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 | The first episode I saw!!! |
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This was the first episode I saw. I was about 5 when I saw it. It still remains in my mind as one of the best in the series. Peter Cushing's doctor was one of the best. Still wish I could see the original but that does not matter because this is one of the best.
| What: | Storm Warning (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Merlin, England |
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| Date: | Tuesday 11 October 2005 |
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| Rating: |   8 |
Once I'd heard of the Paul Mc Gann audio adventures I thought I just had to gte them. This was a good start to a range of fantastic range of audios. And now they're being broadcast on BBC 7.
| What: | Back to the Vortex (Telos new series guides) |
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| By: | David Yates, Reading in Berkshire |
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| Date: | Saturday 8 October 2005 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
I can’t stress just how much I enjoyed reading this book. It was completely satisfying in every way – my only concern was that it was a little heavy and I spent such a long time in the bath reading it, I nearly dropped it in a couple of times. But minor quibbles about the weight of paper aside (sic) – it was brilliant evocation of the joy and expectation we all felt in the lead up and broadcast of the new series. It will stand as a perfect document of a particular time that was important to us all. It solidified everything I felt. The reviews were passionate and informed in just the right measure and the authors prose style was light and easy to read.
I can’t recommend this highly enough to anyone who has even a passing interest in the new series.
It is without a shadow of a doubt responsible for some of the best baths I have ever had.
P.S. Come to think of it nearly all of TELOS's Doctor Who books are pretty heavy. David/Shaun is there any chance of some light weight water proof versions?
| What: | The Deviant Strain (BBC New Series Adventures novels) |
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| By: | David Yates, Reading, Berkshire |
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| Date: | Saturday 8 October 2005 |
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| Rating: | 3 |
I was thoroughly enjoying this novel, with its bleak atmosphere and gradually building menace, until about half the way though where we get a bit of exposition and then for about – what seemed to me like 50 odd pages, the main characters just running around from place to place narrowly avoiding flailing tentacles. Then another couple of pages where there were some zombies thrown in for good measure. I think maybe a little more work (or perhaps a bit of editing?) on the second half of the novel and it would’ve been a pretty decent book. Though the writing style did seem a little more mature than the previous releases, I can’t help but think that a little more description would’ve helped too. The Doctor, Rose and Jack seemed well rounded and considering that these last three books were probably written while the new series was being aired is no mean feat.
| What: | Only Human (BBC New Series Adventures novels) |
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| By: | David Yates, Reading, Berkshire |
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| Date: | Saturday 8 October 2005 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Within only a dozen pages Gareth Roberts brilliantly captures the sprit of the new series. The characters are fully formed and leap from the pages almost as if you're watching the telly. His wit and lightness of touch are pitched just right. Though I expected nothing less from the author of the best 4th Doctor books I have ever read (Gareth, please write another one? Pretty please…)
There is much to recommend in this enjoyable runaround. Not least the excellent climax where the Doctor manages to keep his head when all about him are losing theirs in the confusion.
- and I could've read a whole book just of Das and Jack's diary entries!
The best of the 9th Doctor's books so far. Without a shadow of a doubt.
Full marks!
| What: | The Deviant Strain (BBC New Series Adventures novels) |
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| By: | rebekka, london |
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| Date: | Friday 7 October 2005 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
i am half way thourgh but its really excting. Justin Richards have keept the funny humor in the book as wel as a good read. well done its perfect. i am a really fan. carry on writing. :-)
| What: | The Stealers of Dreams (BBC New Series Adventures novels) |
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| By: | rebekka, london |
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| Date: | Friday 7 October 2005 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
this book is Fantastic! it is so cool and captering (sorry cant spell) the story line is really good. well done anthoer (told you i couldent spell!) really good book, i read winner takes all in 2 days it that good ive read all the books aprat from 2 but i think they can to be Fantastic!
| What: | Coming to Dust (Faction Paradox audio dramas) |
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| By: | David Yates, Reading, Berkshire. Uk |
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| Date: | Friday 7 October 2005 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
The True History of Faction Paradox : Coming to Dust
A Review by David Yates
There is always something uncomfortable about Faction Paradox (originally created by Lawrence Miles for the BBC's Doctor Who series of novels), a feeling that gets under your skin. You know that when they are around something is wrong. They’re going to show you things that you don’t really want to see and take you to places you don’t really want to go. Are they heroes or villains? They have to be summoned like demons, does the similarity end there? I’m not entirely sure I’d like to be in a room with them. That said, this is the thing that I find most attractive, it makes me want to carry on listening. You will too.
I’m very impressed by this release. Very impressed.
What struck me most was the huge force of imagination at work. The whole thing plays out in widescreen. From the opening sequence on a huge battlefield to the echo filled finale. Considering it’s in a medium that relies completely on sound, it was chock full of arresting visual images, from a twisted hairless ape to a vast underground cavern. It seemed genuinely epic.
The script by Lawrence Miles, was earnest and flippant in almost perfect proportion. I heard bon mots of the highest order. “Nice use of pessimism. So we’re on monster patrol here, then?” A séance where a lesser writer would’ve had the apparition’s ghostly form appear hovering above the table – here Miles wrong foots us by having her walk though the door! No clichés allowed. Excellent. Bright, intelligent writing. And I say again: a huge force of imagination. The attention paid to the plot and dialogue is particularly impressive. It’s clear that Miles works hard on his structure, plot points come at you from all angles and you never see them coming. He seems to be able to do this effortlessly. No lazy plot holes or clunky exposition here. Everything you need to know is cleverly buried within the dialogue and sound design. There is a gothic horror feel to the play, but with a thoroughly modern sensibility. Like the bastard child of Mervyn Peake and Joss Whedon. Yes, it’s that good.
The casting is excellent. Gabriel Woof as Sutekh should be singled out, as his performance seemed to contain genuine madness seething beneath his voice. He is genuinely unsettling. His every line drips blood. Though he appears in only a few scenes his terrifying shadow looms over the rest of the story. I don’t doubt that there is much more to come in future release. I also particularly enjoyed Jane Lesley as Cousin Eliza. She was my foothold in the Faction Paradox universe. She was the one with the tension-breaking quip. “Oh God. You’re not one of those historical types who’s going to tell me that I look like a harlot or a heathen or something, are you?” Her performance was brilliantly contrasted by Wanda Opalinska’s cut glass delivery as Cousin Justine.
Though these two have been replaced from the original set of BBV audios, I can assure you that it's all the better for it. Talking of which, this Magic Bullet audio does follow on from the BBV audios, but only in the same way the new Doctor Who does from the classic series. If fact it’s closer in spirit to the feel of the new series than any of the other Who related audios currently on release. With the one possible difference being that this feels more ‘adult’. If you’ve never heard any of these audios before or know nothing about the Faction Paradox, then this is a great place to start.
| What: | Thicker Than Water (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Phil Ince, The nasty end of Satan's ingrown toenail |
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| Date: | Wednesday 5 October 2005 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
SPOILERS
I believe that I may have finished this story at about 6 o'clock this morning in my sleep and Christ almighty!, is it awful. At the time of this review, there are 6 votes up on this page, yielding an average vote of 7.
Seven? Seven!!!??? SE-VEN?????????!!!!!!!!!!
#~$!*%£ *%$!
What shitheads could possibly devote above average ratings for this crud? Allow me - shortly - to explain.
The story is:
Episode 1: Evelyn has a quarrel on a chat show with her step-daughter.
Episode 2: Evelyn in captured by a nutter.
Episode 3: Evelyn is freed from the nutter.
Episode 4: The Doctor discovers that Evelyn's bad temper was due to her having alien DNA knitted into her during a heart bypass. Evelyn is visited by the 7th Doctor is a tediously Russell-esque continuity scene. Hex turns out to be Tim Schofield, gopher-fisting, silver-head daytime TV presenter.
How anyone could listen with pleasure to this timid, painful, humourless cheese is beyond me. Written by and produced for the children of parents exposed to dangerous doses of radiation during pregnancy, I presume, yielding offspring with brains 1/10th the size of normal in nevertheless grotesquely-enlarged crania.
One can only guess at the sense of shame and failure which overhwhelems the performers as they read through the script for the first time. For poor Colin Baker, it must be quite like old times, I should think.
Apparantly, Bonnie Langford and Colin Baker are "two of the best things to ever happen to Doctor Who". If the producer sincerely believes that to be the case, why would he then continue to insult them with this trash?
| What: | Scream of the Shalka (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Merlin, England |
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| Date: | Monday 3 October 2005 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
When I heard that Richard E. Grant was going to be the ninth Doctor I was rather dissaponited since I was expecting it to return to TV rather than a series of webcasts. But once the BBC had annouced that Chris was going to be the offcial ninth Doctor I was relieved. Though if you have read "The Gallifrey Chronicles" then you'll fin out that Richard might lightly count as a Doctor.
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| Sacrilege to the phenomenon. |
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I think this is time to dust off an old line - Sacrilege! Sacrilege! Burn him at the stake!
This was the story that truly made me lose respect for the Williams era. Never in my years of watching Doctor Who have I seen such absolute rubbish flashing out from my television screen. It wasn't so much the story itself - it was the way it was presented, and I will never ever forgive Graham Williams for this. The Daleks are the greatest monsters Doctor Who has ever produced, and here are Graham Williams and Douglas Adams, trivialising them, laughing at their flaws, making them appear like idiots, and doing his best to completely destroy the Dalek legacy. This story really made me think Williams was just some crackpot producer who couldn't care less about the programme, and just churned out whatever episodes he could lay his hands on. To try to solve my problems with airing my grievances, I think I'll list them.
A. The Doctor's way of dealing with the Daleks.
This is perhaps the thing I hate most about the episode. I stopped tolerating Graham Williams at two moments - when the Doctor walks up to a Dalek, throws his hat on it, and rolls it down the corridor. Sure, we all know that the Daleks have their flaws, but to use them as a plot device absolutely reeks of sandwiches that someone left in their school locker for two terms and that started to grow a tree. Utter compost. The other moment, that perhaps isn't so bad, but is another contender for most degrading moment for the series, is when the Doctor taunts the Daleks by throwing a rope down to them. We know that Daleks can't climb up stairs (not at that stage anyway), but to completely trivialise the Daleks and turn them into characterless pepperpots is just plain carelessness and apathy.
B. The production of the story in general.
To demonstrate how little regard Graham Williams had for the responsibility he had for the series, he decided to just pull out some cracked and damaged Daleks from storage and just pass them off as genuine monsters. As a result, we have these Daleks seemingly waddling along something that appears to be somewhere between a desert and a quarry, because he couldn't be bothered doing something creative with them. Their voices were worse. Both the Daleks and Davros were given awful voices, though some of the Daleks sounded decent (the ones done by Roy Skelton, at least). Their entire [hack] dialogue was absolutely [hack, cough, cough] littered with noise that sounded something [splutter, cough, cough, hack] like they were wretching in their polycarbide armour. I'm not blaming Williams for the voices, but it just reflects the unprofessionalism of the entire thing.
C. A quick note on the regeneration.
A lot of fans think that they love the sequence where Romana changes face about six or seven times. They explain this ridiculous notion by saying that perhaps there is a short period of grace where they can change appearance without altering their regeneration form. This raises the question: "Why doesn't the Doctor change his face if he doesn't like it (we know that he is not entirely happy about some of his faces)?" But the major problem has nothing to do with the faces. It's to do with the fact that it's just plain farcical that this entire comedic thing should be thrown into a Doctor Who story with no apparent reason other than to completely destroy any credibility that the start of the story ever had. Like my major complaint with the Ninth Doctor's attitude (don't get me wrong, I think Eccleston was a decent Doctor) - it's just plain flippant.
Overall, disgusting. 1/10.
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| Written in a different way |
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I was expecting to find that this book was like the rest of the range but instead it was written in a historical way. Unique. The story is mostly good. There was a good introduction to the new villain Sabbath who is a good replacement for the Master. Though it is possible that he was the man in the rosette. The book got a bit tiring towards the end of it though. Well done Lawrence.
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| Not the best book to read but still good |
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| What: | Vanishing Point (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Merlin, England |
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| Date: | Wednesday 28 September 2005 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
By the time I'd finished reading chapter one I knew it was going one those half good, half bad sort of stories. After reading the entire book I was rather pleased by the way it was written. Good work Stephen Cole.
| What: | Doctor Who Annual 1983 (World Annuals) |
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| By: | Simon Bromley, Pontypridd, Wales, UK |
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| Date: | Wednesday 28 September 2005 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
Not bad. Clearly for the kids, with 'fascinating' facts about black holes and stuff, and plenty of nice stories. Not a bad buy.
I was kind of expecting something similar to Endgame with this book but instead it's more like a Bond movie. In fact the character of Cosgrove is quite obviously played by Sean Connery. The opening of the book is brilliant, the use of Fitz in the novel is superb, the time travel plot is very well done but I did tire of it a little in places.
| What: | Hope (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Gary Pryke, Ipswich, Suffolk |
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| Date: | Tuesday 27 September 2005 |
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| Rating: | 3 |
I'm rather surprised reading the other reviews as I really didn't enjoy this book. It had some great ideas but I just felt bored by it. I havn't read many of the previously 8th Doctor books other than 8 Doctors, Endgame and Mad Dogs but it seemed that Anji's character was just dumb. She had become obsessed with her old boyfriend Dave's death and seemed to think that if she cloned him then it would be all right.
I skimmed this book towards the end, i havn't done that since primary school.
I was a bit shocked at how much this story seemed to be played for laughs for a while. It has it's more nasty moments but could easily be described as a "romp". The return of one of the characters was a little too obvious and Noel Coward was brilliant, but I didn't think it was incredible.
| What: | Endgame (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Gary Pryke, Ipswich, Suffolk |
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| Date: | Tuesday 27 September 2005 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
I was surprised to find that I enjoyed this book one hell of a lot and wouldn't have even minded if there was even less sci-fi in it. I'm not usually too interested in the historical stories (if this can be called one). But i found that it was all very interesting...a very easy read.
| What: | Legacy of the Daleks (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Merlin, England |
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| Date: | Sunday 25 September 2005 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
Well done John peel for this fantastic well written novel. Becca does a good replacement for Sam and there is a good come back of Susan and the Daleks. Keep the them coming.
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| Well-constructed Historical Read. |
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| What: | Players (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Michael McGovern , Edmonton, Alberta |
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| Date: | Tuesday 20 September 2005 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
This book brought back the glory days of Terrence Dick's writing. It's been so long since I've sat down to a really good Doctor Who book with plain head-over-heels adventure and excitement.
The story is the thing, held up by some of the finest prose I've ever seen. Few writers understand that the secret to telling a truly complex story is to use extremely simple language. Even the Da Vinci Code, for all it's historical goofiness, is written very, very simply, although it lacks the warmth of this book. We get a fond look at some old friends, together with the Second Doctor, going on one last adventure in a way only Terrence Dicks could tell.
The politics in which the Doctor and Peri are immersed with Winston Churchill are actually intriguing, in a way that most writers can't achieve. The abdication crisis is handled with remarkable skill, making it one of the most intense governmental buildups ever written. Similar complexity shows toward the end of Timewyrm: Exodus, and it is a true shame that Terrence's work isn't a larger part of the literary world in Canada and the USA. This work deserves to be required reading worldwide.
Absolutely stunning.
