Not only do I enjoy attending Comic Cons for the incredible, welcoming and diverse atmosphere, or the celebrity signings and autograph opportunities but I also love taking a trip down Artists Alley, finding unusual works of art by comic artists and stuff I hadn’t previously heard of, being sold by writers.

This is one of those instances, where, late in the day on the second and final day of Portsmouth Comic Con in 2024, I finally got the chance to get around Artists Alley, seeing some familiar, as well as some new, faces.

Writer Cavan Scott is someone I’ve spoken to before at the very same Con, and he’s always so friendly and chatty; plus, he seems to write for the exact stuff that I’m into, such as Doctor Who, Star Wars and Judge Dredd, as well as his own creations, such as the excellent Dead Seas.

This time, it was a smaller hardcover that caught my eye as I waited for him to sign the copy of Dalek that I’d just purchased from his neighbouring writer, George Mann.

So it was that I came into possession of The Missy Chronicles, featuring everyone’s favourite, Mary Poppins-esque incarnation of The Doctor’s nemesis, The Master.

Seeing as Missy is one of my favourite characters in the history of Doctor Who (and, let’s face it, I genuinely can’t get enough of her cheeky, joyously evil ways), I picked up a copy.

And I wasn’t disappointed!

I didn’t even really know what I’d find inside the covers, which made it even more of a pleasant surprise.

Building off the superb line that Missy delivers  in the show (at the wonderful Twelfth Doctor, Peter Capaldi), “I’ve had adventures too. My whole life doesn’t revolve around you, you know”, The Missy Chronicles gives readers six of those adventures she mentions, with plenty of fun and nastiness, delivered with a cheeky wink and much enjoyment from Missy herself.

First story Dismemberment sees Missy, freshly regenerated from her previous incarnation, attending the Gentlemen’s Club for evildoers that she’s been a member of for hundreds of years. Of course, the problem is that they don’t admit women, so Missy is promptly thrown out; of course, she’s not one for letting bygones be bygones, and sets about plotting some deliciously horrible revenge.

Though the concept of the club is an incredibly campy, silly creation, writer James Goss has as much fun as Missy does, in taking down its pompous clientele. It’s pretty infectious, and, though not one to be taken seriously, definitely has its more macabre moments alongside the fun, games and dark humour.

Lords and Masters does a great job of showcasing Missy’s twisted sense of justice, morality and fairness, as her TARDIS is hijacked and she’s forced to take on a job for the Time Lords. The aforementioned Cavan Scott writes this excellent, fast paced and very satisfying story that I enjoyed immensely.

Teddy Sparkles Must Die, by Paul Magrs, casts Missy in the role she, visually at least, looks like she was born to play: a Mary Poppins-esque Nanny. Here, her time travel shenanigans mess with a magical teddy bear and its young owners, in another story that has a fantastic twist in the tail.

The Liar, The Glitch and The Warzone has a clever title, but despite another decent twist or two, as well as someI found this Peter Anghelides-penned tale to be a bit less interesting and involving than the others on offer. Trivia: this story features the first appearance of The Thirteenth Doctor, aside from her debut in the renegeration scene of ‘Twice Upon A Time’.

Girl Power! by Jacqueline Rayner is an absolute blast, and almost certainly my favourite story in the book. It’s unique in its structure, unfolding across emails, text messages and group chats between cyborg Nardole (played by Matt Lucas in the show), the Twelfth Doctor and Missy. 

It sees the captured Time Lord making ever more outlandish and suspicious requests of Nardole and The Doctor; as she’s kept hidden in the Vault, with this story taking place during Season 10 of NuWho.

It’s brilliantly written, and you’ll read each one of the notes and messages in each character’s voice as you go, with Rayner doing a wonderful job of capturing each one’s different personality.

Lastly, there’s Alit in Underland, which takes place during the two part season finale of Season 10; what’s interesting about that is that those episodes are the last appearance of the Missy incarnation of The Master; so we open the book with what is essentially her first appearance, and end just before her last.

It’s very cleverly done, but to get the most out of Richard Dinnick’s story, you’ll need to be pretty familiar with the events of the two episodes it occurs within (World Enough and Time, and The Doctor Falls).

That said, it’s really good, with some excellent interplay between the Saxon Master and Missy; though it’s supposedly aimed at Young Adult readers, I wouldn’t have known or guessed that until I actually saw that classification for myself. Though there’s nothing here that I would say a teenager couldn’t handle; like Doctor Who itself, it teeters on the edge of horror and gore but doesn’t quite go to the darkest and most horrific places, certainly not without a wink and a smile.

So on the whole then, this is a great book for Whovians of almost all ages; it’s a fun, fast paced and varied selection of stories that doesn’t outstay its welcome, and features some excellent gap-filling of familiar moments during Missy’s all too brief existence on TV.

The Twelfth Doctor’s run feels to me like one of the most underrated and underappreciated eras of the show ever, and having rewatched it all again recently, my opinion on that has only solidified.

As for meeting Cavan Scott again, well he did write a very Missy-related message for me in my copy of the book, as you can see. And, as instructed, as I guess I have said quite a lot of nice somethings about the book he contributed to, haven’t I?

You can buy Doctor Who: The Missy Chronicles from Amazon here.