EDA #7 Kursaal

Kursaal by Peter Anghelides

In Brief: Futuristic Theme-Park Werewolves.


Ugh.

Is that enough? No?

Ok. Blah.

Want more?

There is no more.

Ok, maybe a bitmore. But it’s difficult since Kursaal is by far one of the dullest entries into the lexicon of Doctor Who. In the “grand history” of the series (TV/Book/Audio/Smoke Signals) there have been good stories, great stories and absolutely terrible stories. However it's rare to have a completely boring one, of the televised stories I'd include only "The Sensorites", "The Dominators", "Underworld", "The Monster of Peladon", "Terminus" and "The Mark of the Rani". And even they have their moments. Even the lesser books have been somewhat interesting. Of the New Advenstures really only the books of David McIntee (First Frontier, Sanctuary, etc.) failed to keep my interest, and that was mainly down to his prose style.

Kursaal reminded me too much of those horrid Star Trek: TNG books that came out in the late-80s. The ones that all seemed to be rather low-key adventure that wouldn't challenge the reader nor shake up the series' status quo, as they had to work very much in the shadow of the show proper.
But having a "regular run-around" in Doctor Who really hobbles a story. The series is at its best when The Doctor & Co. are thrown into a new places or situation and seeing the result of their actions and interactions with the locals. However the requirement here is for said situation or place to be in some way memorable. Anghelides completely fails to make any part of the world of Kursaal interesting in the slightest, despite it being a massive terra-formed world that's being transformed into a planet-sized amusement park.

Oh, the werewolves come into things due to being the form of the original not-quite long-dead inhabitants of the planet, the Jax.

There's room for satire, or some interesting action, or decent characterisation, etc. But there’s none of any of it to be found. Everything is far too straight-forward and there’s no wit to speak of. The massive leisure-planet is still being built and is basically a large muddy construction site when The Doctor and Sam arrive. Archaeologists investigating an underground Jax site have no personalities (and most become werewolf fodder quickly anyways). The head of the "evil corporation" in charge of Kursaal is simply cliché, as is the head of the police force that turns up every so often to yell at The Doctor.

There's just nothing in the book to keep one's attention, no big mystery (the werewolves are being caused by a sort of space-virus, which is obvious about 50 pages in) and with a boring setting and dull characters the book ends up being a big load of nothing. Initially I was prepared to offer Kursaal a bit of a compliment for being the first Eighth Doctor Adventures to have no returning aspect from the series' past but there's nothing of any merit to fill in the gap. As much as The Bodysnatchers was irritating for the needless re-use of the Zygons at least it gave the author enough inspiration to craft a mildly interesting (if daft) story.

There's also not enough story to sustain Kursaal for it's 200+ pages, so a lot of needless chases and action scenes pad out events. While padding and Doctor Who are definitely not strangers it’s just far too obvious here. So there was a fair bit of skimming involved when it came to getting through the book.

As for the continuing development of the regulars:

-Sam gets possessed at the climax by the Jax and almost turns into a werewolf. Her failure to do so is most unfortunate as it would have made the character at least mildly interesting.
-The Eighth Doctor is perhaps proving to be a little *too* unprepared and rash since he verges at times on almost being a bit stupid.

Overall Kursaal might be the worst of the Eighth Doctor Adventures so far, or rather the least enjoyable. Even though other entries have been in many ways worse none have been so dull. What's annoying is that the set-up here could have resulted in something good if written by a better author. Unfortunately all potential is squandered as Peter Anghelides has written a book that is best appreciated by undemanding 12-year-olds.

EDA #6 Alien Bodies

Alien Bodies by Lawrence Miles

In Brief: The Doctor finds himself at a most unusual auction for a dangerous "relic", surrounded by enemies from his past and future.

And Doctor Who joins the late-90s and gets on board an "arc".

Alien Bodies (thankfully) leaves behind the lighter stand-alone style of of the previous 8th-Doctor books and gives the reader a good sense of the future of the range. It's the first book that has a sense that the series is headed in a new and exciting direction rather than trying to just relive the past and foist nostalgia.

It's also rather terrific.

Like in his earlier New Adventure (Christmas on a Rational Planet), author Miles inserts heaps of past continuity references into the book. But rather than being for the purposes of crappy nostalgia it's torn apart and put back together in new and interesting ways. A good example in Alien Bodies is the introduction of Faction Paradox, an order who have stolen the technology of the Time Lord for the purpose of the creation and worship of temporal paradoxes. Another is the attendance of representatives of the Celestis, non-corporeal beings who forced their way out of existence prior to the beginning of a yet to be started war between the Time Lords and as yet unknown enemies.

And no, it's not the Daleks. *This* Time-War sounds much more interesting than the one we've (not) seen on the TV-show.

But both show how Miles has taken the time to really consider past aspects of Doctor Who and how they could be re-used in new ways. Even the concept of the Tardis is given a face-lift as a future Time Lord in attendance uses a "living" version of the ship. Living in that it's able to disguise itself as a living being and has its own personality.

However my favourite bit of the random past included is when the final attendees to the auction arrive. Several passages are spent setting up certain evil robotic beings approaching the Earth in their dark and terrifying spaceships. Enemies who have encountered The Doctor in the past and have vowed revenge. Except rather than the Daleks or Cybermen showing up instead we have...



...THE KROTONS.

In what I'm sure is Miles' poking fun at other authors over-use of "classic" villains here he uses one of the least-favourite from the original series and turns them into something...quite effective really. With their corrupting-mist weapons, hive-mind and crystalline bodies the Krotons of Alien Bodies are fairly awesome, proving that even the worst part of old Who has potential (much like how recent episode "The God Complex" rehabilitated the Nimon).

Possibly the only (minor) problem with the book is that because it sets up so much the ending is somewhat unsatisfying. However this is really a small complaint since everything else is such a major increase in quality. Rather than just action the book is interested in exploring the situation and setting (in particular the attendees of bizarre auction in the "Unthinkable City"). After the silliness of War of the Daleks this is a massively welcome change.

Sam even becomes more interesting as its revealed that she may not be all that she seems. The character being rather generic and one-dimensional are given a twist as an alternate "dark" version makes a small appearance as Sam is assaulted by traps set around the to-be-auctioned relic. The reason being that there's evidence that her past has somehow been manipulated to make her the "perfect" companion for The Doctor. While she's still a woefully underwritten (and boring) character at least now there seems to be more of a purpose to her. And it also helps pardon the mess of The Eight Doctors.

As for The Doctor, finally The Eighth has begun to make his mark. Rather than being a master-manipulator like the 7th he's instead a man forced to deal with a large and strange universe and plots of which he's only beginning to see. The character is now firmly the centre-point of the books (rather than the companions), particularly once the truth of the "relic" is revealed.

The novel's called "Alien Bodies" for a reason...

So, to sum up, Alien Bodies is the book that I'd been waiting for since the end of the New Adventures. It sets up some large and welcome plot-lines for the future and greatly expands the new "world" of the BBC Doctor Who books. And it's also really well written and interesting from start to end. Great stuff.