This is the 57th novel published by the BBC to feature the 8th Doctor.  His companions are Fitz Kreiner and Anji Kapoor.

The TARDIS crew lands on a planet (presumably) where cartoon-like characters roam.  When the Doctor is shot and doesn't get back up, Streaky Bacon (a pig) goes with Fitz and the Doctor in the ambulance to Zanytown.

The Doctor eventually recovers and he, Fitz and Anji discover that their mere presence there is altering the way that the population is living.  When one of the citizens of Zanytown kills his nemesis, all hell breaks loose.

Fitz and the Doctor have to diffuse the syndicate of evil in destroying the world while Anji goes with the Skeleton Crew to find the source of the Crooked World.

Gloomy Forest was living up to its name.  Almost as soon as the Spook Wagon had crossed its threshold (its driver, Mike Leader, was trying out a new short cut), the sky had darkened.  At first, Anji had put this down to the thick canopy of leaves above her.  Then she had realised that, without any warning, storm clouds had gathered.  There was no rain, but intermittent forks of lightning lit the darkness, followed by ominous rolls of thunder.  The black, wizened trees formed ghoulish silhouettes, as if they were reaching out with sharp talons.

A mile or so along the winding forest road, the van had broken down, the cause of its malaise unknown.  Mike, a tall, blond, handsome nineteen year-old who dressed older, had looked under its bonnet, and Anji hadn't been able to resist peering over his shoulder.  The van, she had been surprised to see, had an engine (or at least an approximation of one; for all she knew, it could have been a lump of scrap metal).

'Well, gang,' Mike had said, 'it looks like we're going to have to find a garage.'

'You mean we've got to walk through this spooky old forest?' the skinny, nervous Tim Coward had wailed.  'On foot, like?  What if we run into a ghost?'

'Oh, Tim!' the dumpy Thelma Brains had groaned, huge eyes blinking through the lenses of her thick-framed glasses.  'How many times do I have to explain to you that free-floating spectral manifestations cannot exist in the rational world?'

'Still, perhaps Tim's got a point,' the group's slender redhead, Harmony Looker, had said.  'Perhaps somebody ought to stay to look after the van.  It's got all our instruments inside.'

Anji had been left out of the ensuing discussion - and, preoccupied with her own thoughts, she hadn't followed it too closely.  She wasn't sure how it had come to be that Mike, Thelma and Harmony had all got to stay in the warmth and relative safety of their vehicle, while a reluctant Tim had headed into the dark forest with only his pet dog for company.

'What should we do until Tim and Fearless come back, Mike?' asked Harmony.

'I don't know,' shrugged Mike.  And he and the two girls stared through the windscreen, occasionally blinking but otherwise motionless.

Anji paced restlessly outside, wrapping her arms about herself to stave off a chill wind and wondering if she should have gone with Tim Coward after all (at least then she would have been doing something).  When first she had flagged down the Spook Wagon and met the Skeleton Crew - a clean-cut, teenage rock band with a shaggy, canine mascot - she had thought they seemed fairly normal.  She was in danger of revising that opinion.

Then Tim returned, breaking through the trees at a run, his hair standing on end, his bony arms waving frantically, his dog at his heels.  His friends jerked into action, leaping from the van to greet him, Mike shouting a concerned 'What's wrong, you guys?'

'We ran into a ghost!' stammered Tim through chattering teeth.  He pointed vaguely back the way he had come, then he and Fearless dived beneath the Spook Wagon, although their shaking legs - and Fearless's stumpy tail - remained visible.

Thelma folded her arms and smiled indulgently.  'Oh, don't be ridiculous, you two.  I already told you, there's no such thing as -'

'A ghost!' gasped Harmony, as a bizarre apparition came stumbling towards them.

'You've got to be kidding,' said Anji, joining the others to get a better look.

'I believe I may be forced to reconsider my objections,' wailed Thelma.

Mike cried: 'Let's skedaddle!'