Here’s the first lot of Dr Who books for this year. Be excited!
(Some of you, that is. The rest
of you; lose the will to live, but be polite and English and just wait for the
next post without much complaint.) I
seem to have got off to a very Target heavy start, full of the original
adventures as seen on TV. Only one
exception this time – an 8th Doctor segment, and a good one. This instalment gives you treats of the
first, second, sixth and eighth Doctors.
As always with these
rambly reviews: SPOILERS ON ALL BOOKS IMMINENT!!!!
A note on order.
Target Originals are not read in order of publication (which was all
over the place), but in order of each Doctor, and each Doctor is read in order
of their stories broadcast on TV.
However, I jump about in terms of which Doctor I read at any given
time. The Virgin New Adventures for
Sylvester will be read in order; as will the BBC 8th Doctor series
(as though they had been on TV, see? I’m
trying to get an arc flavour). The BBC
Past Doctors series and the Virgin Missing Adventures are simply read in terms
of which one I fancy next, as they are stand alone adventures slotting
in-between the TV ones.
Oh, and in case you forgot, I’ve taken to recording which
books I read that are actual paper copies, and which are Kindle or other
electronic. I’m being social historical
for my own benefit. I want to see how long it is before I just plug books
straight into my brain, how many years before I’m a reading cyborg.
Off we go…
- Doctor Who: Attack of the Cybermen,
by Eric Saward (Target Original)
(6th Doctor. Apart from Eric Saward’s idiosyncratic way of telling a story, I finished this in an evening. Oddly readable and one of those Dr Who stories that was filled with death. Practically all the characters died, and in a way that felt sudden and almost unnecessary. I wonder if real life feels like that in war zones: sudden and stupid unnecessary death of practically everyone. The thing is: the Doctor regretted misjudging Lytton, but how else was he to have judged him? He was only working on previous experience and current behaviour. There was also no actual indication that Lytton was working for the Cryons for anything other than money; no hint of principle. Just because he was on the right side for once didn’t mean he was on the right side for the right reason. And does that matter?! Well, it makes you think…ACTUAL BOOK.)
- Doctor
Who: Marco Polo, by John
Lucarotti (Target original)
(1st Doctor. This was excellent, thoroughly enjoyed it. For some reason the guest characters all struck me as very real, even Tegana the War Lord, who was really a bit of a walking testosterone stereotype. I think its because I knew only sketchy information about the period and the characters of Marco Polo and Kublai Khan – the novel made me quite hungry to go and find out more; surely that’s what these historicals always intended – to stimulate 12 year olds [or in this case 42 year olds!] to go and off and learn more about a period.
I felt the passage of time keenly in this book – their journey across the desert hot by day and freezing by night, taking months, with stops here and there. Time wasn’t glossed over with montage scenes. I felt it pass. Lovely feeling of reality. Their three attempts at escape, punctuating the action. The growing intrigues with Tegana, and the friendship between Susan and Ping Cho. I almost don’t want to see these episodes were they ever recovered, in case my usual boredom with the BBC Hampstead style of acting at the time ruins what for me was a splendid page-turner of a book. Then again, I do love watching William Hartnell’s face – one moment wise, the next sinister, the next grumpy or thoughtful…Anyway, only time will tell on that front. Loved this one – 20/10! ACTUAL BOOK.)
- Doctor Who: Tomb of the Cybermen,
by Gerry Davis (Target Original)
(2nd Doctor. Much better than I expected it to be from watching the episodes of this one. It’s that Hampstead school of static acting not doing it for me again. Yet the book: whole different proposition. Kaftan came across enigmatic but interesting, instead of snobby and stuffy. Toberman became a tragic but noble figure. Parry seemed to grow allsorts of personality I failed to see when watching. Klieg was the only one who remained an unbelievable character for me – the minute he gets his hands on a cybergun he seems all shiny eyed and possessed…and I just didn’t buy it. The people I liked the best though here were Victoria and the Doctor himself. She was consistently painted as capable and practical – not a pretty screamer, as she’s so often remembered; and the Doctor was infinitely thoughtful, his face described so well, with its changing expressions, its history.
The end was remarkably sober: an apology, an acceptance…all very low key. The entire story was structured beautifully too: its pacing was excellent, I wasn’t bored for a moment, it all flowed, one thing to the next. I even felt sorry for the CyberController by the end. Jamie was his usual punctuative self: creating breaks in an otherwise serious story with his questioning and quips. Very well done; to make me interested, properly in the cybermen. I felt their We Will Survive mantra. Something they wouldn’t understand at all, of course…ACTUAL BOOK.)
- Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus,
by Phillip Hinchcliffe (Target Original)
(1st Doctor. This might be an unpopular choice from all I’ve read in Who fan forums, but I enjoyed this one on TV and I enjoyed the book even moreso! I liked the way it was stories within a story, and yet they did all flow together as part of one narrative. I enjoyed the introductory segment with the acid sea and the meeting with Arbitan; the ‘whispering jungle’ and the creepers with their accelerated growth. I enjoyed fearing for Barbara during the section with the brutish Trapper; the resourcefulness of Susan in the ice cavern section, helping to rebuild the bridge. The whole Ian getting framed for a murder and the odd trial with its guilty till proven innocent basis was enjoyable too. There was something clean, uncomplicated and neatly flowing about this story. Lots of little opportunities explored and then moved on.
Looking back, I can’t exactly put my finger on why I enjoyed this one so much: maybe such healthy does of Ian and Barbara: I do really enjoy them as companions. Maybe also the puzzle solving motif; the orderliness of solving the mystery of where the micro circuits are. I can’t say. But in bed reading this, after Fluffhead slept, I had to make myself only read a couple of chapters a night and not just rip through it. I kept seeing William Hartnell’s smiley yet sinister face in my head. It made me smile. ACTUAL BOOK.)
- Doctor Who: Vengeance on Varos,
by Philip Martin (Target Original)
(6th Doctor. Oddly, I really enjoyed this one on TV, greatly sympathised with its themes – yet there was something oddly soulless in the reading of it. I don’t think this was a fault of the writing, which moved along just fine. I’m not sure what it was. Perhaps simply that this theme – still so obviously relevant today, with its reality TV show vibe and the endless piping in of disasters via predatory 24 hour news; the whole blood and circuses at one remove, that of the screen…maybe this group ofthemes simply work better on screen than off?
I also found I had several problems: I don’t think they plotholes as such, just a skimming over the surface of issues that if you put the book down and consider for 5 minutes, would immediately occur to you. This: why was Varos so poor? How on earth did they not know the value of Zeitan 7? Surely if you’re going to export something, you’d do a bit of market research? Even if you never considered exporting and someone came to you with a pittance offer – wouldn’t you still double check?? After all, no one does anyone any favours in the business world – the metal had to be worth something if Sil’s company wanted to buy it! You wouldn’t accept the first company that came along with an offer – especially if the offer is terribly low and the person fronting the company is as obviously odious and untrustworthy as Sil???! Please. It would be like David Cameron trying to sell me shares in the Post Office. Alarm bells going off all over.
And also: if Varos is busy, as its other export, selling what is effectively torture porn and snuff movies…well…that would have a HUGE market [even if it had to be a huge underground black market]. It would make money the way drugs do…I think the Officer Class in charge of Varos would have to be extremely idle and rubbish businessmen to not be creaming it off everywhere…and even though they did seem to be in luxury whilst the ordinary people were not, the ordinary people seemed to have no clue: were the servants of the Officer Class not recruited from the ranks of the ordinary people, and have families of their own…be a bit better paid…would tell their families of the lifestyles of the other half of the planet?? There’s an invisible Middle Class here somewhere, not written. [Stanley looked over my shoulder at this point and said I had gone mad the way Who fans can, searching for continuity in a childrens TV show. I responded with a sniff that lazy plotting is lazy plotting, and you especially shouldn’t dupe children; also – I expect continuity in any scifi world I buy into, I’m just as anal with Charmed, and Star Trek and ehem, loads of other things…]
Lastly: Quillam. Very underused yet interesting possibilitied character. Wonder why they didn’t do more with him?
Ohhhh…no, really lastly: the Transmogrification Machine. How in heaven’s name would that work????
For some reason, my inner skeptic was very irritated with this story and my suspension of disbelief only partial.)
- Doctor Who: Kursaal,
by Peter Angelides (BBC 8th Doctor Series)
(I had a massive break in the middle of reading this. Not because it was bad or uninteresting – on the contrary, it was hooking and absorbing. I just got called away to other things. It’s a mark of a good book though, that I came back after an absence of 2 months and picked up just as interested, and not forgetting where I was or the details of the characters.
This was a werewolf story, based around the idea of a parasitical and sentient virus, the Jax, that had lain dormant a long time and awaited rediscovery. This happened when a predatory company came to turn the planet they were on into a theme park. Issues of environmentalism, terrorism for conservation, the rights and responsibilities of companies – and the blurring of all lines addressed here were all dealt with through character viewpoints. Which makes it sound preachy or polemical, when it didn’t read that way at all. The characters on both sides of the ethical divide on what to do with the planet come off as unlikeable. In a way, the Jax is more likeable even when it infects Sam: after all, it’s a virus, it does what it needs to do, and it follows its imperatives; just with more brain than a cold.
I enjoyed this one, I had a good think about the issues [I would be on the HALF side, the naïve people fighting for the supposedly indigenous Jax, I think; what a surprise!]. I enjoyed the Doctor’s pragmatism as well as his principles. And I enjoyed Sam’s increasing resourcefulness. I’m wondering if the experience of being infected by the Jax will haunt her [as being wounded haunted her and was examined in such rigorous emotional depth in Vampire Science by Orman and Blum…or as Tegan was haunted by possession by the Mara, to go back to the TV series…]?? Or will it just be glossed over? ‘Spose I’ll have to wait and see…ACTUAL BOOK.)
As if all this weren’t
enough (and I still seem to be going strong), I’m also trying to get going on
the Big Finish audio…not all of them, they seem to have experienced an
exponential explosion. I did review the
first two of their past Doctors stories way back near the beginning of these
reviews, but they will hopefully start popping up more once I get the time to
listen (I plan to walk up and down the living room power exercising – heh –
some mornings while Fluffhead is at nursery, while listening to these. I’ll start including them in the reviews
here. I’m planning to try out their past
Doctor range as well as the newer 8th Doctor range. We’ll see how I go.
It’s odd you know,
it’s an ever expanding universe; there seems room for so much in it…science
fiction is great that way, so inclusive and so endlessly imaginative. I realised, as well, that I’d left out an
entire category of Dr Who books: the Big Finish Short Trips short story collections. I’m a great fan of the short story as a form
when
done well: pithy mini
explosions. So I’ve started collecting
those (hello ebay; they are out of print and can go for silly money, some of
them). In time, you’ll see them start to
pop up too, here; but I’m not sure whether to mix my short story reading in
with my novel reading or not…am I going to confuse my brain? Or stimulate it with the change of
pace?! Should I leave them till last,
after all the novels? (Alllllllllllllllllllllllllll
those novels? How OLD will I be?!)
Anyway, till next
time. I have a bad cold and am going to
cough myself away now, with Halls Soothers and some of that nice cough syrup I
make. I shall probably nap briefly. See why I read science fiction? A life of absolute fast lane thrills and
intellectual rigour here!
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