Return Of The Seventh Doctor..., 27 Jul 2001

Certainly the way the book was structured reminded me very much of Andrew Cartmel's 'Cat's Cradle: Warhead' as the Doctor here hardly features in the first two thirds of the novel, but although his appearances are kept to the minimum they have great impact on the story. This is the Seventh Doctor of the New Adventures here (even down to the cream suit.) Dark, manipulative and someone whom Sarah has a hard time believing is the same person who was once her friend McIntee characterises the Doctor well despite the infrequency of his appearances. I've criticised the previous PDA 'Rags' for it's lack of involvement of the Doctor, but the same accusations shouldn't be made against 'Bullet Time' as it feels right to have this Doctor working in the background and out of sight to his own motivations and reasons.

Sarah Jane Smith was one of the best companions throughout the television series, and therefore it's surprising that since the BBC began publishing Doctor Who books that she hasn't featured at all apart from a cameo appearance in 'Millennium Shock' and her role in 'Interference.' McIntee gets her character right and shows her doubts about this version of the Doctor well so they come across as very believable.

A lot seemed to happen in this novel and although this was adequately explained throughout, it did give the book a very cluttered feel. Perhaps if it had been a little longer then this could have been avoided. There are some interesting characters throughout the book and it's good to see a different branch of UNIT to the regular British version with the appearance of UNIT-SEA. It was a shame that some poor editing marred the book slightly (witness the Lieutenant who becomes a Captain a few pages later with no explanation for the promotion) but aside from these minor complaints, there wasn't much w