McKenzie, Sophie

AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:

3 out of 5

(1 book)

Doctor Who: Icons - Frida Kahlo And The Skull Children

An original adventure featuring the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker).  Eighteen year old Frida Kahlo encounters strange shimmering beings shortly before meeting an eccentric woman with a mysterious blue box in the park.  Teaming up, Frida and the Doctor discover that the shimmering beings are seeking to experience the sensations of humanity by seizing control of the bodies of children.

This book is fine.  But not much more than that.

I think what really holds it back from being genuinely engaging is how it fails to take advantage of the inclusion of Frida Kahlo herself.  The version of Frida we get here is the one after the devastating accident that gave her chronic pain for the rest of her life but before she's actually chosen to channel her pain into being an artist.  So, having the Doctor meet an iconic artist before they've become an artist seems a bit of a waste.  Worse, there's the implication that Kahlo becomes an artist due to the Doctor's intervention and I've always hated Who historicals which make the Doctor responsible for the life choices of real, historically important people (don't get me started on that awful 'mavity' joke).

Similarly to the fact that this book doesn't utilise Kahlo's most interesting life experiences, the aliens featured here don't really gel well with Kahlo's inclusion either.  They're living binary code and the solution the Doctor finds is very much computer-based, none of which would even mean anything to a Mexican woman in the 1920s, let alone feed thematically into their inclusion.  Why not make the aliens something to do with art?  Or even to do with the nature of chronic pain?  Then at least there would be a coherent link between them and the titular icon.

3 out of 5

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