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| What: | Strange England (New Adventures novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 8 September 2024 |
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| Rating: |   6 |
Simon Messingham's first novel is not his best. I have read others that I thought were really quite good, especially Tomb of Valdemar and The Indestructible Man. Strange England lacks the plotting and strong characterization of those novels. It is another of the bubble universe or mental landscape stories that the Virgin Doctor Who book editors seem to like. The TARDIS plops down our crew in a landscape that looks like a typical 19th-century country estate. However, the landscape and people in it are "not right" in peculiar ways. The presence of our TARDIS crew leads to a wave of violent attacks by giant insects, killer fur babies, and various hybrid creatures. Ace gets kicked into the "real world" near the house at the center of the fake world, the connecting incident being a fire that burned down the house. This real world, though, is just as pointlessly nasty and violent as the virtual one, and virtual beings in the "real" world still have both a presence and an effect. So Messingham does not have it quite clear enough what is virtual and what is real. Then, there is the violence. This novel has heaps and heaps of violence, described in graphic detail that goes on and on. It seems to be there mostly as filler, which is another disturbing quality of the book. That is, there is no reason for much of the violence in terms of plot. It seems to be there because Messingham couldn't think of something else for the characters to do. Additionally, the plot device, the key that opens the explanation, does not require that so much of the action be this violent. It could all have been handled another, cleverer, way. A last problem for me is Messingham's characterization of Doctor 7. This Doctor just hangs around "thinking" and letting everyone else get into trouble. His dialogue just did not, to me, sound like Doctor 7. All that aside, there are some very interesting bits in this novel, some ideas that could have born sweeter fruit.
As with previous editions, we have four independent stories, quite varied in tone and style. The first is a 3rd Doctor + Sarah adventure involving the Hoxx of Balhoon, brother of the Moxx of Balhoon. The story takes place slightly before the 9th Doctor "End of the World" episode, and explains a bit how The Doctor knows about the end of the world. Hoxx wants to create a museum and preserve old Earth for tourism. However, we have a bit of a haunted house situation. The greatest thing about this episode is Tim Treloar and Sadie Miller recreating a favorite Doctor / Companion combination. Sadie Miller is brilliant in capturing Elisabeth Sladen's vocal mannerisms. It takes a listener right back to 1974. Next is The Tivolian Who Knew Too Much with Doctor 4 and Leela. This is a spoof of old movies that have the "guy in the wrong place at the wrong time" plot. It is quite fun and a bit funny and definitely light weight. Third is Together In Eclectic Dreams, a 6th Doctor story with a cameo from the 8th Doctor, and the first of two dream crabs episodes. The story takes us to Inception territory, where there are multiple dream levels and the listener never quite knows what is or is not part of a dream. Writer Roy Gill here writes what feels to me like a typical Marc Platt script, playing dodgems with reality. Last is an 8th Doctor and Charley story also with dream crabs. In If I Should Die Before I Wake, writer John Dorney has taken the path of likening dreams to mythical stories. The Doctor is telling Charley a bedtime story, but it keeps getting disrupted. It takes a while for the drama to arrive at what it is all about, and the twist was not very surprising to me. The drama itself is a two-hander, with India Fisher handling all the voices (including monster roars), except for Doctor 8's. The total package is entertaining. I like the variety. Nothing stands out as brilliant (apart from Tim Treloar and Sadie Miller).
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| Katy Manning tour de force performance |
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| What: | The Elixir of Doom (The Companion Chronicles audiobooks) |
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| By: | Andrew Munro, Corby, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Monday 19 August 2024 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
This story highlights the depth and vocal range of our much beloved Katy. I dont know how this was recorded but she slips effortlessly between characters. I love the switch between narrators and even her interpretation of the doctor was spot on!! The story of the golden age of Hollywood is excellent and I dare you not to feel sorry for the demise of one of the monsters!! Give it a listen today.
| What: | All-Consuming Fire (New Adventures novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 18 August 2024 |
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| Rating: | 3 |
All-Consuming Fire is a dreadful double crossover story, the kind that certain types of fans think are "a good idea." This one takes Doctor Who, places it into the world of Sherlock Holmes, and then transfers that mashup to the Cthulhu Mythos. The result is a nonsensical story with weak plotting, poor characterization, and more useless trinkets for fans than the last merch table at a ComiCon. The story is told primarily from the point of view of Watson, and in this respect is more Sherlock Holmes than anything else. In the first half of the novel, The Doctor is just an annoying side character, Benny gets no mention at all (except in the very brief prologue), and Ace is reduced to one short report. In fact, throughout the novel Ace is almost nonexistent. The story, such as it is, involves Holmes being commissioned by the Vatican (a meeting with the Pope, no less) to recover some books stolen from a secret library. This leads to Holmes and Watson meeting The Doctor in said library, some running around dodging danger in London, a trip to India where things get mystical, and from there a trip across a magic tunnel opened by intoning a nonsense incantation, leading to an alien world. In this novel, we return to the ultra canny Doctor 7, who uses oh so many words to say almost nothing, gives no information to anyone, and is just really irritating with his smug, evasive answers to any question. He is also the manipulative Doctor, planting his agents in dangerous foreign locations, Benny in India and Ace on the alien world, without telling them what to expect, how to get around, or any of the basics of survival, let alone what they are supposed to do there. And indeed, the reader never finds out what The Doctor does or does not know about this situation, why he has planted his agents in these places, how he knows where to plant them, or what he is trying to accomplish with this elaborate scheme. With the companions, Andy Lane has gone for the badass women characterization, so mostly they bully, blast, shoot, beatup and generally show off their fighting skills. It's utterly boring 1990s action film stuff. Ace is particularly irritating when she finally makes a real appearance in the last 30 or so pages. This is "military" Ace as fans who know nothing about soldiers understand it. All she wants to do is shoot things and blow things up and talk tough and condescend to everyone around her. One good thing about this novel is that Lane does a passable pastiche of Conan Doyle's style. This, however, does not elevate a novel of thin plot, riddled with holes, unimaginative characterization, and a portrayal of the TARDIS crew that is, frankly, reprehensible.
| What: | Shadow of the Past (The Companion Chronicles audiobooks) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 4 August 2024 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
In this story, Dr. Elizabeth Shaw returns to the UNIT vault to inspect a piece of leftover alien technology some twenty years or so after UNIT had captured it. She gets to chatting with the UNIT guard assigned to her, which leads her into telling the story behind the capture of the alien device. The story she tells is very much in the vein of 1970 Doctor Who, quite a bit like a Quatermass story. Writer Simon Guerrier has given Liz room to express some of her own views of her time at UNIT and her relationships with The Doctor, The Brigadier, and other UNIT members. The surprise ending was not very surprising to me; I got it less than halfway into the story. Nevertheless, this is a good example of how a Companion Chronicle can give the listener a new understanding of old Doctor Who.
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| Good First Doctor Style Adventure |
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| What: | The Bounty of Ceres (The Early Adventures audio dramas) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 4 August 2024 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
The Bounty of Ceres is the closest to hard science fiction of any Doctor Who offering I have encountered. I have long thought that Doctor Who could have some hard science stories and that it would work well. The Bounty of Ceres justifies that opinion. Here we have Doctor One, Vicki, and Steven accidentally arriving on a base located on the planetoid Ceres. The Doctor has tried repairing the TARDIS, and the TARDIS has now broken down in a way that prevents the travellers from getting back inside. So, they go in search of help. The base is a mining installation, corporate owned, run by three people and a set of maintenance robots. Some things have been going wrong on the station, and one of the crew is more than a little paranoid. What follows, then, is classic Doctor Who of the 1960s, with the travellers at first being the subjects of suspicion, then winning trust, and finally helping to find a solution. Writer Ian Potter has done a very good job of plot misdirection, so that a listener thinks that one thing is happening, when in fact something else is going on. Peter Purves and Maureen O'Brien fall right back into their roles as if they had never left them, and Purves does a marvellous William Hartnell impression. He does not sound exactly like Hartnell, but he does have the rhythm and speech patterns of Hartnell down perfectly. I found this one quite well done.
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| The Master Is Becoming More Himself |
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| What: | The Home Guard (The Early Adventures audio dramas) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 4 August 2024 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
The Big Finish Early Adventures series are done as a blend of the Companion Chronicles, basically as stories read by Doctor Who actors from long ago, and the monthly series of new adventures, fully dramatized. I think it would be better to make them entirely like the new adventures and drop the narrative links. The Home Guard is a curious affair. Simon Guerrier has tried to maintain the spirit of 1966 Doctor Who without rehashing old territory. Thus, it starts out almost as a historical, in which it seems the TARDIS crew are for some reason living and blending into a World War I setting. However, we learn that they are not pretending, but really believe that they are part of a town holding out against some undefined enemy. Polly and Jamie believe they are a married couple, and Ben seems to be a best friend to them both. They are part of the Home Guard, led by an incompetent officer who seemingly does not like being a leader and really does not like military ways, calling himself The Doctor. What ensues is that the TARDIS crew got accidentally caught up in an experiment being run by The Master. This pre- Roger Delgado Master, played brilliantly by James Dreyfus, is a character in transition. He thinks that he is doing good, righting a wrong, and has, Master fashion, created an elaborate plan of deception and manipulation so that he can also gather "information" from the experiment. He is becoming more like The Master that we see by the Third Doctor adventures in that he is single-minded in purpose, and has an "ends justify the means" mentality, so that if people are hurt or killed it does not really affect him. Apparently, the starting idea for this story was to have a Doctor Who adventure like Dad's Army. However, while references to Dad's Army remain, the story itself turned much more toward a Doctor Who tone. I think another of the ideas for this story is to "introduce" (or retroduce?) the technology that the War Chief will use in The War Games, the mist that fogs people's minds and makes them believe they are in a scenario, to reinforce the notion that it is stolen Time Lord technology. The Home Guard is entertaining but not deep. For me, it took too long for The Doctor to escape the induced delusion.
| What: | Theatre of War (New Adventures novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 4 August 2024 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
Justin Richards' Theatre of War is one of those "idea" stories that fans often have when they get together and spend too much time talking. "What if," someone suddenly blurts out, "You had a society that was all about love of theatre!" Then all agree what a swell idea that would be. And so, Richards has given us this "idea," a society dedicated to all things theatrical. To make it "Doctor Who," Richards has made the theatrical society into bloodthirsty conquerors of many planets, with a kind of Italian Renaissance governmental structure, with all the political machinations to go with it. That may be because, at heart, once Richards settled on theatre as the motif, he just had to make it all Shakespearean. To get the reader into this tragedy, Richards has started with an investigation. Archaeologists from the Heletian Empire (Theatre World) are investigating the last remaining structure on Menaxus, a specialized and famous theatre in which the only known full performance of a famous 24th-century (or some such future date) play, in the manner of Shakespeare, took place. The Heletian Empire is now under siege, losing world after world in a war gone horribly wrong for them, and even Menaxus is under threat from the war. The TARDIS crew get involved when they drop off Bernice at a vast private library known as the Braxiatel Collection, where she runs into one of the investigators into Menaxus, who intrigues her curiosity. She wiggles her way into the new archaeological survey team. However, things are getting weird on Menaxus, and people start dying. Bernice hits the panic button (quite literally) and thus The Doctor and Ace join her for the rest of the story.
The novel would be fine as a general run-of-the-mill Doctor Who story. At more than 300 pages, though, the novel demonstrates the theatre-mad society cannot work and really makes no sense. The plotting is also filled with contrivances and coincidences just to keep things running. It's too preposterous for its own good. The novel does have some good points. The Doctor, Bernice, and Ace are well characterized, though I still find Ace too soldiery in a clichéd way. Their dialogue fits the characters well. One can also give credit to Richards for running the conceit through to the end.
| What: | ...ish (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Andrew Munro, Corby, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Monday 17 June 2024 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
If you are reading this before listening to the story please take the time to sit back and relax and let Colin Baker treat you to yet another master class of the sixth doctor on audio.
This story was written for him.
Don't ask me to explain the story or the plot points, wiser people here will.
Just enjoy it for it is
| What: | Tragedy Day (New Adventures novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 5 June 2024 |
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| Rating: | 5 |
Gareth Roberts' second novel for Doctor Who shows all the signs of an early effort. Roberts has written much better later in his career. With this novel, it seems that he could not really decide what the novel was supposed to be. Therefore, it is two things in one and neither at the same time. Tragedy Day seems to be a satire or spoof of some kind, but much of that is undermined by Roberts' attempts to make it a traditional Doctor Who story as if broadcast on TV. The result is that most of the novel makes no sense, it has far too many things happening at once, and major parts are not related enough to each other to matter. Additionally, the writing is quite clunky at times, such as "she asked the slim, dark-haired boy at her side," as if every character must be introduced by direct physical description so the casting director would know exactly whom to cast. Descriptions lack the subtlety and grace of good writing. It would take far too long, and probably not be very interesting, for me to go on about all the mistakes, preposterous coincidences, and throwaway elements. Here are a couple: a human-arachnid hybrid assassin comes to a planet visited by virtually no one, a planet where he has never been before, and manages to secure a super-special James Bond style spy car built especially for him. The big ending in which The Doctor saves the day requires The Doctor to trick the villains in his TARDIS to go to a place with him, where he has never been and knows nothing about, so that he can use the anti-matter thingamajig in the dancefloor, about which he has never been told, to foil the baddies. It is just terribly thought out, and the satire is neither funny nor particularly pointed. The good things about Tragedy Day are mostly in how Roberts has written the characters of the TARDIS crew. The whole "they hate each other" mess that ran through the previous ten novels or so is totally gone now. The characters are actually likeable again. Their lines fit the characters, and I can hear the voices of the actors (even though it would be a few more years before Lisa Bowerman took the role of Bernice) saying the lines. I just wish these characters were in a better story.
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| Exactly what it says on the tin.... |
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| What: | The Quin Dilemma (Sixth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Sunday 2 June 2024 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Colin has been the Doctor for 40 years!
That is absolutely amazing!
And what an amazing and brilliant time lord he has been for us fans too.
Now we just need a perfect celebration in honour of him and his Doctor.
Oh here it is!
The Quin Dilemma is by terms fun, exciting, poignant, touching, moving and evokes everything at the core of the Sixth Doctor. Big FInish have done Colin proud with this set of stories here, with the wicked little pun on the original story title for his Doctor!
It is awesome to hear Evelyn mentioned too. And it is so flipping (pun intended) awesome to have Flip back and Constance too. Brilliant companions and great to hear Miranda and Lisa back at it again with Old Sixie! And the final scenes with the Doctor and all his companions together is priceless.
This is everything a celebration of a character should be. This is absolutely essential Sixth Doctor storytelling and re iterates just why Colin is so so brilliant as the Sixth Doctor and why his era deserves to be remembered!
I absolutely love this story, my brand new favourite ever Colin audio story and thats for sure. Now its just the waiting for the next half of the celebrations with The Trials of a Time Lord! Cant wait for that!
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| Really really good breather story |
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| What: | River of Death (Classic series audio originals) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Wednesday 8 May 2024 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
I have always wanted to see or hear a Doctor Who story where the main enemy is nothing more than nature's elements. John Peel brilliantly delivers that with this story. Its snappy, excellently paced and with a few shocks thrown in for jolting measure. He gets the sixth Doctor down to a tee and Nicola Bryant really reads superbly, I love her narrating voice and expressiveness, it really enhances the listening of the story. This one too is rare in that it has not one single annoying character at all. I was rather impressed overall with this one. And I am so glad to hear a story that is mainly about defying the elements to get back to the TARDIS. In fact this may well just be the best Doctor Who story I've heard or read from John Peel. I definitely enjoyed it a whole lot indeed.
| What: | No Future (New Adventures novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Friday 19 April 2024 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Paul Cornell's "No Future" finishes the alternate history arc begun with "Blood Heat." We finally get told who is playing with The Doctor's timeline and why. Set in London, 1976, things are once again historically not quite right. The government's losing control, riots and mob violence are escalating, and certain technologies, such as the cd, are available too soon. Yet, The Doctor seems hardly concerned with any of that. Instead, he is concerned with Ace, who has now pretty much completely broken with both him and Benny, and with inserting Benny as lead vocalist of a punk rock band so that she can keep an eye on the lead guitarist, Danny Pain, who in some undefined way is "important" to the future. The novel starts out well enough and moves through its paces fairly smoothly, until about 3/4 in when all the battles and flashy things start happening. At that point, like many of his predecessors, Cornell loses control of the story. In this novel, Ace is more insufferable than ever, while Benny has apparently decided that her fate rests with The Doctor. The real problem of this novel for me is that the outcome rests on magic, in this case a super-powerful being that, godlike, can stop and start time, change reality on a whim, and do just about anything else. When such beings come into a story, I stop investing in the story, because at that point anything goes. The writer can do as they like, fix any problem, and generally short-circuit the entire first part of the novel. And that is exactly what Cornell does. He also indulges his usual everything and the kitchen sink fan winks. The denouement is mostly just The Doctor giving a long explanation of how clever he had been. Given the reasonably good start of this novel, I was hoping for much better than what I got at the end.
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| If you love Torchwood this is for you |
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| What: | The Torchwood Archive (Torchwood audio dramas) |
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| By: | Andrew Munro, Corby, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Tuesday 9 April 2024 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
This is a must listen for any Torchwood fan of the tv and now audio show.
It has a cinematic quality (In my mind anyay) and the plot allows each character to have their turn in the limelight.
I haven't listened to much Torchwood but still was able to follow the plot, but I am sure I have missed out on some easter egg treats contained within.
Great acting sound design directing, writing etc etc. Buy it now!!!
Synopsis
Welcome, visitor. The Torchwood Archive provides a complete history of our Institute from its distant beginnings to the present day. When we founded our great enterprise in the year of our Lord 1879, we decreed that there should be a record of this achievement, stored at the very furthest limits of the British Empire. By visiting you are spreading that legacy, perhaps out through the skies. For now, I shall bid you a good day and welcome you to the Torchwood Archive. Do, please look around.”
The Torchwood Archive is a forgotten asteroid in the centre of a great war. Jeremiah is its first visitor in many centuries. He’s come to learn something very important. And the ghosts of Torchwood are waiting for him.
Written By: James Goss
Directed By: Scott Handcock
Cast
John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Naoko Mori (Toshiko Sato), Indira Varma (Suzie Costello), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Tom Price (Andy Davidson), Tracy-Ann Oberman (Yvonne Hartman), Richie Campbell (Jeremiah Bash Henderson), Rowena Cooper (Queen Victoria), Julian Lewis Jones (Alex Hopkins), Samuel Barnett(Norton Folgate), David Warner (The Committee), Emma Reeves (Miss Trent),Krystian Godlewski (Maxim Ivanov), Guy Adams (Archie), Geoffrey Breton(Bartender), Lisa Bowerman (Miss Mitford), Laura Doddington (Delilah), Aaron Neil(Mandrake), Kerry Gooderson (Little Girl), Ryan Sampson (Ivan Putin), Damian Lynch (Kieran Frost), Paul Clayton (Mr Colchester)
Produced by James Goss
Script Editor Steve Tribe
Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs
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| Discontinuous Strangeness |
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| What: | The Eighth Doctor: The Time War 2 (The Eighth Doctor: Time War audios) |
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| By: | Doug W, An Alternate Reality (formerly Pocono Summit), United States |
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| Date: | Thursday 15 February 2024 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
It's hard to say a lot about The Eighth Doctor, The Time War 2, the second "season" of the eighth Doctor Time War series, because it generally left me rather befuddled. The stories lurch from one to the next to the next without a continuity of events between them. The Doctor tries to bring Bliss home in The Lords of Terror, only to find her home planet radically changed by the Time War. There is a development in this one that I won't spoil that does deliver a good deal of powerful revelation. Then, in Planet of the Ogrons, a more comedic story, a very strange ogron shows up (I won't spoil this detail either), and they also meet The Twelve, the next incarnation of what was previously The Eleven, played excellently by Julia McKenzie. This time, The Twelve is more or less able to control the breakthroughs of her former selves. She remains with the Doctor and Bliss throughout the rest of these stories. Next, we get thrown into In the Garden of Death, where the characters are imprisoned by the daleks and suffering from amnesia. After this, we are suddenly in a submarine, of all things, in Jonah, the final story of this set. Another ultimate weapon is being sought in the ocean of a planet that somehow disables TARDIS operation under the waters. It's a kind of strange and again incongruous story that nevertheless is entertaining. McKenzie again steals the show here as The Twelve. It's also well worth mentioning that Jacqueline Pearce is great fun to listen to as Cardinal Ollistra throughout the stories in this set, sadly, apparently her last role in Doctor Who before her death.
So, due to the cast and performances, and some elements of the stories, this is an entertaining "season", but it left this listener struggling to maintain a sense of the overall flow of events throughout.
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| On the Fringes of the Time War |
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| What: | The Eighth Doctor: The Time War 1 (The Eighth Doctor: Time War audios) |
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| By: | Doug W, An Alternate Reality (formerly Pocono Summit), United States |
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| Date: | Thursday 8 February 2024 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
It was previously established in The Night of the Doctor that the eighth Doctor would not fight in the Time War. So, going into this Eighth Doctor Time War series, we're not really in the thick of it, and this seems a dubious storyline to tread. However, it's Paul McGann and the eighth Doctor, so I have an interest regardless. McGann and his Doctor can almost always deliver engaging situations. Still, this box set only barely gets a 7 from me.
It starts out well with The Starship of Theseus. We get some really intriguing abrupt time and continuity shifts that result from the effects of the Time War, even in far off parts of the universe that aren't right in the middle of actual battles.
Echoes of War is an okay story having a lot to do with zones on a planet with greater or lesser degrees of temporal disturbance, and a dalek with temporary amnesia resulting from this.
The Conscript was really disappointing to me, because it features a Time Lord soldier training camp that is far too human. Okay, yeah, the old Gallifrey has become corrupted by the Time War and the drive to win it at any cost, but still... This is not what I come to these for. The Time Lords have at other times had very mysterious great powers. Now they've been reduced to very conventional space soldiers. That's quite an unfortunate degradation. This is the story that really pulls down the box set's score in my opinion, though the next detracts also.
Lastly, we have One Life, which unfortunately gives us a grand deus ex machina ending in the not so great tradition of The Parting of the Ways and others. It was done rather nicely, I must say, but is still just too convenient of a wrap up of the box set. It certainly left the production team unfettered as to what direction to take the next box set series in.
Again, this whole thing was still done rather nicely, so I'm leaving the 7 out of 10 on it.
| What: | 60 Moments in Time (Miscellaneous factual books) |
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| By: | Charles G. Dietz, San Jose, CA, United States |
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| Date: | Saturday 3 February 2024 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
Overall tons of information with pictures and a great index for stories but it is in a packaging that gives the impression that it has extras that are sold with it all it is an extensive magazine celebrating Dr Who for $29.99. They could have made it hardbound for that cost.
| What: | Conundrum (New Adventures novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Saturday 3 February 2024 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
Steve Lyons' debut for Doctor Who is quite unlike anything else written for Doctor Who. It is both metafiction and not, humorous and dark, violent and sentimental. What makes it work is the overarching trope. He places the TARDIS crew in the Land of Fiction, from The Mind Robber. The unknown enemy of The Doctor who has been plaguing him with alternate time lines for the last four or five novels has resurrected this pocket universe and found a new Master of Stories to run it. This new master is not a bookish early twentieth-century writer of light, popular works, as was the previous master, but a boy in his late teens from the 1990s who devours fan fiction, comic books, and the like, and thus populates his fictional world with all of these late twentieth-century popular media tropes in the little town of Arandale. What makes this work is the way that Lyons tells the story. He has chosen to make the new Master of Fiction the narrator, and to have him narrate in "real time" so to speak. Thus, everything that happens is filtered through his perception, and so it is never fully clear whether the TARDIS crew are acting and speaking as they really do or as the narrator perceives or wants them to do. It's a tricky exercise in dramatic irony for the reader. There are a couple of aspects that trouble me about the book, though. One is not really Lyons' fault. He was given a brief about how his novel would fit into the ongoing story arc and how the TARDIS crew ought to behave. That means we get more of the same, tiresome, infighting that has been going on throughout the New Adventures. We get the same tired and totally untrue argument that The Doctor is just "playing games." Ace is particularly annoying. The new shoot anything that moves Ace is boring, full of herself, angry all the time for no good reason, petulant, and not in any way a pleasant person to be around. Every time she comes into the story I am begging, "Please, bring back the old Ace." The other bothersome aspect to me is Lyons' fault, and it is the amount of brutal physical violence directed at women by powerful men. The detailed accounts of these incidents are disturbing. I cannot tell what Lyons wants the reader to think about them. Is this a commentary on the type of schlock media that the Master of Fiction admires? If so, then Lyons should make that point more clearly. Is it Lyons' accidentally letting out something in himself? Hard to tell. So, two demerits, but otherwise Conundrum is the best of the early run of New Adventures.
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| Some of the very best of this series |
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| What: | Gallifrey: Time War - Volume Four (Gallifrey audio dramas) |
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| By: | Doug W, An Alternate Reality (formerly Pocono Summit), United States |
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| Date: | Monday 22 January 2024 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
Hey, Timelash.com guys! Reviewing four stories in one shot is kind of tricky! That could be part of why fewer reviews of these have been submitted. Having said that, I'm excited to come back and write about this final? "season" of the original Gallifrey series. It's at least the final volume of Gallifrey Time War.
I've listened to Volumes 1-3 also, and haven't been inclined to stop and review them, particularly Volume 3, which I didn't care much for at all, though I must say that the time war angle of time paradoxes and distortions of normal causality has been fascinating to listen to, and made me wonder how the writers managed to reach the level of multidimensional twisted strangeness present in some of the stories of the first 3 volumes.
Volume 4 seems like it may have had the first story or two carry over from what was among what had been commissioned for Volume 3, but even in these first two, there's a bit more that makes an impression. In Deception, Leela and Eris, and some Time Lord double agents, encounter deception fields, which are apparently deployed by the Time Lords in various places as part of their war efforts, and cause exceedingly creepy and frantically insane experiences, turning people's own minds against them. I'm sure the production team had a ball crafting the sound effects, but this is seriously unsettling stuff.
In Dissolution, Narvin and Rayo escape a Dalek ambush by taking an emergency TARDIS trip to the hidden Patrix Chapter retreat, which is Narvin's Chapter House, where they meet the Apothecary, who has a history with Narvin. This one is light on action and story, and is much more of a character-driven focus on some of Narvin's backstory.
The story in this volume that motivated me to write a review is the excellent Beyond, which is by far the best story in the Gallifrey Time War series, and the best Big Finish story I've listened to in quite some time. An amazingly enormous depth is written into this single episode. Our Brax and Romana journey into nested realities - a dimension within a dimension within a dimension, in search of The Parallax. Since these are outside of the "prime" universe, some huge and very divergent events can happen here that give the story an immense weight and leave a lasting impression. And the final revelation of what The Parallax actually is, where it actually leads to, and who the engineer is who created it is a very well crafted and meaningful resolution to the story.
With so much different Doctor Who media and so many different Big Finish releases, it's tough to get a good read on what comes before what. In Beyond, in the course of traveling through The Beyond, we get the first appearance of the Ravenous in the Gallifrey series (but apparently not their first ever appearance). These creatures were an aspect of Beyond that I found a bit too dark and disturbing, what with them devouring Time Lords and Time Lord energies, but which is ultimately a minor detraction.
The final story of this volume is Homecoming, which involves a plan to end the time travel aspect of the time war by closing off the possibility of time travel for both the Daleks and Time Lords. It's a fine story to close out this volume, with some fun crazy stuff from the Dalek emperor and Rassilon, and it leaves one wondering what the fate of a few of our regular characters may be after this.
In Homecoming, we have a very striking parallel to present day government madness (this was apparently released in 2021 though interestingly, this volume was in production some 18 months prior to that); the present day real world events I'm referring to are a President trying to exercise power far beyond what he actually has over his citizens, and directives made to throw away decades or centuries of medical science and disregard what is known and established fact. Near the end of Homecoming, as the time war is nearing its peak, Rassilon says, "If I say down is up or black is white, so mote it be. I paint reality with my words." It's a stark portrayal of mad, mindless authoritarianism. After this and after imprisoning the Doctor in his confession dial for billions of years, the Doctor would return to Gallifrey and exile Rassilon ("Get off my planet!") in Hell Bent. By the way, in Hell Bent, the Doctor was "hell bent" on *saving Clara*, if anyone didn't get that. That's what that story was really about. But by then, he'd had enough of Rassilon.
In this volume, we also have Rassilon speaking of the coming "ascension" of the Time Lords into beings of pure thought. This sounds to me very much like the Celestis of the Eighth Doctor BBC books series. I don't know if that reference was intentional or not.
The regulars here in Volume 4, namely Lalla Ward, Louise Jameson, Sean Carlsen and Miles Richardson are all such a treat to listen to, and Richard Armitage as Rassilon is a powerful presence here as well. Nicholas Briggs also does great work with the dalek voices, though I'm not sure I'd say daleks are ever really a "treat" to listen to. To me, Lalla Ward is particularly enjoyable to listen to here and throughout the many Gallifrey series, and continues to sound virtually the same as she did some 40+ years earlier.
Overall, Gallifrey Time War Volume 4 brings the Gallifrey Time War series to a kind of end, as we know there's more to come after this in other media, and does so with some solid stories, including the superb Beyond. I haven't yet listened to the Gallifrey War Room series, which appears to pick up from here.
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| More Horror Novel Than Doctor Who |
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| What: | The Left-Handed Hummingbird (New Adventures novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 21 January 2024 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
I really wanted to like this novel more than I do, especially after reading all the praise heaped on Kate Orman. However, I have problems. This novel occupies the middle of the "Alternate History" cycle of the New Adventures. Someone, somewhere is messing with time, and The Doctor is pursuing the clues. Apart from some mentions of this time meddling, of someone behind the scenes playing havoc with The Doctor's past, this novel takes the reader no farther toward finding who or what that is and what they want.
Spoilers ahead: The novel itself is basically a stand-alone story, no matter how many nods to the prior novels in the series Orman sticks in. And she does stick in many, and to even earlier New Adventures novels, and to many other Doctor Who stories. It is just packed full of knowing winks to die-hard fans. Even with all that, this novel is almost nothing like Doctor Who. The story, such as it is, is that an ancient Aztec named Huitzilin (Little Humming Bird, because, apparently, the Aztecs thought that humming birds were the souls of dead warriors), got a big dose of radiation from a crashed Exxilon space ship, which gave him huge psychic powers, mainly the ability to "eat" the "souls" of others. Huitzilin's body may be dead, but his soul-devouring spirit lives on in the form of The Blue, a force that takes over people's minds and turns them into killers before erasing them from history. He feeds on the psychic energy released by the dead. The Doctor takes magic mushrooms in an Aztec ritual and in his hallucinogenic state opens "the door" by which Huitzilin can return to life in corporeal form and reclaim an Exxilon weapon of immense power, and thus continue his soul eating ways in perpetuity. End spoilers.
That is the basic story of the novel. The plot involves mostly The Doctor trying to outmanuever Huitzilin, and failing every time. He takes along Ace and Benny, telling them very little of his plans and expecting them just to go along with it. He also involves a Mexican of Aztec descent named Christian Alvarez, who is particularly sensitive to The Blue. Through all of the novel, Christian is a pathetic, damaged, palpitating psychological wreck, so not the most interesting or forthcoming of characters. The action crosses several different years and locations. It is, all told, a violent, unremittingly downbeat story. It read more like a modern horror novel than a Doctor Who novel to me. It had the same idea of ancient evil trying to break through into the modern world, wreaking havoc and death, and being mostly incorporeal. Thus, it is more like Clive Barker's The Great and Secret Show than it is like Doctor Who.
Orman is a better writer than the other writers in the New Adventures series up to this point. The one thing that got to me is that she is trying very hard to make this a "great" novel, and so does some things that seem to be the kinds of things that "great" novels do, such as suddenly changing perspective or writing style. However, it is never clear why she does so when she does so, just that it is something that "great" novels do.
It's a good first effort as a novel, and probably a fairly good horror novel for those that like horror novels. It's just not my cup of dark tea.
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