Doctor Who: Nightdreamers (Doctor Who Novellas) [Hardcover]

NIGHTDREAMERS is what you'd get if you went back in time and handed William Shakespeare an elementary Physics textbook, a kiddie version of the Grimm's Fairy Tales, and a crack-pipe. This book is as goofy as all get out. I liked it, but it's possible that you would have to be in the mood to read something as wacky as this. It's a very fine line between outrageous fun and tedious illogic, and I can definitely see how others could hate this. Personally, this was just what I was in the mood for, so it worked for me. Every time I turned a page, I'd think, "Well, the story can't possible get any goofier" only to be proved wrong yet again. Maybe if I read it a second time in a different frame of mind, I wouldn't have the same reaction. But at least I would know what I was in for.

The story has a very fairy tale feel to it. It's about royal families and magical demons. The prose has a childlike quality. Yet, despite these characteristics, it doesn't quite succeed at being a fairy tale, as there simply isn't enough death, destruction and random violence. Traditional fairy tales are much darker, much more grisly than this. This is like a Disney-extreme version, resulting in something that lacks the edge of its basis. It seems to be written at a young child's level, but I'm not sure that kids wouldn't feel they were being talked down to. I imagine this is an attempt at being a nostalgia version of a fairy tale -- the pleasant, happy stuff, from an adult point of view where all the darker elements have been forgotten.

Still, if the book isn't a successful fairy-tale, I did find it hugely entertaining. Maybe it was just the mood I was in, but I was laughing like someone who needs locking up. The third Doctor is, of course, the perfect foil to the bizarre unnatural behavior going on around him. Monsters are roaming the woods, princesses need rescuing, and the Doctor is wandering around mumbling about his sonic screwdrivers and his physics. It's a hoot! This sort of thing would be unbelievably awful if expanded out to novel length, but it's much easier to keep up this spoof insanity for the mere one hundred and five pages that this story lasts.

Ultimately, I really enjoyed NIGHTDREAMERS as a celebration of style over substance. In other words, it's got a lot of goofy style, but absolutely no substance at all. I laughed a lot, though to be perfectly honest, I don't know whether I was laughing with it or at it. Was I was meant to be amused by some of the action adventure clichés or was I somehow expected to take this nonsense seriously? There's absolutely nothing original about anything here, the only question is whether these particular stock pieces have been ripped off exactly this sort of way before. I can't fathom what the author was attempting, but the result just entertained me. Judging by Katy Manning's foreword (where she talks about losing her house keys, visiting her mother, being evicted from her apartment, and, oh yes, says a few words at the end about the book), she didn't quite know what to make of it either. And, paradoxically, despite the fact that I can't think of a single story like this one, this is probably the most faithful print recreation of the Third Doctor era that I can think of. Go figure.