While Doctor Who fans wait impatiently to learn more about the upcoming Christmas special—and the future of the veteran sci-fi series in general—here’s a nifty way to pass the time. Doctor Who: 1,001 Nights in Time and Space gathers “folktales rescued from around the Whoniverse,” written by Steve Cole and Paul Magrs, with illustrations by Magrs.
io9 has an excerpt to share that feels especially timely in this weird period of limbo for the TV series. “The Tale of the Sleepers” imagines that the monsters and villains of the Doctor Who universe are all in hibernation, awaiting the right time to rise, shine, and attempt to take over the planet or the galaxy—or perhaps all of time and space? If only there were someone very powerful around to intervene!
Here’s the official description of Doctor Who: 1,001 Nights in Time and Space, followed by the tale (it’s very cautionary—take note, BBC!), as well as its accompanying artwork.
“In this book of stories both long and short, you can journey alongside the Doctor and his Companions through 24 folk tales and fables. Retold from unusual perspectives, 1,001 Nights in Time and Space is a bubbling mix of heroes and villains, soldiers and monsters, princesses, goblins, demons, tricksters, computers, ghosts, and gods from all across the universe… taking inspiration from the entire 60-plus-year lifespan of Doctor Who.”
The Tale of the Sleepers
All over the galaxy, monsters are sleeping. Underfoot, deep in caves, hidden from view. You don’t have to go looking for them, because you already know they are there.
Monsters are waiting.
Armies of creatures. Thousands of them. Just waiting for the right day to waken. Travelers in time, in a way. Progressing at the unspectacular velocity of one second per second. Yoked to the onward progression of time, slumbering through the years.
What are they waiting for? The long nighttime to end? Do they dream of future conquests? Happier days?
Under the crust of the Earth the reptiles lie dormant, hoping for a time when all dangers have passed and their world has become a safer place to live. The skies will no longer be full of fire, the mountains will no longer be crashing down, and the oceans will have stopped boiling. They sleep in good faith and suppose that when they wake they will find that the planet is still theirs.
They have a nasty surprise to come.
Elsewhere on Earth, in dark pockets of fetid air sleep Zygons, refugees from a ruined world far away, keen to claim this one for their own. In their dreams they practice their shapeshifting ways. They dream of bodysnatching and wearing other people’s faces.
Under sheets of ice in the polar caps, Martians rest in their green regalia. Nearby, seed pods are ready to defrost and return to parasitical life. Giant spider eggs lie dormant at the Earth’s core and baby spider legs twitch inside gelatinous shells.
Down in the tunnels beneath our human cities hide silver giants, temporarily deactivated, prepared for another invasion to start.
In far distant worlds, other armies lurk below the surface. Deep in the tombs of Telos the last of the Cybermen stand upright as sleeping sentinels in their metal honeycombs. Under the icy volcanoes of Spiridon, the Daleks stand ready in frozen catacombs for their call to arms.
They sleep confidently, deeply, hopeful for the future. They know their day will come soon.
But . . .
What if they’re all wrong?
What if the mechanism that’s supposed to wake them never activates? That cosmic alarm clock to trigger the melting of the ice, the blaring of the klaxon, or the chemical infusion that will restore them to life? What if no one and nothing comes to revive them?
What if their moment in history has passed?
Those endless hidden armies in their caves and steel tombs—will they just go on dreaming? All that ferocious energy—where does it go? The violent imaginations of monsters, hot and potent as magma, churning and smoldering under our feet forever.
Imagine someone had a map of the universe that spanned all the dimensions. Imagine they knew the locations of all those sleeping armies. They might tiptoe around and examine the impassive faces. Marvel at the daunting forms. Would they be foolish enough to meddle with the controls? Would they risk taking their lives into their hands?
If you could control an army like this, you could take over the whole galaxy. Maybe that’s the dream of tomb robbers and grave hunters all over the cosmos. Or perhaps they think those slumbering sentinels guard hidden treasures? Secrets of great civilizations. The storehouse of all their wealth.
In every civilization, every iteration of this tale, there is an ancient figure who guards the iron gates at the front of the cave where the army sleeps. A magician, a witch or shaman there to protect them. Or perhaps to protect us: to see that the monsters never get out. They have a job to do and grow shaggier and more decrepit as the centuries turn. But they sit there still, contemplating a change in the air. Waiting for a breeze to blow, bringing whispers from afar. Whispers that could wake the seemingly dead.
The most wicked schemers and dreamers never die. They simply find a quiet spot, hidden away from the decent folk of the universe, and then they slowly close their eyes.
They wait. And they’re waiting still.
One day, they promise themselves, they will come back. The galaxy will be theirs again.
Silent, unseen, unknown, beneath our very feet. Best tread very carefully.
Credit: Doctor Who: 1,001 Nights in Time and Space: Folktales Rescued from Around the Whoniverse, by Steve Cole and Paul Magrs with illustrations by Paul Magrs; published by Ten Speed Press, 2026
Doctor Who: 1,001 Nights in Time and Space: Folktales Rescued from Around the Whoniverse releases April 28.
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