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 | Well written and fun to read. |
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| What: | The Bodysnatchers (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Emma Bowman, Sydney, Australia |
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| Date: | Saturday 19 November 2011 |
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| Rating: |  10 |
I really enjoyed this book, I thought it was very well written. It inspired me to go and watch the original Fourth Doctor tv episode where Professor Litefoot first appeared, and I thought Morris did a good job of bringing this character to life in this novel. I enjoyed how he represented the Doctor and Sam, and the storyline was engaging and fast paced. Unlike so many EDA books, I didn't get bored at any point throughout. Definitely a good novel that I will enjoy reading again. Highly recommended!
A fascinating insight into the man best known for his creation of the Daleks but did so much more. Blake's 7, Survivors, The Saint, The Avengers.
A clever, hard working man who had such a fascinating imagination and enriched British TV in the 60's, 70's & 80's.
| What: | The Prison in Space (Miscellaneous script books) |
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| By: | Trevor Smith, Nottingham, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Friday 18 November 2011 |
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| Rating: |  9 |
From those wonderful people Nothing At The End Of The Lane a script for a story that came perilously close to being made. Thank goodness it didn't.
This story is really of it's time. You expect Sid James or Kenneth Williams to pop up in this sexiest 60's adventure for The Doctor, Jamie & Zoe.
None the less despite the story's short comings this a fascinating insight into how Who was made in the 60's and is full of really interesting bonus material. Recommended.
| What: | Colony in Space (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Friday 18 November 2011 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
From a strong season of Doctor Who, with Terror of The Autons and The Daemons and The brilliant Mind of Evil, it might be very hard for the other tales to come close to those excellent stories. But Colony In Space is highly entertaining and brilliantly done.
My own quibble with this story is why the Primitive ruler didnt just destroy the doomsday weapon himself if it had brought so much trouble and death to his world. But maybe he wouldnt kill all his people who were still inside the weapon and worshipping it and sacrificing to it, I dont know, but it is a little bit of a plot hole, but doesnt have nowhere near as many as many new series episodes thats for sure.
But in all other respects, this story is engaging. And the theme of battling between the colonists and the ugly pig headed and psychotic miners is done almost to perfection, in Ashe we have a highly sympathetic leader figure for the colonists, and its marvellously offset by the thug Dent, Captain of the IMC spaceship. And then we have the henchman Morgan, whose a right little piece of rubbish. And Bernard Kay again impresses with a likeable role as a miner who isnt one of Dents killers.
But my favourite character has to be Helen Worth as Mary Ashe. Shes very young here, but she's really flipping good. Shes one of those apparently feeble looking Girl characters, but actually has quite a heart in her when needs be.
Roger Delgado as well puts in his usual brilliant performance as the Master, and steals all the scenes hes in. His act of trying to persuade the Doctor to join him in his scheme is an excellent scene, full of tension and revelation all at the same time. And the two actors just work so brilliantly together.
Katy Manning gets her first trip into space, to a grubby looking quarry again but whats wrong with that when those kinds of places resemble an alien clime at any rate? And this one is particularly barren and awash with mud, as two of the cast in particular find out in their rather wet and disgusting scrap!
I like Doctor Who in the Jon Pertwee time, it has a lot to say on many different subjects, it had a high moral fibre that was greatly riddled throughout many of the stories, Barry Letts said he never wanted the stories to be about nothing, and they never were. (Although a few were less tinged by the notion than others) This story tackles human rights to land and food, a very sore subject on this planet in many areas indeed, and the script addresses these elements very well indeed.
In all, this is yet another fine script from Malcolm Hulke, full of his trademark good and interesting characters, with the one single niggle that keeps it from being a ten out of ten effort. But as this was also Michael Briant's first directors outting, its rather splendidly done all in all. A great slice of Doctor Who.
| What: | Series 6: Part 2 (BBC new series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Friday 18 November 2011 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
The first half of the season ended with the lamentably woeful A Good Man Goes To War, which was following in the now usual vein of a Doctor Who with a plot so complicated as to be unfathomable. But just for once, which was a surprise, part two of the series is far better than the first, there are still a few stupid moments but overall this is starting to get there at long last, and goodness knows its taken long enough.
Let's Kill Hitler appears with freshness and maybe not a mind blowing plot, but at least its a three times better episode than the one that came before, although my main gripe here is just what was the use of having such a historically infamous character in a story if all he's gonna do is act dumb and be locked in a cupboard for petes sake? I found that very very stupid in the extreme. However, the other elements of the episode are far stronger, such as the Anti bodies and those shape shifting robot things. ALthough I have to say I find Matt Smith excellent here, his acting lights the story up no end, and its good to see a Doctor beginning to have fun again, and then such a gripping last few moments.
Night Terrors returns to the better form of the likes of Boom Town, The Girl In The Fireplace and The Stolen Earth, in being brilliant for once. Those wooden dolls truly are absolutely creepsville. And to have a little kid turn out to be an alien for once is a good little plot string. And the transformations of characters into dolls is pretty yuck and disturbing actually, well done for once. Mark Gatiss returns to form here definitely, and this episode is one of the best of the series. Its frightening and bold, and directed well.
The Girl Who Waited is a highly original and different kind of story, and makes me like Karen Gillan a whole lot more. The only slight niggle i have here is for the unneeded and unwanted return of the oh its the doctor's fault all over again, really that vein has been done to death beyond any reasonable doubt. But the rest of the story, with the two Amys is highly engaging and Karen shines very bright indeed. Pity though that Matt Smith is banished to the TARDIS for nearly the whole lot of the story, but this is a good episode for highlighting the strength of Karen and her character, very good indeed in that respect. And I just love Arthur Darvill still, that comic yet amiable chap.
The God Complex in my book is very strong, and for once has a good and unpredictable twist towards the conclusion. And the Minotaur looks brilliant, although the Gorilla less so Im afraid, about the worse one Ive ever seen used in a TV programme. But thats the only niggle in this story, who impresses the most here is David Walliams, perfectly placed in the role of that ratty mousy thing. And the ending here to this episode is unexpected and sad all at the same time, this story can be likened to the classic series, for its mentioning of the Nimon is great for this classic series fan!
Closing Time is the comic gem of the series, although once again its slightly marred by the woeful underuse of the Cybermen themselves. I hate these new cyber stories for that factor, the BBC seem to think no one wants to see the Cybermen hardly ever at all. And I dont get that at all. The Cybermen need to be given more. But the Cybermet is riddling cool I can tell you! What great teeth, whilst in keeping strongly with original Tomb of The Cybermen design. And its a real nice touch to see Lynda Baron back again, in a comic and light relief role. But Craig and The Doc are the best here, and the baby scenes are funny and light hearted against the harder moments of this series. Not too bad a story at all, just wish there'd be more cybermen in it. When will the BBC get it?!
For once the series finale is understandable, and in fact is very good indeed this time. What with the return of the Silence and Madam Kavorian, who is as ever rather a mysterious and unexplained character still even now. And for once the timey wimey stuff isnt overdone, and its explained well all along for once. And the Doctor's escape is brilliantly done, although for once I did guess what he would have done to escape the moment of death. But sometimes a little predictability is good. The final scene of addressing at very long long last the question of the whole series Doctor Who? does actually whet the appetite for what is to come in the next season of Doctor Who. But what Id like is a multi doctor celebration story. Thats what Im hoping for. But for once this season end isnt bad at all.
| What: | Seeing I (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Emma Bowman, Sydney, Australia |
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| Date: | Thursday 17 November 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
I think I can safely say that this is my favourite Eighth Doctor novel to date, and I am so surprised that it didn't have at least an 8 on the rating scale. The storyline really resonated with me, and I found the quality of the writing to be quite excellent. Sam is one of my favourite companions, and she did a lot of growing in this storyline, which was very satisfying to see. Blum and Orman write well for the Doctor and Sam, and unlike so many other EDA authors, they really get their "voices" right, which goes a long way towards validating the plot. It is an advantage to have read "Dreamstone Moon" first before starting on "Seeing I", just to help with the story arc continuity. I highly and enthusiastically recommend this book!
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| Simple plots done very well. |
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You need to go into this book with an open mind, and realise this is aimed at younger reader. If you can get passed that then both these stories are actually pretty good. I probably enjoyed Death riders more than Heart of Stone.
The departure of Elizabeth Sladen from this world has been very very sad. She was a terrific actress, and was probably at her all time high in The Sarah Jane Adventures. The first three series were excellent, but this fourth is the best of the whole complete seasons by far in my book. The stories here are quite a bit more adult I think, and some of the storylines are new and original.
One of the highlights has to be the return of the awesome Katy Manning as Jo Grant, and the flashbacks to the past Doctors always makes a smile come to this Whovians face. And Katy gets some decent stuff to do, and the Shansheeth are pretty good and a different kind of alien for the world of Who and Sarah Jane, as theyre not totally psychotic for once. I love the final scene where Sarah talks about others who she thinks have met the Doctor at one time or another, and thats nice too.
Other stand outs are the brilliant Lost In Time, my favourite two parter of the whole four and a bit seasons of this terrific series. Whoever would have thought Nazis would make it into a kids show eh? but the story is excellent, and the three seperate plot threads come together very very well indeed here. And theres the added mystery of who the man with the parrot is and now it will probably not be answered due to the fact that no more Sarah Janes are being made, due to the sad loss of Liz.
The Empty Planet is another of the real stand out ones, being very very eerie and a good platform for those brilliant Rani and Clyde characters to show what they can really do once again in a story basically nearly all to themselves, and the plot is great afore the robots arent there just to destroy again, but are seeking a person who is on Earth. A very smart tale indeed this one.
The series has a brilliant beginning too, and is a great chiller of a story. The Nigtmare Man would surely have been a returning villain had Liz have lived longer. It is truly sad that there will be no more of these brilliant adventures that are better than The New Doctor Who series by far overall. Ive loved this more than most of the Doctor Who tales of the last two seasons.
| What: | The Lost Stories: The Elite (The Lost Stories audio dramas) |
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| By: | Alan Reilly, glasgow, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Saturday 5 November 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Shame this never made it into the fifth doctor's actual tv seasons , really good plot and a shock return of an old foe and tegans first time to meet it in audio , real good story and well worth a listen
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| Classic 70s Who action with some monster |
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Devil goblins is like a B movie, with a dash of James Bonds. Sticking to the typical 3rd Doctor plot but with some welcome character development for the UNIT team. Whilst nothing challenging about the goblins the real monster again is man. At times moments of action felt rushed or simply skipped possibly due to the shear amount of it.
All in all it's a great light read.
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| Absolutely brilliant read! |
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| What: | The Shadow in the Glass (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Emma Bowman, Sydney, Australia |
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| Date: | Thursday 20 October 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
I was skeptical upon starting this book because I am not a huge fan of the Sixth Doctor, but I shouldn't have let my prejudice skew my expectations of this book. This book is now one of my favourite other Doctor novels.
Justin Richards and Stephen Cole write incredibly well together, and not only was I impressed with the excellent quality of the plot development and the speed of the the plot progression, but also the amount of research that the authors had clearly undertaken to do justice to the era and subject matter. They did a marvelous job of designing an intriguing and exciting story around one of the humanity's most evil men, and it is a fantastic ride from start to finish.
What's more, I read this book in mid 2009, and just a couple of months later the news picked up the story that the skull that had originally thought to have been that of Adolf Hitler's had now been identified as a female skull instead, thus casting doubt on the previously accepted circumstances surrounding the death of Hitler. Although a complete coincidence, the timing was astounding and I couldn't help but think of the ending of "The Shadow in the Glass" and wonder. Richards and Cole probably never dreamed that their piece of DW fiction might be closer to the truth than anyone could have guessed at the time of publication.
I do truly recommend this book to all Whovians.
| What: | The Way Through the Woods (BBC New Series Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Adam Regula, Horseheads, NY, United States |
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| Date: | Thursday 20 October 2011 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
I really liked this one the best out of this set of 3 books. More of the Timey -Wimey Stuff than some of the other books in the 11th doctor series so far.
Very cool central characters as well.
Great Read!
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| What's all the fuss about? |
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| What: | Alien Bodies (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Emma Bowman, Sydney, Australia |
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| Date: | Thursday 20 October 2011 |
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| Rating: | 2 |
I had really been looking forward to reading this book, as it had received so many good reviews from other EDA fans, and I had read some of Lawrence Miles's other stories and found them to be of a reasonably high quality.
However, before I had even finished the first two chapters I was beginning to have doubts. The plot seemed confusing and poorly defined, and the villain characters were distasteful - but not in the way villains were supposed to be. And the concept as I understood it at that early stage seemed somewhat ludicrous.
Patience, I told myself. Some stories just need a little more time to get fully established, to iron out the wrinkles, and to explain the confusing bits. So I kept reading, waiting and hoping that with a bit more time the storyline would snap sharply into focus and I would find myself fully enjoying and understanding the plot.
That just didn't happen.
The deeper into the book I ventured, the more confusing it became. The plot just smacked of the author over-trying to design a wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey storyline that would intrigue the reader, but failed to develop into a legible and coherent story. I disliked the new characters and also Miles's representation of the Doctor and Sam. Entire chapters seemed completely irrelevant to the progression of the story and only served to further confuse the already jumbled plot.
Personally I am astounded that this book received a rating anything above a four. I'm not even giving it that. A dissatisfying and overrated EDA novel.
| What: | The Taking of Planet 5 (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Joseph Kemp, Killem, Canada |
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| Date: | Tuesday 18 October 2011 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
What a tasteless jumble. I don't even know what was happening here. Too much information, all the time. No suspense.
Weird. But not entertaining.
No atmosphere. No pacing. Too many references that hold no weight. Unless you've read A LOT of H. P. Lovecraft, none of them make any sense.
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| This was worth EVERY cent I paid for it. |
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| What: | The Power of the Daleks (TV episode audio soundtracks) |
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| By: | C G Harwood, Dunedin, NZ, New Zealand |
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| Date: | Sunday 9 October 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
I cant really add much more to this review, as the three reviews before me said everything I felt about this absolutely wonderful piece of Dr Who. This is how the Daleks should be remembered - cold, calculating, and devious. I loved the way they played with the minds of the colonists. And with Anneke Wills describing what was happening helped me enjoy this very much.
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| At last! A full length novel! |
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| What: | The Power of the Daleks (Target novelisations) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Tuesday 4 October 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
When I first read the novelisation of The Power of The Daleks I was really well and truly hooked by the fact that here at last was a decent, more in depth novelisation at last, goodness knows what took the Target guys so long to realise that full decent sized books cant be all bad. Just from the fantastic illustration on the cover by stalwart ALister Pearson, I knew this tale was going to be great to say the least! And boy, was I right.
I love the opening rememberances of the Tenth Planet, they help set up the regeneration of the Doctor to a tee. The particular descriptions of the time lords pain is very well written, and makes you feel really sorry for the time lord. And of course, John Peel perfectly captures Pat Troughton's new Doctor brilliantly. I particularly like the final scene where Ben finally admit that the Doctor is the Doctor and not some wierd interloper, this is a great little added scene that rounds off the novel well indeed.
This has a staple kind of Who plot, where the Doctor tries to warn idiots of what they are dealing with, and is ignored and then the whole colony pays the consequence. one of the most memorable aspects of David Whitakers script of this story was the far deeper depth given to the Daleks at last, set as whispering schemers rather than just plain exterminators. The Doctor knows of this cunning of course, and his lamenting at the blindness of the colony is really portrayed well here in this book. But it is really really well done as Ive said, and the characters all possess a lot of depth that is capitalised within the novel, everyone has a back story and the dalek action is brilliant written by John. Aside from Evil of The Daleks, this is definitely the best Target novel of the lot. Its a great and gripping read from start to finish.
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| Very strong read actually... |
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As per usual, one has to put up with the severely limited page count in this story, but for once this story lacks nothing much at all from its screen counterpart, a clear credit to Stephen Wyatt's writing style.
I love the TV version, it is one of my all time favourite slices of Doctor Who. It is a story with a high amount of humour but also some very disturbing horror thrown in to upset the brew somewhat. It boasts all the staples for a brilliant show: creepy clowns, especially the unsettling Chief Clown, and the obnoxious and pious Captain Cook, played to perfection by TP McKenna in the TV version. Stephen's written Captain is very much the same as his TV counterpart, which is excellent. The character is one of those usual brilliant Doctor Who nasties..
I love the character of Mags, and her treatment by the Captain is disgusting and yet not unbelievable, its a male chauvinistic idiotic who has control of an apparaently weaker female alien from the planet Vulpana. In the book of course her transformation is going to be very hard to live up to the viewable screen, but actually Stephen does it again here, and I could see that frankly brilliant make up in the cliffhanger to part three all over again.
The other characters here too are well written and match up almost seamlessly to their TV personas, which as Ive said is not bad in such a short novel. And the story itself is eerie and something just a little different for a change, this story was the highlight of its TV season and it is a well written, ripely characeterised novel too. Well done Stephen, I cant wait til I get Paradise Towers, Im hoping that is of the same quality as this novel is. One of the best of the Target range so far.
| What: | Silver Nemesis (Target novelisations) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Wednesday 28 September 2011 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
A perfectionist who loves the TV shows so much should always remember the Target writers all had a certain page count limit. For that case, a huge amount of Who tales have drastic cuts and barely any description that borders on the verge of a true full length novel. Often the novels just fall so short of being as good or better than the TV version that they are based on.
Silver Nemesis is on middle ground. While Im greatly pleased that Kevin's novel includes a lot of the untransmitted scenes in his novel, Im also at loss to explain how my favourite line in the TV version gets cut from the book entirely. "Dont thank them yet, you might live to regret it" along with Sylvester's grave look is one of my favourite scenes in the entire history of Doctor Who. Also, the scene of Lady Peinforte's amalgamation with the statue of Nemesis is described barely and far too briefly. But for once, these are the two only major shortfalls of this story.
We get a few tantalisingly short flashbacks to Aces past in Perivale which seem inherent in the seventh doctor novels, such as Ghost Light and The Curse of Fenric, which are brilliant. Its nice to get at least a snippet of a background story for one or any of the characters. And the scene in the TV version where she fights the Cybermen is greatly expanded here, as she runs from several houses, barely escaping a nasty death by the Cybermen. The descriptions here are of a far more worthy amount, and add real meat to the climax of the tale.
My only other sadness would be the removal of the "Ace, duck, no DUCK!" scene too. Huh? That was a simply great scene that should have been kept in the novel, but its cut again. Also, maybe the descriptions of the cyber speech may just be too emotionally written for me, could have got away with just the Creature intoned emotionlessly, not all the emotional words we are given here. But maybe this is a race of Cybermen who all werent processed fully eh?!
But otherwise, this is a strong little novel, I particularly the way Richard is written, as a central and weak servant, but capable of moments of sheer bravery and force that are palpable even in written form. So not at all bad, this book. It just suffers the same as many other target books in being too rediculously short! Only Power and Evil of the Daleks escaped this and are the finest books in the genre. But considering the restraints, overall Kevin has done a sterling job here. This is one of the better Doctor Who novelisations, there is no doubt of that.
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| Good start turning to utter drivel |
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| What: | The Taking of Planet 5 (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Clive T Wright, St Lawrence, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Sunday 25 September 2011 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
Starting off as a strange but enjoyable plot which weaves the strangeness of love craft into a complex story. But this strangeness quickly just feels like rambling madness the huge plot recreating a new universe,world which seems to turn everything on it's head but feels unbelievable.
After a while so many super human creatures with tentacles who can't die just leaves you with a sense of total confusion, as the Dr and his companions seem to escape death at the hands of these impossible beings far too often.
The worst 8th Dr book I've ever read.
| What: | Tales from the Vault (The Companion Chronicles audiobooks) |
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| By: | Clive T Wright, St Lawrence, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Saturday 24 September 2011 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
What do you do with all the left Overs and cast offs from every Dr Who plot. Stick it in a whole in the ground and use it to kills aliens.
A great story which leaves to the open for an endless number of future stories as UNIT explore the collection. Looking forward to the next one.
