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| What: | The Stone Rose (BBC New Series Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Lorna, Wales,UK |
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| Date: | Saturday 24 February 2007 |
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| Rating: |   9 |
I love anything to do with ancient history and too combine that with Doctor Who was great! I like the way the Doctor runs about on his own and does stuff on his own, its nice to know he can! I think this whole book was brilliant!
This was the first Doctor Who book I read it was brilliant! Usally takes me a month to read a book it took me a week!
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 | Too much continuity, but good fun. |
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| What: | Mission: Impractical (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | simon, Bristol |
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| Date: | Saturday 24 February 2007 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
David McIntee says that this book sees the end of the continuity references that he wanted to do. Phew. It's rather over heavy with continuity, from the TV programme and the DWM comic strips. Taran androids, for instance, feature as an aside. All this tends to give the impression that he's trying too hard.
That said, I enjoyed the book. It has a sense of humour (which can't be said of all continuity-laden novels) and it has a cleverly worked through series of schemes on a number of different fronts. Frobisher funtions well as a character in the world of the TV programme (Big Finish have also shown this). The second Whifferdill was less welcome and doesn't really work as a character.
Definitely a good way to pass a few hours, though.
| What: | Annual 2006 (Panini Annuals/Storybooks) |
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| By: | earle, new zealand |
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| Date: | Thursday 22 February 2007 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
A very good introduction to the newest TARDIS crew (that is, before the Tenth Doctor arrived in "The Christmas Invasion"), with breathtakingly original new stories and well-informative articles.
Christopher Eccleston's cockney, leather-wearing Ninth Doctor could have been well explored and developed further, had he not decided to relinquish the role at the end of Season One. Still his portrayal will be nonetheless memorable for its standout mode to other incarnations.
Murray Gold's music is the strongest the show has ever had and will hopefully stand the test of time (I love the Radiophonic Workshop crew's contributions but more from a nostaligia stand point than thinking much of it stands up today). Whereas Dudley Simpson's 'music' augmented the visuals perfectly, in isolation they hardly make for relaxed listening. In that regard, Murray's music is bliss - elegant, spiritual, dynamic. If anything the music overpowers the visuals a tad too often on telly (certainly overpowers some of the dialogue), but on CD the effect is magical and listening in a darkened room is the perfect way to transport yourself back to the atmosphere and mood of key scenes from the first two series. I eagerly await volume two.
Oh and it has Neil Hannon whose genius even outshines that of Gold!
| What: | Live 34 (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Mark, UK |
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| Date: | Tuesday 20 February 2007 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
I disgaree: it is Dr Who just a different take; a different perspective. It uses the audio medium well and I found it refreshing...
What holds The Church and the Crown together are the rather fun dialogue moments here and there. The story itself is rather ho-hum, and as another reviewer mentioned, it makes use of the very tired plot device of the look-alike/double. At several points, I didn't find it very easy to visualize the action, and at times, such as in some of the fight scenes, it was a bit difficult to follow what was happening. But the script and the characters, most notably the fresh presence of Erimem, made for many entertaining moments. Erimem is a standout character here, and is very believably played full-on by Caroline Morris. Michael Shallard's Cardinal Richelieu also gives us some interesting scenes.
Basically, don't expect anything brilliant here, but I think The Church and the Crown is entertaining enough to be worth the listen.
Better than expected. This is very entertaining, written more in the style of classic Who adventures. Much better than some of the junk that cluttered up series two of the TV series.
Congratulations, Mike Tucker...
A great start to a promising series that re-launches the Big Finish audio adventures. Sheridan Smith and Paul McGann make a good team, and the plot races along at breakneck speed. And the Daleks are in it too! Roll on Part 2...
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| Declining episode by episode |
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| What: | Memory Lane (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | the Traveller, the end of the world |
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| Date: | Sunday 18 February 2007 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
Part One is brilliant, Part Two not so good, and so on. It's not bad, but the plot deteriorates rapidly towards the end, which is a shame as the regular cast are all brilliant and there are some great ideas here.
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| one of my personal top 5! |
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| What: | EarthWorld (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | roseveare, UK |
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| Date: | Saturday 17 February 2007 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
I don't understand the negative reviews here. This was a decently written, amusing book that does something I haven't seen a lot of in the series -- actually takes the characters' experiences in previous novels and uses them to inform the story. In particular the seldom-mentioned but you'd think fairly psychologically significant fact that Fitz isn't Fitz, and I love this book to bits for actually addressing that. It's also a better introduction to Anji than her actual first story. It's maybe a bit more character based than usual, as a whole I feel it's nicely done, and it's one of the EDAs I re-read the most often.
| What: | The Kingmaker (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Paula, Michigan, USA |
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| Date: | Wednesday 14 February 2007 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
A very funny story, one of my favorites.
| What: | Pyramids of Mars (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Gareth, Chester UK |
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| Date: | Sunday 11 February 2007 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Brilliant story, I gave it a 10 instead of a 9 though because someone else gave it a 1 just to try and bring it down so Yaa Boo! And as for Robots of Death being better, even a 5 year old could work out who Taren Capel is when he appears barely disguised on a TV screen and then we see his unique footwear. And you complain about this!
| What: | New Beginnings: (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Gareth, Chester UK |
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| Date: | Sunday 11 February 2007 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
Logopolis: Surreal, funereal, stylish, gripping, near perfection.
Castrovalva: unique, warm, thoughtful, fascinating.
Keeper of Traken: Absolute rubbish. The acting is shocking from most of the Trakens we meet, so much so that you may end up rather hoping the Master wins. Thankfully (spoiler coming up) we can cheer during Logopolis when we discover that Nyssa's whole planetary system is destroyed by the entropy field. YAY!!!!
The basic idea of this book, contrasting the UN idealism of UNIT with the harder realities of the Cold War, is superb. However the writing and characterisation are dreadful.
This is an awful pastiche of a book. It's as if Topping and Day once read a general (and inaccurate) article about the Pertwee era in a fanzine and reproduced it in a novel. Consequently, the Doctor is so stilted he topples over on more than one occasion, and Liz has none of the strength of character seen on screen in Inferno (which precedes this book in setting). Mike Yates seems to feature only as a means of shoehorning swearing and sex into the novel (a Torchwood agent, perhaps?). I won't begin to discuss how terrible are the stereotypes of hippies and landed gentry.
All of this is a real shame given the strength of the plot idea, and more so because it's the first of the BBC PDAs. Fortunately, there are better ones later in the series.
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| Dry, dry, dry as a Desert. |
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I tried so hard to like this book. It got such good reviews, I thought it just HAD to be good. I've had it for years, and I finally finished it after hearing people rave about the intricate plot.
And I learned the hard way that plot isn't everything.
The prose is some of the driest I've ever seen. There is absolutely no charm, wit, warmth or human feeling in it. It is truly unpleasant to read, as if the author isn't even interested in what he is creating.
I guess a sense of awkwardness best sums up this book. Just the right amount of details were left out of virtually every scene to make me feel really, really uncomfortable.
The ideas are not half-bad, but the EXECUTION of it all is what really drags. If the book was written, dare I say it, in the style of Terrence Dicks, it would probably have turned out superbly. Sadly, it was not to be.
The Cranleigh scene, for example, is done with such a lack of flair and charm that it takes my breath away. How a writer can actually strip the intensely pleasant English warmth from such a charming country scene is beyond me, but it is done here. One wonders if Justin Richards drudged up this episode simply to ruin it.The rest of the book just kind of follows from there.
I think I heard somewhere that Justin Richards is a computer programmer, and he structured the plot of this book like a complex computer program with a flow chart to go with it. Unfortunately, reading it is almost as dull as reading a computer program, and for the same reasons.
I must confess myself to be profoundly disappointed.
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| Classic tale but stiffly written |
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This is one of the landmark series of all Doctor Whos- the first encounter with the Cybermen, and the first time the Doctor changes bodies. The book is entertaining enough but reads as a simple transcript of the TV programmes, written rather stiffly (dare I say, quickly) and lacking in some more description detail.
it was a very good book a bit funny
| What: | Placebo Effect (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Tardisuser, Isle of Wight |
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| Date: | Sunday 4 February 2007 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
This book was a pleasing read. The Doctor is treated like a proper individual. Sam is realising she's growing up, instead of just being able to fall back into the old Doctor/Sam routine. And the Foamasi get a better plot than The Leisure Hive.
Read it!
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| Offensive and Poorly Written |
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I have to admit that I have enjoyed most of the Torchwood TV series. It's not Dr. Who, I can accept that, but it is a relatively intelligent drama series. However the problem with the series is that it is not comfortable in it's role as an adult drama. It has to keep pushing it's own boundaries, swearing when it's totally unnecessary and when a story is a little thin they just add unnecessary gay or straight sex scenes which do little for the plot but prove that they are 'edgy'.
This book, unfortunately, follows the same pattern. With an even more absurd plot than normal this book concerns itself with a number of smaller events that begin to mount into a larger storyline. However that storyline is so thin it's see through. For a start an extra member is added to the Torchwood team as though he's been there all along. You just cannot go messing around with the make-up of a TV show in this way, yet Dan Abnett thinks he can.
The bad language in this book is unnecessary and offensive and even at times blasphemous in its swearing. While I could imagine these lines being said by the characters I think that they wouldn't choose to broadcast them. The one redeeming feature about this book is that the characters (the ones from the TV series) are well profiled. Even though some of them occassionally act out of character there are reasons for this.
I found this book hard to get into, and more difficult to continue reading as the plot wore on. Mainly I think because the plot was so lame and poorly thought out and because there was this extra character appearing out of nowhere didn't help.
As a TV tie-in it is a pretty poor comparison to the series, in a franchise like Torchwood perhaps they should pay a little more attention to the plot because thats really what the books need, even more so than the TV series because at least on TV actors, personalities and special effects can be used to cover plot holes or weak stories, these are not available in books.
