Tag: doctor who

February Reads: Travels in Time (and Space); Surviving The Blitz

/ Gary Hilson

I’m not big on publicly declaring my New Year’s resolutions, but 2024 is all about more books and blogging, with a little less beer. (I highly recommend non-alcoholic Guinness).

After making progress tackling my TBR pile in the fall, I was overloaded with freelance writing assignments in late November / December that needed to be done by end of calendar year. It took me until February to get back to reading for pleasure. (On a side note, I’ve been diligent in my Daily Stoic readings, but that’s another post).

Anyone who follows me on Instagram knows I’m great at buying books, especially previously enjoyed copies in pristine condition. I’m also great at starting books right after I’ve bought them, usually in a nearby pub. But I’ve struggled to stick with a novel no matter how much I’m enjoying it given how much time I spend with the written word as a freelance writer covering complex topics such semiconductors. There’s not a lot of brain power left at the end of the day, so I usually end up streaming something to watch.

Reading is a muscle, and in the fall I was determined to get that muscle back in shape. Despite a lackluster January, I’ve got some momentum.

All Clear by Connie Willis

After discovering the Time Police series by Jodi Taylor late last year, I was tempted to go out and buy the next book. Instead, I decided to be financially responsible and quench my thirst for further time travel stories by finally reading Black Out by Connie Willis, which was already on bookshelf. Why I waited so long, I have no idea, and I was itching to read the sequel.

While Black Out spends a lot of time chronicling the mundane activities of our three time-travelling historians from Oxford in the future before fully embracing their shared predicament toward the end, All Clear is much more about creating peril beyond The Blitz itself. What is wrong with the drops that’s keeping Merope, Mike and Polly from returning home and why hasn’t anyone come looking for them? While All Clear could have been trimmed by about 100 pages, Willis’ choice to keep the characters involved in the period’s events while trying to figure out their fate makes the ultimate ending so much more satisfying.

It was also incredibly emotional – I was crying off and on for the last 100 pages as the mystery to why the historians were stranded in World War II London was solved. Having spent two sizable books with these characters – 1,100 words in total – I found myself missing them several weeks after finishing All Clear.

Goodnight from London by Jennifer Robson

Determined to read what I already owned, I had many options for my next read, including more Connie Willis and sequels to books I’ve read in the fall, including Arkady Martine’s A Desolation Called Peace, I opted to go with Goodnight from London because I enjoy book sets during World War II that are not directly about the war itself.

This is ultimately a romance novel, but like Willis, Robson has spent a lot of time doing research to make Goodnight from London historically accurate. The romance is a slow burn over the course of the war as American journalist Ruby Sutton navigates The Blitz, writing articles for a magazine and becoming more resilient as the war goes on. The supporting characters are well drawn, and I was sad when this book came to an end.

Hard Time / Saving Time by Jodi Taylor

I could only resist picking up the next Time Police series for so long, so I breezed through Hard Time and Saving Time back-to-back. Doing Time was all about introducing the universe (albeit an expansion of The Chronicles of St. Mary’s series) and the characters. Hard Time is a much more focused story that sees Luke and Jane teamed up to endure some serious peril, while Matthew makes decisions against orders on his own to save his friends.

I love the English humour and sensibilities in these books, as well as the world building. Plot elements from the first book that appeared to be isolated adventures have an impact in the sequels. As the members of Team Weird get closer to becoming full-blown Time Police officers, the stakes get higher, especially in Saving Time, and they must rise to the occasion. A fire-trucking good time, as Jane might say.

The Wheel of Ice by Stephen Baxter

I have a lot of unread media-tie in novels in the TBR pile and reading a Doctor Who novel seemed like a logical next book after two Time Police adventures. I’m guessing Baxter’s status as an established science fiction writer was why this book merited a hardcover release, but this story isn’t exceptional, although it is clever. The Wheel of Ice is a solidly entertaining outing with the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe, who are one my favourite TARDIS teams, and I was in the middle of rewatching their episodes starting with “The Mind Robber” through to “The War Games.”

While I was tempted to read another Who novel after this adventure – I’ve got a lot to pick from, including another adventure from the same era – I want to avoid getting locked into one author, style of writing or sub-genre of science fiction or fantasy.

New Acquisitions

I’m doing best not to add to the TBR pile, but I can’t resist picking up out-of-print Star Trek novels when I can find them. Growing up there was a new Star Trek book every month, alternating between and The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation. I want to reread many of those books from that era, while also reading those I missed afterward as I got busy building my career and moving around the country.

Gary Hilson is a freelance writer with a focus on B2B technology, including information technology, cybersecurity, and semiconductors.

Classic SF Series Foresees Reality TV [DVD Review]

/ Gary Hilson

The Doctor has promised Jo a holiday on Metebelis 3, but the TARDIS materializes not on the famous blue planet, but in the cargo hold of the SS Bernice, sailing to India in 1926. Despite all appearances, the Doctor insists that they are no longer on Earth, but Jo’s not convinced, at least not until a sea dinosaur attacks the ship…

One has to wonder if writer Robert Holmes was clairvoyant enough to see the dawn of reality television when he scripted Carnival of Monsters.

Even though it’s been 30 years since this Doctor Who adventure was conceived, it almost seems as though it was written as a commentary on the exploitation of people as entertainment.

In this 1973 four-parter, the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) attempts to take his companion Jo Grant (Katy Manning) to Metebelis 3 for a vacation, but instead the TARDIS finds itself on a sailing ship in 1926 on Earth. Of course, as it always happens in Doctor Who, nothing is as it seems, providing an entertaining adventure and some social commentary (albeit unintentional, perhaps) along the way.

“Haven’t you ever been to the zoo? Haven’t you ever kept goldfish in a bowl?” The Doctor asks Jo when he realizes they’ve got trapped in a “minascope” run by the traveling entertainer Vorg.

The Doctor, of course, is outraged that he and other creatures have been pulled from their native environment, miniaturized and obliviously held captive for the entertainment of others.

Carnival of Monsters is constrained by the technology of the era, but it’s still a lot of fun. The guest cast, including Ian Marter (who would go on to play Harry Sullivan) and Michael Wisher (the original Davros), all give fine performances, and the creativity despite the constraints put into the overall production is evident in every scene.

The Doctor Who DVD releases are always chock full of extras, and Carnival of Monsters is no different. The release includes a commentary by Katy Manning and director/producer Barry Letts, both of whom have very vivid and fond memories of the production.

There are also extended, deleted and alternate scenes as well as behind-the-scenes footage with the only disappointments being there are no introductions to provide context.

One particularly good extra feature is the explanation of CSO – color separation overlay – which was no doubt the precursor to blue screen (now green screen) technology now employed by special effects houses such as Industrial Light & Magic.

Ultimately, Carnival of Monsters endures because of its universal themes. Beyond the reality TV parallels, there is also a hint of anti-corporate sentiment, something echoed daily in Dilbert strips and found in the conversations of the alien Minorian officials:

“The latest thinking is that the latest outbreak of violence of the functionaries is caused through lack of amusement.”

“More anti-productive legislation.”

“Where will it end?”

This review originally appeared in the online publications Sci Fi Dimensions and Outpost Gallifrey. Gary Hilson is a writer, editor and digital media specialist for hire. He lives in Toronto.

Doctor Who: The Robots of Death [DVD Review]

/ Gary Hilson

DOCTOR WHO: THE ROBOTS OF DEATH
DVD / BBC Video / November 2000

“The Robots of Death” is a perfect example of how ageless Doctor Who is when it’s done well.

Originally aired in the late 70s, this four-part story featuring Tom Baker as the Doctor and Louise Jameson as his traveling companion Leela still holds up well when you take a hard look at the story, even if the sets and costumes look rather dated.

The Doctor and Leela arrive on Storm Mine 4, a “sandminer” trawling a desert planet for rare and value minerals. The miner is staffed by a skeleton crew of humans and a complement of robots that handle the mundane day-to-day chores.

When a member of the crew is murdered, no one believes it possible that a robot could have committed the crime – they have numerous fail-safes to prevent it – but of course the Doctor and his companion are immediately suspected of the crime.

What follows is a murder mystery as more crewmembers turn up dead, but also a complex tale that intelligently wonders how people will truly deal with artificial beings, especially when it’s impossible to judge what a robot might be thinking without the benefit of facial expressions and body language.

The supporting cast gives able performances, and the characters are reasonably well-developed. In fact, some are not what they originally appear to be, which adds to the who-dunnit story.

Tom Baker is really on his game as the Doctor, and Louise Jameson as Leela comes across as both simple as her savage upbringing dictates but intelligent at the same time – often plot points are explained through her questions to the Doctor about what’s going on.

As for the DVD extras, they’re average at best. The commentary by writer Chris Boucher and producer Philip Hinchcliffe provides an occasional interesting tidbit, but most of it doesn’t directly relate to the action on the screen and the mind quickly wanders.

Some of the features, such as the alternate beginning of episode one, studio plans and even photo galleries would be much more interesting with some description or commentary.

Overall, as Doctor Who stories go, Robots of Death is one of the best examples of how the series is still relevant in large part due to great storytelling.

Originally published on Outpost Gallifrey

Doctor Who: Four to Doomsday [VHS Review]

/ Gary Hilson

Doctor Who: Four to Doomsday
BBC Video / VHS / September 2001

High concept science fiction stories were a hallmark of the Peter Davison-era Doctor Who.

“Four To Doomsday,” an early fifth Doctor adventure now available on VHS in North America is no exception, but unfortunately it lacks the thrills and “edge” the SF series is renowned for throughout most of its run.

In this four-part story, the TARDIS materializes inside a vast starship with a multiracial crew from Earth’s distant past. Downloaded into computer chips are the memories of the three billion survivors of the Urbankan race, and the Earth is to be their new home. The Urbankans are led by Monarch, a giant green frog-thing, who wants to travel back to the Big Bang to meet God, who he is convinced is himself.

There are a lot of ideas floating around in Four to Doomsday, but none of them are really addressed in any sufficient depth. Neither are the Doctor’s companions for that matter – three companions in the TARDIS is just too many.

Adric is more annoying than Wesley Crusher, Tegan spends most of the time whining or hysterical, and Nyssa, the most levelheaded of the bunch, doesn’t really get much to do at all.

It’s also clear Davison is just getting the hang of his persona as the Doctor, as are the writers. Throughout the story, he comes off as sarcastic, rather than the compassionate, thoughtful Doctor in later stories.

The Urbankans are kind of neat to look at, but Monarch doesn’t seem to be that much of a threat, and while most Who episodes end with a cliffhanger, Four to Doomsday falls short on even those standard thrills. That BBC Video is scratching at the bottom of the barrel would be an exaggeration; however, Four to Doomsday is not best of the Davison era, nor the series as a whole.

Doctor Who: Escape Velocity [Book Review]

/ Gary Hilson

DOCTOR WHO: ESCAPE VELOCITY
By Colin Brake/BBC Books/February 2001

Escape Velocity is a combination of the new and the old. New because it takes place after the pivotal Ancestor Cell, and old, because despite being part of the new arc of Doctor Who novels, it’s basically a traditional Who story.

The Doctor has spent the last hundred years on Earth while his TARDIS heals. He’s not exactly himself either. His memory is full of holes, but he does have a note to meet Fitz, his companion, at a certain bar in London. For Fitz, it hasn’t been all that long, and he’s looking forward to seeing the Doctor again. Unfortunately, he gets sidetracked by a TV news story that hints of the Doctor’s presence in Brussels, and off he goes.

This serves to introduce Anji Kapoor, destined to be the Doctor’s new traveling companion. She’s on vacation with her boyfriend Dave in Brussels, and witnesses the death of a two-hearted alien. It isn’t the Doctor, but it is an alien. The trio’s investigation into the odd occurrences puts Dave at risk, and sends Anji and Fitz back to London to enlist the Doctor’s help.

The ensuing story involves two rival rich men vying to be the first private venture into space, while an alien fleet lies in wait to invade the earth. Aside from the changes the Doctor has undergone, this is a traditional Doctor Who story in every sense, with few surprises. Everything is tied up very nicely and predictably. It’s not badly written, considering it’s Brake’s first novel – he is an experienced TV writer (he was a script editor on the British series “Bugs”) – but there’s nothing new here.

The Doctor and Fitz are handled quite well, and to his credit, Anji Kapoor is a very likeable companion. Unfortunately, the rest of the characters are rather two-dimensional and follow paths that are contrived and all too familiar.

Not a great book, but a reasonably enjoyable light read.

Doctor Who: The Janus Conjunction [Book Review]

/ Gary Hilson

Doctor Who: The Janus Conjunction
By Trevor Baxendale / BBC Books / October 1998

“The planets Janus Prime and Meridia are diametrically opposed in orbit round a vast Red Giant star. But while Menda is rich and fertile in the light of the sun, Janus Prime endures everlasting night, its moon causing a permanent solar eclipse.

When the Doctor and Sam arrive on Janus Prime, they find themselves in the middle of a war between rival humans colonizing the area. The planet is littered with ancient ruins, and the Mendans are using a mysterious hyper-spatial link left behind by the planet’s former inhabitants. But what is its true purpose?

The Doctor and Sam must piece together a centures-old puzzle. How can Janus Prime’s moon weigh billions of tons more than it should? Why is the planet riddled with deadly radiation? As the violence escalates around them, will the time travelers survive to discover the answers?”

I really liked The Janus Conjunction because it doesn’t strive to be anything more than a straightforward Doctor Who adventure and succeeds.

The Doctor and Sam arrive on a planet, get separated, thrown in prison, get caught between two factions and have a puzzle to solve in the process. Nothing that hasn’t been done before, but it’s well executed. The guest characters don’t take over the story, but are well developed enough that their motivations are understandable, even the villains.

While the recent outing Seeing I had a lot to do about looking at the Doctor and Sam’s relationship in depth, here they are just Doctor and companion working together with really well-written dialogue. The Doctor is the Doctor I’ve always known in any regeneration: the hero that takes charge of the situation.

There’s nothing groundbreaking about The Janus Conjunction, but it’s very functional, entertaining and moves along briskly.

 

Doctor Who: Seeing I [Book Review]

/ Gary Hilson

Doctor Who: Seeing I
By Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman / BBC Books / June 1998

Sam is homeless on the streets of the colony world of Ha’olam, trying to face what’s just happened between her in the Doctor. He’s searching for her, and for answers. While she struggles to survive in a strange city centuries from home, the Doctor comes across evidence of alien involvment in the local mega corporation, INC – and is soon confined to a prison that becomes a hell of his own making.

Where did INC’s mysterious eye implants really come from? What is the company searching for in the deserts? What is hiding in the shadows, watching their progress?

Faced with these mysteries, separated by half a world, Sam and the Doctor each face a battle – Sam to rebuild her life, the Doctor to stay sane. And if they do find each other again, what will be left of either of them?”

I was expecting a lot from Kate Orman, who wrote some of my favorite New Adventures, but Seeing I doesn’t quite deliver in the end. However, it’s still well above average.

At the beginning of the book, Sam and the Doctor are already separated, so there is a lot of Sam development going on. In fact, she ages years, not days or months, in this story. Meanwhile, the Doctor is stuck in a prison that even he can’t escape.

For the first two thirds of the book, Seeing I is a departure from most Who novels as it explores the plight of the Doctor and his companion on a psychological level. However, the last third of the book turns into a straightforward Who adventure. That’s not to say it isn’t well done, but it doesn’t quite deliver the ending as promised with the earlier character trials.

All in all a definite must read.

Doctor Who: Dreamstone Moon [Book Review]

/ Gary Hilson

DOCTOR WHO: DREAMSTONE MOON
By Paul Leonard / BBC Books / May 1998

“Sam is on her own, but here distance from the Doctor doesn’t make for a trouble-free life. Rescued from an out of control spaceship, she finds herself on a tiny moon which is the only know source of dreamstone, a mysterious crystalline substance that can preserve or dreams – or give you nightmares.

 Pitched into the middle of a conflict between the mining company extracting dreamstone and ecological protesters, Sam thinks it’s easy to decide who the good guys are – until people start dying, and the killers seem to be the same species as some of her new friends.

 Meanwhile, the Doctor has tracked Sam down, but before he can reach her he’s co-opted by the Dreamstone Mining Company and their sinister military advisors. Suddenly, it’s war – and the Doctor is forced to fight against what he believes in. He alone suspects that Dreamstone isn’t what it appears to be. But nobody’s listening – and nobody could dream who the real enemy is…”

After my first BBC Books Doctor Who outing, The Eigtht Doctors, I really needed to read a *good* Doctor Who book. Dreamstone Moon by Paul Leonard didn’t quite deliver, but it wasn’t bad either.

First off this is a Sam book – the Doctor and his companion were separated several books ago, I assume. It isn’t entirely a bad thing because at this point I wanted to get to know the Sam character. But I also read Doctor Who novels to read about the Doctor, and role in the book is very wanting. When he does have scenes in the story, he doesn’t seem on the ball about anything.

The story itself is really predictable although quasi-interesting. It didn’t really grip. Nothing about it really did. The one observation I can make is that Paul Leonard is skilled at creating truly alien characters.

In the end, I don’t know if like Dreamstone Moon or not, so it’s probably worth deciding for yourself.

Doctor Who: Lungbarrow [Book Review]

/ Gary Hilson

Doctor Who: Lungbarrow
By Marc Platt / Virgin / March 1997

This is it folks. The last New Adventure to feature the Seventh Doctor.

Lungbarrow attempts to answer the main questions raised by the Sylvester McCoy incarnation of the Time Lord, which it does well for the most part.

A warning, however: this is a book you have to read carefully to understand the ending. I don’t think this is Marc Platt’s fault. In this case, I think it’s my own. A second run through cleared up most of the questions I had.

Some high points, besides explaining much about the Doctor’s origin, are the reappearance of past companions, including Ace, Leela and K9. The book also introduces the Doctor’s ‘family’, who play a key part in the story.

There were some disappointments, however. There’s a nice goodbye between Ace and the Doctor, but Chris Cwej sort of just disappears at the end. Bernice doesn’t even appear in the novel, so there’s no real closure between her and the Seventh Doctor, although she does play a major role in Lance Parkin’s The Dying Days, which introduces the Eight Doctor.

If there is one thing Lungbarrow illustrates, it is how the character of the Doctor has evolved since the The New Adventures debuted in 1991. Oh, the last page is a hoot too!

Originally published in The Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Resource Guide.

Doctor Who: The Dying Days [Book Review]

/ Gary Hilson

Doctor Who: The Dying Days
By Lance Parkin / Virgin / April 1997

The Dying Days is an apt title for the last New Adventure featuring the Doctor, in any incarnation. It’s a story of endings and beginnings, and unlike many of the NAs featuring the Seventh Doctor, this novel featuring the Eighth Doctor is a straightforward adventure story, reminiscent of the television series.

Bernice Summerfield is waiting for the Doctor to arrive at his house. He’s late, which Bernice thinks is rather unacceptable, since he is a Time Lord. When he does finally show up, he has changed a little.

So begins the story that will launch the continuing adventures of Bernice Summerfield, while the Doctor continues on in the new BBC line of books. Before the story ends, you will reacquaint yourselves with old friends such as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and the Ice Warriors.

Lance Parkin does a fine job with this novel, sticking to tried and true storytelling techniques, while incorporating elements from the FOX TV movie to maintain continuity.

The ending is rather interesting as well.

Originally published in the Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Resource Guide.