EDA #4: Genocide

Genocide by Paul Leonard

In Brief: The Human-race has been wiped from history and Earth is now inhabited by the peaceful Tractites.

Paul Leonard can turn out some more than half-decent prose. Even as Genocide loses steam in its second half the quality of Leonard's writing keeps the pages turning. The Doctor and Sam land on Earth but it's not the planet we know as a race known as Tractites (horses with arms) now live there, and have done so for millions of years. With history having somehow been changed The Doctor has to both find the cause and ultimately make the decision of which version of reality will be allowed to exist.

The strongest part of Genocide is the first act, as we get a tour of a Tractite-inhabited Earth and the set-up for the moral issues that are to come. Leonard is a good scene-setter, he's able to really give a good sense of place and location. Also his characterisation is decent as he makes sure that the various aliens and humans encountered have interesting personalities. They aren't just blobs (or horsies rather) with funny names.

Add into the mix some out-of-time paleontologists, a crazed nutter who wants to wipe out history and one Jo Grant. Jo is brought into the story via a sub-plot set in the present-day (well, late-90s) Africa, where the paleontologists have discovered anomalies in the fossil-record and make a call to her to come and help. Unfortunately Jo doesn't really add much to the book and there's a sense that Leonard might have been stuck with a brief to include her but couldn't come up with a good use of the character. Also this 1990s version of Jo completely lacks any sense of the character's normal personality, with this older single-mother version being somewhat bland.

Still, despite the misuse of Jo much of Genocide is very good, with the revelations around the change of history being slowly given out, making sure that the reader's interest is maintained. Unfortunately about half-way through, with a change in location to pre-historic Africa that the book suffers a bit. There's not quite enough story to maintain this part of the book, and there's a fair bit of of padding as characters encounter assorted beasts and dangers. While the book never becomes terrible it does become a bit of a slog at this point.

Also, the central question of choosing between the Tractites and Humans in regards to the eventual fate of the Earth becomes somewhat muddled. With it eventuating that the Tractite-future would result in the destruction of the universe due to various temporal-imbalances there's never really a choice for The Doctor or other characters to face. They *have* to ensure that the human race survives. Even though the humans will eventually cause the destruction of the Tractite home-world (with the surviving Tractites using a "time tree" and going back in time to wipe out humanity before it starts, timey-wimey) it's obviously a better option than everything being wiped out.

Genocide could have been stronger if the Tractites could have actually had their future; it would have had a greater impact. As is the later part of the book just feels like The Doctor & Co. going through the motions until the proper future is restored. Like in The Bodysnatchers The Doctor resolves a situation without really having had to live with the repercussions of his actions.

But overall Genocide was actually pretty good, despite flaws. It's padded, but not horribly so and there are some clever ideas at work (especially a bit where a message for Sam is left in some million-year old rock, however unfortunately it doesn't say HELLO SWEETIE). With another edit (perhaps removing 50 pages or so) and better use of Jo Grant the book could have been great rather than just above average.

As The Eighth Doctor Adventures, now that I'm 4 books into the series, remains a difficult subject to form an opinion about. Much like The New Adventures had to cope with the shadow of the TV-show these books are trying to find a different direction to the previous series. While the realisation of The Doctor is getting stronger, with authors becoming more comfortable with him being more the man of action than before the same can't be said for Ms. Sam Jones. While not a horrible character she unfortunately has yet to improve on being a rather spoiled and petulant teenager.

With the New Adventures having the more mysterious and manipulative 7th-Doctor the other regulars (Ace, Benny, Chris, Roz) tended to carry much of the books. With the 8th-Doctor not having the pre-planning nature of his predecessor he ends up being much more at the centre of events and much more the main protagonist of the series. So with The Doctor now *doing* more it means that the companion's part is reduced, with the result that Sam has yet to really have a chance to do much other than cause problems and add complications. As such the character ends up being a bit of an albatross around the neck of the series. While she's obviously an effort to move away from the "tougher" companions of the New Adventures the result is still too much like a step backwards.

But still, Genocide is a huge step-up in quality from The Bodysnatchers and is a sign that hopefully the series is finding its feet.

EDA #3: The Bodysnatchers

The Bodysnatchers by Mark Morris

In Brief: Zygons + Victorian London.

The Bodysnatchers is hum-drum, regular, unambitious, knows its place, doesn't think to hard, only wants to amuse, etc. While it sort of manages it's purpose of mixing an old Doctor Who monster (The Zygons from 1975's "Terror of the Zygons") in a fan-favourite setting (Victorian England, including the return of Professor Litefoot from 1976's "The Talons of Weng-Chiang") and even manages to include a plot (almost) the result is seriously lacking. However we're not back down to the depths of The Eight Doctors but it's completely unambitious, not doing anything to push the boundaries of being a "traditional Doctor Who story".

The result is rather dull.

Very rarely in the history of the TV show are there examples of the production team *not* trying something new or going in a new direction with a story. The series has always been marked by the attitude of "let's see what we can try *this* week", for better or for worse. So having a book which is so definitively tasked with providing a "standard Doctor Who tale" is somewhat odd. But then we're still in the days reacting to the "it wasn't Doctor Who-ey enough" New Advenstures.

The suspicion is though that as the 8th-Doctor books were being published directly by the BBC the decision has been made to use the old televised adversaries that Virgin Publishing's New Adventures weren't able to use due to rights issues. While it's an understandable technique to create a demarcation between that series and the BBC-Books version here nothing new or interesting has been done with the returning Zygons.


"Or maybe we're just perfect as is?" Um, no...

The Zygons themselves, while a well-remembered monster, aren't actually interesting in of themselves. They're just another race of baddies aiming for conquest and unlimited rice-pudding. As such they're really no different than the Ice Warriors, Cybermen, Kraals, etc. With The Bodysnatchers being a book and all and not having the benefit of effective design and creepy voices they just become a bland lot of antagonists.

Also, The Doctor and Sam are still suffering from being underdeveloped. While the book just about gets away with it for The Doctor (since The 8th-version is deliberately more a man of action (scuba diving!) compared to his predecessor), Sam just just isn't working. There's no depth to her character, other than being a generic middle-class teenager with an irritating sarcastic streak. While the series has had "light" companions before it's a big demerit for these books in comparison to previous characters like Benny, Roz and (sometimes) Chris.

Although at the end of this book there is an odd passage that foreshadows that Sam may be encoutering a somewhat dark future, so perhaps this is all deliberate.

He says hopefully.

The Bodysnatchers however isn't totally a bad book. Mark Morris is able to string his sentences together in a decent enough way, even if the plot is rather weak (People acting weird, oh they're Zygons! The Zygons have a ship under the Thames, with giant monsters! It all goes BOOM!). But still, it's little more than a workmanlike endeavour.

There were also a few parts of the book that seriously irked. The ending is far too rushed, despite having a huge amount of lead-up (aka faffing-about). Minor characters disappear rather abruptly without any sort of closure and there several aspects of the book (particularly a sub-plot concerning bodies being stolen from a graveyard and related characters) which end up having little to do with the main story. But the biggest problem I had was how The Doctor actually deals with The Zygons. *spoilers* His plan of using a sedative to put them to sleep and transport their shop to another planet goes horribly wrong with the result being the painful death of almost every Zygon. However other than his saying "sorry" once there are no repercussions, he just bounces off to his next adventure. It's just completely wrong for the character, and to have it treated so lightly is uncomfortable.

All of these factors lead to the sense that the book needed a major edit prior to publication. But I'll cut The Bodysnatchers some slack since this is a series obviously trying to find its feet, much the same as with the early New Adventures. Hopefully things improve soon.

EDA #2: Vampire Science

Vampire Science by Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman

In Brief: San Francisco. 1997. Vampires. Slaying.

Vampire Science is thankfully good, which is notable after the painful The Eight Doctors. As it was co-written by Kate Orman, who churned out some of the highlights of the New Adventures, the increase in quality in comparison to the prose of Terrance Dicks is hardly a surprise. However I found it to be less than satisfying, there's a gap at the novel's core.

This sense of something missing or rather a disjointedness mainly centred around the two lead characters, The Doctor and Sam. Nothing has quite gelled properly yet in the tales of the Eighth Doctor as he's a character that all of the authors so far haven't really been able to pin down. Of course, considering that Paul McGann only had around an hour of screen-time compared to the 12 televised stories of the 7th-Doctor it's hardly a surprise. The result though is that The Doctor, although technically less mysterious and scheming that his previous incarnation, feels much more distant. Over the course of the New Adventures the publishers were slowly able to move the character away from being an echo of Sylvester McCoy's performance into something with more depth. Unfortunately here they've not quite figured out where to go, except to have the "new" Doctor constantly be compared to the old in regards to differences in mannerisms and actions.

It was understandable in The Dying Days, but it's been 3 books now of different authors struggling with the character. It's becoming noticeable.

Another issue is Sam Jones. Thankfully she's much more fleshed out in Vampire Science than the light sketch of the character we got in the previous book, but again we've still no real sense of who she is and what makes her tick. We have the character-brief, that she's a blond skinny teenager and "right on!" activist with has a strong moral sense and sarcastic attitude, but no more. While there's some attempt to flesh her out through her having doubts of wanting to continue travelling with The Doctor, it doesn't feel right considering we've no understanding of her character. It's the book version of the problem with Mel, who on the show proper was just dropped into the action without any introduction. Although not nearly as annoying as she sounds, there still needs to be work done here.

So as a result Vampire Science ends up being a good book unfortunately marred by it's uncomfortable use of the lead characters.

Thankfully the authors are able to make up for the gap by having the rest be memorable and interesting, from medical-doctor Carolyn, who met The Doctor when young to 900-year-old head-vampire Joanna, who desperately wants to find a blood substitute so that her ilk can stop killing. The story itself isn't very plot-heavy, mainly centering around The Doctor (with the help of UNIT) trying to get to the bottom of recent vampire attacks and the resulting investigations. There are some decent quandaries-afoot as The Doctor and Joanna argue about the future of her kind, and an amusingly late-90s vibe as time is spent in a goth-club. But rather than just be overt horror this Vampire Science makes sure that the characters come first, particularly in how the react to what should be an impossibility.

I don't know the exact dates but Buffy must have been on TV by the time this book was written, although nowhere near as widely known as a couple of years later.

So overall the book is well-written and enjoyable but perhaps lacking in ambition. The regenerated series hasn't yet figured out how to go in a different direction the New Adventures, or even if it *can* do so. So the result, while by no means poor, feels like missed potential.

Oh, and there's no reason for the American Presidential Seal to be on the cover.

EDA #1: The Eight Doctors

The Eight Doctors by Terrance Dicks

In Brief: Suffering from amnesia, The Doctor must (all together now) FIND HIS OTHER SELVES!!!



Here we go, into the great unknown. Having originally departed the world of Doctor Who fiction with the wrap-up of The New Adventures I'm approaching each of these BBC Books "Eight Doctor Adventures" with little to no preconceptions. Well except for (based on memories of reviews/newsgroup comments from the late 1990s):

1. New companion Sam Jones is apparently the most irritating character ever introduced to the series and I will soon pray for her horrible death.
2. There are a couple of Dalek stories coming up early in the run. This is notable since Virgin never obtained the rights to use the Daleks directly in their books. Also the books in question are apparently awful (will confirm later...).
3. The Eight Doctors is the worst book written by anyone. Ever.

And that's it. I know very little about the 70-something books that were published in the series between 1997 and 2005. At the time I'd decided to stick to the Benny books, and when they ended I didn't want to start this series part-way through. Then in 1999 with Big Finish releasing their audio adventures there was a way to get a Doctor Who fix that felt much more authentic than these books, especially once they got Paul McGann to record some “real” Eighth Doctor stories.

Overall the feeling I've always had towards the BBC Books series is that they're alright but somewhat a pale imitation of the New Adventures, perhaps more consistent but less imaginative. However this is purely based on my reading the online opinion of various hardcore "Doctor Who Fans", and if there's anything I've learned in life it's to try to ignore the online opinion of hardcore "Doctor Who Fans" as much as possible.
As that road leads only to the Absorbaloff

But now I'm taking the plunge into BBC Books’ output, and with The Eight Doctors it really *is* starting at the deep end. The reason being that this book is possibly the biggest misstep in the entire almost 50-year history of Doctor Who. I can imagine that intentions were good; the editors would get a known name from the show to write the introductory story. It would bring things "back to basics" after the view held (by some) that the New Adventures had gotten somehow away from what Doctor Who should be RAWR! The problem with this mind-set though in that the only thing that Doctor Who ever *should be*is giving the audience something new.

The Dying Days gave us a new way to tell an old story, the very 1970s-style alien-invasion transposed into the present day (of 1997). The Eight Doctors is Terrance Dicks telling a (sort of) new story in a very old way. Having been script editor on the show proper from 1969 to 1974 I suspect that Dicks sees himself as being the "Elder Statesman" of Doctor Who, showing the “youngins” how IT SHOULD BE DONE DAMNIT! Unfortunately he tries this feat by bringing Doctor Who creatively kicking and screaming back to 1972. Rather than brushing aside the perceived clutter this is Terrance Dicks waving his fist in the air and screaming "You Damn Kids get OFF MY LAWN!" to anyone who'd altered the series in the slightest since he'd been in charge.

The result is close to what a Doctor Who story would be like if recounted by Grandpa Simpson, meandering and pointless (or should that be wheezing and groaning?). Having lost his memory due to a leftover trap of The Master's following events of the TV-movie, The Doctor must find each of his previous incarnations in order to remember his life. First though he briefly arrives in the present day and meets vegan-gymnastics student Sam(antha) Jones, who is running from some drug-dealers. I suspect a lot of the book's bad reputation comes from these early chapters, which are horribly written. I'd be critical if these passages were part of some amateur fan-fiction let alone a man who by this point had been professionally an author for close to 40 years.

However, once The Doctor leaves Sam to her fate (however not permanently) the book does improve, albeit relatively. In order we have the Eighth Doctor meeting versions one through seven during or just after various televised stories. I found each of these sections less about visiting the history of Doctor Who as much as being a chance for Terrance Dicks to offer his commentary on everything from 1963 to 1989.

Doctor 1: As the first Doctor contemplats stabbing a caveman to death during "An Unearthly Child" the Eight appears to tell him to be nice. This is Dicks saying that the Hartnell Doctor isn't quite what he wants the character to be, but will be with a few tweaks.

Doctor 2: Amidst "The War Games" the Doctors briefly meet as the Eighth gives the Second some tips for his upcoming trial. This is Dicks not having much to say about the Troughton era since as he was involved in it the show must have been perfect.

Doctor 3: Just after "The Sea Devils" as The Master escapes and finds his Tardis where he left it (so we also get a revisit to the scene of "The Daemons"). Jon Pertwee is obviously where Dicks has his notion of the Doctor stuck, the man of action who is "never cowardly". Although to the rest of us he comes across like a bit of an arrogant and condescending arse.

Doctor 4: The Fourth Doctor and Romana have some increased difficulty with vampires just after "State of Decay". Dicks likes Tom Baker, but as he was in his earlier seasons, back when he was still writing for the show.

Doctor 5: (Good Grief) The Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Turlough once again visit the Eye of Orion after "The Five Doctors". Encouters with the Raston Warrior Robot, Sontarans and Drashigs ensue. The Davison Doctor is bland and far too nice says Dicks, although he is appropriate in filling this section with nonsensical returns from old monsters.

Doctor 6: Set during "The Trial of a Time Lord" as the Eighth and a temporally-displaced version of the Sixth attempt to explain the complexities of that story. This part ends with Dicks stating that the entire trial actually never happened through use of a time-loop. If it were up to him this Doctor would never have happened as Colin Baker was a fat buffoon.

Doctor 7: Following "Survival" as the Master prepares for the TV-movie (death-worms are involved) and the Seventh Doctor mopes around solo on Metebelis 3. The McCoy Doctor is just so not fun says Terrance. Who wants a Doctor who thinks ahead?

Then at the end The Doctor whips back to allow Sam Jones to join him in his travels for no apparently good reason (and her first scene in the Tardis is just strange). Mixed among these assorted set-pieces are scenes as Timelord President Flavia (don't ask) follows The Doctor's progress as various factions on Gallifrey try to kill him. Or something.

So yes, in this instance Internet fandom is right and The Eight Doctors is awful, although in a somewhat interesting way. I didn't hate it the same way as I have some other "New" adventures and after the terrible opening section I sort of got with the flow of what Terrance Dicks was doing. It’s the same as how occasionally a slightly senile grand-parent can spin a mildly interesting tale. This is a grumpy old man complaining that everybody who followed him has done it wrong without wanting to admit that he’s actually just old-fashioned. This book is the perfect case for why Doctor Who needs to constantly have new and fresh talent involved in its construction.

NA #61 The Dying Days

The Dying Days by Lance Parkin

In Brief: My re-read of The New Adventures ends with a recently regenerated Eighth-Doctor, along with Bernice Summerfield, thwarting an invasion of Earth (specifically London, quelle surprise) by the Ice Warriors.


Here we are, almost 2 years after I started reading them, at the end of Doctor Who: The New Adventures (although not *quite* the end of The New Adventures, I’ll explain later…). Following the airing of the Paul McGann movie in 1996 the BBC decided to bring the book series in-house rather than renew Virgin Publishing's licence. So we have Virgin’s wrapping up their involvement with Doctor Who as well as setting the scene for the ongoing adventures of Bernice as the focal-point of the series.

The Dying Days is the one and only Virgin-published New Adventure to feature The Eighth Doctor. And it's really very good indeed. Despite the plot-summary making the book sound like the most clichéd and routine story ever done in the series the result is impressively “modern”. The reason being that the book uses a formula of taking a traditional Doctor Who set-up, the old Alien invasion, and putting it in a completely contemporary context. Even televised stories that had aliens coming to Earth would tend to go for a slightly futuristic feel, the UNIT years in particular always felt somewhat disconnected from reality. However The Dying Days is *very* much set in 1997, with references to "The X-Files", Internet newsgroups (oh those were the days...), satellite dishes etc. abounding.

What the book ends up being is essentially a post-2005 story, albeit 8 years early. Scenes of a giant Ice Warrior ship hanging above London echo the later "The Christmas Invasion", a missing prime-minister and conspiracy within the government is very "Aliens of London", having a new Doctor menaced by an old enemy is very "Rose". I won't go so far as to say that Russell T. Davies ripped off Lance Parkin's book, but he was definitely taking notes. It's also surprising how here, at the very end of the range's association with Doctor Who we actually have our *first* real alien-invasion story. I suspect that since the New Adventures wanted to make its own distinct mark there had been a purposeful avoidance of this “classic” Doctor Who scenario (despite the relative rarity of invasion stories in Doctor Who proper).

But not only is The Dying Days prescient of what was to come, it's also a reaction against the 1996 Doctor Who movie. Any review of that fateful night in 1996 basically amounts to "McGann good, effects great, shame about the story". Here we have Lance Parkin showing the world how it *should* have been done, bringing the humour and adventure of Doctor Who into the here and now with the budget it had always been denied. Even in 1997 there's no reason that The Dying Days couldn't have been produced, it's just that the Doctor Who we did briefly get was a written-by-committee mess.

Also good in The Dying Days is how the reader “sees” the new Eighth Doctor mainly from the POV of Benny and the guest-starring Brigadier, we get to really understand the differences (and similarities to Doctor #7). Just as how "The Christmas Invasion" was about Rose and her family reacting to Doctor #10 Benny has to adjust to having a different (and troublingly attractive) version of the character. It's a huge shame that this would be the end of her character's encounter with the Tardis as having a "companion" and Doctor of the same physical age (well, appearance-wise since the Doctor's somewhere between 500 and 1200 years old) is an all too rare occurrence in the series.

But while reading (and greatly enjoying) The Dying Days I was reminded of why I never followed on with the BBC Books "Eighth Doctor Adventures" in 1997. I’d been very invested over the previous 6 years in reading a series of books which expanded and improved on Doctor Who and had established a pool of talented authors whose output I greatly enjoyed. Reading that the "revamped" series would be a series of more "traditional" and less complex stories really irritated me. I had little interest in continuing with what I feared would be a dumbed down version of what I wanted.

So instead I decided to forego the continuing adventures of The Doctor and stick with Benny as she took up her residence as a professor on the planet Dellah in the 26th-century. Even without any Doctor Who connections (although NA characters such as Chris, Jason or the Chelonians could still appear) the New Adventures continued...for a bit.


The New Adventures #62: Oh No It Isn't!

Unfortunately, the sad truth is that while the series continued to be entertaining it just couldn't maintain itself without The Doctor. One big problem was that without a space/time machine it became increasingly difficult to have stories with any great variety, authors constantly had to find reasons to get her away from her day-job to have exciting adventures. Another is that withouth the Doctor Who tie-in it was unlikely to ever attract new readers. However the series still lasted another 23 books and finally wrapped up in 1999. While there were a couple of decent books from what I remember of that period, the series never really regained former glory.

But that’s the road I’m not taking this time, back to The Dying Days. It's a fitting end to Doctor Who as it was from 1991-1997, a series not on television but still finding new tales to tell. Looking again at The New Adventures, many years after the show came back, it's clear that they were the bridge between the show as it was up to 1989 and what we have today. Even in the poorer books there was a sense of authors trying something new and different with the potential of Doctor Who. While I definitely enjoyed the novels which aimed at being literature more than those that wanted to be novelisations of potential TV-stories I still appreciated the latter. There's really never been a set of rules of what Doctor Who should or shouldn't be like, and I always appreciated the variety and sheer effort that went into the series. The New Adventures is what paved the way for “Rose” and all that came after.

And now begins something completely different as I go into The Eighth Doctor Adventures with little knowledge of what is to come. Allons-y!

NA #60 Lungbarrow

Lungbarrow by Marc Platt

In Brief: The 7th-Doctor's final story (although not quite the final New Adventure). On the Time Lord's home planet of Gallifrey, hidden within the buried House of Lungbarrow, is the answer to the question of "Doctor Who?"

Firstly, Lungbarrow is the bridge between the New Adventures and the 1996 TV-Movie with the novel ending as The Doctor leaves to collect The Master's remains from Skaro (which is a mission given to him by President Romana).

Secondly, Lungbarrow is the novel that fully explains The Doctor's background. It's...complicated

Thirdly, Lungbarrow is insanely continuity-heavy with the reader expected to be familiar with and understand the backgrounds of Romana, Leela, Andred, Dorothee/Ace, 2 versions of K9 and the complete history of Gallifrey.

Fourthly, Lunbarrow started life as a script for the 1989 series on TV before it was decided to take the core idea of a spooky old house and turn it into "Ghost Light".

Fifthly, Lungbarrow isn't actually very good.

15 years later, with the New Adventures a distant memory and the seventh full series of the revived show currently filming all of the revelations of Lungbarrow feel flat. If anything the book proves what a good idea getting rid of Gallifrey and the Time Lords was for Doctor Who in purging the series of much of the unneeded baggage that had accumulated over 30+ years. The problem is that for the most part The Doctor's home planet just isn't very interesting and having him return is rather purposeless. The truth is that Time Lords are boring.

So while many readers may rejoice at "discovering" that The Doctor is actually the reincarnation of a founding-father of Time Lord society known as The Other who passed his genetic code along through the Gallifreyan Looms which birth the adult children of a society struck barren by the curse of the ancient Pythia and that Susan is actually the grand-daughter of The Other who met The Doctor when he illegally traveled into the past of his own planet in a stolen Tardis under the control of the Hand of Omega to me it just seemed a bit silly.

In particular Platt's version of a Time Lord society without children and the "truth" about Susan just seems to be the most extraordinarily complicated way ever devised to keep The Doctor as a character who has never had sex. While I'm at times critical of Steven Moffat I'm glad that he through this all away in having The Doctor admit that he knows how to "dance".

However Lungbarrow isn't terrible, more just a mess (much like the author's early New Adventure Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible). Platt's writing style is good and he's excellent at devising memorable settings. It's just that despite the massive amounts of references to past stories and surfeit of old characters there's not really much going on. Most of the book has The Doctor and Chris wandering through the musty remains of Lungbarrow dealing with murder-mystery involving The Doctor's family. Meanwhile in the Time Lord Capitol Leela and President Romana must thwart an attempted coup (a plot-thread which sort of disappears by the end of the book). So overall it means that the last full 7th-Doctor story is somewhat underwhelming.

But the biggest problem for Lungbarrow, as stated earlier, is just that it's a dated version of what Doctor Who is meant to be. Even for 1997 this is a throw-back to an earlier time (the continuity-laden 1980s) with old characters and monsters brought back with little reason or care. The strength of the New Adventures is how it added depth and development to the regular characters in Doctor Who, which was mostly lacking in the original show but so very important post-2005. The series had moved beyond these "celebrations" of the past.

However it's still fitting that the secretive and manipulative 7th-Doctor has all of his secrets laid bare at the end of his life. Everything is nicely tied up in preparation for the Paul McGann movie, with Chris electing to stay on Gallifrey as The Doctor heads off to his destiny in 1999 San Francisco. But still, 15 years after publication, Lungbarrow doesn't hold up well. While it's brave with delving into The Doctor's background it suffers from the truth that removing the mystery somewhat lessens the character.

Plus the "truth" isn't actually very interesting, which is all well and good since the malarkey around The Other is never mentioned again which shows how pointless it was.

But still, despite my (surprising) disappointment with the book I'm a little sad that I'm now through all of the New Adventures involving the Sylvester McCoy version of The Doctor. I've enjoyed getting through all of the books again, even the bad ones. It's remarkable how the series really grabbed hold of the possibilities of a book-based version of Doctor Who. What could have just been a rather mediocre series of spin-off novels, such as the Star Trek(s), instead became *the* new version of Doctor Who for most of the 1990s. There's no reason that everything from Timewyrm: Genesys to Lungbarrow isn't an official part of the grand story of Doctor Who, such is the strength of the stories and characters.

The New Adventures is what proved that there was a lot more life in Who after 1989 and for that they need to be celebrated. Now on to the adventures of Doctor #8...

NA #59 The Room With No Doors

The Room With No Doors by Kate Orman

In Brief: A temporal anomaly is hiding somewhere in 16th-century Japan. The Doctor and Chris, in trying to find its source encounter a mysterious pod, an alien slaver, battling armies and a Victorian time-traveler.

The Room With No Doors admits early on that it's a "light" story. One of no huge drama and no real threat to Earth or the rest of the universe at large. A small adventure to be had as The Doctor waits for whatever event create his eighth persona to arrive. With the next novel, Lungbarrow, being the last for the Seventh Doctor Kate Orman creates almost a meditation on life, death and change. Particularly concerning The Seventh Doctor and what it will mean when he's gone. This is the story of how Chris comes to terms with the eventuality that he will stop travelling in the Tardis, and also how The Doctor must face his guilt over the actions and manipulations of his current persona.

This makes the book sound very dark and heavy, which it absolutely is not. Orman's skill is able to mix the darker aspects of the book into a rather frivolous and at times funny adventure, as with the best of Who. The shift from the norm is that The Doctor is rather more reactive than usual with his purposefully pushing Chris into taking more of a central role in events. Chris, always tending to be pushed to the side by the stronger characters like Benny or Roz has to face being in charge, really for the first time. It's an important step for the character since he can sense that a massive change is coming.

A fresh perspective is kept on the two regulars by having the character of Penelope Gate appear, an "adventuress" brought into the past due to the mysterious pod. Also trying to find the pod is alien slaver Te Yene Rana, as well as a group of escaped prisoners (who resemble large chickens). As villains go Te Yene Rana is not one of the greats and is essentially defined by how crap she actually is, particularly in how she meets her (surprised) demise. But this just reinforces that The Room With No Doors isn't about The Doctor defeating a menace, but instead setting it up so that Chris is able to gain the confidence to do it himself.

The best parts of the book are where Chris and The Doctor discuss the titular Room, which appears to Chris whenever he dreams. It turns out to be part of The Doctor's psyche, which is being transferred to Chris due to properties of the pod. It represents the prison within his mind that The Doctor knows awaits his current persona once he regenerates. Due to his becoming a darker and more manipulative character than in his prior lives it is where he senses his previous selves will lock him. However just as Chris is able to emerge from his guilt and insecurities so The Doctor is able to accept that he does not in fact deserve the Room and is able to shake off his own guilt.

Also, The Room With No Doors is where the New Adventures really begins to end. With it's themes of working through the guilt of the past and being able to look forward it strongly signals the end of the series that is soon to come (what with the BBC not renewing Virgin Publishing's licence following the 1996 movie). It begins with The Doctor and Chris locked into old patterns, but scared of change yet by the end allows them to face what is coming.

Probably the only real negative for the book is that with it being purposefully lightly-plotted it's not very memorable (I remembered nothing from my original read in 1997). It's a good read, but not one that sticks in the mind like other entries in the series. While I enjoyed it more than Orman's SLEEPY it wasn't quite up to the standard of her earlier entries. Still, it shows how much the New Adventures have progressed since the early days in that a mainly character-based story doesn't seem odd or jarring. After 59 books we have a Doctor Who just as much about character as the strange places and creatures. Developing characters like Chris, Roz and especially Benny are what paved the way for Rose, Martha and Amy and the strengths of the post-2005 show.

Ace unfortunately just didn't quite work, especially when the older battle-hardened space-bitch version showed up.

So overall The Room With No Doors was a good read, even if it is purposefully unambitious. It's the needed calm between the intensity of recent events and those yet to come.