Doctor Who: Interference Book One (Doctor Who): Amazon.co.uk: Lawrence Miles: Books

Amazon.co.uk Review

Lawrence Miles was behind the superb 1997 BBC book Alien Bodies in which a group of intergalactic representatives--including the Doctor--bid for ownership of the Doctor's body while a group of mysterious Time Lord-like cultists, the Faction Paradox, mess around with time streams. In Interference he fleshes out the Faction Paradox and introduces a new group of beings called the Remote.

These are perhaps the most interesting aliens to have appeared in the BBC range to date. Their culture is based on electronic transmissions which they receive from whichever planet they find themselves on. The people are totally free to interpret these signals as they will. They believe they are given direction and meaning by the signals and are on the whole fairly happy with their lot.

In the first novel we are introduced to I M Foreman, a mystery woman sitting on a hill. (This is also the name printed on the junkyard doors in Totters' Lane, London, 1963, where we first met the Doctor--hopefully this will be explained in Book Two.) The Doctor joins her and they settle down to discuss what happened on Earth. But what did happen? Sam is there keeping an eye on an international arms conference when she becomes captured by the Remote. Sarah Jane Smith (ex-companion of the 3rd and 4th Doctors) is also there along with K9, doing pretty much the same thing. The Remote are trying to sell advanced alien arms to various powers and using brutish alien Ogrons as bodyguards. Fitz meanwhile has been swallowed up in 1996 by a weapon called the Cold and does not emerge until 2593 where he joins a Faction Paradox cult. Meanwhile the 8th Doctor is apparently locked in a cell where he and his cellmate are irregularly and viciously tortured with electric shock batons.

Where all this leads is unclear as it's not resolved in this book. The mysterious I M Foreman remains an enigma, aside from the fact that as a man she might have been running a travelling circus of freaks on the planet Dust which was once visited by the 3rd Doctor and Sarah.

All this confusion and loose ends may leave readers reeling and puzzled. It starts really well indeed with Miles building up an apocalyptic feel with the individual plot elements. It's when the story becomes dominated by Sarah Jane Smith (posing as Sarah Bland, and never was a surname better chosen) that the book grinds to a crawl. She's just not interesting and doesn't rise above the printed page. Fitz and the Doctor might as well not be there (well, they're actually not there for 90 per cent of it) and Sam gets to see all the interesting stuff as usual--which here includes appearing in scenes presented as though from a film or television script. This is a nice idea and works surprisingly well.

The book ends at an apparently arbitrary point, but readers who have bought both volumes can continue straight on... --David J Howe

Product Description

Five years ago, Sam Jones was just a schoolgirl from Shoreditch. Of course, that was before she met up with the Doctor and found out that he entire life had been stage-managed by a time-traveling voodoo cult. Funny how things turn out, isn't it? Now Sam's back in her own time, fighting the good fight in a world of political treachery, international subterfuge and good old-fashioned depravity.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

Marvellous 26 Jun 2000

By kit.davies@william-reed.co.uk

Format:Mass Market Paperback

I grew up with Dr Who especially Mr Pertwee and grieved greatly when the programme degenerated into silliness with number seven. And I am not one for manky novel spinoffs, as I am a stickler not just for detail but also for style. But this has really brought Dr Who back for me, being supremely faithful to the TV series yet also taking the character and his worlds on in a superb way. Interference One is a marvellously intelligent and imaginative read, it's well written, it's engrossing, full of surprises, and the first time I have been scared by Dr Who in 25 years.The richness of the story is very impressive. Mr Miles is a very good writer indeed and this is a fine fine piece of work. In parts it is also very moving, and the whole story just gets better in volume number two.

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A modern Who classic 19 April 2000

By Godfather Morlock

Darker, more mature than TV Who, the 8th Doctor books have introduced a lot of genuinely original concepts to Doctor Who, and many were created by Lawrence Miles. Interference is far from a traditional Who adventure - it does give the Doctor's history a major shake-up, but it's perfectly in keeping with the themes of the 8th Doctor's adventures. Not as light-hearted as Alien Bodies, but Interference is still packed with plot twists and surprises. Buy it.

Time Twisting Adventure 8 April 2000

By "the_sorcerer_bard"

Lawrence Miles not satisfied with killing off the Doctor and then selling his mortal remains in his novel Alien Bodies, he now plays havoc with the Doctor's third incarnation in this adventure which seems to take place in several diferent timestreams. Still it and part 2 are a great read.

Unwanted Interference.

After the dull, tedious Interference book one, comes.. the dull, tedious Interference book two. Although not badly written and certainly better than say Longest Day, the... Read more

Published on 12 May 2008 by Tim Allan

Unclear transmissions.

I was expecting this book to be an action packed, thrill a minute read. Instead it has been very slow and in suffers some major problems. Read more

Published on 25 April 2008 by Tim Allan

Still Too Much Interference

In the second part of this substantial tale, Fitz finds his loyalties slipping, the Faction finds and loses its way, the 3rd Doctor discovers that there is something to be said for... Read more

Published on 29 Dec 2003 by P. Baldowski

Too Much Interference

There are times when a character needs a good shake. Sylvester McCoy's last season was a shake-up. The final Virgin book 'Lungbarrow' posed some very awkward questions about the... Read more

Where is it actually going?

After reading book one I really couldn't see where this story was going. After reading book two I still couldn't see where this story was going. Read more

Published on 2 Dec 2001

Overhyped and Underachieving, but not bad.

Miles' story picks up from where we left off at the end of Inteference Book 1 - and it is all one story with no real separation, so don't even think of reading this book if you... Read more

Published on 30 April 2001

Great!

This story gives Doctor Who, series and concept, a timely kick up the arse. To describe the book as "insulting", as some reviewers have done is an act of lunacy. Read more

Published on 21 Mar 2000

Unacceptable and Insulting!

The Doctor's Third Regeneration ended when he faced the "Great One" when his body was destroyed by radiation in the caves of the blue crystals. Read more

Published on 7 Feb 2000 by Bret M. Herholz

Pretentious

Two books of pretentious rubbish, masquerading as a continuation of a much loved tv hero.

Characterisation that was non existant, prose that turgid beyond belief. Read more

Published on 24 Dec 1999

Doctor Who: Interference Book One (Doctor Who) [Mass Market Paperback]

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