Terrence Dicks does get a bit of the shaft in Doctor Who fiction. Too traditional, the General Doc / Pertwee Doc concept he returns each incarnation of the Doctor to in his works, the mining of familiar ground, the nods to the TV show and Time Lord history.

I still enjoy his works immensely, though. It could be that I read a huge amount of his Target novelisations, and know his writing style on sight. Then again, it could be that for all his flaws, the man does know Doctor Who better than anyone else around and that he can still tell a ripping yarn.

Endgame is a sequel to his excellent Players, and although a bit less in standard, is a fun way to spend an afternoon. Dicks does with few words what takes other authors far too many. And in his own uber-traditional way, he does manage to toss in a very radical idea without ever calling attention to it like so many others have done in their novels.

Endgame's biggest theme is this: What if the Doctor was bored with adventuring and decided to retire? What would spark him back into action?

And with this wonderful radical concept, Uncle Terrence gives us a third wonderful pseudo historical romp, this time through the beginnings of the cold war and a very famous spy scandal that hit MI6. Toss in his mysterious time meddling aliens - The Players - and sprinkle with a couple of heavyweights from history and watch what happens.

As usual, Dicks relies on his strengths: solid plot, crisp writing and enough set pieces to keep everything hustling along. The only downsides are his takes on Harry Truman and Josef Stalin, both who come off as one dimensional ranters rather than world leaders. Philby, Burgess and MacLean, on the other hand sparkle on the page. Their interaction with each other and the Doctor is nothing short of fabulous.

Unlike in other efforts, you can definitely see more Pertwee in the Doctor in Endgame than in The Eight Doctors, which is a bit of a letdown. But, Dicks does let us into the head of the Doctor and let us see his thoughts without having it come off as pretentious.

Overall? It's Terrence Dicks. He'll never be the subject of controversy, nor will he ever write masterpieces. What he'll do is write ripping yarns that will put a smile on your face and let you back into your childhood.

And what is wrong with that?