probably now is cannon given the reveal seen in The Timeless Children from a couple of years ago. But putting that garbage aside for a second, Scream of the Shalka is genuinely delightful and is a superbly written story that never overstays its welcome but instead leaves you wanting more, but the only other material we have from this Doctor is a novelisation and a short story (which is pretty good by the way).

So without further ado let’s delve into what makes this story so good, naturally all opinions expressed in this review are my own.