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| What: | The Celestial Toymaker (Target novelisations) |
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| By: | michael, Hamilton |
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| Date: | Wednesday 27 November 2002 |
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| Rating: |   2 |
Growing up as a Doctor who fan I often use to hear what a wonderfull atmosphere this story had indeed it is deemed as an alltime classic. I eagerly waited to get a copy of the book and when I did I was dissapointed It just seems to be word for word from the tv series. did Gery davis have any input at all? It seems to me that it is rather dull and boring.
1st Eighth Doctor novel I've read. I'm uncertain to what degree I provide the characterisation but McGann's features, voice and movements came to me, as did the returning villains'. The organisation of the book was enormously satisfying, the technology imaginative and the individuals diverse and well contrasted. There are biographies for each of the principals - brisk short relevant stories - in chapters between the main ones which never interrupt the narrative; on the contrary they give it clarity. The opening pages have a quiet yearning to them. The writing for much of the book after this is severe. Even grotesque difficulties are reported in a sometimes distant / comic tone. However, just as I wished for a little more common humanity, the book rewarded me with some very tender and refreshing passages. There are probably half a dozen different elements, figures or incidents in the book which will reappear or have repercussions in future novels. I came to "Alien Bodies" fearing it might be too clever or iconoclastic for me from what I'd heard. I found a very bright and diverting wit to the invention; subtle integration of the different threads; very little of the horror elements I've found in PDAs; passages of laugh aloud comedy; sci-fi with Douglas Adams' invention, Wells' solidity and le Guin's compassion. Yet somehow 100% authentic, vigorous, stretching Doctor Who - Robert Holmes' & Malcolm Hulke's true heirs, surely? I thought it was a beautiful book in every respect, a credit to the author and the series which inspired him.
In short - 1st PDA I've read. Excellent prose, intriguing structure, accurate characterisations ofthe Doctor and Romana. Read it in 2 evenings. Good intro to the range. Recognisable, mainstream DW.
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 | Imaginative and well drawn images |
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If there is one thing I remember the most about this annual it is the cover,front and back!! Great images but though we have scans of the front I can find no scans anywhere of the back, this had cybermen taking helmets off showing brain, please someone scan and send,my copy was THROWN OUT by a certain parent when she felt it was " old and tatty" I have never forgiven her.
| What: | The Romans (Target novelisations) |
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| By: | Michael Grey, New Zealand |
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| Date: | Wednesday 13 November 2002 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
Another bad novelisation from Donald Cotton. The fact that he uses letters to convey the story is awful and does not do the actual story credit at all. It would of been better had Donald Cotton not novalised any Doctor who's Then we would of actually got a better book.
| What: | The Gunfighters (Target novelisations) |
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| By: | michael, New Zealand |
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| Date: | Wednesday 13 November 2002 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
I got this novel a while back but I found it very hard to swallow. I guess westerns are not me, but i Also found Donald cottons writing style in theird person very anoying. Overall very dissapointing.
| What: | The War Games (BBC classic series videos) |
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| By: | Wayne Fox, Whitehaven, England |
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| Date: | Sunday 10 November 2002 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
The War Games was purely a great end to Patrick Troughton's great, but rare era. The 10 eposides to end it, was a great idea by the BBC.
A good read for Dr. Who fans. This was one of my first in the MISSING ADEVENTURE series, that I read. Each Doctor has their own likeable qualities. The first Doctor is always telling Chesterton to not do this or that. This story has it all. I recommend it.
| What: | Goth Opera (Missing Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Peteley, London, England |
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| Date: | Thursday 24 October 2002 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
The first and still the best, The Doc and Tegan in particular and brilliantly portrayed it was hard to realise it was only a book as the characters jumped out of the page, Nyssa's torment was very believable. This book is good for everyone, old hands who like references to old stories (state of decay), new adventues (Blood Harvest) and new stories as you needed no knowledge of these as it stands very well alone. Well recomended the best still to date and a must read for all 5th Doc or Tegan fans. Excellent
| What: | Warmonger (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Peteley, London, England |
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| Date: | Thursday 24 October 2002 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
I have to admit it took me a while to get into the book but glad i did. The problem was at first i though it was very unlike the 5th Doc, but that is wrong it is a very good 5th Doc book but atypical type of story for hes era. I enjoy sequals or thous that bring back compaions or Villans, the problem is new Dr Who fans can find them a problem. This book is good for both it builds as a prequil to Brain of Morbius but stands very well on uts own,Another good Dicks book from one of the best Who writters
| What: | Zeta Major (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Peteley, London, England |
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| Date: | Thursday 24 October 2002 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
This is an underated book all the main Characters are well written, with Tegan getting a strong indepenant role and Nyssa'a torment great (thought sad) to read. The villians were sinister but not one dimensional monsters that had one aim to life (i.e. distroy/kill) and were believable people instead of automations. Well recomended
| What: | The Robots of Death (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | D84, Canton, USA |
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| Date: | Wednesday 23 October 2002 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
I wish I was a robot
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| Missing: A number of historical facts! |
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Easy to read, amusingly told, with many witty turns of phrase. The Doctor and friends have little depth, of course, as a consequence of the story being told via journalist Ned, and in a Doctor Who book this is perhaps not good! This novel inspired me to look into the real Clantons a little, and while cattle rustling is somewhat reprehensible I can't believe they were quite as black as Cotton and others have painted them. Mind you, facts in 'The Gunfighters' are somewhat thin on the ground anyway: Pa Clanton died in August 1881, two months before his appearance in this story; Phin was not present at the real gunfight; Johnny Ringo actually committed suicide!
Still, Cotton does put across the popular ideas regarding the shootout, perhaps more romantic than the real thing, the reasons for which are, I gather, still somewhat hazy. A final word regarding our three travellers: two would have been better. If Anne Chaplette did survive the Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, she has a lot to answer for!
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| Why Dodo and why the alien? |
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I quite enjoyed this book and found nothing to complain of as regards the writing style. The explanation re the alien was clever and well thought out, and I liked the idea of Steven wielding the pen, as it were, for parts of the story. The historical background seemed well-researched and provided an excellent backdrop for the tale. From a purely personal point of view, I would have preferred a straight historical tale with no alien, but then I have never greatly cared for the 'monsters invade history' idea anyway. I wish the Doctor had shown more concern than he actually did over Mykola being tortured, or even made some attempt to save him - did I miss it or were we never told Mykola's eventual fate? I assume he died from the torture. As always, I found Dodo irritating: Steven and the Doctor by themselves would have been preferable. Why is the gap between the 'Dalek Masterplan' and 'The Massacre' never utilised by authors of these 'untold adventure' type novels? Oh, and Steven, as ever, was again denied any extra background, even in his narrating role. Overall, however, a worthwhile read.
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| A page turner from start to finish... |
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| What: | Time Zero (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | John Ellison, Atlanta, Georgia, USA |
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| Date: | Saturday 19 October 2002 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Richards has crafted one of the three best novels in the 8th Doctor line in my opinion. Tightly woven, pulse pounding, and a thrill a minute! Everything I could ask for from a Who adventure.
His characterizations of Fitz and Anji continue the recent trend of making them seem like real people rather than plot points or cardboard stand ups. Combined with a plot that promises to keep on giving...just go read it for yourself and see!
Awesome!
| What: | Mad Dogs & Englishmen (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Cam Cobb, Canada |
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| Date: | Saturday 12 October 2002 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
EQUATION: Paul Magrs to the exponent Tom Stoppart = A jolly romp!
UPSHOT: The Doctor, Fitz, Anji, and a cook visit various times in the 20th Century to counter a bunch of history-changing poodles.
THE GOOD: The laughs (the spacestation filmwatching scene is an absolute hoot!), Magrs' prose ... and we have a collection of timetravelling Noel Cowards!
THE BAD: The conclusion could have been tighter.
THE UGLY: Something is revealed about Freer on page 214 ... YUCK!
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| Why is Steven constantly overlooked? |
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This is a quite well-written book, faithfully sticking to the television story, and I found it fairly enjoyable, such as it is. I'll say at once, and this is of course no reflection at all on the author, who had no hand in choosing the basis for this story, that I have no great liking for historical stories injected with science fiction elements: these two story types are best done individually, in my opinion. I'm sure there must be enough interesting characters and events attached to 1066 or thereabouts with which to create an excellent pure historical, and especially a Hartnell historical. The character of the Monk, skilfully conveyed by the author, touches on another of my pet aversions: the Time Lords, as they were later designated. Hartnell's Doctor, the mysterious wanderer, the onlooker and observer, was by far the best interpretation of the character, with his beloved TARDIS and unquenchable thirst for knowledge. The introduction of the Monk, skilfully played on television by the late Peter Butterworth, somehow lessens the Doctor - the mischievous fellow would have come across far better as an actual clergyman of the eleventh century, either crooked or straight as the story required. The Monk's TARDIS I found an even more ghastly innovation: it marked the beginning of time and space travel being designated within the series as rather more commonplace, less the exclusive province of our hero, and less of the wonder it was in the eyes of the early companions. In the context of the latter I come to a criticism of the book itself (yes, I have digressed, I know): why did the author, in common with those producing the TV series at the time, fail to provide more background for Steven, the new time traveller? The novel was the ideal opportunity, even if only via a couple of paragraphs, to redress the balance regarding this constantly overlooked character, but all we get is his usual classification as a replacement, and less satisfactory, Ian Chesterton: the change of male companion is over, as it were, let's try and forget it's happened by hurrying on with the story. Steven, as a twenty-fifth century astronaut, had a potentially far more interesting background than a 1960's teacher. Sadly, the scriptwriters at the time, this author, and others since have failed to recognise this and have consistently deprived Steven Taylor of the depth of character I feel he could have had. Much appreciated, however, was the author's attempt at the beginning of this book to recap relevant events from the close of the previous story, which at least expanded Steven's introduction to some extent!
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| Amusing, but we were still cheated! |
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| What: | The Romans (Target novelisations) |
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| By: | Michael Baxter, Coalville, Leicestershire, UK |
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| Date: | Thursday 10 October 2002 |
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| Rating: | 5 |
Yes, I read this, and laughed, and enjoyed it, but it wasn't Doctor Who as I know and love it. I have a particular fondness for William Hartnell's Doctor, and for his historical adventures. I know the original scripts for this story were slanted towards humour, but this was not to the extent generally believed, and was no excuse to toss most of Dennis Spooner's material out of the window and plunge head-first into send-up. As a result, we lost some good moments and, it must be said, the very coherency of the tale. I almost wished Terrance Dicks had written it instead: there wouldn't have been much expansion on the television serial, but at least we'd now have a book of the story as it actually was. I think it was a mistake to let Donald Cotton loose on this. He novelised his own two stories very well, and I liked them, but it was rather reprehensible of him to devise the ludicrous business of the letters for 'The Romans', and make admittedly amusing nonsense of someone else's story, yet novelise his own far more straighforwardly, if equally tongue-in-cheek. Now, I suppose, we'll never have a proper novelisation of this adventure, which has to be a shame. There should have been more control exercised over the writers! Send-ups, however side-splitting, were not really what readers wanted - and I'm unanimous in that!
| What: | The Dark Path (Missing Adventures novels) |
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| By: | , Quebec City, Canada |
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| Date: | Tuesday 8 October 2002 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
"The Dark Path" offers an interresting glimpse in the Master's past. His former relationship with the Doctor, for example, is much more developped than in the TV stories and what is even more fascinating is the fact that, prior to this adventure, the Master (hmm...Koschei, actually)seemed to have lead the same existence as the Doctor: travelling through space and time with his TARDIS and a female companion (though no screamer she.)Most of the plot seems to thread on Third Doctor territory ca. "Frontier in Space": The Earth Empire, the Federation, the Draconians, the Master (of course)with more than just a sprinkle of Star Trek (The Federation, the starship "Piri Reis" and its multiracial crew.)It is surprising, and somehow refreshing, that McIntee choose to feature The Second Doctor in this story. Since it takes place before "Fury from the Deep" with references to "Evil of the Daleks", the author also takes time to examine Victoria's psychology a little bit and her the reasons behind her eventual parting with the Doctor and Jamie.
Psychology with a sense of the grand scale makes this novel highly entertaining throughout.
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| Tight plot, good soundtrack |
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| What: | The Macra Terror (TV episode audio soundtracks) |
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| By: | Cam Cobb, Canada |
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| Date: | Monday 7 October 2002 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
THE GOOD: Tight plot, good soundtrack, and well-played by the cast all around. Colin Baker does a good job with the linking bits.
THE BAD: Being audio, we don't actually get to see those nasty lobster-shaped Macra creatures ... but then again I heard the costumes didn't work anyway.
THE UGLY: Beware of Ben!
