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Firstly I should admit to knowing Jamie and Leslie and being mentioned in the acknowledgements. You can therefore take the review as you like.

The best thing about The Black Archive, which is basically a book on a single Doctor Who story that deals with some aspect of that stories creation or content. The format is loose enough that the authors can approach a story from whatever point of view piques there interest. That makes for a series that usually brings something new and interesting to the analysis of a Doctor Who story.

Jamie and Leslie have focused on two main aspects of the story - it's relationship to Dickens' original novella and Christmas in general and the ethics at the heart of the stories. It is interesting that we rarely question the Doctor's ethics despite them sometimes appearing to be both hypocritical and holier than though. I've found this particularly with new Doctor Who but I remember questioning how the Doctor - in Creature from the Pit - is happy to hand over a planet to a man who, shortly before, was second in command to the main villain and a murderer.

This book is well researched, as one would expect. Although my minor quibble is it could have done with more sources for the ethics section. But then perhaps I'm being harsh. It isn't supposed to be a philosophical thesis.

Finishing this reminded me that I really do need to read more Black Archives. You learn a lot from them sometimes.