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This episode has a good dark undertone. Most of the props and monsters are believable (except the giant rat). The midget (pig-man), I thought was well done. The Character of Li H'sen Chang was well acted. This a very well written story with very little weakness. If I was to show one episode to someone who had never seen the show this is the episode I would show them.
I lived in England in the early and mid 60's and had the opportunity as a child to see many of the episodes that no longer exist. I have seen all the episodes available past the 1968 season (left England in August of 1968). It is my opinion that this is the best episode produced and certainly is my favorite. ‘The Sontaran Experiment’ and ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ are good too.
Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark is a beautifully textured adventure steeped in the English tradition of Welsh and Celtic lore. One can almost feel the moistness of the moors, the chill of the fog, and the strangeness of this most ancient land and its secrets coming right through the pages.
This is the England that J.R.R.Tolkien had in mind when he wrote "The Lord of the Rings;" the quaint little village of Tir na Nog and its sleepy inhabitant seem remenicent of the Hobbit town, which Tolkien based on an old English mill he had seen; the quest the Doctor and his freinds are sent on also has a vaguely Tolkien-ish ring to it.
The entire story literally breaths with English resonance, the landscape having a wild, untamed aspect to it - even though civilization has obviously been creeping in. The only real drawback I can find is that several of the later elements in the tale are not developed fully.
The brash warrior who eats the foul-tasting dragon skin is a loud-mouthed, yet cheerful, buffoon, and I thought the story could gain quite a bit of character from adding him into the Doctor's quest. Sadly, this was not to be.
Several excellent characters who could really have made the story swing are dealt with seperately, ending their roles well away from the Doctor and the main action. The bit with Goibhnie, however, is handled with sufficient grace, and the story holds together well enough.
"Witch Mark" is certainly more cheerful in tone than several of the books that came before it. It comes as a breath of fresh air right when one really needs it.
"Revelation," for example, by Paul Cornell, marks the point when the books became really dark and twisted. "Revelation" still leave me with an awful feeling inside, a really depressed and heavy feeling that "Witch Mark" thankfully takes away. Cornell's story, however, was destined to become something of the norm for Doctor who tales. It is such a strange story, so disjointed and cruel to the characters, that I could not finish it for a whole year.
Cornell's modern form of experiemental writing is really dark and dull, and all the slacker punk bits of Ace as a teenager are just the kind of things I try to escape from when I read a Doctor Who book. I blame Paul Cornell entirely for the miserable state 1of many of the Doctor Who stories that came after "Revelation", since his foray into experimental techniques opened the door for a whole bunch of miserable amateur writers, who probably couldn't write an old-fashioned Terrence Dicks thriller even if their lives depended on it.
Witch Mark, in summation, is a small, much appreciated blessing. The cover, also, is fantastic. Best TARDIS portrait I've seen for many a year.
| What: | The Horns of Nimon (BBC classic series videos) |
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| By: | Olly, UK |
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| Date: | Wednesday 18 June 2003 |
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| Rating: |   1 |
Leave the worst 'til last! I give it 1 out of 10 as it has proper opening titles and the fact Tom Baker is in it, though it is the worst of his stories. Purchased only to complete the set, that's about all its worth.
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 | The shape of things to come.. |
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| What: | Meglos (BBC classic series videos) |
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| By: | Olly, UK |
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| Date: | Wednesday 18 June 2003 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
Meglos is ok, pleasing to watch yet nothing special, but gives a good glimpse of what is to come....the general rundown of K9 as a feasible and useful companion. A good story with some particular thick characters (such as the Gaztaks) and some now dated blue screen special effects. Nice cameo by Jacqueline Hill as Lexa.
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| Greatest men of their time |
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| What: | All-Consuming Fire (New Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Elle, Liverpool, England |
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| Date: | Wednesday 18 June 2003 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Of all the Doctor Who stories I have read this is my favourite. It has taken two of my favourite ficticious characters and put them into one boo
| What: | The Monsters (Miscellaneous factual books) |
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| By: | Joy Sole, St Albans, Herts |
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| Date: | Sunday 15 June 2003 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
Very Derivative.
Interesting story and great artwork. Ocassionally available from Kazaa now or email for a 3.4MB PDF file of this rare book.
| What: | The Well-Mannered War (Missing Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Yumchan, Doncaster, England |
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| Date: | Thursday 12 June 2003 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
Hmm. This book has a reputation for being a very good book. This combined with its low print run has turned it into quite an expensive read.
(Luckily its now available 'free' from http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/ebooks/well_mannered_war/ !)
Frankly, I was a tiny bit disappointed. I was expecting an utter masterpiece. It is still a very good read and I would recommend it thoroughly , but the hype that surrounds it still hasn't really done it any favours.
However it is a very well thought out book. You are never really sure who the real bad guys are and the end was definitely a surprise!
Hopefully Gareth will one day write another book in the BBC Books range. I will definitely try to be at the front of the queue!
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| Get hooked on the Talons of Weng-Chiang |
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This is probobly the finest of the BBC DVD releases yet.
The story is one of the best and most of Doctor Who's and its setting adds an extra level of mystery around the plot.
With the Doctors Sherlockian deerstalker hat "The Talons" includes many elements of the victorian society and borrows from Jack the Ripper as well as Phantom of the opera, it mixes them well.
The commentary from the director, producer and some of the key actors make the track absorbing. Included is some rough footage of film taking place with directions being given to the actors.
So much extras on top of this wonderfull story as well as the enhanced image and sound make this a must have for all fans of Who.
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| A moving story for the Sixth Doctor |
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| What: | Jubilee (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Barton, The English Empire |
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| Date: | Sunday 25 May 2003 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
There is a lot to enjoy about Jubilee. For me my already over the top appreciation for Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor was raised to a new level. The Sixth Doctor and Evelyn are quite frankly the best thing, no better than sliced bread. Robert Shearman's script is amazing, I've been a bit bored of the same sort of re-use of the Daleks but this story uses them in such an innovative way. It is a very touching story with the bit in Episode 3 were Evelyn tells the Doctor how much he means to her is moving, and I felt sadness for the Doctor and even that Daleks plight. One of Big Finish's greatest yet!
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| Hilarious and Thought-Provoking |
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I found Bucher-Jones first New Adventure, The Death of Art, an incomprehensible mush, but thoroughly enjoyed The Taking of Planet Five despite its mind-stretching nature. Much of the faults of the former had to do with the turgid prose style, something thankfully absent from the latter since (Mark Clapham actually wrote that one according to Bucher-Jones' outline).
Ghost Devices is only the second Bernice New Adventure I've read (the rather disappointing Down being the other), and was pleasantly surprised that this one was far better. It's also nowhere near as convoluted as Bucher-Jones' 7th or 8th Doctor novels, and has a liberal dash of humor to boot.
I think one of the main mistake I made while reading The Death of Art was that I read it too quickly. Bucher-Jones' novels should be read slowly, maybe 40-50 pages a day. That's how I paced myself with Ghost Devices, and the experience was much more rewarding than reading in great big chunks of 150 pages a day (a surefire way to get mental indigestion). His novels are filled not only with complex concepts, but are told using complex sentences. Even his action scenes are filled with fascinating explanations and intricate jokes! It is unwise to skim these difficult passages, since they are what the book is about.
The novel comes across as the product of a more knowledgeable Dave Stone or a slightly less loopy Lawrence Miles -- both are authors I enjoy, but they often go too far in their respective realms of nuttiness. Bucher-Jones gives just enough leeway to his plot threads and concepts to keep them interesting and wild, yet keeps them in control enough so they remain comprehensible. Even the cycle of self-negating temporal paradoxes at the end -- which has the potential for a real befuddlement-disaster -- is presented in a way easy to understand.
I must admit that I'm a real sucker for time paradoxes, so the whole premise of this book I found irresistible -- a massive artifact called the Spire that conveys information from the future, whose transmissions are collected and studied by the sentient lizards who have developed an entire culture around it. It is an impressive premise, and was consistently the focus of the book's attention, nicely enhanced by a lengthy side-trip to the homeworld of the race who built the Spire.
The opening page and a half -- with an senile, old, city-sized Factory complaining about the dirty water and subsequently being nuked by the anti-AI drones -- is some of the funniest and intriguing *Who*-related writing I've read. Although it seemed totally irrelevant for most of the book, it's nicely explained on page 190. However, the rest of the Prologue (featuring suicidal businessman Sul Starren), as well as the scene toward the end with a Watchmaker (a.k.a., a Time Lord) painting a door (?) seem totally unconnected to the rest of the novel. These apparently unrelated scenes are my only complaint about what is otherwise a very interesting, funny, and well-written book. Highly recommended.
I'm not a big fan of Orman. Her New Adventures I found to be both silly and
dull (except maybe the first hundred pages of Set Piece), I avoided Vampire
Science like the plague (I hate vampires), but gobbled up the excellent
Seeing I in a single day. So I usually don't go out of my way to read her
books, but after that one good EDA I decided to give this one a shot.
Unnatural History nicely encapsulates all that is bad about Orman's work --
and I suppose that applies to Blum as well. They're great stylists and the
actual prose reads wonderfully. But the plot is silly -- a victory of style
over substance -- laden with adolescent-level seriousness and inane
angst-ridden philosophizing. All the characters run around like mad
teenagers while trying to decide whether to shag or not (in accordance with
their likewise teenage-level hormones), the Doctor/TARDIS get horribly
tortured and mutilated, and characters from previous Orman books pop up
making the reader stop cold and utter "Huh? Who? What?" Why does she expect
us to remember stupid characters from her previous books?! Ah well, it's not
like we're missing anything. The only one I actually do remember is that
stubborn receptionist from the beginning of Seeing I...
So how fares the plot of Unnatural History? More space- and time-tearing
shenanigans in San Francisco. Ho-hum... I didn't even like this plot the
first time round, in that atrocious TV movie. Remember that? I sure wish I
didn't, and that Orman & Blum would quit reminding us. And they're really
not doing themselves any good by emulating it. The only time paradox story
set in San Francisco I'd ever want a repeat viewing of is Star Trek IV, and
considering my opinions on that particular franchise that's really saying
something.
And for the second time in a row, the TARDIS is nearly destroyed. This sort
of thing is exciting, but only when it *doesn't* happen every other day. It
was a big mistake to put this novel and Dominion right next to each other.
And the brief, out-of-the-blue solution to the hitherto insoluble
dimensional scar problem left me blinking my eyes with little *bink-bink*
noises, like Dee-Dee from *Dexter's Laboratory*.
And there's an incredibly stupid and insulting scene on page 156 where the
Doctor buys a bottle of beer and pours it out onto the ground in memory of a
friend who recently died. Doctor in da hood! "This is for my homies who got
da cap in da head..." I can't believe they actually wrote this scene, and
even more unbelievable is that it made it through the editing stages.
However bad the story and characters may be, there are several really good
jokes. Highlights include the Doctor shouting "Sam, number fifteen!" and
staggering across the alley to provide a distraction (p. 48), Fitz's
thinking about "ley lines" (p. 61), and the Doctor taunting the Faction
Paradox kid (p. 166).
Ah yes. Faction Paradox. I love these guys from Miles' books, but here
they're reduced to a group of trick-or-treaters, or creepy in-bred retards
from the backwoods of West Virginia, right out of a bad Lovecraft story. But
I must say the whole biodata concept was better explained here than in any
of Miles' books, and having strands of it lying around San Francisco was
interesting and nicely used. The temporal duplication machine that runs on
its own Blinovitch cancellation energy was quite clever and I enjoyed that.
And I thought the Doctor's biodata being inconsistent and self-contradictory
was a nice touch, emphasizing that time travellers suffer unusual
side-effects.
This book explains (in part) the whole "Dark Sam" business that was hinted
at in Alien Bodies and carried on in Interference, but it was annoying to
have to wade through this ghastly book just for those bits. And even so,
they weren't very good.
I never cease to be amazed by the obligatory massive acknowledgements
page(s) in these *Who* novels. I counted no fewer than FORTY people
mentioned in this one! I don't even *know* that many people! Much less
people whom I could sucker into helping out with my book... (It's like one
of these effects-laden movies, where the ending credits mention even the tea
lady who came in to substitute for Sally -- who had the flu -- for one
afternoon of filming.) And yet, with all this help and feedback, the book is
still crappy! You'd think one of these people would speak up and say "Ah...
you know, Kate, there are a couple hundred pages here that could use a
little more work..." Apparently not. They're either sycophants or idiots
themselves. What a waste.
Save yourselves the time, money, and effort by reading Cameron Dixon's
synopsis at http://www.drwhoguide.com/whobbc23.htm. The only outstanding
thing about this novel is the really nice cover. But remember: you don't
have to pay money to look at it!
| What: | Reckless Engineering (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | John Ellison, Atlanta, Georgia, USA |
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| Date: | Monday 12 May 2003 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
Its humble beginnings seem to mark the book as mediocre. But then...at some point...it picks up speed and rumbles to a resounding finish that is truly unforgetable.
Walters orchestrates a tale driven by characters. Like several of the previous authors, he manages to *really* find the voices of Anji, Fitz and the Doctor. He drops them into a world of vivid horror (only a twisted mind could create the Wildren) and their reactions form the foundation for the rest of the story.
It is also evident that Walters has done his homework, tossing in tidbits from the novel line continuity. What more could a fan ask for in a book? Well gut wrenching moral dilemma comes to mind and Walters delivers there as well. The slow start prevents my rating it a 10 but even then it will stay with me for a very long time...
A must read!
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| Easily the Worst Novel I've Ever Read |
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I'm one of those people who keeps every single book he ever buys, even the
ones I didn't like. My shelf space is very limited, so many books reside in
boxes, though carefully preserved and taken out now and again to "cycle"
them with ones on the shelf, or reread them. I enjoy almost all of what I
read and seem to have less exacting standards for fiction than most people.
I'm very forgiving of authors for their peculiarities and faults, and
effortlessly enjoy what is despised by the more-critical majority.
It should come as a great surprise to everyone, then, that I absolutely
loathe Damaged Goods. More than loathe -- there are no words to describe how
much revulsion on a mental and spiritual level this novel aroused. It's by
far the worst novel I've ever read, and this is coming from someone who's
read thousands. I read it about five years ago -- it's taken me that long to
cool down enough to write this more level-headed review.
At first this book struck me as ridiculous if nothing else. But around page
100, when it became clear that things were not beginning to brighten, it
passed the RIDICULOUS point and became MONOTONOUS. By page 150 it had
reached the THIS AUTHOR IS OBVIOUSLY DEEPLY DISTURBED point. By page 200 I
was literally gagging and sick at heart.
What, you may ask, provoked this response? Page after page after page of
carefully and lovingly described death and devastation, torment and rage,
mutilation and horror, pain and suffering, perversion and manipulation -- on
and on and on and on and on. Nothing else. All the characters were the
lowest, basest dregs of humanity, doing the worst imaginable things to each
other and to themselves. No love, no hope, no joy -- only suffering and
death.
I love gratuitous violence as much as the next man, but honestly! This
(so-called) novel is nothing *but* gratuitous violence. For instance there
is one scene where a woman murders her husband in an excessively grisly
fashion, for no better reason than the dead infant inside her womb "told her
to." That's what I *think* happened, anyway; Davies didn't seem too keen to
let the readers know what was going on, beyond drenching us in blood. If
you're going to have your characters run amuck, at least provide a credible
explanation.
Presenting violence and its consequences realistically is one thing, but
this is wallowing in it, loving it, and holding it up as a wonderful
experience. Never before have I encountered such an attitude taken to the
extremes presented here. No matter what his stated rationale may be, the
author (I hate to say it) is apparently a very sick individual, who adores
and glorifies blood and pain, wrapping himself up in a warm blanket of hate
and death. Absolutely sickening.
This book is also unoriginal and dull, arising, no doubt, from the
repetition of the above-mentioned mayhem. And the few variations of
horrifying death presented are nothing new: there are all sorts of automated
killer machines from ancient Gallifrey (yawn) rearing their ugly
cross-dimensional heads by erupting from the bodies of various cocaine
addicts (gag, yawn) taking possession of people to function as operators
(yawn) and devastating much of London after the joining between mad-woman
and machine exponentially increases the savagery of each (yawn). All of this
happens without anyone noticing, apparently. Thousands die, and yet somehow
by the end of the book it's all fobbed off as "well, just a typical day in
the shadier districts of London." It makes UNIT's emergency evacuation of
London in Invasion of the Dinosaurs seem believable by comparison.
I was determined to finish reading this novel, and I did. I then promptly
tore it in half, then into tiny bits, and threw it into the garbage where it
obviously originated. This is the only novel I have ever intentionally
mistreated, damaged, or thrown away, and it deserved it. Ptui.
Is anyone sick of Sabbath yet? I am beginning to wonder if we will ever get a break from him. Don't get me wrong, he's a good character, reminiscent of the Master himself, but he is getting old and tired. Give the Doctor some new enemies or maybe bring someone along who is part of his past that can help him with his amnesia.
As far as the story of the book, it was pretty slow at first and didn't really pick up until around page 200. It wasn't as action packed as the books have been lately and it left me rushing through the book to just get it over with.
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| The First 'Missing Adventure' Book? |
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A book, notorious for its poor bindings but also for having the best Dr Who cover artwork (and also excellent artwork throughout, although the Tardis does look like a Blue Peter shoebox job!)
The Doctor had been travelling on his own here, (And implies that he has been on his own for sometime), until just before the book starts. He had materialised in the Great Fire of London and picked up a family of fleeing 'peasants', the Mortimers who think he is the devil or a Magician in his magic box. The Doctor finds them annoying and spends a fair amount of time putting them down! (Though he is ashamed of this a couple of times.)
The Doctor says that he will probably be able to pop them back in England, but at which time he knows not. However he loses control of the Tardis and ends up on an artificial planet with a good view of the Great Spiral Nebula in the Andromeda constellation. They are met by the Aalan race who are, not surprisingly, an Aryan type people who want to take over the Milky Way galaxy! Their leader calls himself 'The One' and is both mentally and technologically more advanced than the Doctor. The One hasn't seen 'Man' for quite some time (100,000,000 years ish) and is quite interested in the Doctor and the Mortimors for information on the Milky Way galaxy.
A 40 page illustrated text story which is actually quite a good read, although, the author, does seem to, get a little, carried away with commas!
"They were all taking it very well, Dr Who decided, considering where they had come from and the way in which they had trapped themselves into what must be, to their simple minds, the most fantastic nightmare that ever the mind of a man had suffered." Was the opening sentence.
William Hartnell is definitely the Doctor in this story with his occasionally grumpy mannerisms but the Mortimers don't get fleshed out too much.
Definitely worth looking through and reading if you get the chance.
| What: | The English Way of Death (Missing Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Yumchan, Doncaster, England |
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| Date: | Thursday 24 April 2003 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
I read this straight after reading The Romance Of Crime which I had really enjoyed.
It begins with a good prologue, but then I felt that the first 'episode' seemed to drop off a little. Luckely though the book picked up after this, but not to the same level as The Romance Of Crime. The Doctor in this book doesn't seem quite as Tom Bakery as in R.of C. and the plot isn't as focused. However I found Romana to be exceptionally well portrayed here.
This is still another good book from Gareth Roberts with plenty of nice humourous touches along the way and well worth reading.
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| Nocturnal Habits Of The Ogrons. |
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| What: | The Romance of Crime (Missing Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Yumchan, Doncaster, England |
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| Date: | Thursday 24 April 2003 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
A book with Ogrons on the cover would probably not usually be my first choice for good read. But Gareth Roberts has taken a very dull and uninspiring old foe and turned them into a very interesting and occasionally comical race here!
Tom Baker IS the Doctor in this book and you can imagine him saying all his lines with ease. All the other characters come to life on the page too.
A superb first Missing Adventure for Mr Roberts, well worth searching out on ebay.
| What: | The Gallifrey Chronicles (Miscellaneous factual books) |
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| By: | Kevin Cherry, Maryland, USA |
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| Date: | Tuesday 22 April 2003 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
I give this book 10 out of 10 stars. Every new Who fan needs this book, as well as us old fogies. John has written an excellent book, with lots of great info. Go out and buy this book today, you won't regret it.
| What: | Lungbarrow (New Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Yumchan, Doncaster, England |
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| Date: | Tuesday 22 April 2003 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
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