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| 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.
| What: | The Lost Stories: Animal (The Lost Stories audio dramas) |
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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: | 9 |
Somehow this all comes together to form a great enjoyable story with some clever twists. Ace seems to take a back seat and the new companion comes to the front, pleasingly as she is actually puzzled and amazed about the future. Almost two stories linked together both on their own enjoyable but put together make a clever plot.
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| Special Edition - Fancy Effects Day |
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| What: | Day of the Daleks (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Graham Pilato, Washington D.C., United States |
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| Date: | Thursday 22 September 2011 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Day of the Daleks was never a classic story. It was notable for the return of the Daleks after their "final end" in Evil of the Daleks, five years before. Also, this is the first time we see Ogrons as their servants. However, these Daleks needn't be in this story at all, except for the purpose of old Who continuity, to say that Earth is under their evil regime in the middle of the 22nd Century (as established in 1964's Dalek Invasion of Earth). This plot is really not about Daleks at all, but time travel paradoxes and a little bit of a play with good intentions.
The final episode is where almost all the really satisfying parts are, as the realization comes that this paradox is occurring, and the people who seemed to be good guys turn out to be the opposite.
The story does work, but has some very skaky acting, especially on the part of some of the marauding time guerrillas, and way too much simple exposition is used to tell of what the future is without an image to recognize as a pitiful future, as in Dalek Invasion of Earth. (Classic drama criticism: if you can, show, don't tell). Aubrey Davis does something approaching a good job as the Controller, but he's burdened with impossible lines and the most uninteresting Daleks ever to communicate with.
With the souped up FX of this special edition, we now have the same story with very impressive gunshot explosions and time travel tunnels. It doesn't feel outrageously dated anymore, and is actually a lot more palatable for the uninitiated to 70s Who. However, it really wasn't the FX that made this a bit of a ho-hum story and a minor disappointment, it was the stuff I just mentioned in the previous paragraph.
Still, I'd love to see the dinosaurs of Invasion of the Dinosaurs updated like this. For that matter, the Loch Ness Monster of Terror of the Zygons would benefit from a good FX updating also.
| What: | Ten Little Aliens (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Friday 16 September 2011 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
"Ten Little Aliens" starts out like "Starship Troopers," but then shifts to "Aliens" and then into Devil-possession story. The story itself is pure gory science-fiction movie stuff. A group of trainee elite space soldiers get trapped on an asteroid and spend the rest of the novel pursued by a deadly menace. If a reader does not think too hard about matters, then the excitement and tension are enough to carry the reader along to the end. On that level, Cole has scored well. At that level it is better than the somewhat similar "Fear of the Dark" by Trevor Baxendale.
The demerits are these: the science of the Schirr is basically an excuse to try to make magic seem like technology; the Schirr science makes no sense; for example, how does one get enough power to move an asteroid from crushing people?; Cole forgets that since this is an asteroid it is unlikely to have Earth-level gravity; the background is not worked out enough, so that it is difficult to tell the exact relationship between Schirr, Morpheians, and humans, or what the war is really all about; the soldiers are all too "soldiery," more like cliché movie soldiers than real ones.
To summarize: If one wants taught, action-packed adventure, this novel delivers.
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| 4 stories getting better and better |
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| What: | Recorded Time (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Clive T Wright, St Lawrence, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Tuesday 13 September 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Starting with a king and a magic pen, this collection of story gets slowly better and better. the final is a strong clever story on a dying research station with a great twist.
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| One thing that truly grates... |
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| What: | Day of the Daleks (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Tuesday 13 September 2011 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
What is it with the the Who theme tune playing for a few seconds after each episode reprise? It is rather annoying, and it makes the editing look jerky and a mess. I much rather the BBC have put special effects on the abridged un episodic version, then we would have had that annoying jumping and Who theme that spoilt the effect for me somewhat.
The Special edition could have been any better in other ways though too. Overall the new edition is far more bold and the ending is far more epic in feeling, although even here one can rather tell which ogrons are the original and which are the new, and the effects of the newly shot scenes do rather jar with the older footage, as the slight grain to the old footage is all but absent from all the new shots. Its rather like a hodge podge that could have been done a bit better. But the ending is more grand, and gives rather more of a sense of scale than the original ending.
But I still prefer the version that is abridged, without those annoying who theme few seconds refrains. What were the producers thinking of on this one? I would wish that the BBC read this and put the effects on this version, one wonders why they didnt, as Battlefield got the abridged treatment, so why not here?
Otherwise this tale does work very well, and the new version does cut out a few fluffs inherent in the original, very clever editing. Overall i like the new effects version, but its not the best by far.
The New dalek voices are the best thing. At least they dont jar or grate, and they make the daleks all the more menacing and impacting along the way. The best added piece of dialogue, is the single added exterminate to the end of part two, which makes it more of a traditional and good ending, not just the silent dalek we're treated to in the original version. Nick Briggs again does a great job. Although to be honest Im one of the few fans who thinks that the original voices werent all that bad as many make out, they were distinctive and decidedly different from all the dalek tales before.
Grrr! If only the special edition had been of an abridged nature! Then my mark would have been nearer to ten for sure.
The acting in the tale is excellent, and the scripting is very strong, making this story one of the strongest Jon Pertwee tales. The fact that the Guerillas become involved in their own history is excellently described and explained. There are no plots threads hanging loose and its all very well rounded overall. And the good Doc does get fired at first in opart two, so his shooting of that Ogron isnt as rather heartless as it appears in the original tale. So, not too bad, just not a out and out winner either.
