Eighth Doctor Adventures #12 - "Seeing I" by Kate Orman

Throughout my journey through the EDAs, I have heard the name of one book whispered over and over again: Seeing I. Through the annals of fandom it rings, like a deathly bell, calling me, pulling me in with promises of “just get to Seeing I”. And my verdict, now I have arrived at this oh so beloved podium of Doctor Who? Yeah, it’s pretty good. I honestly can’t remember Orman and Blum’s previous effort - Vampire Science - so going into Seeing I, I had no idea if it would live up to the expectations that had been set for me but I’m happy to say that everybody was right, this is a fantastic bit of Doctor Who. But is it one of the greatest to ever do it? I think that remains to be seen.

Sam is alone, stranded on an alien world with no way home. Her only option is to make a new life for herself. But following her is the Doctor, who’s about to find that his mission isn’t as simple as he thought. Trapped in two separate lives, can the pair reunite themselves?

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

I have a very complicated relationship with Sam Jones. With a dull, plain characterisation that I struggle to pin down, she’s been a thorn in my side throughout the EDAs and really, the only thing keeping me from being more invested in them. Now, I’ve written that exact paragraph in just about every review I’ve made for this series but that’s for good reason because she’s so intrinsic to the range and yet is so utterly dull. I had hoped the Finding Sam arc would finally, properly cement her as an interesting companion for me but before I read Seeing I, it more just seemed like Longest Day was trying to do that and nothing else. Thankfully, as I was promised, Orman and Blum eclipse that book ten fold. I liked Sam in this book. I really liked her. Her character finally clicked for me and she was genuinely an interesting lead, which is good considering she takes up half the book’s page count. I finally saw shades of her determinism, her impulsiveness, her inability to deal with defeat, her regret over the Doctor, her relative immaturity slowly washed away by the hardships of life. Between this and Longest Day, I think the only way for me to really like Sam is if the writer traumatises her. Sam spends three years alone in this book, three years away from the Doctor and you can see in real time her grow into a more nuanced character. I loved seeing her activism slowly grow more bold, her friendships slowly deepen. I loved the realistic portrayal of a little life, of the failed relationships and the messy arguments and pulling yourself up when life f**ks you over. This is by far my favourite use of Sam but I have to admit, I still felt that familiar boredom in some places. Mostly in the third act, when the book turns into a much more familiar Doctor Who adventure, I started to lose interest in her again but I really don’t understand why. There’s just something about her that pushes me away, I can’t understand it. But for 90% of this book, Sam works, which I really appreciate.

But do you know who else works? The Doctor! I see what EDA fans mean when they talk about him getting tortured constantly because sweet Jesus is this book brutal to him. So, early on in his search for Sam, the Doctor gets thrown in a bizarre prison with no defences and little security. However, he can’t break out; everytime he gets close, he is inexplicably caught or something randomly goes wrong, he is utterly trapped. And he remains trapped for three entire years. This book does not pull punches, it fully dives in head first and refuses to shy away from some uncomfortable material. I love Doctor Who stories that take place over long stretches of time because it always makes the plot that much more impactful and this is absolutely no exception. Orman and Blum could’ve easily made this take place over six months and it would’ve been fine but those three years, which grow throughout the book with the dread-inducing realisation of just how long our characters have been stranded, make Seeing I so much more disturbing. And that’s saying nothing about the plot itself, which is some brilliantly tense stuff; the Doctor’s slow loss of sanity is palpable and he’s presented with a vulnerability we’ve never really seen before, made possible through some pitch perfect characterisation. The despair this part of the book exudes is incredible and was easily my favourite section. However, I think the conclusion is where my first real problem with this book lies.

The first two thirds of the novel switch between Sam living on Ha’olam and the Doctor being stuck in prison, with the third act having them reunite and fight an alien menace together. And in my opinion, those first two thirds are leagues better than the third, being both more original and more interesting than the somewhat generic alien invasion stuff towards the end. However, I will say that the pacing all the way through can be iffy. The Doctor’s subplot is paced super well, you can really feel the passage of time and the death of hope but Sam’s is a lot weaker. It’s not bad, per say, but it took me a lot longer to get into that part of the book than the other and a lot probably could’ve been cut out. A lot happens to Sam and she meets a lot of characters, who all go by at the speed of light; her sections definitely could’ve used some trimming. But the real problem is the divide between the first two acts and third one, because there’s such a weird change in momentum here. Basically, with little build up, Sam finds out the Doctor’s in prison and breaks him out; fine, sure it’s a little anticlimactic and probably could’ve been fleshed out more but it’s inoffensive. However, everything after that feels messy and disconnected from the rest of the book, with changes in setting, tone and antagonist.

But something that persists throughout the whole novel and is definitely its saving grace is character. I’ll talk in a second about why I think the conclusion holds this book back for me, but I’m not going to lie and say it wasn’t still super strong, especially when exploring the relationship between the Doctor and Sam. The emotional beats in this novel hit like trucks and are an incredibly satisfying pay off to twelve books of build up, nicely tying off Sam’s attraction to the Doctor and the original dynamic which has now been subtly reworked, with a more mature and dynamic Sam. There’s one particular scene in the TARDIS’ butterfly room (when do we get that in the show, Russell?) that stands out to me, with some brilliant dialogue and wonderful imagery. 

However, outside of these two, the story begins to go off the rails a bit. The Doctor has been rescued and he and Sam are back together, ready to take down INC, only for the realisation that an alien species is about to invade the planet to completely change the plot. It doesn’t really work for me and this section feels a lot more generic than the rest, not to mention unconnected with very few themes or antagonists carrying over. I also think our alien species this time around - the I - aren’t very interesting, mostly because they’re barely explored. There’s some great imagery surrounding them and a couple fantastic ideas, such as them planting alien technology on a planet and then harvesting it once the population has improved upon it, but not enough for them to feel like more than an ambiguous alien threat. Also, we had an antagonist already - INC, the megacorporation, remember? They’re just kind of swept under the rug without ever really growing as a threat, which I find a great disappointment. The story also leaves them on a weird note; they spend the whole book gaslighting the Doctor into making him believe all the hurt and pain that’s been going on has been his fault and that never really gets resolved, kind of leaving their excuses as the resolution to that plot, which rubs me the wrong way a little. The third act isn’t bad, but it’s definitely messy with too much going on and a much weaker story than the rest of the book.

Which is probably why I can’t confidently call Seeing I the masterpiece everybody else considers it to be. Its character work is second to none from what I’ve seen from this range so far, but there’s one too many problems for me to really love it. But that undersells how much I enjoyed this book, it is truly fantastic and Orman and Blum have a wonderful voice to them that I’m very interested in seeing (heh) more of. This definitely feels like a little bit of a soft reboot for this range and I’m looking forward to what comes next. Onwards and upwards, I suppose.

9/10

Pros:

+ Incredible use of Sam

+ Eight is characterised beautifully and gets some wonderful development

+ The world is rich and detailed

+ Emotional moments are well thought and and impactful

+ The prison subplot was incredibly tense and well paced

Cons:

- The pacing could be ironed out in places

- The third act feels messy and almost entirely detached from the rest of the book

- Weak and underexplored antagonist