Old Doctor Who - Part 4

[Replies From View]

BBV have apparently been continuing their K9 and 'Mistress' (i.e.Romana) audios but replaced K9 having lost the licence with a robotic ferret named BES.

I wish I was joking.


I'm pretty sure the silhouetted thigh-gap woman is Bootleg Romana.
God knows why the Trade Federation Battleship from Star Wars - the Phantom Menace is there.

McCoy was famous for having ferrets running around beneath his clothes before he became the seventh Doctor, so we'll see where this "pocket universe" leads.

[purlieu]

BBV is one of those really weird things that made sense during the wilderness years, but it boggles the mind as to how it's still going, with ever more desperate barrel scraping.




The Taint by Michael Collier

Why only now, in this lifetime, was it that things got so out of hand that he had to hide away in his ship to try and put them right? Had that transition from master planner to born-again novice of the universe so stripped him of his guile that he was left impotent to save those nearest to him?

I'm beginning to see why people refer to the Eighth Doctor of the book as useless. He spends most of the book going around getting beaten up, cornered, trapped, having his own plans go wrong, and generally not having a fucking clue. Who thought this would be a good characterisation?! Speaking of characterisation...

The next book introduce Fitz Kreiner, who'll be around until the end of the EDAs, so it'll be interesting to see what impression he gives.

Yes, great. He tries his hardest to run away at every available opportunity, except for the time when he tries to take advantage of Sam. Oh, and the Doctor kills his mum. While I'm sure there'll be some improvement over time, I'm not impressed so far. I appreciate that he's a lot more 'fun' than Sam immediately, but after she's attacked and passes out - also drunk - his first thought is to get her back to his house so he can see her in her underwear; when she wakes up next to him the next morning, he pretends they've had sex just to see if he can persuade her to do it 'again'. It's all very... well, 1990s.

All that said, The Taint is a surprisingly decent book, especially in comparison to his previous book, the utterly terrible Longest Day. Here we have the Doctor and Sam arriving in 1963 (of all years), discovering six patients receiving treatment for their mental health all have hallucinations about the same place - somewhere the Doctor has been. They all believe they're possessed by the devil, and the doctor treating them believes it's all to do with race memories. Meanwhile, a robot and his human chum are trying to capture Sam for nefarious purposes. In what's becoming a bit of an EDA staple, it turns out the robot is actually trying to help rid Earth of giant flea-like interdimensional parasites, and the six patients are all part of the plan. Things go wrong and said patients turn into psychopaths who want to destroy all life on Earth, while the robot realises the only way to kill the parasites is... to destroy all life on Earth.

The mystery is pretty well handled, building up at the right pace to keep the reader hooked without infodumping or getting boring. The characters are mostly strong, with sympathy being handed to the patients, and even Sam actually being decent for once. She's a bit of a generic companion, but lacks the tediousness of most of her appearances to date. The almost-a-villain, a nurse who has utter contempt for her patients, is a dull 'I know best' authority figure that the book could probably do without, but otherwise the characters were fine.

Overall, not a book I'm dying to re-read, but enjoyable enough and with some real imagination in the story itself. The only weak links were... oh dear, the Doctor and Fitz.

Next time on Doctor Who... Justin Richards gets his second shot at an EDA. Here's hoping it's an improvement on Option Lock.

[Mister Six]

Do the People from the Also People turn up in any books other than that one and Where Angels Fear?

[Alberon]

Fitz became one of my favourite companion of the various book series. I found where the direction they chose to go in with the EDAs later on frustrating, but I always liked him.

[A Hat Like That]

Do the People from the Also People turn up in any books other than that one and Where Angels Fear?

Down, Lawrence Miles

[purlieu]

Do the People from the Also People turn up in any books other than that one and Where Angels Fear?

God and Clarence have been in a few Bennys so far. Not sure if they'll be in any further ones but as they're responsible for the ongoing Gods storyline I wouldn't be surprised.

[A Hat Like That]

I can't actually remember The Taint.

[Replies From View]

I can't actually remember The Taint.

One of the notorious tragedies of putting on even a few pounds.

[A Hat Like That]

At least things get better now.

In the EDAs at least.

[Mister Six]

God and Clarence have been in a few Bennys so far. Not sure if they'll be in any further ones but as they're responsible for the ongoing Gods storyline I wouldn't be surprised.

Cheers!

[purlieu]

Demontage by Justin Richards

Look! An Eighth Doctor Adventure with the Eighth Doctor on the cover! And it only took them 20 books.

I don't know whether it's just because of the thin gruel that has been the majority of the EDAs so far, but I thought this was wonderful. I'd imagine if I'd gone to study English at university rather than Music Tech, I might have the syntax for it, but the words just leap off the page. Justin Richards is, of course, an established Who writer by this point, and he clearly has a certain level of aptitude. Regardless of plot or character, Demontage is so much more enjoyable to read than the past few simply by having genuinely enjoyable prose throughout.

In terms of narrative and character, it's got to be a Robert Holmes homage. The Doctor, Sam and Fitz turn up on a space base and find themselves caught in the middle of political intrigue and art forgery, with a cast of characters including a President, her untrustworthy second in command, an assassin, some intelligent aliens, and a pair of con men in charge of a phoney antique store. There's an uneasy alliance between two planets, a posthumous exhibition by a controversial artist, a casino and hotel complex with a more sinister underbelly, and a machine that makes paintings come alive. There are twists, jokes, lots of plot strands brought together in interesting ways, and even a little body horror.

The Doctor is better than he has been for a while, although still has a tendency towards uselessness (his big solution near the end is demanding the criminals stop, or he'll burn their paintings). Sam plays a smaller role than normal and is mostly fine, except for continually moaning about Fitz's smoking. Ah yes, Fitz. This is more like it. Without the really unsavoury behaviour of the last book, he's so much better. Basically a bit of an awkward loser who thinks he's a lot cooler than he is, and is constantly tripping over himself because of it. A lot of the humour comes from him, and he works well with the main and guest characters here. I could definitely come to like him.

Overall, if this was released during the second half of the NAs, it'd simply be a reasonable book, but here it feels like a much needed kick up the arse.

Next time on The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield... Lawrence Miles. So, this will be one of those range-redefining headfucks, then.

[Replies From View]

[purlieu]

Next time on The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield... Lawrence Miles. So, this will be one of those range-redefining headfucks, then.

Well, this was the understatement of the century.


Dead Romance by Lawrence Miles.

I don't have the language to do this book justice. It's a mind-boggling, captivating, heart-wrenching thing that pulls the rug from underneath you on numerous occasions and justifies it every single time.

It's the second Benny-lite book in a row (she doesn't appear at all, only referenced by name), and the second to be written as a first-person book by the main protagonist. Christine Summerfield is a drop-out, living in 1970 London, who encounters Chris Cwej, some creatures created by the Gods called spinxes, gets caught up in a Time Lord plot, discovers her entire universe is fake and eventually finds out she herself was created in a cloning machine so Chris Cwej could kill her. Three times. Her own bottle-enclosed universe is eventually used as a haven for the Time Lords to escape to, and they eventually basically invade this universe's Earth at the book's climax. They, the Doctor and the Daleks aren't specifically named, but Miles even finds a reasonable way around that.

There are so many memorable moments, most notably a creature referred to only as The Horror, which exists in the form of a window through to the real universe, and therefore effectively looks like a living piece of sky. There's also a lovely family tree of the Summerfields going back to 1930. Miles even throws in references to his other books - Christmas on a Rational Planet is there a couple of times, Gallifrey is abandoned (Alien Bodies), and a Ouija board experience brings up the phrase Interference, which is clearly a foreshadowing of his next Whoniverse-shattering epic.

It could easily be an utter mess, but it's written so, so well. Christine is probably the most brilliantly realised character in any Who book I've read - remarkable given that she's a clone created in an artificial universe - and seeing Chris turned into a genetically modified murderous agent of the Time Lords without losing his innate innocence is really horrifying to read. There's loads of other stuff I could mention but I'd be here all day.

An utterly, utterly remarkable book.

Next time on Doctor Who... I dunno, some EDA that will feel bland and insignificant in comparison, I'm sure.

[A Hat Like That]

nervous lol

[Bad Ambassador]

I've never been able to comprehend Miles' books. They're always such joyless affairs, seemingly preoccupied with being 'proper' SF novels rather than having anything in them that people might enjoy. A friend made me read Dead Romance and couldn't make anything of it. Same with his other books. I just get nothing from them at all.

[Fuck off and die, please]

Lawrence Miles, joyless?? There's more humour, wit and playfulness in Alien Bodies than the rest of the EDA'S combined!

(Well, apart from in Paul Magrs stuff)

[purlieu]

He does Big, Serious Stories and I wouldn't want to read him all the time, but once in a while an intelligent, snappily written doom-laden game-changer is just what the Doctor ordered.

[purlieu]

Revolution Man by Paul Leonard

Paul Leonard is very good at writing convincing, well developed, complex and sympathetic alien races. His stories aren't always that strong, but they feel so believably populated that it's sometimes easy to overlook it. So it's perhaps surprising that in Revolution Man, he leaves the source of the extraterrestrial influence irritatingly unresolved and vague. It doesn't feel intentional, especially in content of the rest of the final quarter of the book, which feels like it was knocked out in less time than it takes to read.

It's a shame, as there's a good - if not overly original - story here. Alien substance used as a drug in 60s London, hippies turning out to be less peace and love than they claim, telekinesis provided by the drug leading to some violent action against 'the system'. Sam gets annoyed by the 1969s misogyny, Fitz gets captured and brainwashed by Chinese communists. Nothing groundbreaking, but it feels like a well rounded scenario. The whole thing just fizzles out by the end, though.

There are also a couple of potentially dodgy bits, particularly in the very, very critical approach to the protestors and the more simplified take on China (Fitz is terrified of an attack on "Western Capitalism"). It's very difficult to tell Paul Leonard's political views from the book, and that may be intentional - and dealing with Mao is always going to complicate these issues - but overall the tone felt just a tad too far on the right for my liking. There's also the issue of the Doctor shooting someone through the head with a gun, and Sam then blaming it on Fitz.

Soooo yeah. It's an awkward book that, like at least a third of the EDAs so far, has the potential to be great but just squanders it one way or another.

Next time on Doctor Who... what the EDAs need now is the strong authorial voice of an established writer to keep the range from slipping further into... oh, no, it's another first timer.

[Bad Ambassador]

The Eight Doctors was published on this day in 1997, meaning both BBC Books lines are 25 years old today.

[purlieu]

Ah, well happy birthday EDAs.


Dominion by Nick Walters

Turns out it's not his first book, he co-wrote the Benny book Dry Pilgrimage with Paul Leonard. Which makes sense, as this feels like a Paul Leonard book, complete with a complete ecosystem of pretty well developed aliens. An entire pocket universe of them, in fact. Sam spends her part of the novel exploring the bizarre physics and weird creatures of this universe, known only as the Dominion.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Fitz are in Sweden, getting caught up with UNIT and C19. 'Scientist opens experimental portal and accidentally lets through monsters from another dimension' isn't the most original story idea ever, but it's carried off pretty well here. This Swedish plot is actually very trad Who, reading almost like something from a classic era TV story, but in a pretty good way, as it's all convincingly written and never too long or boring. The book speeds by, really. There's not much else to say about the plot, other than there's a touch of Jim Mortimore (a friend of both Walters and Leonard, apparently) to the fact that the vast majority of characters and creatures encountered in the book end up dead.

Speaking of characters, the Doctor here really is the version from the film, rather than the more useless incarnation that's been developed over the past few novels. He's enthusiastic, passionate, but with some doubts and guilt to him. A generally likeable portrayal. Fitz is the main companion, and other than falling for the main female guest character (is he going to do this every time?) is solid, trying to live up to the Doctor's achievements and generally failing because, y'know, he's a guy from 1963 who's been travelling in the TARDIS for a couple of months. Sam is given a fairly small plot, most of it just exploring and chatting with an alien, which is fine. I get the feeling most of the writers have just given up with her by this point. I suspect the 'dark' alternate timeline of hers that's been hinted at a few times is on its way soon, though.

All in all, a nice solid story that was pretty enjoyable. And it ends on a cliffhanger, leading straight into... oh.

Next time on the New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield... I assume I can count on Justin Richards to write a book with Benny in this time.

[purlieu]

Tears of the Oracle by Justin Richards

Ah well there we go, Benny, Irving, Jason, Clarence, Joseph, Wolsey, Chris Cwej and even some Ice Warriors from a past book, all go on an archaeological expedition. What could be more conventionally Benny than that? Ok, so it ties in with Worldsphere stuff involving God and B-Aaron, reveals that Benny and Irving will be major players in the expecting forthcoming war between the People and the Time Lords, goes some way to removing the Gods from Dellah, has Chris regenerating and Benny going mad an almost killing herself, so it's not straight-forward. But it feels like a decent continuation of the main plot of the series. As ever, it's great to be among the main characters again, who are all on form. I think this is the book where it's pretty much revealed that Irving is the Doctor's brother (I don't recall coming across it before), and it also features him setting up the Braxiatel Collection, where I believe Benny will be located for the remaining stories and the audios.

There are lots of excerpts from various books and letters, which give the narrative a nice amount of variety without losing any consistency. The overall mystery of exactly what is going on is brilliantly eked out, with the plot revealed masterfully, right down to aspects of the overall Benny NA arc that go back many books. It's all incredibly satisfying and, as is usually the case with Richards, very readable.

As for the main plot:




Next time on Doctor Who... Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum, so that's something at least.

[A Hat Like That]

My memory of the resolution to Revolution Man is that the Doctor takes drugs, shoots the main villain in the head and then fixes everything else off-screen.

Dominion is a small, solid read.

Given where the EDAs go, these small, solid reads may well be missed.

[purlieu]

Given where the EDAs go, these small, solid reads may well be missed.

Funny you mention that...

Unnatural History by Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman

Don't know where to start with that. Blum and Orman try out a Lawrence Miles-style game-changer of a novel, throwing in their lighter, character-based stuff too. It doesn't really work, but I admire their attempt. From what I can tell, it acts as a bit of a bridge between Miles's two big stories - Alien Bodies and the upcoming Interference - and expands on a lot of stuff from the former, including biodata and "dark" Sam. The Doctor returns to San Francisco to investigate strange readings. Turns out his regeneration and the opening of the eye of harmony, during the events of the film, led to some weird time/space/dimension fractures and leaving his biodata strewn all over the city. The result is a city full of bizarre magical creatures and... er, I don't really 'get' the biodata thing, but both the Faction Paradox and some collector of biological specimens from higher dimensions are able to manipulate it to rewrite the Doctor's past. The collector chap is baffled and frustrated by the Doctor's contradictory history, which feels like a comment on people who try and make it all tie together by basically making the contradictions canon. The half-human thing is even brought up, suggesting it's maybe only this incarnation that's half-human, or that he's only so because somebody's been messing with his past.

Anyway, it's a big confusing mess, but it's enjoyably mind-bending. Elsewhere, "dark" Sam isn't really that dark, but she lacks the whininess of the blonde Sam. Turns out she's also the real one, with our version of the character being created from her being caught up in the Doctor's biodata... or something. I dunno. It's all very Moffat, really, multiple versions of a companion being created out of being entangled with the Doctor's past. It definitely feels like one of those mid-series Moffat arc stories. Interference is only a couple of books away, anyway, which I'm sure will expand on the ideas in some way or another. Anyway, dark Sam and Fitz shag, as they would with Kate Orman involved.

All in all, muddled and unsatisfying but generally decent.

Next time on Doctor Who... David McIntee, so I'm expecting something heavy on historical accuracy and light on interesting plot.

[A Hat Like That]

On your Moffatt point: It's actually where I thought he was going with Clara at one point, that she was, in some way, the perfect companion because of her deep involvement with the Dr from source. That scar in Name of the Doctor is biodata in all but name.

[A Hat Like That]

Other thoughts
*twisting a person through the higher dimensions, what a horrible way to die.
*Faction Paradox are properly dirty and grubby in this one.

[mjwilson]

On your Moffatt point: It's actually where I thought he was going with Clara at one point, that she was, in some way, the perfect companion because of her deep involvement with the Dr from source. That scar in Name of the Doctor is biodata in all but name.

Wasn't it a pitch for a season 1 episode too? Rose as the engineered perfect companion?

[mjwilson]

Paul Abbott was scheduled to write an episode for the series which would have revealed that Rose's entire life had been manipulated by the Doctor in order to mould her into an ideal companion

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_(series_1)

[A Hat Like That]

While ideas go around and around and around, there's a strong thread of EDA plot arcs and story beats being recycled in the new series.

[purlieu]

Yeah, I'm definitely getting new series vibes more and more as the EDAs go on. People have compared Sam to Ace and Rose, but it turns out she's Clara.


Autumn Mist by David A. McIntee

There's a lot going on in this book. The setting is the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, and as usual with a McIntee book, it's thick with period detail. There are also brings from higher dimensions - again - Sam having her biodata messed with - again - mythical Sidhe interfering with the war, Germans and Americans siding together for a forthcoming war with Russia, the TARDIS creating the disappearance of the ship in the Philadelphia experiment, cloaked tanks, an origin story for The Beast that led to Fitz joining the TARDIS a few books ago, the '70s TARDIS console room and, for the second book in a row, a subtle reference to Benny.

In better hands, this could be a hell of a book. Instead, as is usual with McIntee, he's so well versed in the history that he kind of expects the reader to be equally up to speed. Which is clearly better than patronising crap like Timewyrm: Genesis, but also serves to make the whole thing incredibly alienating to anyone who hasn't done the homework. Overheard dialogue written entirely in German, appearances of vehicle names without any real explanation, locations and such all get so deep that the book requires wading through rather than briskly reading. And thus the main story ends up feeling kind of distant and totally unengaging. It's a typical David McIntee book, really.

Still, the references to other books are handled pretty well, and definitely add to the feeling of interconnected stories that has been the case since Fitz arrived in The Taint. The TARDIS crew have noticed some recurring themes in their adventures and the fact that the ship seems to be drawn to Earth. Will all these interwoven timelines, higher dimensional beings and biodata-related stories come to a head soon? Given that it's Interference up next, I reckon it might.

Before that, however, it's time to Return to the Fractured Planet with Dave Stone as the Benny NAs draw ever closer to their conclusion.

[A Hat Like That]

I think I struggled as I couldn't easily picture what the Sidhe actually were. Lots of very needless deaths including Sam's iirc.