Peri is one of my favourite companions from the TV episodes, so I thought I'd choose one of her novels to kick off with. This one is from the Virgin Missing Adventures collection and sees her and the 6th Doctor, Colin Baker, land in an alternate version of ancient Rome. Anyone that's seen the TV episode Vengeance on Varos will recognise Peri's impromptu change of appearance, and much is made of it here. She becomes a much more confident person and begins to revel in her transformation.

For someone who hasn't read too many Doctor Who novels, you can imagine my surprise when early on we're treated to a scene with Peri taking a dip in the pool as naked as a newborn babe. It's at this point that the Tardis encountering an unexpected energy force is thrown around and so we see Peri sluiced headlong and still naked through the corridors of the Tardis and into the Control Room where the Doctor eventually covers her modesty with his coat.

A good start to a novel by any standards. ( )

After taking Peri to snap photographs of Cleopatra's barge as it sails down the Nile, the Doctor and his companion set course for their next destination: Rome in the 2nd century AD. Upon landing, however, they find that they've journeyed forward only a few decades and that they have arrived in a Rome with electric lighting and dirigibles floating in the sky. With the Doctor's TARDIS inexplicably cut off from the Eye of Harmony the two scramble to restore the ship's power and unravel the mystery the steam-powered Rome — one which will lead them to one of the Doctor's most dangerous enemies.

With over a dozen novels to his credit, Christopher Bulis ranks as among the most prolific contributors to the various series of Doctor Who novels in the 1990s and 2000s. Reading this book, it's easy to see why. His novel is a brisk work that nicely conveys the larger world in which Bulis sets it. Best of all is his portrayal of the sixth Doctor, which conveys all of the best parts of the character without any of the flaws which made his tenure on the show so controversial. While the plot itself has plenty of formulaic elements, the novel itself is an enjoyable read that will provide many fans of the franchise with a pleasant way to pass the time. ( )

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I can recommend this Sixth Doctor novel to my Whovian classicist friends: it is set in a world where Antony and Cleopatra discovered alien technology and won the Battle of Actium, and a generation later, their twins and Cleopatra's son by Julius Cæsar together are ruling the known world as an uneasy triumvirate. Of course, all is not as it seems, but Bulis has produced quite a good story with some quite subtle underlying themes of change and transformation, and in particular gives Peri a rather better story than she usually gets. The characterisation of the Sixth Doctor is a bit off-kilter, but actually in rather a good way. Good fun. ( )