Galaxy Four, Anyone? (Public)
Right so some of you probably remember how I keep starting the 50 book challenge (or in my case the 50 review challenge) but always end up getting distracted and stopping. And frankly, after the year I had last year, I wasn't planning to take up any reading or reviewing challenges this year. But then I bought a lot of Doctor Who books. As in, here's what I used to have and it became this overnight. A friend of mine (the friend who first got me into Who, actually) decided to sell off part of her collection, and I decided to buy most of it. Yay birthday money and tax refund!
It turned out that there were about 40 books in the job lot, and not including duplicates, that brings me to 55 books. Even if we leave out John Barrowman's autobiography which I've already reviewed, I could potentially do my entire 50 book challenge from the Doctor Who books I already own. So why not do that?
I'm not going to be reading them in any particular order. Yes I know that they are numbered, but as I don't even have the entire New Doctor Adventures collection, let alone all the Target novelizations, I've just been reading them as I feel like it. I'll be reviewing in a similarily random fashion. Let's start with a first doctor adventure!
Doctor Who: Galaxy Four by William Emms. PB, 141 pages, Target Books, 1985.
Warning: Some Spoilers Below
As I first started reading this, I wasn't even sure which Doctor it was. Traveling companions Steven and Vicki probably should have given it away earlier, but I'm still a bit shaky on my companions. It didn't help that this was #104 in the Target library, leading me at first glance to think it must feature five or six. I'm pretty sure that this is one of the free reprints given away with Doctor Who Magazine a while ago, judging from the overall condition it's in.
So the Doctor arrives on a strangely silent planet in Galaxy 4. Before long a robot that Vicki dubs a Chumbley arrives and starts to herd them off somewhere. Before they make it there, however, some stunningly gorgeous blonde women rescue them. These are the Drahvins, and they seem to have some difficulties expressing emotions. Doctor & Co. find out that Drahvins Maaga & Co. (literally, since the others don't get any names) have crash-landed in their inferior rocket ship and are desparate to get off the nearly dead planet.
Also stranded are the Rills, creators of Chumbley & Co. Their technologically advanced race should be able to repair their ship, if the Drahvins don't steal it first. Somehow Doctor & Co. get stuck in the middle of this fight, while everyone races to get off the planet.
Overall I rather liked this book. Perhaps that was just the novelty of a 1st doctor book (I've seen the Beginning and Lost in Time DVDs, but none of his other stories). There were some issues. The Doctor seemed to take the all-female Drahvins as an excuse to rant about the weaknesses of women, although Vicki made a decent showing in this book, saving the Rills and so on. Somehow in my minds eye I was picturing this as having really bad special effects, which has nothing to do with the book really but now I'm curious to dig up some photos from this episode and see if the Drahvins have crazy makeup and bad wigs anything like my mental image.
The pacing was fast enough, something was always happening even if it was fairly obvious from the start that Maaga & Co. were the villians. There was one bit that annoyed me, where even the author couldn't keep the "& Co." Drahvins apart and stated that #3 was with Doctor & Co., then just a page later had #3 with Maaga inside the ship. This adventure strikes me as being a very First Doctor adventure. He's a bit wary about giving people rides in the TARDIS, gets grouchy at Vicki, but tries to help everyone get off the planet and won't let anyone harm his companions. Not essential or anything but I enjoyed it.
This entry is crossfiltered, the rest in this series I'll post under the DW filter and retroactively move to Reading filter so as not to clutter up your flist. That is, if I don't end up just making them public.
Edit: Decided to make them public, new ones are still posted under the DW filter as usually and then retroactively publicized
It turned out that there were about 40 books in the job lot, and not including duplicates, that brings me to 55 books. Even if we leave out John Barrowman's autobiography which I've already reviewed, I could potentially do my entire 50 book challenge from the Doctor Who books I already own. So why not do that?
I'm not going to be reading them in any particular order. Yes I know that they are numbered, but as I don't even have the entire New Doctor Adventures collection, let alone all the Target novelizations, I've just been reading them as I feel like it. I'll be reviewing in a similarily random fashion. Let's start with a first doctor adventure!
Doctor Who: Galaxy Four by William Emms. PB, 141 pages, Target Books, 1985.
Warning: Some Spoilers Below
As I first started reading this, I wasn't even sure which Doctor it was. Traveling companions Steven and Vicki probably should have given it away earlier, but I'm still a bit shaky on my companions. It didn't help that this was #104 in the Target library, leading me at first glance to think it must feature five or six. I'm pretty sure that this is one of the free reprints given away with Doctor Who Magazine a while ago, judging from the overall condition it's in.
So the Doctor arrives on a strangely silent planet in Galaxy 4. Before long a robot that Vicki dubs a Chumbley arrives and starts to herd them off somewhere. Before they make it there, however, some stunningly gorgeous blonde women rescue them. These are the Drahvins, and they seem to have some difficulties expressing emotions. Doctor & Co. find out that Drahvins Maaga & Co. (literally, since the others don't get any names) have crash-landed in their inferior rocket ship and are desparate to get off the nearly dead planet.
Also stranded are the Rills, creators of Chumbley & Co. Their technologically advanced race should be able to repair their ship, if the Drahvins don't steal it first. Somehow Doctor & Co. get stuck in the middle of this fight, while everyone races to get off the planet.
Overall I rather liked this book. Perhaps that was just the novelty of a 1st doctor book (I've seen the Beginning and Lost in Time DVDs, but none of his other stories). There were some issues. The Doctor seemed to take the all-female Drahvins as an excuse to rant about the weaknesses of women, although Vicki made a decent showing in this book, saving the Rills and so on. Somehow in my minds eye I was picturing this as having really bad special effects, which has nothing to do with the book really but now I'm curious to dig up some photos from this episode and see if the Drahvins have crazy makeup and bad wigs anything like my mental image.
The pacing was fast enough, something was always happening even if it was fairly obvious from the start that Maaga & Co. were the villians. There was one bit that annoyed me, where even the author couldn't keep the "& Co." Drahvins apart and stated that #3 was with Doctor & Co., then just a page later had #3 with Maaga inside the ship. This adventure strikes me as being a very First Doctor adventure. He's a bit wary about giving people rides in the TARDIS, gets grouchy at Vicki, but tries to help everyone get off the planet and won't let anyone harm his companions. Not essential or anything but I enjoyed it.
This entry is crossfiltered, the rest in this series I'll post under the DW filter and retroactively move to Reading filter so as not to clutter up your flist. That is, if I don't end up just making them public.
Edit: Decided to make them public, new ones are still posted under the DW filter as usually and then retroactively publicized