New DW Fiction reviews
One of the strange perks of my job is I get to buy Doctor Who books whilst denying they are for myself, and read them before most other people. In that spirit, I present reviews of the latest BBC fiction offerings. Under the cuts, for obvious reasons.
SICK BUILDING
Hmmm......I've read better. To start with, the opening premise is even more difficult than your average DW setup to take seriously. 10nM land on a planet threatened by a large omnivore (and I don't use that word lightly), the Voracious Craw. This thing gobbles up planets, and they have 36 hours to convince the natives to relocate. Having dodged a starving sabretooth tiger, they hook up with a teenage lad with Issues, the main one being that he lives with his tyrannical dad and downtrodden mother in a dream home of his father's creation, waited on by the kind of robot servitors you just know will turn nasty at some point.
Tiermann, the self-proclaimed evil-genius owner of this planet (though human, in a Time Lord-like moment of arrogance he's named the planet after himself) brings out the very worst in Ten, who can't resist needling him and quickly gets himself locked up. You do get the feeling that Paul Magrs, whilst not exactly disliking Ten, wouldn't want to be stuck in a compartment on a train with no corridor with him. After that things go decidedly Jetsons with a touch of the Brave Little Toaster thrown in. In a neat inversion of TV reality, Martha has to put up with a lovelorn teen crushing on her, while the Doctor, helped by a talking sunbed and vending machine (do I hear a "Share and Enjoy?") does battle with a sinister computer that (yawn) wants to take over the world.
There's not a lot of character development, really. There is one scene where Ten broods on all he's lost, Rose included, that makes the bed scene in TSC look like a miracle of subtlety. But then he cheers up and all ends happily when he encourages people to drink a lot of soda and they belch loudly enough to scare away the Voracious Thingie.
Which reminds me, it's Sarah Jane vs the Slitheen on the telly tonight.
WETWORLD
This one's a gem. It starts with the standard scenario: Doctor promises Martha breakfast at Tiffany's, so she dresses up, and then they land in a swamp with a creature from the black lagoon in it, which promptly goes for Martha while the Doctor gets chatting to a friendly local girl and summons help. But then it gets delightfully crackfic with a human colony and the delightful addition of a bunch of super-intelligent talking otters. There's the usual possession type plot where people's eyes go all funny and you know that Can't Be A Good Thing, and a denoument involving a nuclear bomb (the Doctor comments laconically, when this development becomes clear, "Well, whoop-de-doo.")
And so to the best part of this new DW writer's outing - a spot-on, hilarious character study of Ten in which every word rings true. With the exception of RTD roundabout TCI, I've never known the verbal pyrotechnics written better. One example of many: Telling off the Tentacled Thing of Maximum Scariness, he throws out, "And enough, as Barbra Streisand said to Donna Summer, is enough!" The only false note is a reference to the events of "Family of Blood"; this Tenth Doctor just doesn't seem dark enough for that. But I'm not complaining.
There's quite a lot of scientific and medical background, and that tends to show Martha at her best. She's left to her own devices for quite a lot of the time, and the pattern already established in the first 10/M stories is continued; she's an altogether more independent and likable creation than the girl we saw on TV most of the time, and there's a real feeling of teamwork between them. The plot twists and turns and builds to a nice climax involving a believable and interesting supporting cast of human colonists. Recommended.
I haven't read "Forever Autumn" yet. I can't buy it for the school library because, would you believe, I'd get into trouble for stocking a book with a Hallowe'en theme, or at least a carved pumpkin on the front. Also, after the Daleks in New York two-parter, I'm decidedly nervous of DW stories with an American setting. At least when witten by English people. There are plenty of Americans writing brilliant fanfic.
SICK BUILDING
Hmmm......I've read better. To start with, the opening premise is even more difficult than your average DW setup to take seriously. 10nM land on a planet threatened by a large omnivore (and I don't use that word lightly), the Voracious Craw. This thing gobbles up planets, and they have 36 hours to convince the natives to relocate. Having dodged a starving sabretooth tiger, they hook up with a teenage lad with Issues, the main one being that he lives with his tyrannical dad and downtrodden mother in a dream home of his father's creation, waited on by the kind of robot servitors you just know will turn nasty at some point.
Tiermann, the self-proclaimed evil-genius owner of this planet (though human, in a Time Lord-like moment of arrogance he's named the planet after himself) brings out the very worst in Ten, who can't resist needling him and quickly gets himself locked up. You do get the feeling that Paul Magrs, whilst not exactly disliking Ten, wouldn't want to be stuck in a compartment on a train with no corridor with him. After that things go decidedly Jetsons with a touch of the Brave Little Toaster thrown in. In a neat inversion of TV reality, Martha has to put up with a lovelorn teen crushing on her, while the Doctor, helped by a talking sunbed and vending machine (do I hear a "Share and Enjoy?") does battle with a sinister computer that (yawn) wants to take over the world.
There's not a lot of character development, really. There is one scene where Ten broods on all he's lost, Rose included, that makes the bed scene in TSC look like a miracle of subtlety. But then he cheers up and all ends happily when he encourages people to drink a lot of soda and they belch loudly enough to scare away the Voracious Thingie.
Which reminds me, it's Sarah Jane vs the Slitheen on the telly tonight.
WETWORLD
This one's a gem. It starts with the standard scenario: Doctor promises Martha breakfast at Tiffany's, so she dresses up, and then they land in a swamp with a creature from the black lagoon in it, which promptly goes for Martha while the Doctor gets chatting to a friendly local girl and summons help. But then it gets delightfully crackfic with a human colony and the delightful addition of a bunch of super-intelligent talking otters. There's the usual possession type plot where people's eyes go all funny and you know that Can't Be A Good Thing, and a denoument involving a nuclear bomb (the Doctor comments laconically, when this development becomes clear, "Well, whoop-de-doo.")
And so to the best part of this new DW writer's outing - a spot-on, hilarious character study of Ten in which every word rings true. With the exception of RTD roundabout TCI, I've never known the verbal pyrotechnics written better. One example of many: Telling off the Tentacled Thing of Maximum Scariness, he throws out, "And enough, as Barbra Streisand said to Donna Summer, is enough!" The only false note is a reference to the events of "Family of Blood"; this Tenth Doctor just doesn't seem dark enough for that. But I'm not complaining.
There's quite a lot of scientific and medical background, and that tends to show Martha at her best. She's left to her own devices for quite a lot of the time, and the pattern already established in the first 10/M stories is continued; she's an altogether more independent and likable creation than the girl we saw on TV most of the time, and there's a real feeling of teamwork between them. The plot twists and turns and builds to a nice climax involving a believable and interesting supporting cast of human colonists. Recommended.
I haven't read "Forever Autumn" yet. I can't buy it for the school library because, would you believe, I'd get into trouble for stocking a book with a Hallowe'en theme, or at least a carved pumpkin on the front. Also, after the Daleks in New York two-parter, I'm decidedly nervous of DW stories with an American setting. At least when witten by English people. There are plenty of Americans writing brilliant fanfic.