A review by plaidbrarian
Doctor Who: All-Consuming Fire by Andy Lane

5.0

Not high art, by any means, but a hell of a lot of fun. "Doctor Who by way of Sherlock Holmes with a dash of Lovecraft" sounds like the recipe for the worst fanfic imaginable, but Andy Lane pulls it off admirably. And actually writing it as a Holmes pastiche, telling the tale from Watson's and (intermittently) Bernice Summerfield's perspectives, was a brilliant touch, making the Doctor a secondary character in his own story while placing him on the same narrative plateau as Holmes at the same time. Maybe it suffers a bit from the same curse as all non-Doyle Holmes stories in that Lane feels the need to reference every conceivable Sherlockian detail - Reference to the giant rat of Sumatra? Check. Mycroft appearance? Yup. Moriarty? What do you honestly think? - but given that at least two other Doctors put in cameos here, it's not like he's limiting himself to overindulging in just one character's world. And really, if you get to play in such an awesome sandboxes, it makes sense that you'd want to use as many of the toys as possible.