We all know the Doctor runs around overthrowing dictators, raising up the oppressed, and stopping colonization of already-inhabited worlds. But what happens when the colonizers decide to avenge themselves on the Doctor, and are prepared to wait nearly a thousand years for him? We find out when the Fourth Doctor takes Leela to visit the Heligan structure, a gigantic tree that floats in space and is home to people with names like Agony-Without-End-Shall-Be-The-Doctor's-Punishment. Though I rather like Aggie, and all the rest of her people, once the Doctor has convinced them to resist the tree's natural defenses. Well, not really natural.
It's rather like The Face of Evil, only this time the Doctor is cleaning up after one of his future selves. Which we can do, now that this Doctor is a past Doctor. I enjoyed it; it was a nice little Four-and-Leela romp; and now I need to get back to watching Romana regenerate.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Doctor Who Countdown: "The Nameless City" and "The Spear of Destiny"
Since I never got around to reviewing the Second Doctor estory, and just read the Third Doctor one, I figure I'll review them together.
In February's story, written by Michael Scott, the TARDIS has broken down on Earth, and Two has sent Jamie out to buy mercury and Zyton-7 for the fluid links. On his way back, Jamie saves an old man from being mugged, and receives an old book as a present. The best thing about the beginning of this story is that it's one big inside joke for people familiar with the Classics: the old man calls himself Professor Thascalos.
The book turns out to be the Necronomicon, and it allows the TARDIS to be stolen by the Archons, eldritch abominations with remarkably good taste in music. And this good taste proves to be their downfall, since--no, I've said too much already.
The one thing that bothered me about this story was its depiction of the Doctor and Jamie's relationship. There's an expository passage that says Jamie wondered at first whether he was a demon, but since has "accepted the Doctor as his new clan chief" or something like that. To my ears, this makes Jamie sound primitive--more like K9 than even Leela. That was unnecessary. To explain their relationship to the uninitiated, all you have to do is write in some clinging--which Scott did not do. Not once in the text of this story do the Doctor and Jamie ever touch each other. I was perfectly fine imagining the clinging for myself, but it would be nice if it were official.
In this month's story, by Marcus Sedgwick, Three and Jo have been asked by UNIT to find the source of a temporal distortion. It turns out to be Gungnir, the spear owned by the Norse god Odin, which might also have been the Spear of Longinus. (I like that Sedgwick isn't afraid to play with Christian mythology right along side the Norse kind.) But guess who else wants the spear. I'll give you a minute. Consider that this is set between "The Three Doctors" and "The Green Death."
I'm going to assume you guessed right and move on. The early part of the story is full of jokes about the Doctor's clothing choices and his inability to pilot the TARDIS; but once he lands in Sweden, it's a nice comfortable Three story, with a couple of clever twists--though one of them is temporal grace, and I'm not sure what to think about that.
The scene where the Master (yep) pilots the Doctor's TARDIS stuck in my head for some reason. I want to know whether the TARDIS really does like the Master, or just accepted his control for this one trip because she knew it would take her to the Doctor. The weird thing was, this was no more descriptive than the rest of the piece, and yet it's more vivid to me than the running gag about the Doctor's cape. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go sit down and thing about this.
In February's story, written by Michael Scott, the TARDIS has broken down on Earth, and Two has sent Jamie out to buy mercury and Zyton-7 for the fluid links. On his way back, Jamie saves an old man from being mugged, and receives an old book as a present. The best thing about the beginning of this story is that it's one big inside joke for people familiar with the Classics: the old man calls himself Professor Thascalos.
The book turns out to be the Necronomicon, and it allows the TARDIS to be stolen by the Archons, eldritch abominations with remarkably good taste in music. And this good taste proves to be their downfall, since--no, I've said too much already.
The one thing that bothered me about this story was its depiction of the Doctor and Jamie's relationship. There's an expository passage that says Jamie wondered at first whether he was a demon, but since has "accepted the Doctor as his new clan chief" or something like that. To my ears, this makes Jamie sound primitive--more like K9 than even Leela. That was unnecessary. To explain their relationship to the uninitiated, all you have to do is write in some clinging--which Scott did not do. Not once in the text of this story do the Doctor and Jamie ever touch each other. I was perfectly fine imagining the clinging for myself, but it would be nice if it were official.
In this month's story, by Marcus Sedgwick, Three and Jo have been asked by UNIT to find the source of a temporal distortion. It turns out to be Gungnir, the spear owned by the Norse god Odin, which might also have been the Spear of Longinus. (I like that Sedgwick isn't afraid to play with Christian mythology right along side the Norse kind.) But guess who else wants the spear. I'll give you a minute. Consider that this is set between "The Three Doctors" and "The Green Death."
I'm going to assume you guessed right and move on. The early part of the story is full of jokes about the Doctor's clothing choices and his inability to pilot the TARDIS; but once he lands in Sweden, it's a nice comfortable Three story, with a couple of clever twists--though one of them is temporal grace, and I'm not sure what to think about that.
The scene where the Master (yep) pilots the Doctor's TARDIS stuck in my head for some reason. I want to know whether the TARDIS really does like the Master, or just accepted his control for this one trip because she knew it would take her to the Doctor. The weird thing was, this was no more descriptive than the rest of the piece, and yet it's more vivid to me than the running gag about the Doctor's cape. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go sit down and thing about this.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Doctor Who Countdown: A Big Hand for the Doctor
So the BBC has commissioned eleven short stories, one per Doctor and one per month, leading up to the anniversary in November. I've decided to read all of them and review them. Just finished the first, "A Big Hand for the Doctor" by Eoin Colfer.
Colfer uses the same style for this as he does for the Artemis Fowl books, which I mostly enjoy very much. That said, I feel like his tendency to overexplain things to the reader is jarring in a Doctor Who story--this is an environment in which barely enough is usually explained. But at times the style seems to fit the First Doctor, who has lost his hand to bodysnatchers (neither the 456 nor Sao Til's species; something humanoid and much less clever). And it's the only Doctor I feel it would fit. So, good choice there.
I noticed a couple of factual inaccuracies--like the Doctor caring more about humans than you'd expect pre-Ian and Barbara--and a couple of things that were just plain weird--can you imagine the Doctor, any Doctor, saying "D'arvit"? Neither can I...well, maybe Eleven. But given what Colfer says in Artemis Fowl, it's both a little too obscene for the First Doctor, and something we shouldn't expect him to know.
But overall, the story was engaging, there were some great ideas behind it, and the epilogue made everything worth it. That little twist to literary history at the end (and no, I will not tell you what it is) is precisely in the tradition of Doctor Who. Thank you, Mr. Colfer, for tying everything up so beautifully.
Colfer uses the same style for this as he does for the Artemis Fowl books, which I mostly enjoy very much. That said, I feel like his tendency to overexplain things to the reader is jarring in a Doctor Who story--this is an environment in which barely enough is usually explained. But at times the style seems to fit the First Doctor, who has lost his hand to bodysnatchers (neither the 456 nor Sao Til's species; something humanoid and much less clever). And it's the only Doctor I feel it would fit. So, good choice there.
I noticed a couple of factual inaccuracies--like the Doctor caring more about humans than you'd expect pre-Ian and Barbara--and a couple of things that were just plain weird--can you imagine the Doctor, any Doctor, saying "D'arvit"? Neither can I...well, maybe Eleven. But given what Colfer says in Artemis Fowl, it's both a little too obscene for the First Doctor, and something we shouldn't expect him to know.
But overall, the story was engaging, there were some great ideas behind it, and the epilogue made everything worth it. That little twist to literary history at the end (and no, I will not tell you what it is) is precisely in the tradition of Doctor Who. Thank you, Mr. Colfer, for tying everything up so beautifully.
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