Doctor Who Books Read and Heard, Part 14!

This post: treats from the eras of the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Doctors. 

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 8^th 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.

As always with these rambly reviews: OFTEN LARGE SPOILERS ON ALL BOOKS IMMINENT!!!!

1.   Doctor Who: The Sea Devils, by Malcolm Hulke (Target original)
(3^rd Doctor.  This is one that I experienced as so Boys Own when I was watching it with Stanley ages ago, that I huddled up under his arm and went to sleep.  The book was a whole different matter!  I loved the book!  I experienced it as a very learning read.  I learned that the equivalent of privates, squaddies in the Navy are called ‘ratings’ [which kept making me think of reality TV shows, I kept expecting there to be a vote].  I learned how to turn a receiver into a transmitter [p.49]; and what exactly sonar is and how it works –I shall now understand ‘pings’ [p.96].  I really enjoy Who when it tells me things, little snippets, that I didn’t already know[and there’s so much I don’t know, or misunderstand, that this is always joyful].  ‘May Day’ is French for ‘aid me’: maid’ez.  I did not know that!

I enjoyed several of the secondary characters too - Jane Blythe, the W.R.N. helping Captain Hart [who was also a nice character], and her “suspicious mind” helps Hart work out that Trenchard is deceiving them about the Master, and that something is wrong at the prison.  They work nicely together.  Trenchard himself is an inept man – and a sad one, who died an inept death.  I thought it was very nicely done, when he had died and his body was discovered by the Doctor, that the Doctor surreptitiously removed the safety on his gun, so no one would know that even in attempting to do the right thing at the end, he had once again messed it up. He thoughtfully preserved Trenchard’s reputation.  Walker, the Man from the Ministry, with his two major qualities of gluttony and changeable cowardice, was also a nice addition.

Both the Silurians and the Sea Devils are quite tragic creations – the Silurians felt more fleshed out in their story [novelised as Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters], since the Sea Devils portrayal suffered from an excess of The Master injecting himself into almost every scene they are in.  I really sympathised with their feeling that the planet was theirs despite their long absence, and their warlike [and desperate] attempts to get it back.  [I know some will think this is a reading too far, but I kept thinking of the Middle East while I read this; alter the outcome at the end of The Silurians or The Sea Devils, and you have a similar situation, which would be reacted to in a similar way by the Earth inhabitants…anyway, that was just a thought that kept popping into my head while I read.]  They were very sympathetic creations, despite their arrogance.

The taking of the submarine read as a real action episode, and not remembering this bit at all [I must have been well asleep by then], it read as a real page turner. I was surprised when the incident wasn’t developed further.  Also, for some reason, this section vaguely reminded me of The Sea Wolves, with Roger Moore.

The Doctor reverses the polarity of the neutron flow TWICE in this book, which clearly makes the story a Total Classic!  Actually, the presentation of the Doctor here WAS archetypal Pertwee era: very much politeness on his part, an awful lot of saying, “oh my dear chap”, or “I’m a scientist”, or subverting equipment while he is fixing it, so that it helps his cause - much tinkering with technology.  Also, after he has blown up the base at the end, he is stoicly and sorrowfully silent when the Master accuses him of mass murder, because he knows it is true; and later, when the Navy try to thank him for his help, he is brief and subdued: “I did what I had to do to prevent a war. I don’t want your thanks.”  This is Pertwee; one moment so flamboyant and bossy; the next reflective and resentful at what he has had to do to save the Earth inhabitants; his lack of choices, the necessity of bad actions.  In this way, Who used to quietly teach the children of the 70s…grey morality.  20/10, totally recommended.  ACTUAL BOOK.)

2.  Doctor Who: Mawdryn Undead, by Peter Grimwade (Target Original)
(5^th Doctor. I always enjoy watching this one: partly because Turlough is a most interesting character - hostile yet vulnerable, and I do not quite understand his mind, yet I understand his opportunism.  Partly because the Brigadier is in it, not once but twice.  Partly because I really enjoy his interaction with Tegan, and I find the device of the landing in the same place in 2 different time zones very nice to watch.

The only problem I felt on reading, and Stanley disagreed with me, but I felt it counted, was that the story suffers from a Maguffin! The Blinovitch Limitation Effect – the reason the 2 Brigadiers must not meet up, is harped on a lot - something terrible will happen if they do. Then they…do, in the climax, and it actually fixes everything [allowing Mawdryn and his compatriots to die; whilst simultaneously generating enough energy to right Tegan and Nyssa’s ages].  So it was referred to a lot, and then did the opposite to what it was supposed to, and was all very convenient.  I agree I am mislabelling it in the sense that it did serve a purpose and appear in the story consistently [not discarded like the famous ‘Rosebud’ example from Citizen Kane] – but I really objected to its convenient fixing of everything. 

I also found the Doctor’s behaviour; his fear at Mawdryn’s wanting to steal his lives odd.  I mean, if someone wanted to steal my life I would hate it; and Mawdryn did want to steal all the Doctor’s lives…but it seemed such a craven human base reaction, somehow out of character, coming from especially Davison’s Doctor – usually so calm.  I’m not criticising this bit of the writing, I just didn’t get it.  It felt forced.  His judging of them, that they should take the consequences of their actions…when he interferes himself all the time, and had stolen his own TARDIS: it was a bit…hypocritical…I didn’t truly understand his behaviour there, I was hoping the book might elucidate, but it made it no clearer than when I watch on TV.  Otherwise, an enjoyable read – and really typical story of the Davison era, I always felt. ACTUAL BOOK.)

3.  Doctor Who: The Two Doctors, by Robert Holmes (Target Original)
(6^th and 2^nd Doctor. Before I ever saw this one, I kept hearing about how people felt the Spanish location had been underused, that they could have been tromping about out in Devon in summer and it would have been the same.  I don’t really know. Devon couldn’t really look like the dryness that Spain has in certain regions.  I can tell they aren’t in England; and the story does have a feeling of difference, a sort of hot brooding sweaty intensity for this atmospheric change in location.  And I also think of the Spanish as a nation full of rich rich meaty juice-iful foods – so this is a good location for Shockeye, surely?

I am in two minds about this story and reading it has not changed that.  This is one of the ones that Fluffhead quite likes to watch, so I’m very familiar with it. I do think it’s very enjoyable; and I do think it’s very flawed!

Troughton’s Doctor seems to spend the whole time he’s on screen puffing and blowing through his cheeks, a sort of overtired petulant child.  There’s little of his more subtle qualities on show, this story. Which is a shame. I also don’t quite understand why he dislikes Colin Baker’s self so much.  Obviously, there’s a tradition of the Doctors riling each other when they meet [the amusing insultings of The Three Doctors always come to mind].  I didn’t like him turning into an Androgum, it was one of the less enjoyable times the Doctor has been taken over by something other; in that it was more disturbing watching him not care at all about violence and killing, and snooze through it, than for him to actually be made to do any.  Oddly.  I felt his scenes were a bit of a missed opportunity, and the book played it the same way.

The portrayals of Shockeye and Chessene I have always felt were troublesome too, and been unable to put my finger on why. I know it was felt that the vegetarianism that Robert Holmes was using Shockeye’s grossly sensual and basic character to promote was overdone, but the book made that somehow more smooth.  On screen, the endless detailing of bloodied meat juices, and the viewing of Peri as a ‘little jill’ and Jamie as a ‘jack’ getting his skin marbled and tenderised by torture [because it works better on a live animal, the tendering] was a cacophony of gluttony and meanness, but I get the odd impression that it didn’t put anyone off their pork chops for dinner.  This I think was because the makeup [eyebrows and the coarse features etc] chosen for the Qwancing Grig was possibly the wrong decision. In the book, Shockeye simply sounded like an obsessed chef – annoying, but that’s his thing: eating all meat. The thing about Shockeye that really leapt out in the book, but less so in the watching [due to the makeup and costuming decisions, I think] was his sheer strength, physique and his boorish implacable physicality.  THAT is what made him formidable and worrying, to read. His ruthlessness in the cause of Dinner…

With Chessene, she was simply too smug all the time. I disagreed with the 2^nd Doctor at the beginning, when he said to Dastari that you “could augment an insect until it understood nuclear physics; it would still not be a very sensible thing to do”.  I thought that changing the brain capacity of any creature would OF COURSE change its nature, therefore Chessene would no longer be obsessed with food…yet it did seem very natural when she started to lick the doorstep at the end. What was more interesting, was her getting of the large devious streak out of nowhere. That seemed a plausible thing to pop out of a brain augmentation.  After all: if you can reason more, with more knowledge- you would start to strategise more, be more wily, wouldn’t you? I think I would. [Also, I was brought up on Blakes 7, and I kept expecting her to identify as Servalan any minute, which was distracting, as the 2 characters weren’t all that far apart.]

I learned from the book that the 6^th Doctor made up Gumblejack, and it isn’t a real fish!  I’m pretty sure it’s been referred to as a real fish of the Who universe in subsequent stories [I think Sylvester mentioned it?], so this is a bit of retro-history that will quietly annoy continuity obsessives [of which I can be one when I take it into my head - enough to note this detail, anyway!]

While this story does skip along, it was sad that Oscar died, and in the book he is properly gutted – I am very surprised that Shockeye didn’t take him with him for cooking elsewhere, it seemed a waste knowing his character. Anita is never seen again after that scene, weird.  Peri and Jamie could have had much more of an interaction than they did, but for some reason they don’t- which is almost the most missed opportunity of the whole story.  And the Sontarans, well, tsk.  They don’t seem as clever or as menacing as I always remember them from the story where they kidnap and torture Sarah Jane.

Actually, unsure why I do like this story so much, there’s quite a bit wrong with it. But I do.  Colin Baker displays a lot of energy this story, and drives his scenes well, maybe that helps.  ACTUAL BOOK.)

4.  Doctor Who: Minuet in Hell, by Alan W. Lear (Big Finish Monthly releases, no.18)
(8^th Doctor.  Another one of those stories that started well and then as it went on – despite the presence of the Brigadier, for who I did indeed perk up - I felt…languished a bit.

I wasn’t happy that Paul McGann spent so much of the story absent, it felt like almost a third all told, where he quietly sat, having lost his memory, all confused and looneybinned. While Charley started to figure out what was going on. That was ok, but what was going on involved an awful lot of very fake Southern accents, and a lot of one character, Becky, talking to her ‘granpappy’ about things at length. I’ve said in another Who review somewhere, that I think it’s always a big risk to start ventriloquizing other very close but not ours, cultures.  The Americans read lots of our books; we read lots of theirs; same with TV and film. They would be forgiven for thinking our entire reality is a cross between the new Who episode The Unicorn and the Wasp, where Agatha Christie 20’s it about in a flapper dress solving the crime where we all live in a country mansion….OR a hard and manly cockney based world where we Lock and Stock and Barrel it about, swearing loudly, with Vinnie Jones and Danny Dyer replicas nutting each other all the time.  Those are some very LOUD stereotypes I just evoked there.  But this story had some very loud stereotypes of a certain sort of US culture and historical point, too. And I know it’s just shorthand, code, but its tired, and old and I would like a hugely less clichéd way of seeing the South - even if it is an imaginary scifi South of the Good Old US of A.  So that impinged on my hearing this play.

I liked the way the demon wasn’t a demon, but just another life form, with his 21^st century slang and his casualness to go with the hellfire voice.  That was amusing and annoying; but mostly amusing.

I liked the way the story skated close to the idea of Charley and the other girls being sold into prostitution in the HellFire Club - it managed to imply it vigorously without actually saying it at all, and it was quite horrifying.  Her reaction, an outraged ‘I’m British!’ in tone, was almost clever, in that it managed to take some of the horror off what was a quite nasty situation.

Not only is the Doctor not really the Doctor for much of the story, but someone else –having come too close to a device – DOES think he is the Doctor, and much of the 8^th Doctor’s scenes in this play are trying to convince himself and others, notably Gideon Crane, the other Doctor, that he is himself.  This could have been a whole topic in itself: one of those madness episodes that all scifi progs seem to deal in after a while, and always effective in my viewing [both Charmed, Buffy and Star Trek Next Generation have pulled this one off nicely, the idea that you aren’t special at all, you just think you’re a special person with a mission, but really you’re a sad loser in a mental institution escaping your reality – and those were just the shows I thought of off the top of my head].  They choose not to go this route, fair enough-but it does leave the Doctor weak and ineffective through quite a chunk of the story, which I feel was a mistake.

Hmm, I can’t say much else. This had some interesting ideas: the US politics, the cerebral surgery, the technology of it; but it was not dealt with very well, I felt. Oh well. Onward…ON DOWNLOAD.)

5. Doctor Who: The Roots of Evil, by Philip Reeve (BBC 50^th Anniversary Short Stories, e-story)
   (4^th Doctor. A very small and succinct self-contained story.  Satisfying, if brief.  The Doctor and Leela [yay, Leela!], go to visit a huge and beautiful tree world that has been subverted by one of the founders into an everlasting revenge scenario, awaiting the Doctor to return so its inhabitants can kill him [because of something he hasn’t done yet].  But he is too charming, too helpful, and too honest – when the planet’s spores attack, he helps them, and soon he fights with them.  The portrayals of Leela and The Doctor were spot on, and I felt this could have been expanded to a much larger old style story – it felt in keeping with the mores of Leela’s story period. ON KINDLE.)
   
   
6. Doctor Who: The Rescue, by Ian Marter (Target original)
   (1^st Doctor.  I had absolutely no memory of having ever seen this one, though I know I have.  So I watched it again, directly after I read it.  Which gives light to the realisation that Ian Marter greatly increased the story.  There is a whole section at the beginning of the book, where the rescue ship experiences strange difficulties trying to get to the Astra 9; and again at the end where the silver beings are unceremoniously killed by accident by the rescue team – and then the novel ends with an ironic Christmas wish – all out of nowhere.  In addition, there are many more references to the silver beings, they keep being seen around the place, notably by Vicki and Barbara.
   
   I felt the bit at the end where they are just…killed, was an oddly postmodern and bleak little addendum. Unnecessary, harsh and sad. I don’t know why Ian Marter decided to put it in – it’s completely absent from the TV presentation, and it changes the whole tone of the end of the story, from one of joy at finding a new companion and the excitement of another adventure beginning; to the crapness of humans and the lightness with which we take life on occasion.  To add the Christmas message onto that was loading some irony heavily. I wonder why he did that…
   
   The best scene in the book, for me, as well as the TV version, was the Doctor’s confronting Bennett in the Temple, and unmasking him, before Bennett tries to kill him. In the book this scene is much enlarged and made more of, to good effect, both in description and the dialogue.  The silver beings are stranger here, and they look morealien in the books description; more helpful of the Doctor, albeit silently, without explanation.
   
   There are enlarged scenes too, where Ian and Vicki struggle to get out of the various places they get trapped in- impossible scenes of her clinging onto his back as he tries to climb up a vertical tube, balanced by bracing his hands and knees to breaking point. There was something very modern about all this action, and it oddly fitted in perfectly with Ian and Vicki’s characters.  Barbara’s sadness at killing Sandy is also elaborated, as is the strength of Vicki’s reaction, the initial instability of her character.
   
   I got the impression Ian Marter really enjoyed having some room to play within such an otherwise short story; and apart from the sad epilogue, I loved what he did with this underrated story.)

Note, unrelated to Who but related to this blog - Christmas: This will probably be the last post of this year, unless I suddenly gain a swathe of time by pretending to be dead or somesuch.  Do you remember this post?
http://blackberryjuniperandsherbet.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/i-unfashionably-like-christmas-and.html

Well, I don't feel like that anymore, and haven't for a while.  Its become a time of year where people want me to do things to please them (and I don't mean my children).  Its become about pressure and expectations of others, instead of the lovely Christmases Stanley and I used to share, unbothered by others, with our ideas in tandem.  Its very odd, that this idea of the Christmas Spirit, and giving, and family time etc should have become such a time of overheated pressure to be jolly, pressure to happyhappyhappy, and pressure to be with others and do things their way - to not be alone if thats how you want it (and I know at least 3 people who would prefer that).  And before anyone corrects or disagrees with me - if you have the freedom to spend your Christmas how and with who you CHOOSE, then no wonder it goes well!  Mine used to, for that reason. Its not that way anymore, and the pressure and expectations of others seem to get worse with every year...As Fry would say: the bloody politics of it all, not the right emphasis for the season.

So, to get to the point, I'm having a bit of a seasonal descent into worry and anxiety and the feeling of pressure; not to mention school holidays soon, so I won't have blogging (or reading, where Who is concerned) time.  So I may well call hiatus till January 2015.

I may be back before then, but don't hold your breath. As I said to a good friend of mine, I am becoming Worf until next year. Seething and worrying about Duty and Honour Obligations and other such things. (I love Worf...)

Worf's extremely valid and important point, which in this case I apply to interminable 'fun'games of Scrabble or Cribbage or Monopoly played at Christmas with relatives who seem to think endless talking, togetherness and competitiveness, plus a complete lack of downtime or privacy (usually mixed with alcohol) is a good idea.

I hope you all have a Good Christmas - and you get to spend it where and with whom you want to be. See you on the other side.

The next lot of Dr Who books read this year - Part 4

And here we go again.  Part 4 of a series of posts.  Wonder how many more I’ll get through on this series, this year?  You’ll see, below, that this was a very mixed bunch indeed, this latest lot.  Some I loved (Paul Leonard’s Venusian Lullaby); and some I’m amazed I got through (Eric Saward’s The Twin Dilemma). Strangely, the strength of the plot has nothing to do with whether I am enjoying these – some of them have very slight plots but are written and characterised so appealingly I am happy and sail through.  Others…I really enjoyed The Twin Dilemma as an intro to the 6^th Dr on TV (unlike lots of other people!)…but the book.  I think it may be the most unhappy (though hopefully not unkind) review I’ve ever given to a book I didn’t actually rip up.  (Yes:  I once ripped up a book.  It was so full of hate and nastiness I felt that no one else should be subjected to my copy, at least; so I tore it up to rid myself of the bad feelings it had provoked…It was a very nasty thriller I read some years ago – nowadays we’d call it torture-porn, but we didn’t have that term back in the late 80s!  So.  Not a habitual destroyer of books: each to their own in reading, I say.)

As always: SPOILERS ON ALL BOOKS VERY LIKELY!!!!

And a note on order.  Target Originals are not read in order of publication, but in order of each Doctor.  And I jump about in terms of which Doctor I read at any given time.  But each Doctor’s individual stories will be read in order of broadcasting on TV.  The Virgin New Adventures for Sylvester will be read in order; as will the BBC 8^th 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.

1. Doctor Who: Earthshock, by Ian Marter (Target Original)
   (5^th Dr.  I just didn’t get into this one.  It felt very bitty, and unconnected and none of the characters felt particularly real, even the Doctor.  The Beryl Reid character swaggered and behaved like a stereotypical boar through the book.  Nyssa felt unnecessarily excluded from the main action, Tegan behaved like a stereotype of herself [‘a mouth on legs’], and Adric dying seemed like something of an afterthought – though it was the most affecting moment in the whole story on TV. Hmmm…Not sure what went wrong here?  Maybe its me, and I just wasn’t in the right mood for this one – though I am finding the 5^th Dr adventures way more readable than they ever were watchable – but here’s an exception. ACTUAL BOOK.)
2. Doctor Who: Edge of Destruction, by Nigel Robinson (Target Original)
   (1^st Dr.  This one watched very well but didn’t read so well.  I wasn’t absorbed.  The jarring nature of the hysteria and paranoia seems to have been more visual in this story than I realised.  I also found the denouement rather contrived: all because of a stuck button, The TARDIS spent the entire book trying to tell them what was wrong with the ship by means of poltergeist phenomena and electric shocks [eh?]; possession – for example some silly episodes with scissors that did the plot no good and were red herrings of the most irritating kind[really truly ehh??!!].  All a bit silly.  There could have been a much better reason, and the way the TARDIS chose to communicate – and how on earth it managed it could have been way better explained.  More believably.  Liking Barbara’s role in this one though: like the idea that she saw a narrative and followed that, where pure science, being emotionless, was unable to see the links.  That was a nice touch, thought provoking.)
3. Doctor Who: The Twin Dilemma, by Eric Saward (Target Original)
   (6^th Dr.  Good God, this one almost derailed my marathon entirely.  TURGID is not the word.  At first I thought the writing was quirky, but then…in too many places it is perfectly serviceable before slipping into some truly strange narratorial choices.  He found it impossible to stick to the point, whatever it was at the time.  Not in the adorable manner of Lawrence Sterne either.  Just as if he wanted to focalise every random character that was mentioned in passing.  And some that weren’t random characters really.  At one point, by example, a cat watched some other characters leave a scene.  We then get treated to a description of what the cat knew.  We focalise a cat that is never seen in the story again, for 3 pages, for absolutely no reason.  I am amazed this story got told at all, what little there was of it, because the author’s inability to keep himself interested in it long enough to tell us, was obvious.  Painful reading; except the bits that were good – which is why I’m so irritated with the rest of it!  ACTUAL BOOK.)
4. Doctor Who: Blue Box, by Kate Orman (BBC Past Doctors Series)
   (6^th Dr.  This one was a problem.  It started very well, then made a fatal error – an error I am noticing in several of these after show independent tie-in books.  Whilst the presentation of the Dr and whichever companion are usually finely and perfectly played, the surrounding story often feels like a crowbar.  Either something to do with its setting – there really is too much America in the modern books, the joy of the Dr in many ways is that he is a galaxy wide traveller, but that like any ‘homegrown’ hero, he keeps mysteriously popping up most in his country of authorial ‘origin’.  He’s more parochial than we like to think.  Even the faraway planets bear odd resemblances to England in their bureaucracies etc.  Anyway, the point here, is that the story was a good one (about the birth of the internet age and hacking), but Kate Orman was determined it be partially a ‘road movie’.  There was so much driving about and crashing in motels and popping outside for a smoke for some exposition that I got very very very bored and wandered off.  I think I read maybe 13 other books before I summoned the sudden interest to come back to this one. 
   
   Thing is, I like Kate Orman’s style, I think she’s a really good writer.  I like the way she painted Peri and Colin Baker.  I liked, for the most part, the subsidiary characters, especially Luis and Mondy; though Swan was so psychotic as to be something of a mystery.  But though the plot was grand, all that driving about and going from one place to another reminded me of something Stanley is always saying about the older Dr TV stories – the 8 parters.  That the middle episodes are usually lots of pointless and irritating running about.  This was the problem here.  Like in The West Wing when they parade about having urgent conversations while walking purposefully, because it’s more dramatic than people endlessly having conversations in little rooms, sitting still.  The story was great, but I felt like I could have edited it to a smaller novella and it would have been tighter and much easier to read, a feckload snappier.)
5. Doctor Who: Venusian Lullaby, by Paul Leonard (Virgin Missing Adventures Series)
   (1^st Dr.  Eat, Remember.  This is a bit of an unforgettable read.  Rarely have I read a world so well constructed, so fully alien.  I had trouble visualizing and following the characters in places because the names, customs and action, to a degree, were all so completely different to here.  It wasn’t the fault of the author that I got lost here and there, as I was following the gist and was very tired.  I think I must really like this author: this is the 2^nd Who of his I have read and it had similar themes to the last [though a happier conclusion]: a very civilized race at the end of their expectancy; their planet is dying.  What to do?  Accept? Fight and try to leave?  And if someone comes miraculously offering rescue, are they to be trusted?  There was plenty of heroism in this, and plenty of intrigue, suspense and action.  Much thoughtfulness.  Ian and Barbara prove their mettle.  William Hartnell is urbane and effective.  I enjoyed it immensely and would read it again. 10/10. ACTUAL BOOK. )
6.  Doctor Who: Tip of the Tongue, by Patrick Ness (Dr Who 50^th Anniversary e-short story series, BBC)
   (5^th Dr.  For a tiny thing, this wasn’t bad at all.  Took me about 45 mins to read with interruptions, and I enjoyed it, though it was a bit childlike, and Nyssa was slightly not herself in places.  Characterisation of Peter Davison was strong, though.  I liked the US setting [for once!] and its strong evocation of a small town during WW2. The poverty and racial tensions were quickly painted but well done.  The Truth Tellers were a strangely memorable idea and my image of them in my head is sinister, where the story was not.  The points about slavery and freedom were nicely done: not in your face and preachy, just told in the story itself, subtle.  The best way to get people to think on something.  ON KINDLE.)
7.  Doctor Who: The Doomsday Weapon, by Malcolm Hulke (Target Original)
   (3^rd Dr.  I thought I might find this one boring, a mining planet, Jo and Pertwee start arguing with colonists – its all about mining: again!  And yet I didn’t.  I got right into the ins and outs of the colony’s viability, their conflict with IMC, the large mining company.  The lovely portrait of Dent as amoral and utterly loyal to his paypacket and his little house and his IMC chosen wife.  I loved the line he came out with about how you could always trust people who were unscrupulous and ambitious; as of course, you can’t – but he meant they would be predictable, so you know where you are with them, and know to have eyes in the back of your head.  The moral repurcussions of the mining company trying to clear out the colonists from the planet by means of deception and violence were well explored. 
   
   I liked Jo’s proactiveness here; she disappeared for almost the first third of the story, but reappeared later, escaping, being recaptured, but generally not being fatalistic and trying to help.  Bit inspirational, in a funny way.  The Master felt crowbarred into this story, not entirely sure why he was there, what his real input to the story was, though his search for the Doomsday Weapon of the title was in character enough. This aired as Colony in Space – Stanley tells me that stories ending in ‘In Space’ are often regarded as the crappest, by officionados; I disagree, I liked this one. ACTUAL BOOK.)
8.  Doctor Who: Timewyrm Revelation, by Paul Cornell (Virgin New Adventures Series)
   (7^th Dr. Have to say I am pleased to see the back of the Timewyrm.  I didn’t like her as a character right from the first book; and I STILL say it was both courageous and bloody stupid to start the New Adventures Series with a set of 4 books all based around the same character…when there’s such a risk this character be found flat and boring as feck.  Saying that, this book was a good send off for her, and a strange book altogether.  I liked it a lot; and I also found it very self indulgent and rambling.  The beginning and end were very tight, and the middle rollocked all over the place in a very irritating and gambolling kind of way.  It was a fever dream of a book.  Rich in imagination and vivid imagery, it suffered though from two main flaws, in my reading. 
   
   First, the characterisation of Pertwee [who pops up at first in an artist’s smock, really?!]  is not believable – apart from saying ‘old chap’ a lot, a simple verbal tic, he  didn’t sound like himself, the sorts of things he would say.  And the cameo by Tom Baker – if I hadn’t have been told it was him, I would never have guessed – as one of the most recognisable Doctors…this is a problem.  And second, the book had a failing that is very current indeed, very timely: it was far too epic in tone.  I see why it was, what with being set in the Doctor’s head, a massive landscape.  But it felt like an ambitious action fantasy film with an addiction to that irritating one size fits all operatic theme music we get treated to so much these days in cinema.  There was too much angst, too much shouting, too much near death – the stakes were too high, too often!  A failing of pace, or tone??  Not sure. 
   
   I really did enjoy this book, I hasten to add – I finished it in 2 days flat, and I flowed along with the stream of consciousness changes of scenes, the dead-not-dead-oh-dead-again-ness of Ace and then Sylvester…and it ended very nicely indeed.  There were some marvellous subsidiary characters: I really liked Emily and Peter Hutchings, and Emily’s link with Saul [the vibe between Emily and Saul was a sort of non-sexualized hark back to The Witching Hour and Lasher, by Anne Rice: the disembodied spirit; except this one was friendly and had a stronger link to the vicar than anyone else, but the echo of Anne Rice was there, and it’s a nice concept, I liked it].  I enjoyed the little loose ends all being tidied away at the end; this gave me satisfaction.  Not sure how to conclude – loved it; and found it irritating – almost in equal measure.  ACTUAL BOOK.)

And there you go, for this instalment.  Who knows which ones I’ll read next?  There’s likely to be more 1^st Dr coming, as I am enjoying William Hartnell a lot.  I’m wondering how the New Adventures and BBC 8^th Doctor series can carry on as long as they did…because you can’t truly, subject your main characters – especially the companions – to such anguish and torture and betrayal (etc etc etc) as these 2 series do, every book, without it all becoming rather desensitizing.  I’m interested to see how they go on.  For the first time, I find myself wondering about these 2 series in particular…whether I’ll actually be able to get through them all.  As the BBC Past Doctor series and the Virgin Missing Adventures, being more stand alone adventures, and jumping about more…they feel more self contained and any massive trauma inflicted in them: for instance, in Mark Morris’s Deep Blue, when the 5^th Dr and most of the UK turn into horrible creatures; and despite the rather magic wand ending, you got the impression that a bit of amnesia and time passing would make the next adventure possible.  Whereas the 7^th Dr series and the 8^th Dr series – they flow on and on with not that much of a time gap between each one.  You start to feel like each of these 2 Doctors should perpetually suffer a thousand yard stare.  They should be traumatised.  As should Sam and Ace (and I’m told much worse awaits her in particular in the next few books). 

I’m not entirely convinced this level of emotional and physical trauma and  angst is the best or only way to go with these stories.  You don’t really want to finish every book you read wrung out and a bit sad, do you??  I don’t mean all the stories should tip into farce or slapstick either…just that the idea of more adult books for the Dr Who character doesn’t ONLY have to mean violence and war and betrayal for the characters – and on an epic galactic scale.  Smaller stories can pack just as much of a punch.  And I’m starting to want to see some of these too, in these ranges.

Let’s see what’s next, and where the authors take me…let’s see more science fiction and a slightly less heavy handed (over dramatic? sentimental? over emphasized?) tone when it comes to emotional matters, hard choices and the like. 

Just thinking aloud…