It's the 1600's and the Tardis touches down in Venice. The Doctor, Steven and Vicki find soon find themselves invariably enmeshed in strange goings on.
The Empire of Glass is a fun book. Not a great one, but really enjoyable. The plot (of an intergalactic weapons treaty) is one that easily could have become bogged down, fortunately Lane completely ignores it and uses it only as a vehicle to shoehorn Shakespeare (British Spy), Marlowe (Assumed Dead) and Gallileo (Drunkard) into a run around while the two main alien species involved are both intriguing, and both treacherous.
Two tiny little niggles with the book. One, it's utterly impossible to imagine the Sontarans and the Rutans sitting down together for any reason, let alone to ban weapons of mass destruction, and secondly the ever so slight implication that Steven harbours homosexual feelings for Kit Marlowe, which, while I'm not against having a homosexual companion, it doesn't do to subvert an existing character, and certainly not Steven. But as I say, the implication is slight at best and probably unintentional. These in no way affect the enjoyment of reading the book.
The plot is quite absurd, but dealt with so matter of factly that it's quite impossible to ridicule. Cardinal Braxiatel wants to solve the Universe's problems. So he invites the Doctor to chair his weapons treaty held on a giant artificial island near Venice. Inevitably he gets the wrong man who does a better job, while the Doctor and Steven try and work out whats happening. Vicki gets kidnapped by an amorous flying alien.
The ending feels slightly superfluous, as the scene abruptly changes to England and the court of James I, but again, it's fun as the Doctor and Vicki improvise their way through MacBeth, the only problem lies with reading The Empire of Glass and The Plotters back to back as I did, as they are contradictory (Plotters, written after Empire, set before) results in King James failing to recognise the two Time Travellers despite only having just said goodbye to them in his timeline. Trying to reconcile the problem is rather futile and it's bext to leave a gap between reading both excellent novels so as to minimise the continuity jar.
7/10
Showing posts with label 1st Doctor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1st Doctor. Show all posts
Saturday, 28 November 2009
Byzantium - Keith Topping
Byzantium takes place in the strange interlude between Episode 1, Scene 1 of The Romans, and Episode 1, Scene 2. The space between the Tardis falling off a cliff and the crew being comfortably installed in Rome. Keith Topping sites an entire adventure in this space. This book has been criticised (I Who) for having no plot. That's not strictly true. It is a historical, and it's only a conceit of Doctor Who that History has a plot, Byzantium in fact gains far more truth out of the situation by having the Tardis Crew simply wandering around, surviving, while chaos whirls about them. That doesn't necessarily make it more interesting than say The Aztecs, or The Romans itself, but it allows for a different look at the period, than would be gathered by concentrating on the regular characters. Being fair, Topping's Byzantium is well researched, but retains a small number of little niggles (As I was reminded on a forum, minarets did not exist in the 1st century A.D.). Topping is interested in creating a living, sprawling city on the brink of madness. Byzantium is full of Greeks, Romans, Jews, Christians, Zealots, Arabs and Slaves, all of whom have grudges against each other. And in order to highlight this, he splits the Crew up between the four main groups - Ian joins the Romans, Vicki finds a Greek family, Barbara is wooed by the chief Rabbi and the Doctor hides out with the persecuted Christians. They each meet a few people and then reunite at the end against the backdrop of a massacre. This would be fine, if we cared about the supporting characters such as in The Massacre or Reign of Terror, or if the main characters had any major advances or revelations in character. But neither happens.
To draw the criticisms of this book properly, we should look at the main characters and how they fare first of all. Ian gets the meatiest chunk, lodged with the Praefect of the city, he helps to bring him and the Roman General together to put down a looming rebellion by the lower officials. Except that this isn't Ian. For a good three quarters of the book, it's Ben Jackson. Ian is not a 60's swinger, so words like "Daddio" and phrases such as "I'll give you a good biff on the conk." are utterly wrong for a man whose roots lie in the fifties rather than the sixties. Towards the end of the book, Ian sees his friend die, taking a knife that was meant for him, and barely reacts. Shortly after, he stabs a zealot that is threatening Barbara and Vicki, but does so "with a bemused smile". While it's just about possible to extend artistic license to see Ian in a purple shirt, red tie and talking like he's jive king of England, the idea of Ian being able to kill so easily and without remorse simply makes him someone else to the hero of the TV series. Vicki fares better until she is confronted by a Roman Soldier who intends to rape her. Topping has already explicitly stated that Vicki is 14 (Which she isn't by any stretch of the imagination) and so her use of the word "deflowered" at this point is really quite wrong on every level.
The Doctor ends up hiding in caves with the Christians for the entirety of the novel. At one point he translates a bit of the gospel of Mark and at another diagnoses one of the Christians with cancer. It says something that these bits are the most interesting part of the book. Barbara fares best, in her natural element of history and Topping gets a few nice touches with her. Sadly, this is not enough to rescue the book.
The main problem is, Topping has too big a cast and only spends a minimal amount of time with each. A big cast is great if you are writing War and Peace, but here characters are sketched out vaguely, we have a page or two with one, before we are whisked off to meet another. All of whom are involved with plots, or not, in which case they are just trying not to die in a horrible way. If the character is a Roman or a Jew, they are arguing, killing people or plotting. If the character is a Greek or Christian, they are hiding away, doing very little. Trying to distinguish between the various Romans, who all have similar names, titles and few distinguishing features except mutual distrust, or between the Christians, who have no surnames and no distinguishing features and do nothing at all, quickly becomes exhausting, if not depressing.
Perhaps I'm being unfair. My favourite literary work is The Alexandria Quartet, in which Lawrence Durrell skillfully creates Alexandria as a seething turmoil of Copts, Jews, Arabs, Christians, Egyptians, French, Irish and English with beautifully conceived characters that is one of the greatest works of the Twentieth Century. It's kind of impossible not to compare the two as they are in a similar vein, and that's unfair to Topping as no one has asked him to write a masterpiece of literature. But still, it's not difficult to see Byzantium as, not a failure, but a missed opportunity. Topping has a great turn of prose when he applies himself, and he succeeds in building an atmosphere to the final conflagration, as well as proving the cheapness of life as anonymous support character after anonymous support character is struck down without fanfare. If only we cared.
A smaller cast, closer involvement by the regulars, more time to explore would have provided a much tighter work. As I say, the chapters spent with the Christians were also the highlight of the book, despite their lack of activity, it was far more enjoyable to see the Doctor learning about history first hand and his palpable enjoyment in such, than endless Roman/Zealot Plotting that all means nought anyway when they are simply slaughtered out of hand.
So, while I hold that the lack of a plot is not a barrier to this book, it's ambition of scale is. If it had been a character piece of the Regulars watching from afar, it could have been great, but it tries to hold an overview and juggle too much. You can lose a plot or you can lose the characters and still get a good read. Losing both leaves the reader with no interest. Extra point for ambition.
4/10
To draw the criticisms of this book properly, we should look at the main characters and how they fare first of all. Ian gets the meatiest chunk, lodged with the Praefect of the city, he helps to bring him and the Roman General together to put down a looming rebellion by the lower officials. Except that this isn't Ian. For a good three quarters of the book, it's Ben Jackson. Ian is not a 60's swinger, so words like "Daddio" and phrases such as "I'll give you a good biff on the conk." are utterly wrong for a man whose roots lie in the fifties rather than the sixties. Towards the end of the book, Ian sees his friend die, taking a knife that was meant for him, and barely reacts. Shortly after, he stabs a zealot that is threatening Barbara and Vicki, but does so "with a bemused smile". While it's just about possible to extend artistic license to see Ian in a purple shirt, red tie and talking like he's jive king of England, the idea of Ian being able to kill so easily and without remorse simply makes him someone else to the hero of the TV series. Vicki fares better until she is confronted by a Roman Soldier who intends to rape her. Topping has already explicitly stated that Vicki is 14 (Which she isn't by any stretch of the imagination) and so her use of the word "deflowered" at this point is really quite wrong on every level.
The Doctor ends up hiding in caves with the Christians for the entirety of the novel. At one point he translates a bit of the gospel of Mark and at another diagnoses one of the Christians with cancer. It says something that these bits are the most interesting part of the book. Barbara fares best, in her natural element of history and Topping gets a few nice touches with her. Sadly, this is not enough to rescue the book.
The main problem is, Topping has too big a cast and only spends a minimal amount of time with each. A big cast is great if you are writing War and Peace, but here characters are sketched out vaguely, we have a page or two with one, before we are whisked off to meet another. All of whom are involved with plots, or not, in which case they are just trying not to die in a horrible way. If the character is a Roman or a Jew, they are arguing, killing people or plotting. If the character is a Greek or Christian, they are hiding away, doing very little. Trying to distinguish between the various Romans, who all have similar names, titles and few distinguishing features except mutual distrust, or between the Christians, who have no surnames and no distinguishing features and do nothing at all, quickly becomes exhausting, if not depressing.
Perhaps I'm being unfair. My favourite literary work is The Alexandria Quartet, in which Lawrence Durrell skillfully creates Alexandria as a seething turmoil of Copts, Jews, Arabs, Christians, Egyptians, French, Irish and English with beautifully conceived characters that is one of the greatest works of the Twentieth Century. It's kind of impossible not to compare the two as they are in a similar vein, and that's unfair to Topping as no one has asked him to write a masterpiece of literature. But still, it's not difficult to see Byzantium as, not a failure, but a missed opportunity. Topping has a great turn of prose when he applies himself, and he succeeds in building an atmosphere to the final conflagration, as well as proving the cheapness of life as anonymous support character after anonymous support character is struck down without fanfare. If only we cared.
A smaller cast, closer involvement by the regulars, more time to explore would have provided a much tighter work. As I say, the chapters spent with the Christians were also the highlight of the book, despite their lack of activity, it was far more enjoyable to see the Doctor learning about history first hand and his palpable enjoyment in such, than endless Roman/Zealot Plotting that all means nought anyway when they are simply slaughtered out of hand.
So, while I hold that the lack of a plot is not a barrier to this book, it's ambition of scale is. If it had been a character piece of the Regulars watching from afar, it could have been great, but it tries to hold an overview and juggle too much. You can lose a plot or you can lose the characters and still get a good read. Losing both leaves the reader with no interest. Extra point for ambition.
4/10
Sunday, 20 September 2009
Ten Little Aliens - Stephen Cole
If ever there was a book of two sides, it is this. On the one side, it is great, a taut, fast paced, claustrophobic thriller that is quite horrifying in many places. On the other side, it's a horrible mess.
Let me try to explain this supposed contradiction. Ten Little Aliens wears its influences on its sleeve. Alien the movie and Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians (Her original title of Ten Little Niggers having been written out of history).
I've never read Ten Little Indians, never read any Christie in fact, so perhaps I should give it a go, but I'm guessing the plot of Cole's story holds some resemblance to Indians (Notwithstanding the People eating reincarnated Aliens). So if the plot is essentially a mystery, the setting is pure space horror. Confined tunnels in an artificial asteroid that is powered by chewing up people. Invulnerable stone Angels whipping terrified space marines off to die. Disappearing corpses of Alien Terrorists. So good, so cliche, but it works because Cole really puts the atmosphere across. He deploys a couple of tricks including the Find Your Own Adventure Chapter 14 to place the reader right alongside the characters. While Find your own adventure may sound cheesy, Cole has written it right into the story. It makes sense, it really works, and incredibly, the atmosphere builds if you do it properly and read just one path through instead of trying to read all the paths.
If this had been a Space Hulk story say, then job done. Great read for a sci fi horror fan. But it isn't. It's Doctor Who. And this is where the book starts to fall down.
You can't fault Cole for bravery. Into this horrendous tale of wholesale slaughter in horrible ways, he's chosen the First Doctor as his hero. A quite astonishing choice. Bill Hartnell isn't exactly Ellen Ripley.
This is unfortunate. Doctor Who has rules. I hate to say it, but it does, indefinite rules perhaps but there are some things which just aren't going to work. Doctor Who can work in almost any context. That's one of the beautiful things about it. But putting the First Doctor into what is essentially the Space Hulk/Aliens Universe, doesn't. Or if it is going to work then it needed a better writer of character than Cole. His description is wonderful. His characterisation, apart from Frog and flashes of Ben and Polly, isn't. The Doctor is generic, apart from the blatant nods towards the oncoming regeneration, but there's nothing else to say that this couldn't be Troughton running around. The setting is of course, base under siege, although the intriguing twist is that the base is owned by the Aliens - the Schirr. Cole has certainly thought hard about the placing of the book, both The War Machines and the The Tenth Planet are base under siege, but still, the Doctor just isn't Hartnell, although to be fair, it's almost impossible to imagine the First Doctor in this setting.
This is why Cole was brave. He gave himself a very tough job, he couldn't quite live up to it.
The marines don't fare too much better either. Alright, they are cannon fodder. But it's kind of a mistake to kill off the marines who actually have a character and allow the survivors to comprise, among others, two who have received absolutely no characterisation at all. That said, as I've already mentioned, Frog is a wonderful character and Shade and Haunt are reasonable.
There are other problems with the book, considering that it is Doctor Who and not some other series. The worst being the magic aspect. The Schirr's entire plan relies on a ritual that is never fully explained, but requires ten of them and ten of the humans, except that one of the Schirr is executed for betraying the others, should this alone not have destroyed the ritual? In the ritual, the Schirr commit suicide, some of the dead Schirr are brought back to life, some of the humans are transformed into Schirr, the original Schirr then eat the bodies to gain eternal life and then meld with a mental life form. Er, what???
Such a convoluted ritual seems to suggest that Cole doesn't actually know what's going on, at some points he seems to be making it up as he goes along. This is compounded at the end by the Doctor simply stating that anything we don't understand may appear to be magic but is simply higher technology. In other words, a cop out. It lets the book down.
I can think of other things too, Ben gets the best deal out of the regulars, but again, his anachronistic comment of "bricking it" and gaining an injured ankle which ceases to trouble him immediately after the incident, rankle. The Christie part of the novel - the mystery, apart from the double dodge in the first couple of chapters, is pretty much pointless. The Doctor does some of the hard graft and then the chief alien tells him all his plans. All these things contrive to pull this book down.
And yet. Having pulled the book to pieces, I enjoyed it immensely. I read it through in two days and was hooked every step of the way. Here lies the contradiction.
This is a blockbuster movie of a book. Really well written science horror that is great to read. Put it under any kind of scrutiny however and it starts to disappoint, although it won't fall apart. But as a Doctor Who novel, which should stand up to scrutiny and shouldn't be about the blockbuster, it fails.
So the best thing I can say about the novel is, I enjoyed it, immensely. And the worst thing I can say about it is that it would have been improved by not having the Doctor in it at all.
6/10
Let me try to explain this supposed contradiction. Ten Little Aliens wears its influences on its sleeve. Alien the movie and Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians (Her original title of Ten Little Niggers having been written out of history).
I've never read Ten Little Indians, never read any Christie in fact, so perhaps I should give it a go, but I'm guessing the plot of Cole's story holds some resemblance to Indians (Notwithstanding the People eating reincarnated Aliens). So if the plot is essentially a mystery, the setting is pure space horror. Confined tunnels in an artificial asteroid that is powered by chewing up people. Invulnerable stone Angels whipping terrified space marines off to die. Disappearing corpses of Alien Terrorists. So good, so cliche, but it works because Cole really puts the atmosphere across. He deploys a couple of tricks including the Find Your Own Adventure Chapter 14 to place the reader right alongside the characters. While Find your own adventure may sound cheesy, Cole has written it right into the story. It makes sense, it really works, and incredibly, the atmosphere builds if you do it properly and read just one path through instead of trying to read all the paths.
If this had been a Space Hulk story say, then job done. Great read for a sci fi horror fan. But it isn't. It's Doctor Who. And this is where the book starts to fall down.
You can't fault Cole for bravery. Into this horrendous tale of wholesale slaughter in horrible ways, he's chosen the First Doctor as his hero. A quite astonishing choice. Bill Hartnell isn't exactly Ellen Ripley.
This is unfortunate. Doctor Who has rules. I hate to say it, but it does, indefinite rules perhaps but there are some things which just aren't going to work. Doctor Who can work in almost any context. That's one of the beautiful things about it. But putting the First Doctor into what is essentially the Space Hulk/Aliens Universe, doesn't. Or if it is going to work then it needed a better writer of character than Cole. His description is wonderful. His characterisation, apart from Frog and flashes of Ben and Polly, isn't. The Doctor is generic, apart from the blatant nods towards the oncoming regeneration, but there's nothing else to say that this couldn't be Troughton running around. The setting is of course, base under siege, although the intriguing twist is that the base is owned by the Aliens - the Schirr. Cole has certainly thought hard about the placing of the book, both The War Machines and the The Tenth Planet are base under siege, but still, the Doctor just isn't Hartnell, although to be fair, it's almost impossible to imagine the First Doctor in this setting.
This is why Cole was brave. He gave himself a very tough job, he couldn't quite live up to it.
The marines don't fare too much better either. Alright, they are cannon fodder. But it's kind of a mistake to kill off the marines who actually have a character and allow the survivors to comprise, among others, two who have received absolutely no characterisation at all. That said, as I've already mentioned, Frog is a wonderful character and Shade and Haunt are reasonable.
There are other problems with the book, considering that it is Doctor Who and not some other series. The worst being the magic aspect. The Schirr's entire plan relies on a ritual that is never fully explained, but requires ten of them and ten of the humans, except that one of the Schirr is executed for betraying the others, should this alone not have destroyed the ritual? In the ritual, the Schirr commit suicide, some of the dead Schirr are brought back to life, some of the humans are transformed into Schirr, the original Schirr then eat the bodies to gain eternal life and then meld with a mental life form. Er, what???
Such a convoluted ritual seems to suggest that Cole doesn't actually know what's going on, at some points he seems to be making it up as he goes along. This is compounded at the end by the Doctor simply stating that anything we don't understand may appear to be magic but is simply higher technology. In other words, a cop out. It lets the book down.
I can think of other things too, Ben gets the best deal out of the regulars, but again, his anachronistic comment of "bricking it" and gaining an injured ankle which ceases to trouble him immediately after the incident, rankle. The Christie part of the novel - the mystery, apart from the double dodge in the first couple of chapters, is pretty much pointless. The Doctor does some of the hard graft and then the chief alien tells him all his plans. All these things contrive to pull this book down.
And yet. Having pulled the book to pieces, I enjoyed it immensely. I read it through in two days and was hooked every step of the way. Here lies the contradiction.
This is a blockbuster movie of a book. Really well written science horror that is great to read. Put it under any kind of scrutiny however and it starts to disappoint, although it won't fall apart. But as a Doctor Who novel, which should stand up to scrutiny and shouldn't be about the blockbuster, it fails.
So the best thing I can say about the novel is, I enjoyed it, immensely. And the worst thing I can say about it is that it would have been improved by not having the Doctor in it at all.
6/10
Sunday, 28 June 2009
The Sorcerer's Apprentice - Christopher Bulis
Christopher Bulis has an atrocious reputation in Who fiction, however, having now read his two first Doctor books - City at the End of the World and Sorcerer's Apprentice, it certainly is not a reputation that applies here.
Sorcerer's Apprentice shines.
In all the attempts to overlay a fantasy world on the science fiction of Doctor Who, I don't think any attempt has been as successful as this novel, and yes I include The Mind Robber in that. Bulis really goes to town here, reveling in every cliche and having so much fun it's impossible not to be carried along with him. Of the basic Doctor Who story templates, Bulis chooses "The Search", but with his palette, he keeps it fresh and accessible. the only slight niggle is Barbara being sidelined by being not allowed to travel with the main party, she doesn't get much to do, it's unfortunate but the rest of the book more than makes up for it. At the other end of the scale, The Doctor and Ian really shine, as do the support characters who are fully realised and jump off the page.
The tension and pace is kept up throughout and builds to a nailbiting and satisfying finale that feels appropriate to what went before, even if the twist can be seen a mile off.
Bulis has written a lightweight book, it's frothy, it doesn't deal with any major issues, yet it's unbelievably fun and you really care about the characters, and as such stands head and shoulders above many Who novels that purport to deal with weightier issues and get dragged down by them. One of the best 1st Doctor novels, and a strong contender for the top ten MA's.
9 out of 10.
Sorcerer's Apprentice shines.
In all the attempts to overlay a fantasy world on the science fiction of Doctor Who, I don't think any attempt has been as successful as this novel, and yes I include The Mind Robber in that. Bulis really goes to town here, reveling in every cliche and having so much fun it's impossible not to be carried along with him. Of the basic Doctor Who story templates, Bulis chooses "The Search", but with his palette, he keeps it fresh and accessible. the only slight niggle is Barbara being sidelined by being not allowed to travel with the main party, she doesn't get much to do, it's unfortunate but the rest of the book more than makes up for it. At the other end of the scale, The Doctor and Ian really shine, as do the support characters who are fully realised and jump off the page.
The tension and pace is kept up throughout and builds to a nailbiting and satisfying finale that feels appropriate to what went before, even if the twist can be seen a mile off.
Bulis has written a lightweight book, it's frothy, it doesn't deal with any major issues, yet it's unbelievably fun and you really care about the characters, and as such stands head and shoulders above many Who novels that purport to deal with weightier issues and get dragged down by them. One of the best 1st Doctor novels, and a strong contender for the top ten MA's.
9 out of 10.
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
The Sensorites - Nigel Robinson
The Sensorites was a Target I read as a child, one of the many stories that would only see the light of day on VHS after I had practically grown up and had other things to worry about. The serial is not well loved I gather. But the book, I adored.
Nigel Robinson has turned in a book of two halves. The first part, set aboard the spaceship, is positively dripping with anticipation and claustrophobic dread as the unseen Sensorite assailants move in on the Tardis Crew who are at their mercy. The Sensorites even succeed where Dalek, Cyberman and Sontaran have failed in harming the Tardis by cutting out the lock.
The second part, by the nature of the Serial, is very different as the Doctor engages in making peace with this race and solving the mystery of the poisoned water, it's far more open and action orientated and again Robinson does an effective job in describing the planet and especially the action in the water tunnels.
The serial obviously suffered from the problem that The Sensorites, beings of power and mystery in the first half, turn into perfectly ordinary and not very distinct aliens in the second, the book is so well written that this does not intrude, however, it does have a problem that the serial did not have, The Sensorites do not have names. Poor Nigel Robinson has to spend the entire second half of the book delineating one character as "The Evil Sensorite" and a second as "The Sensorite's Senior Scientist". But it's The Evil Sensorite which causes the problem, as, despite being Evil, he is never given a motive and after a while this becomes very wearying. It's hardly Robinson's fault and he does his best to overcome this with an excellent narrative, to no avail, this single problem drags the story which is a huge pity. But if you can overcome it, there are some great riches to uncover here. The Sensorites is, for the most part, very enjoyable.
7/10
Nigel Robinson has turned in a book of two halves. The first part, set aboard the spaceship, is positively dripping with anticipation and claustrophobic dread as the unseen Sensorite assailants move in on the Tardis Crew who are at their mercy. The Sensorites even succeed where Dalek, Cyberman and Sontaran have failed in harming the Tardis by cutting out the lock.
The second part, by the nature of the Serial, is very different as the Doctor engages in making peace with this race and solving the mystery of the poisoned water, it's far more open and action orientated and again Robinson does an effective job in describing the planet and especially the action in the water tunnels.
The serial obviously suffered from the problem that The Sensorites, beings of power and mystery in the first half, turn into perfectly ordinary and not very distinct aliens in the second, the book is so well written that this does not intrude, however, it does have a problem that the serial did not have, The Sensorites do not have names. Poor Nigel Robinson has to spend the entire second half of the book delineating one character as "The Evil Sensorite" and a second as "The Sensorite's Senior Scientist". But it's The Evil Sensorite which causes the problem, as, despite being Evil, he is never given a motive and after a while this becomes very wearying. It's hardly Robinson's fault and he does his best to overcome this with an excellent narrative, to no avail, this single problem drags the story which is a huge pity. But if you can overcome it, there are some great riches to uncover here. The Sensorites is, for the most part, very enjoyable.
7/10
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
The Aztecs - John Lucarotti
The Aztecs is a damn hard book to review, mainly because it's basic, but no less brilliant for that.
Lucarotti adds nothing and takes nothing away. He presents us with The Aztecs serial in written form. It is an excellent script, and Lucarotti, having written it, knows exactly what it is trying to do and how and conveys this simply. The Aztecs pootles along in third gear doing everything well but not attempting or caring to reach greater heights as the Serial so effortlessly achieved through the efforts of the actors. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the book, it made me worried for our heroes when I was meant to be worried, it had me laughing at the Doctor's engagement and I enjoyed reading it immensely and the characters felt alive, however, there is just a slight sense that Lucarotti is on autopilot as he certainly was for Marco Polo, that he hasn't stretched himself in writing and that the novelisation of The Aztecs is better than Marco Polo is down to the shorter, more structured story and an amazing script rather than great writing. As a result, The Aztecs is a good book, but falls short of being a great book because Lucarotti made no attempt to get out of third gear. Lucarotti's third gear is bloody good, but it leaves me wondering what he could achieved with this book if he'd pushed himself.
7/10
Lucarotti adds nothing and takes nothing away. He presents us with The Aztecs serial in written form. It is an excellent script, and Lucarotti, having written it, knows exactly what it is trying to do and how and conveys this simply. The Aztecs pootles along in third gear doing everything well but not attempting or caring to reach greater heights as the Serial so effortlessly achieved through the efforts of the actors. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the book, it made me worried for our heroes when I was meant to be worried, it had me laughing at the Doctor's engagement and I enjoyed reading it immensely and the characters felt alive, however, there is just a slight sense that Lucarotti is on autopilot as he certainly was for Marco Polo, that he hasn't stretched himself in writing and that the novelisation of The Aztecs is better than Marco Polo is down to the shorter, more structured story and an amazing script rather than great writing. As a result, The Aztecs is a good book, but falls short of being a great book because Lucarotti made no attempt to get out of third gear. Lucarotti's third gear is bloody good, but it leaves me wondering what he could achieved with this book if he'd pushed himself.
7/10
Monday, 15 June 2009
The Keys Of Marinus - Philip Hinchcliffe
I am currently waiting for Keys to come out on DVD in a few months before I start to review the Serials/DVD's themselves, so that I can have a long run up to The Ark or something like that. But until then, this is one of the Serials I have never seen.
It was however, one of my Dad's collection of Targets that I read as a kid, it was thoroughly enjoyable then, and it is still enjoyable now.
The Keys of Marinus is a string of great ideas held together by a wafer thin plot that Iris Wildthyme has driven through half a dozen times. So lets forget about that bit. It does no justice to a series of great little vignettes that are best appreciated individually. The alien worlds that are here are spectacularly drawn (The suggestion that so many extremes are from a single planet makes my head hurt, so let's just posit that Marinus is a collection of planets). Hinchcliffe brings each area to life and throws danger around every corner. It's well written without a doubt and overcomes the problems of the plot easily.
Where Hinchcliffe succeeds in this novelisation is with the characters. Each one of the travellers is, in turn, stranded and placed in mortal danger, and they must rely on each other for survival. As Ian rescues Susan and Barbara in the Icelands through strength, grit, determination and sheer machismo, he himself must be rescued from execution by the Doctor's cunning, intelligence and ingenuity. Yet Hinchcliffe does not bog down in character, he simply lets us see how close these four have become by showing us how far they will go for one another. Each have their flaws, but together, this Tardis Crew can overcome anything thrown at them. Something that was never quite true again after Ian and Barbara left and the Doctor moved to the forefront of the show.
6/10
It was however, one of my Dad's collection of Targets that I read as a kid, it was thoroughly enjoyable then, and it is still enjoyable now.
The Keys of Marinus is a string of great ideas held together by a wafer thin plot that Iris Wildthyme has driven through half a dozen times. So lets forget about that bit. It does no justice to a series of great little vignettes that are best appreciated individually. The alien worlds that are here are spectacularly drawn (The suggestion that so many extremes are from a single planet makes my head hurt, so let's just posit that Marinus is a collection of planets). Hinchcliffe brings each area to life and throws danger around every corner. It's well written without a doubt and overcomes the problems of the plot easily.
Where Hinchcliffe succeeds in this novelisation is with the characters. Each one of the travellers is, in turn, stranded and placed in mortal danger, and they must rely on each other for survival. As Ian rescues Susan and Barbara in the Icelands through strength, grit, determination and sheer machismo, he himself must be rescued from execution by the Doctor's cunning, intelligence and ingenuity. Yet Hinchcliffe does not bog down in character, he simply lets us see how close these four have become by showing us how far they will go for one another. Each have their flaws, but together, this Tardis Crew can overcome anything thrown at them. Something that was never quite true again after Ian and Barbara left and the Doctor moved to the forefront of the show.
6/10
Marco Polo - John Lucarotti
The first of the missing serials, with only the Audio and the Target to go on, although an abridged reconstruction exists on the official DVDs and I hope to start collecting the Loose Cannon reconstructions soon.
Unfortunately the Target does not offer us much. With the reputed lavishness of the serial, it is in fact a huge let down. Lucarotti has written a tale of two halves. The first half, dealing with the travellers journey from the mountains to the court of Kublai Khan is rushed, extremely rushed. The second half, dealing with the time spent at court by the Tardis crew, is also rushed, though not as much as the first half.
This is perhaps understandable, given the sheer scope of the story and the limited space available in a Target Book, but very disappointing. Description is thrown out of the window and the narrative stripped almost to the bone, everything is dealt with in a perfunctory manner before moving on to the next set piece.
Having said that, when the book does finally slow down to simply jogging through events (instead of sprinting past them) in the Khan's court, it is great fun, the Khan comes across brilliantly and hilariously in print; as does his Wife, the Empress.
Unfortunately, that's about all there is to recommend the book, it does occasionally feel as hard a slog to read as Marco Polo had in getting to China as page after page passes without any characterisation or description to keep the reader interested and while the antics of the Khan provide a little compensation it is nowhere near enough. For a lost story, this is a wasted opportunity, much more so since Lucarotti penned the actual script.
3/10
Unfortunately the Target does not offer us much. With the reputed lavishness of the serial, it is in fact a huge let down. Lucarotti has written a tale of two halves. The first half, dealing with the travellers journey from the mountains to the court of Kublai Khan is rushed, extremely rushed. The second half, dealing with the time spent at court by the Tardis crew, is also rushed, though not as much as the first half.
This is perhaps understandable, given the sheer scope of the story and the limited space available in a Target Book, but very disappointing. Description is thrown out of the window and the narrative stripped almost to the bone, everything is dealt with in a perfunctory manner before moving on to the next set piece.
Having said that, when the book does finally slow down to simply jogging through events (instead of sprinting past them) in the Khan's court, it is great fun, the Khan comes across brilliantly and hilariously in print; as does his Wife, the Empress.
Unfortunately, that's about all there is to recommend the book, it does occasionally feel as hard a slog to read as Marco Polo had in getting to China as page after page passes without any characterisation or description to keep the reader interested and while the antics of the Khan provide a little compensation it is nowhere near enough. For a lost story, this is a wasted opportunity, much more so since Lucarotti penned the actual script.
3/10
The Edge Of Destruction - Nigel Robinson
I first read The Edge of Destruction a long time ago. One of my Dad's Target's and long before I had the chance to watch the serial which I only saw recently on DVD. At the time it became one of my favourite stories, so it must have had something right.
It's a strange story, being set fully inside the Tardis, and yet one that is integral to the show, more so perhaps than even the Daleks, they are an outside influence, a Monster, albeit the most popular. The Tardis however, is part of the very basis of the Doctor's character. As Ian states in the very first episode, he doesn't expect to find the answer to the mysteries of Time and Space in a junkyard. The Doctor has changed faces many times, the Tardis however, has never changed, at least, not permanently.
Verity Lambert reveals in the DVD commentaries that the Tardis Designer wasn't particularly enthusiastic about working on the show and delayed the designs, only coming up with something at the last minute. Nevertheless, this last minute design became probably the most singular iconic image on television. For the first two stories, the Tardis is just a machine, but in Edge, it suddenly becomes so much more than that. This is the first inkling we are given that the Tardis is sentient. Something that even the Doctor at this stage seems unaware of. Of course, this idea has been built on subsequently until we get to humanoid Tardises in the EDA's, but in the 1960's, this was revolutionary. Without this story, we would not have the symbiotic relationship between the Doctor and his battered old Type 40, where one cannot be imagined without the other.
Perhaps this is why the story hit me so much when I first read it as a kid, because of the three opening stories, the first one defines the characters, the second defines the monsters, but this one defines the whole show.
I am probably biased then, when I say that Nigel Robinson's novelisation is excellent. It is nothing spectacular, but it goes far further than the serial in exploring the Tardis and transforming it effectively from a haunted mysterious edifice into something that is sheer awesome (in the correct sense of the word) in its concept and power.
Of course, the story goes much further than just creating the character of the Tardis, it also finally breaks down the walls of distrust between the Time Lord and the Human inhabitants after they've both been put through the wringer and Robinson handles this superbly, easily getting under the skin of all four travellers, moving from suspicion to distrust of each other whilst never losing the reader's sympathy in any of them. And the result is a book that is a delight from start to finish. Everything that can be achieved from the story is achieved and brought into sharp focus.
8/10
It's a strange story, being set fully inside the Tardis, and yet one that is integral to the show, more so perhaps than even the Daleks, they are an outside influence, a Monster, albeit the most popular. The Tardis however, is part of the very basis of the Doctor's character. As Ian states in the very first episode, he doesn't expect to find the answer to the mysteries of Time and Space in a junkyard. The Doctor has changed faces many times, the Tardis however, has never changed, at least, not permanently.
Verity Lambert reveals in the DVD commentaries that the Tardis Designer wasn't particularly enthusiastic about working on the show and delayed the designs, only coming up with something at the last minute. Nevertheless, this last minute design became probably the most singular iconic image on television. For the first two stories, the Tardis is just a machine, but in Edge, it suddenly becomes so much more than that. This is the first inkling we are given that the Tardis is sentient. Something that even the Doctor at this stage seems unaware of. Of course, this idea has been built on subsequently until we get to humanoid Tardises in the EDA's, but in the 1960's, this was revolutionary. Without this story, we would not have the symbiotic relationship between the Doctor and his battered old Type 40, where one cannot be imagined without the other.
Perhaps this is why the story hit me so much when I first read it as a kid, because of the three opening stories, the first one defines the characters, the second defines the monsters, but this one defines the whole show.
I am probably biased then, when I say that Nigel Robinson's novelisation is excellent. It is nothing spectacular, but it goes far further than the serial in exploring the Tardis and transforming it effectively from a haunted mysterious edifice into something that is sheer awesome (in the correct sense of the word) in its concept and power.
Of course, the story goes much further than just creating the character of the Tardis, it also finally breaks down the walls of distrust between the Time Lord and the Human inhabitants after they've both been put through the wringer and Robinson handles this superbly, easily getting under the skin of all four travellers, moving from suspicion to distrust of each other whilst never losing the reader's sympathy in any of them. And the result is a book that is a delight from start to finish. Everything that can be achieved from the story is achieved and brought into sharp focus.
8/10
Saturday, 13 June 2009
The Daleks - David Whitaker
How to start this review? That, out of the many hundreds and hundreds of Who books, this is the greatest? As it has been voted by the hordes of fandom? I almost don't need to go over the details, so well known they may be to the people likely to be reading this. That as the first published Who Story, Whitaker painted over the events of An Unearthly Child with a new beginning, a car crash in fog on a common. Writing from Ian Chesterton's 1st person perspective. The Glass Dalek.
But is it these elements themselves which make this book not just "another" Target book, but the pinnacle of Who fiction, if it is indeed such, achieved in the very first writings and aspired to unsuccessfully ever since? Or is it just hype, riding on the success of its monsters, nostalgia and the lack of any credible alternative?
It is very, very good. And it comes down to why Doctor Who is Doctor Who. That is, the people behind the show. The start of this extraordinary show was down to a very concrete understanding of the concept of the show. Something that was grasped totally by Sydney Newman, Verity Lambert, Bill Hartnell and many others, but especially David Whitaker. Almost certainly they were unaware at the time of what they were unleashing on the world, perhaps they only realised the sheer power of this character in their subconscious, but every single one of them at some level, believes in these people; Ian, Barbara, Susan and The Doctor. You can see it in every frame that Hartnell appears in. You can see it when Newman commissioned the pilot to be reshot in an era when this was unthinkable due to the high cost of production. You can see it in every page of Doctor Who and the Daleks. While other writers treat the characters as characters, Whitaker treats them as people. He helped to create them, he knows each and every one as intimately as the actor playing them. Perhaps more so.
Whitaker was of course a born story teller and he has no problem in expanding upon and, in my opinion, improving upon the television story. Taking the narrative from Chesterton's perspective is a brave choice, for although it allows Whitaker to give us plenty of insight into the characters that are only hinted at, if mentioned at all, in the show (Such as Ian and Barbara falling in love), it also means that the other three characters move offstage for fair amounts of time. This is dealt with confidently as Ian is allowed to fill the space.
Other characters are also fleshed out. The Thals conflicted nature between peaceful annihilation or war for survival is pushed further and the resolution is more satisfying than even the powerful tv scenes. Whitaker well recognised the crux of this story and gave it its due worth and as a result the Lake of Mutants and Cave Scenes are also far more harrowing than the budget and time constrained serial.
As such, in the hands of the writer who clearly understands every single nuance of his characters, The Daleks becomes not just a pinnacle of Who fiction, but a literary achievement capable of standing alongside other more noted novels. The story, indeed, is pulp, Terry Nation was a pulp writer, there are no twists and turns or surprises in this novel. It is a straight adventure with a few muddied moralities, as throwaway as Indiana Jones though no less enjoyable, but Whitaker, through Ian and Barbara, turns it into a story of Human Strength and Love and Triumph on a truly alien world. This book truly deserves its reputation.
10/10
But is it these elements themselves which make this book not just "another" Target book, but the pinnacle of Who fiction, if it is indeed such, achieved in the very first writings and aspired to unsuccessfully ever since? Or is it just hype, riding on the success of its monsters, nostalgia and the lack of any credible alternative?
It is very, very good. And it comes down to why Doctor Who is Doctor Who. That is, the people behind the show. The start of this extraordinary show was down to a very concrete understanding of the concept of the show. Something that was grasped totally by Sydney Newman, Verity Lambert, Bill Hartnell and many others, but especially David Whitaker. Almost certainly they were unaware at the time of what they were unleashing on the world, perhaps they only realised the sheer power of this character in their subconscious, but every single one of them at some level, believes in these people; Ian, Barbara, Susan and The Doctor. You can see it in every frame that Hartnell appears in. You can see it when Newman commissioned the pilot to be reshot in an era when this was unthinkable due to the high cost of production. You can see it in every page of Doctor Who and the Daleks. While other writers treat the characters as characters, Whitaker treats them as people. He helped to create them, he knows each and every one as intimately as the actor playing them. Perhaps more so.
Whitaker was of course a born story teller and he has no problem in expanding upon and, in my opinion, improving upon the television story. Taking the narrative from Chesterton's perspective is a brave choice, for although it allows Whitaker to give us plenty of insight into the characters that are only hinted at, if mentioned at all, in the show (Such as Ian and Barbara falling in love), it also means that the other three characters move offstage for fair amounts of time. This is dealt with confidently as Ian is allowed to fill the space.
Other characters are also fleshed out. The Thals conflicted nature between peaceful annihilation or war for survival is pushed further and the resolution is more satisfying than even the powerful tv scenes. Whitaker well recognised the crux of this story and gave it its due worth and as a result the Lake of Mutants and Cave Scenes are also far more harrowing than the budget and time constrained serial.
As such, in the hands of the writer who clearly understands every single nuance of his characters, The Daleks becomes not just a pinnacle of Who fiction, but a literary achievement capable of standing alongside other more noted novels. The story, indeed, is pulp, Terry Nation was a pulp writer, there are no twists and turns or surprises in this novel. It is a straight adventure with a few muddied moralities, as throwaway as Indiana Jones though no less enjoyable, but Whitaker, through Ian and Barbara, turns it into a story of Human Strength and Love and Triumph on a truly alien world. This book truly deserves its reputation.
10/10
Sunday, 26 April 2009
An Unearthly Child - Terrence Dicks
A few months on and I have enlarged my original scope for this blog. Originally I was going to look at just the Virgin and BBC Book ranges. That's expanded a little bit. Just a little. In a little under a year I went from owning nothing Who related, to owning pretty much every story. Still got a few dozen Big Finish stories to get hold of once my bank balance recovers, and the DVD's will still take a few years to be produced and there are two stupidly rare BBV CD's and most of the Charity Books that I probably won't get my hands on now, but nevermind. I'm starting my marathon Doctor Who Review blog, for the simple reason that with such a wealth of stories, I'm gonna forget much of it otherwise before I even get halfway through.
So without much further ado:
Doctor Who and An Unearthly Child by Terrance Dicks
Now I've read far enough into the books to know that Terrance Dicks writes for a job. He doesn't write for the benefit of being a great, or even good writer. He is a journeyman who, when given the right conditions, can turn in magnificent work, and who, when given a deadline and a limited page number, will fulfil his contract. This one is a contract job. Being honest though, it's barely that. There are lines so clumsily written that you wonder if Terrance didn't write the whole thing hungover sat with his typewriter in a darkened room with some kids watching the episodes in another and had them shout through descriptions of the action, which were then put down verbatim. This is in fact, the only book I've ever read where even the use of brackets has been embarrassing.
Ultimately this is for completists only. It is poorly written, almost shoddy work, basic on a ten year old's level. Something that had very little time put into it. It is a shame as the TV Pilot is of course one of the most wonderful pieces of television ever screened. The explanation for the poor novelisation is that Dicks was only given a week to write it. Dicks did his job, whereas he perhaps should have refused this particular job on the basis that writing a novella in a week is, while not impossible, a huge barrier to quality, as evidenced here. The frustration being that Dicks could easily have done this justice with a longer time scale.
1/10
So without much further ado:
Doctor Who and An Unearthly Child by Terrance Dicks
Now I've read far enough into the books to know that Terrance Dicks writes for a job. He doesn't write for the benefit of being a great, or even good writer. He is a journeyman who, when given the right conditions, can turn in magnificent work, and who, when given a deadline and a limited page number, will fulfil his contract. This one is a contract job. Being honest though, it's barely that. There are lines so clumsily written that you wonder if Terrance didn't write the whole thing hungover sat with his typewriter in a darkened room with some kids watching the episodes in another and had them shout through descriptions of the action, which were then put down verbatim. This is in fact, the only book I've ever read where even the use of brackets has been embarrassing.
Ultimately this is for completists only. It is poorly written, almost shoddy work, basic on a ten year old's level. Something that had very little time put into it. It is a shame as the TV Pilot is of course one of the most wonderful pieces of television ever screened. The explanation for the poor novelisation is that Dicks was only given a week to write it. Dicks did his job, whereas he perhaps should have refused this particular job on the basis that writing a novella in a week is, while not impossible, a huge barrier to quality, as evidenced here. The frustration being that Dicks could easily have done this justice with a longer time scale.
1/10
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