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
Showing posts with label John Lucarotti. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Lucarotti. Show all posts
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Monday, 15 June 2009
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
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