Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Marvellous !, 28 April 2000
I thoroughly enjoyed this, and am sorry that the novel seems to have attracted so much negative attention. In my opinion, the book is an excellent introduction to the Paul McGann incarnation of our favorite Time Lord, following the events of the 1996 TV Movie. Admittedly nostalgic, I thoroughly enjoyed the revisiting past Doctors, and agree with another reviewer that the rapport between the Sixth and Eighth Doctors deserves to be revisited, perhaps in a novel of their own ? All in all, well done Mr Dicks !
|
|
|
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Has its moments, 3 Jan 2007
This was the first of the BBC's series of Eighth Doctor books (the book-of-the-TV-film apparently being in a different category). I had read one of these before and was not madly impressed. Here, however, we are on comfortable ground; Terrance Dicks' record of writing more Doctor Who novels and novelisations than anyone else is unlikely to be surpassed any time soon.
Though it really ought to be called Doctor Who and the Heroic RetCons. Dicks uses the opportunity of creating a new fictional environment for the Eighth Doctor to try and iron out some of the grosser continuity problems left by both the Eighth Doctor TV film, and the Trial of a Time Lord (and also a wee bit of clearing up from The Five Doctors, which I think I must try and watch again soon). Sensibly, rather than pull all eight Doctors together (he had after all written The Five Doctors and was script editor for the programme at the time of The Three Doctors) he has the Eighth Doctor dropping in on his predecessors at various points of the programme's established timeline.
The most effective piece of writing in the book is a description of the Third Doctor chasing the Master across southern England after his escape from prison in The Sea Devils. The least convincing bit is actually the characterisation of the Eighth Doctor himself. Lance Parkin got this rather better in his Dying Days, the last of the Virgin New Adventures, the last before Peter Darvill-Evans and Rebecca Levene cruelly had the franchise removed from them; in Terrance Dicks's hands, he comes across as rather like the Third Doctor, but a little less arrogant. On a tangent, I was interested that Dicks chose to place the Fourth Doctor encounter with the Eighth in the world of his vampire story, State of Decay, and its novel sequel.
Anyway, the fun bits outnumber the embarrassing bits, just about. Certainly worth reading for a sense of where the BBC thought the Eight Doctor might lead them, and also for the heroic retconning. I still feel no desire whatever to catch up with the Trial of a Time Lord season.
|
|
|
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A SUPERB READ, 20 Feb 2001
This book is probably one of the best Doctor Who novels I have read. When I first saw the title I assumed it would be the Doctor's past incarnations all meeting. The way it written was very skilled. The eighth Doctor meeting his past incarnations in various adventures was fantastic. My favourite part of the book is the third Doctor segment. After the Doctor and Jo have defeated the Sea Devils the story takes place when the Master steals the Hovercraft and returns to Devils End where his TARDIS is under the rubble of the destroyed church. Also another part is when the Master, after fleeing from the planet of the Cheetah people, lands on a savage planet and takes the death worm. A mystery unsolved as I wondered why the Master had been EXTERMINATED by the Daleks in the Doctor Who movie. All part of a cunning plan. The only let down of the book is the introduction of Sam Jones. I think after their first encounter in Totters Lane, Sam should have had some action in the story rather than just storming through the police box doors. After all she'd probably only met the Doctor for ten minutes in their last encounter. A great start to the eighth Doctor novels.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by John Peel
by Paul Leonard
by John Peel
by Terrance Dicks
by S. Bucher-Jones
