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March 29, 2024, 07:31:39 AM

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Old Doctor Who - Part 4

Started by Ambient Sheep, June 04, 2020, 11:02:35 PM

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Midas

Quote from: H-O-W-L on August 02, 2022, 05:24:38 PMNot to be a cockend and I suppose this is barely the place to ask, but would anyone be interested in seeing some Cyberman artworks or even some fan-comics down the line? I have 3D assets for pretty much every generation of the Cybermen, and I want to try building my own Tenth Planet cyber-prick soon enough. Just wondering if it's worth doing-- if anyone would read/view it, I mean. I'd make a HS Art thread for it.

Aye, I'd be interested in seeing this.

purlieu

#1921

Wolfsbane by Jacqueline Rayner

Well, that left me with a 'what the fuck did I just read?' feeling. The Eighth Doctor is investigating strange goings on in Somerset, 1936. At the same time, the Fourth Doctor, Sarah and Harry are taken off course; getting out to investigate, Harry finds himself stranded as the Doctor takes off again without realising his companion is outside. The story then runs as two parallel tales, Eight and Harry investigating weird goings on, Four and Sarah reappearing a couple of weeks later, finding Harry's grave and helping a werewolf.

There's potential for a good story here, but unfortunately this isn't it. Who has flirted with fantasy time and again over the years, and has mostly gotten away with it due to it being the result of some unusual sci-fi phenomenon. Here, however, the Doctor casually talks about werewolf blood bringing the earth to life with the help of the spells of a sorceress, asks tree spirits for their help and so on, and we're just expected to go along with it. It ends up being a very, very long and tedious book as a result. It isn't helped that it's utterly open ended, the reader not learning anything about the various antagonists, their histories or their aims.

Harry is given the best role, his innate poshness turned up to 11 as he fumbles his way through an increasingly confusing scenario. A lot of the story is told from his perspective, and this saves the book from being a complete waste, as it's all wonderfully done. George, the upper class twit who is talked into believing he is the reincarnation of Arthur and destined to be king, is an amusing character who gets some of the best lines ("I don't actually know that much about coronations, do you? I was wondering if you had to have a cake, like at a wedding, because I haven't got one and the cook's disappeared.") Emmaline the werewolf is a very sympathetic character whose story feels like it should go somewhere and just peters out at the end. The two Doctors are slightly on the generic side, and Sarah is decent. None of the other guest characters are remotely memorable.

Irritatingly, the closing chapter features something from a forthcoming multiverse arc which I had no idea was coming, such is the nature of attempting a narratively chronological reading of these books. Still, from everything I've read, it's generally considered unnecessary.

Edit: I forgot to mention the medieval chap who slept for a thousand years in a dryad and who carries with him The Holy Grail. It's that kind of book.

All in all, that's the worst book I've read since before Fitz turned up, I think.

Next time on Doctor Who... I'm finally getting around to that World War II story.

purlieu


The Turing Test by Paul Leonard

I'm always a little funny about 'celebrity historicals'. Obviously fiction based around real people isn't a new thing, and it can be done very well. But a book in which Alan Turing, Graham Greene and Joseph Heller find themselves helping aliens escape from a war-torn Dresden, in a tale written from the perspectives of all three, is really on the cusp of taking it too far.

Thankfully it's generally wonderfully written, each of the three written sympathetically, but with equal distrust and dislike from each other that makes them all feel like real, well-rounded people writing about other real, well-rounded people. The Doctor is met with a mixture of trust and distrust, awe and hatred, from all three at various points. His amnesiac self is here pushed to its limits, with some frankly questionable decisions taken, and the entire book turning out to be just a way of him hoping to return home. By this point he's realised he isn't human, and upon discovering other stranded aliens on Earth, is hoping they'll take him away with him. At the end, faced with the fact that they've just been using him, he's distraught, in a way he's never really been in the past.

For all the excellent writing and characterisation - and this is, much like Casualties of War, a book full of it - the actual plot is threadbare. Of course, when you're faced with three contrasting unreliable narrators in well over their depths, and a Doctor who isn't much more up to speed than they are, exposition is likely to be thin on the ground, but the one real issue with the book is that we end up with literally no information about the aliens, why they were here, who the aliens trying to stop them were, how they left, or indeed anything else. A full explanation would utterly ruin the tone of the book, but just a little more info would have been more satisfying. I suppose it gets across the helplessness and hopelessness of this version of the Doctor quite well. On the other hand, he gives Greene a device that kills an alien, which is left hanging in a very awkward way. What, how, and why?

All in all, though, I enjoyed it.

Next time on Doctor Who... joy of joys, it's Terrance Dicks, in what I think is his final work for a Classic Series Doctor.

Turing Test the first time round - deeply unsatisfied by ending.
On a re-read, appreciated that it does make a certain amount of self-consistent sense.

Bad Ambassador

I've been asked to choose a Who novel for my book group. The only stipulations are that it's in print, can conceivably be read during three weeks' worth of commutes and won't be alienating for those unfamiliar with the show.

daf

Human Nature? That's meant to be a good 'un.

purlieu

Not sure exactly what's in print and what's not. I know they rereleased some books as The History Collection and The Monster Collection a few years ago. The latter includes Scales of Injustice, a ludicrously continuity-heavy bastard of a novel that I was going to suggest as a joke until I realised it would probably fly over most heads. On the whole, the monster collection books are reliant on knowing the monsters.

The history books have a few good ones though. Human Nature is indeed an excellent example, although there's a tiny bit of continuity from the last novel for Benny, and the overall weirdness of the Doctor not really being the Doctor might be lost on newcomers.

Amorality Tale is a strong, if somewhat violent, tale set in East London gangland in the 1950s. The Roundheads is a superb pure historical by Mark Gatiss, one of my favourite PDAs.

The Witch Hunters is a bleak tale set in the Salem Witch Trials. Shadow in the Glass features a clone of Hitler. Both decent although with potentially alienating subject matter.

No idea if any other classic era Doctor books are in print. Unless you're ok with eBooks, in which case the range is much larger.

daf

The Roundheads has a very good bit with a lady pirate captain - enjoyed that one a lot too!

Bad Ambassador

I'm leaning towards the first volume of The Essential Terrance Dicks. Novelisations of Dalek Invasion of Earth, Abominable Snowmen, Wheel in Space, Spearhead from Space and Day of the Daleks.

dontpaintyourteeth

I read that just recently. 'salright.

purlieu

That's a pretty solid selection. Wheel in Space is very later-era half-arsed stuff; Spearhead from Space is one of the best, though. Speaking of Uncle Terrance...


Endgame by Terrance Dicks

He really liked his Players, didn't he? The second of three Dicks novels to feature the largely thinly-written manipulators, Endgame finds them bored of Earth and playing a game to accelerate the cold war to its logical conclusion by trying to push both Stalin and Truman into taking the first shot. Actually, this mostly takes a back seat, with it generally being about the Doctor has a jolly romp with three of the Cambridge Five. It's one of his better original novels, with comparatively little patronising nonsense and no jarring adult sections thrown in either. It's still written in his usual breezy, simplistic style, but it works here to make it quite pacy and fun.

The three spies are written as larger than life, almost cartoonish but genial characters, which probably gives some idea to Dicks's political sympathies. The Doctor, in contrast, repeats that he has no politics, which is the core of his character here: after sixty years on Earth, not ageing, with comparatively little of his memory coming back, he's become bored and even apathetic. He has to be blackmailed into getting involved in saving the world, and even though he seems to enjoy himself at the time, he immediately reverts to said apathy as soon as he thinks he might be done. It's a fairly simplistic characterisation, but is a logical development from the previous book. The best part is in the second prologue, in which he briefly encounters the Seventh Doctor and Ace, sharing a smile with the latter. When wondering if he could maybe go and say hello, he decides it's not worth it, and slips away home under a cloud of melancholy. It's a very brief but horribly relatable portrayal of depression and loneliness, all the more shocking given a) this is the Doctor we're talking about, and b) it's written by Uncle Terry.

The book's main fault is how lightweight it is. It's to be expected, I suppose: almost every one of Dicks's novels is a simple runaround involving espionage or gangsters. But after three superb entries to the Earth arc, it feels underwhelming and a bit silly. In other circumstances, it could be seen as refreshing, but right in the middle of this huge, character-changing plot, it almost feels flippant. The other issue is the resolution: despite being followed by a memorable moment where the Doctor has a breakdown, the actual solution to the problem comes about 30 pages from the end: he asks one of the Players not to destroy the world. She agrees and kills the others, the end. It's as if Dicks was having so much fun with the spies that he couldn't be arsed to actually wrap up the main sci-fi plot.

At another point in the EDA run, Endgame might have fared better, as it really isn't a bad book at all. But after the previous few entries to the series, it left me wanting more.

Next time on Doctor Who... the second highest rated EDA on Goodreads, and - I think - the longest I've read to date. Lance Parkin is always good value, though, so I'm looking forward to this.

Bad Ambassador

Quote from: purlieu on August 12, 2022, 02:19:59 PMThat's a pretty solid selection. Wheel in Space is very later-era half-arsed stuff; Spearhead from Space is one of the best, though.

I assumed Wheel was only there because it's famously hard to find and they wanted a Cybermen book. Terrance's only other one was Revenge, which would overlap with Vol 2. I'd have preferred it if they ditched it in favour of a third Pertwee, like The Time Warrior or The Three Doctors, or at least swapped it for one his other 80s Troughton books (The Krotons, The Seeds of Death, The Faceless Ones or The Space Pirates) but it's generally a solid mix.

McDead

Quote from: purlieu on August 12, 2022, 02:19:59 PMNext time on Doctor Who... the second highest rated EDA on Goodreads, and - I think - the longest I've read to date. Lance Parkin is always good value, though, so I'm looking forward to this.

The next book is a wonderful, wintry treat. Parkin - along with, I guess, Orman and Miles - is one of the chief architects of this Doctor, and he excels here.

dontpaintyourteeth

watching THE DAEMONS later

not seen it before

Pertwee goes folk horror?

daf

Yes - and it predates The Wicker man by two years!

(I'd say one of the inspirations was probably the popular Occult books by Dennis Wheatley - I spotted a small selection of the red 'Heron' editions behind director Chris Barry's head in one of the documentaries!)


Quote from: Bad Ambassador on August 12, 2022, 11:22:50 AMI'm leaning towards the first volume of The Essential Terrance Dicks. Novelisations of Dalek Invasion of Earth, Abominable Snowmen, Wheel in Space, Spearhead from Space and Day of the Daleks.

Because of this post, I bought both volumes this weekend. Thanks for the heads-up.

Bad Ambassador

Quote from: A Hat Like That on August 15, 2022, 04:07:17 PMBecause of this post, I bought both volumes this weekend. Thanks for the heads-up.

Do they still have the illustrations?

Quote from: Bad Ambassador on August 15, 2022, 04:20:44 PMDo they still have the illustrations?

Doesn't look like it - the new material I've spotted is an introduction (Frankie Cottrell-Boyce in Volume 1, not yet opened Vol. 2).

I've a few of the new Targets and not sure I've seen illustrations in any.

I also think Endgame was the first EDA I missed. Still never read it. Odd.

JamesTC

Season 2 set has been announced.

dontpaintyourteeth

Quote from: daf on August 15, 2022, 12:53:22 PMYes - and it predates The Wicker man by two years!

(I'd say one of the inspirations was probably the popular Occult books by Dennis Wheatley - I spotted a small selection of the red 'Heron' editions behind director Chris Barry's head in one of the documentaries!)



There's definitely something of a Devil Rides Out-ish quality to it- really enjoyed it!

daf

Quote from: JamesTC on August 16, 2022, 03:07:21 PMSeason 2 set has been announced.

Here's the trailer :


(Dracula and the Daleks - beat that Moffat!!)

Angst in my Pants

Ooh that's lovely, I've pre-ordered that straight away!

Bad Ambassador

New extras are a bit thin on the ground, as hardly anyone from then is still alive, but the following is listed on the official site:

Quote from: https://www.doctorwho.tv/news-and-features/season-2-announced-as-the-next-instalment-in-the-collection-bluray-rangeThree brand new documentaries: Including an overview of Season 2, FLIGHT THROUGH ETERNITY, a look at 1960s collectables in DOCTOR WHO AND THE COLLECTORS, and a deep dive into the life and career of story editor David Whitaker in LOOKING FOR DAVID.
IN CONVERSATION: Two exclusive insightful feature-length interviews, with William Russell and Maureen O'Brien.
BEHIND THE SOFA: New episodes with companions Maureen O'Brien, Peter Purves, Carole Ann Ford, Janet Fielding (Tegan), Wendy Padbury (Zoe), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Bonnie Langford (Mel) and Sophie Aldred (Ace).
Exclusive Audio Commentary: Learn about the recovery of THE LION, a missing episode that was returned in 1999, with three of the heroes responsible for its return.
Convention Footage: A rare chance to hear from actors Jacqueline Hill and Adrienne Hill (Katarina) alongside Michael Craze (Ben) and Carole Ann Ford.
Exclusive Enhanced Soundtrack: Watch THE DALEK INVASION OF EARTH with an optional enhanced soundtrack.

Deanjam

That's about what I'd expect for new extras considering who's available to talk to. Very much looking forward to the two Mathew Sweet interviews, they're always really good.

mjwilson

QuoteThe missing two episodes of THE CRUSADE have been reconstructed using off-air photographs and the original broadcast soundtrack, while remaining episodes have been newly remastered from the best available sources – these classic adventures have never looked or sounded so good on home media.

BritishHobo

Been eyeing up the Collection boxsets recently, as I hadn't realised they had done as many as they have. I thought it was a range where they were just doing a couple of the most beloved seasons. Anyway, I've now pre-ordered this one and am scouring eBay, at the beginning of a collection I forsee financially crippling me.

dontpaintyourteeth

How long does it normally take for them to rerelease these in the slim boxes?

mjwilson

Quote from: dontpaintyourteeth on August 16, 2022, 06:14:05 PMHow long does it normally take for them to rerelease these in the slim boxes?

Looks to be around a couple of years.

JamesTC

Quote from: Bad Ambassador on August 16, 2022, 04:15:23 PMNew extras are a bit thin on the ground, as hardly anyone from then is still alive, but the following is listed on the official site:


Three headline feature length documentaries plus two new Matthew Sweet feature length interviews is pretty much on par with most seasons, I'd say.

The only thing missing that it might have been a nice to have is a documentary for The Crusades but I think that is probably covered in the season spanning documentary.

Considering how many more episodes this season has, I'm surprised it is so much really. I was expecting some of the B&W seasons to have more of the budget on restoration and less on VAM.