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What:Killing Ground (Missing Adventures novels)
By:David Layton, Los Angeles, United States
Date:Sunday 5 July 2020
Rating:   7

With his second or third novel, Steve Lyons still has not quite found what works for him. "Killing Ground" stays pretty close to Eric Saward - style Doctor Who. It's limited to a few tight locations, and plotted around various battles with linking scenes mostly meant to get the reader to the next battle. The Doctor spends most of the novel chained up and out of action. The main idea is not fully dealt with. Doctor 6 has decided rather off-handedly to take his new companion Grant Markham, from Lyons' previous novel "Time of Your Life," to his home world, which Grant had left when he was a small child. Agora, it turns out, has been made into a Cyberman breeding ground, with the natives forced to reproduce to provide material for Cyber conversion. There's a ragtag and hopeless kind of resistance movement using stolen Cyber technology to create a fighting force they are calling Bronze Knights. Also, this particular period in Cyber history is the subject of investigation for a pair of time-travelling historians, the elder of whom secretly wants to become a Cyberman (or woman, as it were). In typical Saward fashion, the story is quite violent and bloody, with the heroes continuously trapped and about to be killed when some kind of miraculous thing manages to get them saved. The incidents become increasingly frequent until in the last 40 or so pages that is all that is happening. Some questions remain at the end, such as why The Doctor chose to take Grant to Agora. Grant keeps wondering, but no answer is given. At the end, it seems that Grant will continue travelling in the TARDIS, though this turns out to be the last novel with him in it. Lyons does a very good job of writing a Saward-style story, very much in the spirit of 1983-4 Doctor Who.



A great listen

What:The Flight of the Sun God (Classic series audio originals)
By:Xavier Downey, Ipswich, United Kingdom
Date:Friday 19 June 2020
Rating:   9

This is the only original Doctor Who audiobook in my possession and I found the story to be an intriguing listen with Nicola's narration providing really great life to it.



Little Did He Know That...

What:The Ultimate Foe (Target novelisations)
By:David Layton, Los Angeles, United States
Date:Wednesday 10 June 2020
Rating:   3

This book has more clumsy foreshadowing than any other book I have read. Every other page has some statement like "at that moment was walking into danger." Perhaps it is the only way that Pip and Jane Baker could think of generating any kind of excitement. This novel proves to me that they were, indeed, the worst writers for "Doctor Who." The fundamental problem, it seems to me, is that they viewed "Doctor Who" as a children's program, and wrote for it at that level, whether it was a script or a novelization. To make it worse, their idea of writing for children is to write down to them; that is, they assume that children are stupid and need constant handholding through the story and that all forms of danger must be contained within some cartoonish foolery to make it less traumatic for children.



Doctor Who by the Numbers

What:The Twilight Kingdom (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures)
By:David Layton, Los Angeles, United States
Date:Friday 5 June 2020
Rating:   7

My title for this review pretty much says it all. The first two parts are quite interesting, providing the listener with several mysteries and a "Heart of Darkness" vibe with much potential. Unfortunately, the payout is pretty much standard "Doctor Who" with a mix of "The Face of Evil" and "Claws of Axos" about the villain and an unrealistic self-sacrifice to resolve the problem.



Silly in All the Wrong Ways

What:Terror of the Vervoids (Target novelisations)
By:David Layton, Los Angeles, United States
Date:Wednesday 3 June 2020
Rating:   2

Pip and Jane Baker's novelization of their first script for Doctor Who shows in abundance why they were a wrong choice. It's a lame who-dunnit in which the who is obvious, the characters are all one-dimensional types, the dialogue is stilted, and the plot more riddled with holes than the golf course next to no man's land in WWI. A huge problem are the Vervoids themselves. Giant mobile plants born out of seed pods, how can they speak English, know what a space ship's "bridge" is, have eyes, and voluntarily spray poison gas from their mouths? The novelization has much ham-fisted foreshadowing, such as "For Rudge there was to be no escape." Not much more needs to be said.



Fantastic!

What:The Complete Twelfth Series (BBC new series DVDs/Blu-rays)
By:Trevor Smith, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Date:Thursday 28 May 2020
Rating:   10

A really cracking series of stories that leads to a fantastic, mind blowing climax. Top, top stuff.



The series that finally killed Doctor Wh

What:The Complete Twelfth Series (BBC new series DVDs/Blu-rays)
By:John Miller, Cape Town, South Africa
Date:Thursday 28 May 2020
Rating:   1

It's not just that the stories here are preachy, badly written, badly directed and have hammy acting.
It's not just that the 'Doctor'(Jodie Whittaker) has absolutely no personality. Or that the companions are utterly one-dimensional.
This is the series with "The Timeless Child" and "Ruth Dictor".
Yes. The Doctor isn't just "a madman with a box". He's not even just "The Other". No. The Doctor is a little girl with godlike powers from another universe. And the source of all Time Lord Power. And (s)he can go on regenerating forever. In fact, Hartnell is only Doctor #621311251521, at the earliest. Ugh!
Oh, and plastic's bad. So don't buy the DVD or Blu-Ray. And, unless you change, Earth will become a wasteland, and your descendants will be mutants with no apparent foodsource. And Yazz fancies someone, but it could be awkward. And Gallifrey was destroyed AGAIN. And Muslim physicians were known for their enlightened views. The one positive is that the Master wasn't trying to shag the Doctor, but that's probably because he would have been shamed for sexual harassment. See, it's funny if it's a woman doing it, but not if it's a man.



Superb Icelandic Outing for Old Sixie

What:The Hunting Ground (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures)
By:Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom
Date:Tuesday 26 May 2020
Rating:   10

Every now and then with Big Finish, after a run of already absolutely superb stories, you get one that is even that extra bit special. For me The Hunting Ground by AK Benedict is one of those stories. Colin Baker to begin with is on the top of his game here, its lovely in the bonus interviews at the end of the story to hear the writer herself show such warmth and love for this most undervalued and underrated Doctor. So good to hear that the writers love his oh so colourful and sparkly Doctor. And it aint hard to see why AK says what she does about Colin's sublime take on the role.

Colin gets to spar magnificently with the delightful Amy Beth Hayes as Yrsa Kristjansdottir. And one for certain can yet again that Amy should absolutely be a companion for his Doctor, oh boy yes she should. She's a great cop, with a firm and logical head on her shoulders and takes care of herself well within this superb tale. She also gets to act some touching and stirring moments of pathos whilst trying to discover why her Dad was murdered, and whom committed the murder. In fact I would go as far as to say that Amy has given one of my favourite performances of a character for a very long time in a Big Finish audio. Yes, I kid you not her strength of character yet her caring nature make her one heck of a character. Oh Big Finish when you restart the Doctors in their own box sets in 2022 please please please dont let Amy Beth pass you by again. It would be absolutely incredible hearing her be yet another new companion for Old Sixie.

I always love stories that are set in bleak and harsh landscapes too. And the sound and the score for this story work very very well indeed. The feel of this being set in Iceland feels totally authentic, but then again one has come to expect no less from the great Big Finish productions. The Hunter is a rather unpleasant and vulgar creation too, played with zeal and aplomb by Michael Griffiths. That he turns out to be not a wholly black hearted psychopath in the end though does make his final scenes in the play saddening and stirring. Its good that some writers seem to grasp the point that the best villains are written in shades of grey sometimes, and not just black and white. Yes his ending is actually saddening in the end and gives yet another added touch of emotional impact to an already emotionally rich story.

You can tell that AK knows her stuff about crime writing too. This tale flows along superbly well. A succinct and tight plot which never has any overtly distracting humour to ruin the tone of the story. It does though have a vein of light relief, this time in the amusing form of the two headed alien being Marfick. Both heads are brilliantly portrayed by Will Hislop and Joe Jameson. Both of these guys never verge on stupid either, and they make a memorable and decent and even lovable character indeed whose obsessed with all things administration!

Michael Griffiths also gets to portray Yrsa's father and its great to hear an actor being given two such polar opposite roles within a story. And Michael delivers fantastically for both roles. The story of her father's death is one that is extremely well portrayed. Malcolm James as the slimy creep Sigdor too really impresses with his performance. And we also get a very commendable performer in Harriet Colling's Frida too.

This story brings its twists and turns well, and has some moments I genuinely found quite surprising and brilliant to listen to. Margaret Ashley particularly as the DCi comes over very well as a character who isn't wholly ripe but at least still has a firm grip on her humanity, and throughout the story this comes over extremely well again indeed. The story has some great cliffhangers and the resolutions of those cliffhangers too are brilliant and inventive and all come together to make one of the most enjoyable and lovely stories I've heard in a while from Big Finish. In fact this may even be my favourite Big Finish outing for quite some time, and that truly is saying something with the fantastic array of stories we've been getting from Big Finish for the last few years in all their ranges.

A story rich with strong characters, highly charged performances and some sublime scoring and sound design, The Hunting Ground truly is a total winner of a tale and I please hope that Big Finish have the sense not to let the chance of Amy Beth's Yrsa pass them by. I for one definitely want her to be a new companion. Honestly I must even admit that shes made an even bigger impression on me than even Constance or Flip did in their debuts, and I adore both those characters to pieces. Sorry but I dont care if Im gushing. Its only due to the simple fact that AK has written a first class Old Sixie adventure where her writing of his character is absolutely spot on and Colin sinks his teeth into the role yet again and runs with it with the lovely Yrsa at his side. Honestly the vein of brilliant characters Big Finish create never cease to amaze me.

Wolves, Hunters, murderous intrigue and even some superb moments of intense pathos. Honestly what more could one ask from a story? Oh boy am I glad Big Finish gave us a jewel of an adventure such as this. This is one of those very rare cases where every single element of a story works perfectly and comes together to make a belter of a story.



A Strong Set of 4 Stories

What:Forty-Five (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures)
By:Jared Harr, St. Marys, United States
Date:Saturday 16 May 2020
Rating:   8

False Gods - 8/10 Had an interesting plot once I figured out what it was trying to do and the ending was pretty powerful. However, Sophie didn’t seem to put in her best and I feel Benedict Cumberbach was given too small a part to play. Essentially, you have one of Britain’s finest actors (next to Derek Jacobi and John Hurt), but you use him in 1/4 of a monthly episode and that’s it? I was super excited to hear him in this story, but he did come off as a bit dull thanks to the dull character he played.

Order of Simplicity - 7/10 It’s an interesting mesh of futuristic concepts and an archaic setting tied together in a neat little plot. It reminds me of the old intellectual episodes in Colin Baker’s early Big Finish works. Nothing too special though, just a nice bit of light entertainment. Also, Benedict played a neanderthal for 2 minutes in this one too... Really??

Casualties of War - 8.5/10 Cool emotional narrative that hits so many places so well. The family itself is neat and it doesn’t try to overdo anything. It’s mostly about the characters. I don’t know what else to say except that it’s good.

The Word Lord - 9/10 Started off very strongly with a twist on the structure of a classic story (and a neat locked room mystery where every suspect is locked in one room together). Then things ramped up towards the end. I’m not sure how to feel about it, as it takes an incredibly corny concept similar to the Carrionites from “The Shakespeare Code,” but is very clever with it and just about gets away with it. I had fun with this one and the acting was stellar from the entire cast. Overall, great production!



A Good Intellectual Piece

What:Medicinal Purposes (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures)
By:Jared Harr, St. Marys, United States
Date:Saturday 16 May 2020
Rating:   9

Was a pretty good intellectual story for the most part. It doesn’t completely go overboard on the intellectual stuff like “Ish” or “Year of the Pig,” but it does have a decent amount of it in there.
You are subjected to an intriguing mystery once you get past the waffley first part which describes in the vaguest way possible the important historical characters of the episode: Burke and Hare.
There were also some neat twists positioned at some of the low points that made me excited to keep listening. Also, I loved Davis Tennant’s character. He was very well done! Plus the denouement is beautiful here.



A Fun Western Conspiracy

What:A Town Called Fortune (The Companion Chronicles audiobooks)
By:Jared Harr, St. Marys, United States
Date:Saturday 16 May 2020
Rating:   9

I had an immense amount of fun with this story!

The beginning is probably the strongest part of the entire story, but the rest still holds it own very well. The pace as slowed down a little bit too much in the second half of part 1, I will admit. However, said pace picked up again quickly during the second part.

The story is a bit complex, but not in a science fiction way. The writer of this particular story (Paul Sutton) managed to create an engaging conspiracy plot set in a small western town. The villain is a bit on the nose, but is very functional in his role.

The music is also astounding. Simple, yet effective and has all the twangs in just the right places to make it feel old, yet exciting! I feel the actual sound effects (such as the rifle and horse hooves) could have been a lot better, but that’s a minor thing on the whole.

Maggie doesn't have the best Colin Baker impression, but her female characters were very nuanced and on point. The guest actor did a phenomenal job in his role, and all the characters themselves were so well written.

In short: This is a fun adventure set in an old western town. Plot is great and the characters are equally so.



Interesting Concept, poor execution

What:The Stones of Venice (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures)
By:Jared Harr, St. Marys, United States
Date:Saturday 16 May 2020
Rating:   3

This story has a crazy concept that just screams "Doctor Who." However, the rest of it falls flat. The plot itself is a mess and the dialogue is super clunky (especially in the beginning of part 3). The story just seems to sit there and doesn't bother adding any action into it's convoluted mess of a script. By part three, key ideas in the script stop cold turkey and everything just feels like a train wreck of story concepts that go absolutely nowhere.

If you're looking for a cool story with good pace... Well, you get half of that here.



Not to Blame the Writer Too Much

What:Mindwarp (Target novelisations)
By:David Layton, Los Angeles, United States
Date:Thursday 14 May 2020
Rating:   6

"Mindwarp" is probably the most controversial story of that controversial series "The Trial of a Time Lord." The brief was to really put the screws down on The Doctor's character, to show all the bad sides that the critics claimed were there for the show - propensity to violence, callousness regarding companions, dubious moral double standards, and so on. However, there was also to be a question regarding how much of what the viewer sees or the reader reads is altered to suit the opinions of the critics, or in this case The Valeyard. Since we never do find out the degree to which truth has been warped, it is hard to say whether any of The Doctor's actions are justified. All this is further complicated by the dreadful trial interludes (written originally by Pip & Jane Baker, who significantly altered Robert Holmes's original trial ideas, and probably for the worse). In his novelization of his script, Philip Martin has tried to stay true to what was presented on TV (with one notable exception), while also smoothing out some of the rough spots. Thus, he provides some explanatory material, especially in the trial scenes, to have it make more sense, at least as far as figuring out why The Doctor acts as he does on Thoros-Beta. The one thing Martin has truly changed was the fate of Peri. Fans mightily objected to the throwaway line to explain this at the end of "Trial" on TV. Martin's answer is perhaps happier for Peri, but not any more satisfying. On its own, without needing to fit into the Trial over-story, "Mindwarp" would probably have been a very good "Doctor Who" episode. However, the requirement to fit into the "Trial" narrative simply muddies elements that ought to be more transparent.



Decent

What:The Mysterious Planet (Target novelisations)
By:David Layton, Los Angeles, United States
Date:Sunday 3 May 2020
Rating:   6

If only we could go back in time and get rid of the whole trial story arc, things would be much better. The first installment of the Trial of a Timelord series has a decent if rather standard Doctor Who story buried inside the dreadful trial sequence. Doctor 6 is on trial and forced to watch one of his own exploits where he is accused of being meddlesome and violent. The trial proceeds like no reasonable court of law and is mostly an excuse for posturing and loud pronouncements. The main story is interesting enough on its own, however, even with some bits to set up the story arc. The Doctor and Peri arrive on Ravalox to investigate why it is so surprisingly like Earth. Ravalox was supposedly destroyed by a fireball of some kind, but life still persists. There, the Doctor and Peri discover a group of surviving primitives, an underground survival system despotically run by a robot, and a pair of criminals out to get some "secrets" that the robot is apparently protecting. The story has many elements that writer Robert Holmes has recycled from his earlier Doctor Who story The Krotons, including the robot running things, the selection of the most intelligent to aid the robot, and an underground bunker where the robot runs things. On its own, this part works reasonably well without offering any great surprises. Terrance Dicks does his usual job in novelizing the script, changing very little and adding only a few bits of description that could not be conveyed by just reprinting the script.



Misprint?

What:The BBC Radio Episodes (Miscellaneous audio dramas)
By:Billy Rees, Newport, United Kingdom
Date:Saturday 2 May 2020
Rating:   6

Says 9 CDs on the box, but actually contains 8 CDs!?!



Not Quite What You Remembered

What:The Pirate Planet (BBC prestige novels)
By:David Layton, Los Angeles, United States
Date:Friday 24 April 2020
Rating:   8

"The Pirate Planet," Douglas Adams' first contribution to Doctor Who, has long been sought after for novelization. Finally, in 2017 it was done. James Goss became the writer for the job. He is a good choice in that he genuinely likes the Graham Williams period of Doctor Who and he has a sense of humor very similar to Douglas Adams'. It is a sense that nothing is sacred or above ridicule and that wherever someone is being serious, that is when they are being most ridiculous. It is tough, therefore, for writers like Adams and Goss to get the right tone for Doctor Who, where the threats need to feel credible, but the Doctor's "live and let live" attitude still needs to prevail. For this novelization, Goss had access to multiple early versions, not just the shooting scripts and the adventure as shown on TV. Goss has, therefore, incorporated the elements of the early versions while mostly retaining the plot of the televised version, and keeping all of the characters. The result is a remarkably different experience from watching the TV version. For instance, all the characters are boosted, given both more to do and more overall character. The reader finds out much more why characters are as they are. The character boost becomes most apparent in secondary characters whose function in the TV version was mostly to be cogs in the plot machine, delivering information in amusing ways. Thus, Balaton, the old man who is the voice of conformity in the society of Zanak, gets a motivation for this, a desire not just for an easy life, but also to keep his family together. Mr. Fibuli is another such character, a man whose goal is to be an ordinary civil servant type, but more or less resigned to his fate as inevitably another victim of the Captain's wrath. Goss has also made efforts to enhance the Captain as a character, making it clearer that the robotic elements of his body are the patchwork job of a novice, and that he is more understandably mentally unstable - part genius, part maniac, part naughty boy. Additionally, Goss changes much of the dialogue, adds whole scenes, deletes some scenes that never quite made sense in the TV version, and adds a layer that was scrapped from the TV version, but actually makes sense of what is happening. This has to do with the question of how Queen Xanxia, who could not be expected to be a technical wizard, is able both to perform robotic surgery on the Captain and build the time dams. Answers are in the book and I won't spoil it here, but suffice it to say that they are pure Douglas Adams. Ultimately, a reader's pleasure from this book is going to depend greatly on how well the reader feels that the writers get the mix of serious and silly. My own feeling is that the whole veers just a little too far on the side of silly, especially with regard to how many pirate clichés are thrown in. Nevertheless, the novel in this case is actually more satisfying than the televised version.



Fills Some Gaps

What:Planet of the Rani (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures)
By:David Layton, Los Angeles, United States
Date:Sunday 19 April 2020
Rating:   7

Planet of the Rani pretty much explains what The Rani was doing on Miasimia Goria, and how it all went wrong even though The Rani will never admit it. Marc Platt has taken what we already know about The Rani and run with it. She is the amoral Time Lord. Unlike The Master, who actually enjoys destroying things and generally being evil, The Rani simply does not care about the fate of others. She is a bit vain, but mostly to her other beings are tools available for her to use or discard as she sees fit. Siobhan Redmond makes a very good Rani, always trying to maintain her cool no matter how much things are not going her way. The story itself is rather adequate Doctor Who, with few real surprises. It is somewhat similar to Time and the Rani, with the Rani temporarily pretending to be someone else, trying to maintain her authoritarian rule, surrounding herself with sycophants, and trying to do this while seeing through to its finish an experiment in creating a universal supermind.



A Bit Different

What:Shell Shock (Telos novellas)
By:David Layton, Los Angeles, United States
Date:Tuesday 7 April 2020
Rating:   7

The brief for the Telos novellas was that they be different from the BBC range of Doctor Who novels, exploring different narrative styles and being generally more "adult" than the main range. "Shell Shock" certainly fills the brief. The story ranges back and forth through time, though the time is a mere few days, and uses multiple points of view in third-person limited fashion. Each perspective is given its own narrative voice so that a reader can distinguish between perspectives. The novel is "adult" both in its content about the psychological trauma of war, and in its language, which has many more **** expletives than standard Doctor Who novels. The story itself has Doctor 6 and Peri landing on a derelict ship on a primarily ocean world. While Peri is exploring in scuba gear, the ship goes under, taking the TARDIS with it. The Doctor ends up washed ashore on an island, while Peri swims around on her own before "dying" and being eaten by something which itself is being eaten by sea creatures, while her consciousness gets absorbed by the something that is eating her. The island on which The Doctor lands is inhabited by a bunch of cyborg crabs created during a war that has since been abandoned, and a psychologically damaged veteran of that war who abandoned the war before it abandoned the planet. Thus, the title "Shell Shock" has the double meaning of Ranger's (the human's) PTSD and the shells of the crabs. These crabs are now starting to be killed and eaten by a giant, crazed, cyborg crab called Meathook, and there is little that The Doctor can do to stop it.

Running on its own internal logic, the novel works reasonably well. There is quite a bit of "what the hell is going on here" for the reader, especially with Peri's narrative, but Forward makes most of the necessary revelations eventually. A couple of things did not fully work for me. One is the strange helplessness of The Doctor in relation to the crabs. He is unable to help them in even the most meager defense against Meathook, and it is not clear why. There are some gaps in the backstory that never get fully worked out, such as just what Ranger's sister (another soldier in the war) had done to warrant her punishment, which is the precipitating event for Ranger's defection from the war. The way The Doctor puts Peri back together, literally, is another aspect not satisfactorily worked out. It is written in such a way that it is as if Forward believes that the only memories that "make" a person are the painful and shameful ones, which cannot possibly be right.

Overall, "Shell Shock" is a surprisingly good read, but with a few execution flaws.



Worth a Read

What:Palace of the Red Sun (BBC Past Doctor novels)
By:David Layton, Los Angeles, United States
Date:Wednesday 25 March 2020
Rating:   7

"Palace of the Red Sun" delivers what one normally gets from a Christopher Bulis novel. It is entertaining, has an intriguing puzzle at the heart of it, but lacks depth. So, what the reader gets is a rather stock Doctor Who situation. A fascistic bad guy, Glavis Judd, is going around with a heavily armed fleet of spaceships "liberating" worlds from their governments and replacing them with his "efficient" methods. Judd's latest conquest is Esselven, a quasi-medieval kingdom in space. Judd, however, gets a nasty surprise when the royal family escapes, taking with them the "key" to unlocking a strongbox that contains all the means for running Esselven. The "key" in this case is the DNA code of the royal family. Fast forward a year and the TARDIS arrives on a mysterious garden world run by single-minded robots and operating in a split society - scruffy scavengers barely surviving off stolen food and the Lords, who live a life of a rather cardboard and artificial medieval existence. This place, it turns out, is called Esselven, yet is not the Esselven Judd invaded and no one seems to have heard of Judd or even know that there is a universe beyond their sky. Bulis is very careful to keep the mystery just out of reach until about the last 30 pages. The story runs in typical Bulis fashion. He splits the Doctor and companion fairly early in the story and keeps the apart for most of the story. Bulis is also one of the better writers for Peri, making her perky, smart, and ready to take on a challenge. Also, the reader gets the return of low-brow reporter Dexel Dynes from Bulis' earlier novel "The Ultimate Treasure." The plot moves along briskly, and as long as the reader does not ask too much of the story, the novel makes pleasant reading.



Funny

What:Doctor Who Unbound: Exile (Doctor Who Unbound audios)
By:Justin Barnes, st.louis , United States
Date:Tuesday 24 March 2020
Rating:   10

This Unbound is much different then any of the others. I won't spoil the story but it is a very big change from the rest and is a funny edition. I really enjoyed this especially after so many years!



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