Doctor Who: Bunker Soldiers (Mass Market Paperback)

The story is sound, and while yes I agree with another reviewer on this page that Steven is perhaps a little blandly characterised, the Doctor comes wholly to the fore. One can just imagine Hartnell giving it his all! This is the best 1st Dr novel yet published. Better even than The Plotters or The Witch Hunters. Buy It!!!!

This is a thoroughly entertaining novel set during a period of history I knew very little about, so I ended up learning as I was reading - always an added bonus whilst reading.

The majority of the story is written from the perspective of the Doctor's companion, Steven Taylor, which is another point in the novel's favour, as first-person narrative always goes down well with me. One thing that I found odd was that, although we're privy to Steven's thoughts, we don't actually find out anything about him. 'Who' fans will know that he's a space pilot from Earth's future, but he could just as well be a binman from the twentieth-century, his character is so lacking in this book. But that's a minor grumble at best.

Fans of the Doctor's historical adventures should not be disappointed with this novel despite the rather jarring scenes with the eponymous alien 'bunker soldier' which the city's inhabitants view as their guardian angel against the Mongol hordes. A welcome addition to the 'Past Doctors Adventures' range.

It's considerably better than his previous solo effort, but the book is still severely flawed. Having the book narrated by Steven is actually a refreshing change, but the character is bland and although Day tries hard to make him interesting, he's fighting a loosing battle. After the excellent use of this TARDIS team in Steve Lyons 'Salvation' Day's use of Dodo is not good. She doesn't really seem like much of a character here, and he fails to build on the character that Lyons built for her in his book. The best character here is the Doctor, and here Martin Day has succeeded spectacularly. This is the Doctor as William Hartnell played him, and the scenes involving the Doctor were the best within this novel.

The most significant fault of the book though, is although the plot is interesting with good ideas, the execution is not good. Very little appears to happen within the first hundred and eighty pages or so, apart from explaining the frustrations of the TARDIS crew as to their situation. When Day does begin advancing the plot the book picks up well and the last hundred pages are a joy.

There are a lot of First Doctor books better than this one (notably Salvation and the Plotters) but this book would have been a lot better with better characterisation for Steven and Dodo and with better pacing. Martin Day manages to capture the first Doctor perfectly, and has produced a good last hundred pages and these features are the books redeeming qualities.