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| What: | Scherzo (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Doug, New York |
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| Date: | Sunday 14 March 2004 |
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| Rating: |   8 |
You folks may think I'm very strange, but this story is remarkably spiritual to me. In the final two tracks of part 4 (and then retrospectively back), listen to it thinking of Doctor as "God"(/the One/the Tao/etc.), Charley as the individual (who is actually also the One, the Tao, etc.), and the creature as the ego/surface self/devil. Disregarding all of that, this is very inventive story anyway...
| What: | Scherzo (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Clive Wright, Jersey |
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| Date: | Friday 12 March 2004 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
This is one of the best 8th Doctor story. Excellent suspense throughout, using dialog rather than action to hold you, which comes across will. An excellent start to a key of time style punch of stories.
Rarely Charley and the doctor worked well together and the normal constant silly jokes and offhanded reactions was replaced with suspense and surprises.
Excellent.
| What: | The Macra Terror (Target novelisations) |
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| By: | Theo Robertson , Isle Of Bute, Scotland |
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| Date: | Thursday 11 March 2004 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
According to the elder statemen fans THE MACRA TERROR is a classic spinechilling story . It`s impossible to believe this reading Ian Stuart Black`s novelisation . In fact it`s very very difficult to describe this book as a novelisation since it`s more like a script with " He said " after every line of dialouge . No attempt is made to inject atmosphere into the proceedings and the only embellishment to the story is having a major character who dies in the tv story survive in the book which weakens the story still further
A lot of people have criticised John Peel`s style as overwriting , well this novelisation is completely underwritten and if the TV serial is as good as many people have painted it then this is possibly the worst book in the whole range as it`s so bland
| What: | The Power of the Daleks (Target novelisations) |
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| By: | Theo Robertson , Isle Of Bute, Scotland |
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| Date: | Thursday 11 March 2004 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
I loved reading this novelisation of POWER OF THE DALEKS several years ago but after re-reading it again over the years my enjoyment diminished . I think it`s possibly to do with the original teleplay being a suspenseful , claustraphobic slow burning tale tale whereas Peel is better suited to writing fast moving epics . I also didn`t care for Peel`s referrances to UNIT or to the ICM which smacked of self indulgance
A flawed book where you can easily forgive the flaws first time you read it
| What: | Eye of Heaven (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Stephen Carlin, Northern Ireland |
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| Date: | Wednesday 3 March 2004 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
From almost the first chapter I hated this book. At first glance it is an interesting idea - the story is told from Leela's perspective. Unfortunately that is as good as it gets. For those familiar with Leela and her on-screen adventures there are too many errors. Her perspective seems curiously well-informed in some scenes as if the author is incapable of finding suitable descriptions for objects that should be beyond Leela's experience.
Another aspect of the book is that the story is told from different points in time. It darts between past, present and future events. I came away with the strong impression that Mortimore had written disparate chapters and then found he could not piece them together...so he just shoved them altogether in the hope that people would sit back and think he was being clever. There are too many gaps, too many events that are not recounted for this to be a carefully planned and inspired method of story-telling.
In short, this is a mess of a book, badly written with appalling characterisation.
| What: | The Witch Hunters (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Stephen Carlin, Northern Ireland |
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| Date: | Wednesday 3 March 2004 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was well-written and was an interesting and terrifying venture into history for the our time travelling heroes.
Only one thing marred the book for me - the fact that it rips off Arthur Miller's The Crucible. I enjoyed the book but was not sure how much could be owed to Lyons and how much could be owed to Miller.
| What: | The Infinity Doctors (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Stephen Carlin, Northern Ireland |
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| Date: | Wednesday 3 March 2004 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Imagine if the BBC had turned down Sydney Newman's proposal for a new Saturday afternoon series? Now imagine that 35 years later someone finds notes about this series and decides to update the concept.
This novel is not a story of a Doctor we have seen or heard before. It tells of a Time Lord known as the Doctor and the mysterious force from the end of time that threatens Gallifrey.
This is an intriguing novel, well-written and its easy to imagine the idea being pitched to a TV executive. This book towers head and shoulders above any idea that Philip Segal considered in his re-imaging of the series.
I won't spoil it for anyone who has not read the book but foe behind the threat gets a better send off than anything that happened to him/her in the TV series.
| What: | Independence Day (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Tegan, England |
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| Date: | Sunday 22 February 2004 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
My favourite character from the TV series was Ace, so i was happy with the content she recieved in the book. The characters were all very well written, and the plot was fairly easy to follow. I really loved it, and could hardly put it down!
| What: | Loving the Alien (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Tegan, England |
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| Date: | Sunday 22 February 2004 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
This was the first 7th Doctor PDA I bought- although I found it confusing at first with all the parallel storylines, I found it challenging and moving to read. A brilliant book.
Two Doctors with a great surprise and Colin Baker shows again how good he is.
The one Twists and Turns like a Twisty Turny Thing. Get it.
This is what we want from Doctor Who. Madmen, cults and althernative universe that wants to destory everything.
Ace and the Doctor are at their best.
Charley and the 8th Doctor never seem to be consistant. They are either good or bad and this one was bad.
The main reason they are bad is overconfidence and cocky jokes throughout. This one is typical and the Doctor & Charley are more like the A team. Lock them in a room, with a mirror, some food and in a couple of minutes you have a time portal.
Oh Dear.
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 | Its the Past but not Earths |
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| What: | Primeval (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Clive Wright, Jersey |
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| Date: | Saturday 21 February 2004 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
Nissa is given a strong role, whilst the Evil God Cult, shows the real failing of man, the idea of good and evil running throughout and handled well.
From other votes it looks like most people thought this was average, I don't agree, its a good, tradditional well thought out story.
The oginal idea of Doctor who was within the historic and Peter Davidson's Doctor is at home in the past.
The introduction of a new companion is welcome as the this Doctor is better with a full crew. allowing more depth and twists in the story lines. Which this story makes full use of, with Peri playing a stronger than normal part.
The most import thing is that unlike Charley and the 8th Doctor, a woman from Egypt is affriad of the unknow and cannot accept everything.
Its good to hear the Doctor pushed to his limits, making mistakes and needing help. Often the Doctor seems to walk right already knowing the answer, which is dull.
A word must be said about the bad guys, they play on all our human weakness, just perfectly and sound excellent.
This is fun, fast and holds your attention, go and buy it.
Big Finish seems to have re-invented the Daleks by going back to basics. Good solid stories, although almost always set on a universal level.
Colin Baker continues to impress and the return of Romana was welcomed although her role was a little weak in places.
The idea that not only the Time-Lords can travel in time was a little shocking but handled well.
Another good story that would have made great TV, although audio is able to give a level of action and violence that TV would never permitt.
| What: | The Creed of the Kromon (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Phil Ince, Highbury |
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| Date: | Saturday 21 February 2004 |
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| Rating: | 3 |
Another poor entry in the consistently weak 8th Doctor series.
Philip Martin seems to have written with the 6th Doctor and Peri in mind; he of his weakest TVs and she at her glibbest. The lines for Charlie are just completely wrong; throwaway wisecracks of a very feeble sort.
The unsurprisingly half-hearted and unconvinced performances (a disappointing 1st for them) of Fisher and McGann underline the poverty of the writing.
The failure is partly tied to the comedy elements which simply make the Kromon look stupid. Perhaps they are. But comedy villains need to rise above this bleak level of wit to be either funny or threatening and, without that, I'm left twiddling my thumbs for the thing to finish.
The pale humour; the interminable gun-toting in part 2 where a pair of defenceless people in the heart of an alien stronghold can hit and disable the villains with mud but these villains can't shoot a single blast that hits its target; the conviction of the Kromon that their drug will subsume prisoners' personalities and link them to the Kromon - yet the strapping of C'rizz to a wheel as a demonstration to the slaves; if the drug does what they believe, why do the slaves need to be taught a lesson?; the Doctor constructing a bomb instead of a TARDIS and then simply walking away before it goes off. Conversely, if the Kromon have cause to be suspicious of the effect of their drug, it seems unlikely that their greatest minds and most senior figures would all gather in one room and let the Doctor excuse himself just before his device's activation; these misjudgements and irrationalities constitute a form of insult to the audience simply by being so slipshod.
The play's remnants consist of an endless-seeming set of events which go nowhere.
| What: | Wonderland (Telos novellas) |
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| By: | Phil Ince, Highbury |
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| Date: | Tuesday 17 February 2004 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
On the publisher's website, entries from Mark Chadbourne's online diary are less than warm and distancing about the commission. Curiously and to its inevitable disadvantage, the least successful element is the main character, Summer; Chadbourne's creation and Wonderland's protagonist, Summer is a leaden, grudging, toneless bore.
The 2nd Doctor himself is usually watchful or distant (and often absent) but largely speechless; Where Troughton might have done a great deal to suggest a Doctor whose 'eyes are open but whose mouth is shut', it's difficult to gauge how accurate Chadbourne's characterisation is because there's not alot to go on. Polly and Ben seem to be caught just right; I can hear the actors speaking the lines and the cafe scenes can easily be visualized in ancient video.
The story is 3-parts 'X-Files' (secret government agency using alien and hallucinogenic drugs to undermine threat of youth culture) to 1-part Nancy Drew.
Recommended for some strong 'Who' sections which share territory if not talent with Philip K Dick, particularly 'A Scanner Darkly'; less so for the doom-laden, gloom-monger Summer.
| What: | Ghost Ship (Telos novellas) |
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| By: | Phil Ince, Highbury |
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| Date: | Monday 16 February 2004 |
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| Rating: | 2 |
Topping completely misses the story inside this tale. What if there is an afterlife? Is there such a thing as a soul? Are there consequences after death of the way a life is lived?
Now that's something to be afraid of.
Instead, Topping has written a novelisation of a late-60s Hammer horror in which Baker was the star. Blood runs down walls, skulls laugh and scream, every lame cliche of teen horror movies is present. Cardboard stalks the galleys and corridors of the Queen Mary in the stiff shape of stereotypes.
The 4th Doctor is travelling alone - apparantly "wracked with guilt" - after 'Deadly Assassin'. Disasterously toneless, the 1st person narrator repeatedly and entirely unconvincingly describes himself as afraid and yet with no clear explanation as to why.
After all this man has seen, there isn't the slightest persuasive rationale for his terror.
Atrocious.
| What: | Heart of TARDIS (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Janet Harrison, UK |
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| Date: | Friday 13 February 2004 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
I don’t mind the odd reference to other TV shows being hidden in a text, but this book is so unrelentingly full of them that it got annoying. Heart of TARDIS isn’t really Doctor Who – it’s a schoolboy spoof on lots of other shows, and it isn’t even a good spoof. The only good thing about this book is its cover - it's a pity the contents didn't live up to it. Avoid.
