Today the Doctor Who blog Tea with Morbius reviews the novel The Pit by Neil Penswick (Virgin New Adventure, 1993). I’m a Doctor Who fan, so it’s interesting to hear of Lovecraftian cross-overs. Indeed, as Morbius points out, there are some similarities in the type and modus operandi of the monsters — even without overt crossovers. The novel is apparently widely held to be one of the worst Doctor Who novels ever written, but Tea with Morbius discerns an additional reason why the fans might dislike it. It’s far too Lovecraftian, apparently…

“The whole reason why I rediscovered Doctor Who was that I realised how similar the two can be. The New Adventures effectively incorporated Lovecraft’s Great Old Ones into the Whoniverse in All-Consuming Fire. But this book, written before then, is much more Lovecraftian in style. Not only does it feature ancient, extra-dimensional monsters described as ‘Old Ones’ who are worshipped by secret cults, but it has that overwhelming sense of cosmic hopelessness. The Doctor, normally invincible and indomitable, is reduced to utter impotence. It totally deviates from the pattern of Doctor Who. If every New Adventure novel was like this, we could not take it, but this one gets it right.”