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.