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| What: | The Clockwise Man (BBC New Series Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Manny, Los Angeles, America |
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| Date: | Sunday 16 April 2006 |
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| Rating: |   8 |
The Clockwise Man is another book that really reads past well and into great. It had all the elements that keep you turning page after page.
It was a real treat, to see the Doctor and Rose go back to London in 1920 and know what London would be like now; years from the 1920s. At times when those moments are told in the story, it also feels as if you were there too. A nice wink if you’ve ever been to London.
The other characters in this book are also not just there to tell the story but there to pull you in. You grow to the point of feeling for them and getting your heart to race when the danger rides in.
A great book and one that shouldn’t be passed down.
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 | Confusing and long-winded |
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| What: | Loving the Alien (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Karina, Melbourne, Australia |
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| Date: | Saturday 15 April 2006 |
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| Rating: | 4 |
This was the first Dr Who novel I had read, and frankly I was disappointed. It started well, but once I hit the sixth chapter it was hard-going. It introduced characters that it was assumed I knew from previous novels/episodes. Multiple-dimensions and killing off Ace at the beginning just left me cold. I had to struggle to finish it. Maybe it's just the way my brain is wired. :0)
| What: | Players (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Karina, Melbourne, Australia |
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| Date: | Saturday 15 April 2006 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
This was the second Dr Who book I have read. It captured the relationship between the Dr & Peri very well. The character of Winston Churchill and Wallis Simpson were believable and enjoyable. The Players as characters however, and mostly annoying.
| What: | The King of Terror (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Friday 14 April 2006 |
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| Rating: | 5 |
This one got a thrashing on other Doctor Who review sites, though the one other review here, so far, praised it. I lean more towards thrashing, but will not exactly take that course. Here is the basic premise - an international conglomerate that has swiftly taken over the communications systems of earth is really a bunch of aliens. The idea goes back at least as far as John Carpenter's underrated film "They Live" and has appeared in other Doctor Who novels. To give the notion some novelty, Topping has included a second group of aliens bent on wiping out the first. Earth is merely part of their strategies. The first seek domination and enslavement, while the second seek total annihilation. This is fine and provides plenty of room for cloak and dagger play. However, cloak and dagger requires carefully controlled and tight plotting, which "The King of Terror" utterly lacks. Far too much in this book is throw-away. For instance, there is a useless prologue involving an interview with an ancient Brigadier, which provides no clues at all about the rest of the novel. Much of the early going involves two UNIT operatives following a courier of illegal plutonium from Amsterdam to Los Angeles. Then, they get stopped, the courier makes his delivery, gets blown away, and that is the end of it. The whole carefully described extravaganza is merely a novelist's excuse to get our two UNIT men to L.A. Similarly, Tegan gets sent on a useless trip to the desert that again serves no particular plot purpose other than the convenience of having her see a UFO. There is a throwaway reference to a pop star that we are supposed to infer is the son of Ian and Barbara and who apparently had some kind of relationship with Tegan in his past but her future. This last incident is only one of the many pointless diversions in order to give a wink to the fans. The main characters are mostly wasted. Turlough spends 3/4 of the novel being imprisoned and tortured. Tegan spends 3/4 of the novel arguing with everyone and being utterly useless. The Doctor and the Brigadier spend most of their time chatting to this person, then that person, and not much else. Finally, there is the matter of numerous references to one of Topping's previous books, with Martin Day, "The Devil-Goblins From Neptune." The only actual carryover from that book is the head of the CIA, Control (yes, I saw "The Equalizer" too). In this case, I believe, there are some heavy hints that the CIA is not the Central Intelligence Agency, but really the Celestial Intervention Agency, or at least Control is. Again, what for? All in all, it is a frustrating read because of all the things it could have been.
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| PAUL McGANN IS BRILLIANT!!! |
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| What: | The Movie (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | George Atkinson, Manchester |
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| Date: | Thursday 13 April 2006 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
The Story was rubbish a very bad and awfuly written story. However The TARDIS was brilliant and was much better than the New 9th and 10th Doctor Control room. Paul McGann has to be one of the best Doctors ever his Edwardian look and beautifal personality was Brilliant and perfect for the part i'm very angry that the BBC didnt have him for a series!!
Description of Rome is fantastic.
Jacqueline Rayner has the Doctor down perfectly. She is also very good with Mickey and Rose.
Not as good as Winner Takes All.
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| Chilling, Goosebumps story |
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| What: | Spare Parts (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | TED SCHNITZLER, avondale pa usa |
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| Date: | Tuesday 11 April 2006 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Yes we know the cyberman saga from the 10th planet on and we know the outcome of various events in history, but getting there is just the fun. I'm a new fan to the doctor and am catching up, this audio kept me riveted start to finish. From the ominous overtones of the "final solution" for Mondas, the doctor's involuntary contribution, that poor family with thier cyberchild, and probably one of the best incidental soundtracks make this the best BF audio. My son and I listened to this traveling and almost every "scene" had us going Wow! Still gives us nightmares and goosebumps thinking about it.
After the somewhat leaden 'Vampire Science', this novel is an enjoyable page turner with likeable characters and a good plot. With the book range now reverted to the BBC, this story is keen to make links with the show's history: the Zygons from 'Terror Of The Zygons' and Litefoot from 'Talons Of Weng-Chiang' both appear. This means the book lacks a little in originality, and really these elements could have been new creations; you don't need any past knowledge to understand the story, so their presence here is little more than 'continuity porn'. This can be overlooked, however, as Doctor Who really lends itself to Victorian settings, both on screen and in print, this being no exception. A strong side to the story is seeing how the Doctor deals with the fact that his 'ideal plan' backfires disastrously. This was a good twist in what would otherwise have been quite obvious plotting.
On the negative side, this book did frustrate me a little. A particularly gruesome scene, where a young man is made to eat glass, feels very out of place for 'Doctor Who', and the descriptions of the organic nature of the Zygon ship are way over the top. Without spoiling the last chapter, how the climax of the story is not recorded into history for Sam to be aware of is quite beyond me. Even UNIT would have had a hard time covering these events up!!
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| Great book for New Whovians |
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| What: | Salvation (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Ted Schnitzler, Avondale,pa. USA |
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| Date: | Saturday 8 April 2006 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
Having only recently joined the Whovian ranks, I started on the 1st doctor books. In the Tv novelizations they didn't explain how they "aquired" Dodo, and I went and bought this book, my 1st BBC outing and Wowsers!! This was a great story, great character developement for Dodo, Steve shines as well and The Doctor is fantastic. I agree with the previous review, the Gods weren't completely explained as I'd like, and there Homeworld chapters seemed alittle underdeveloped or explained. Could be my Yankee unfamiliarity with the Doctor. But as a 1st BBC book this was an excellant read.
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| Quick, behind the sofa!!! |
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A well designed and presented book with plenty of pictures and info on the new series. Some of the choices of old monsters are a bit strange though.
An average script to screen novelisation which, apart from a few extra snippets of information adds nothing new.
One of the best Target novelisations which is arguably more effective than the televised version.
A satisfyingly complex tale with a well written Doctor-Romana relationship and many good Douglas Adams-esque comic moments.
A very enjoyable Pertwee story displaying how successful historical "Who" can be. The characters are particularly well drawn and the action sequences are believable. Very good.
An entertaining, mature and exciting page turner which would have worked as a two part television story. One of the best Doctor Who books for a long time.
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| Now for something completely different.. |
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A very different type of EDA. Although it made a change from the usual books, the text book type narrative is at times incredibly frustrating, with the inclusion of way too many irrelevant facts. Maybe this story would have worked better being told in the usual way, as the actual plot is pretty good, although credit must be given to Lawrence Miles for attempting to do something different.
Nevertheless, Sabbath makes a good impression as the new villain, and the implication that the man in the rosette is the Master is an intriguing idea.
Revenge of the Cybermen is one of those stories, you think you¡¦ll like, even if everyone tells you its rubbish.
The sad truth is, yes its more or less pretty awful ¡V The plot is lazy, the Vogans are flat out pathetic and the Cybermen are¡K well¡K camp lmao.
One of its greatest let downs is the Cyber voices ¡V they have been electronically treated, but its as though its not taken very well, cos it just comes out sounding like some guy in a suit, trying to talk like a robot ¡V and sometimes they just ramble on to each other like normal people.
However it¡¦s not totally doom and gloom ¡V on the upside the Cyber costumers are quite good, certainly the best up to that point in Doctor Who history (although the guns in the helmets was a bit of a mistake) And Michael Wisher turns up as a Vogan wish a nasty cough ¡V his acting seemed a little rushed, and as this was actually filmed before Genesis of the Daleks (even though in chronology it was the following story) you can sort of see why he rushed this smaller part ¡V as it is well known he was exited about the roll of Davros, he was probably raring to get onto it, but its always nice to see him pop up ƒº
That aside though, nothing special about this story.
A fantastic first Doctor compilation. Only Genesis of the Daleks will have a chance at surpassing it for the best release of the year.
An Unearthly Child’s disk features two cuts of the first episode – which believe me, are different enough to bother watching both of. The story does drag on a little towards the end, as the cave men become a little annoying. But the first two episodes (or three, if you count both cuts of the first) are truly amazing, and more than make up for it. The first Doctor is at his strongest here, and it’s a shame he couldn’t keep up this level of presence throughout his three year tenure.
The Daleks, is certainly the best Dalek story of the first Doctors era – later ones saw them becoming a little more cartoonish, before the second Doctor blew new life into them. This story always suffers a certain level of criticism, as its plot was condensed, and glossed in the 60’s movie version. You often hear people saying it was dragged out, but I believe this version to be far superior in story, to the film. The Daleks are cold and calculating, and the thals are just about bearable ;)
The Edge of Destruction, was a bit of a filler story to be honest, and its one of those first Doctor stories which hasn’t really stood up to the test of time. The crew goes a bit mental and try to kill each other very unconvincingly – nuff said.
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| Pretty bad, I have to admit |
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It was a while since I read War of the Daleks, but I do remember it been a rather tedious collection of plot holes and mistruths. The fight at the beginning did seem to take a great deal of inspiration from the battle of Hoth, in Starwars: The Empire Strikes Back – I’m not sure if anyone else noticed this.
Peel seemed intent on involving in the story, to a degree, every piece of Dalek history and everything they have ever been associated with – from things like Spider Daleks which were simply created on the internet, as an experiment. Right down to the Slyther from Dalek Invasion of Earth (which was a stupid idea, even in the TV series). This lead to a feeling of serious over crowding throughout – In order to get everything in, Peel even went so far as to go off on a tangent, right in the middle of the story, to write a couple of chapters about characters which have no affect on the plot in anyway, shape or form. And are never seen again (one such chapter is about a James Bond type Earth spy, infiltrating a Dalek base, the other is about Draconian battle fleet, if my memory serves). This was stupid to say the least, and slowed down the story as a whole.
You also get a feeling, particularly towards the end that Peel has seen the 1960’s Peter Cushion films once two many times – just by the way the Dalek city on Skaro is described.
Lastly the Emperor Dalek’s plans are very predictable – and Darvos is once again made to look a figure of fun, and the way he is captured is also a great anti climax, considering his roll was pivotal to the Emperor Dalek’s plot.
All in all a book which wanders off into the irrelevant and bizarre – it is hard to get a copy these days – my advice is, don’t bother trying to track it down. Not worth it.
| What: | Colditz (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Jon, London |
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| Date: | Monday 3 April 2006 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
I thoroughly agree with Mr Skerten.
