📝7/10 = ENJOYABLE!

Time Lording through time and space, one victory at a time!

VICTORY XVIII

All Flesh is Grass continues the Time Lord Victorious arc from where The Knight, The Fool, and the Dead left us. Una McCormack takes over the story and sends a Tenth Doctor, driven too far by his confidence, into battle against Eight, Nine, the Daleks, and some vampires.

What begins as a battle evolves into a story where the Doctors are forced into an uneasy alliance against the remaining Kotturuh and the Daleks, who try to use vampires to develop themselves into super-Daleks. This brings plenty of natural tension between the three incarnations. But it also means that the entire TLV stuff is sidelined for another Dalek plot to foil.

I really like how Ten continues being cocky and confident, while Eight tries to be the force of reason. Nine is well-written as more scarred after the Time War, even trying to get the Kotturuh to pass judgement on the Daleks.

We meet Inyit, the last of the Kotturuh, who greatly expands upon their function, and we learn why exactly it's dangerous to kill every Kotturuh in existence.

I love Brian's little solo operation towards the end of the book. Other than that, he appears way too little in this story.

This is an interesting take on a multi-Doctor story, but the middle of it sort of just spins the wheels until the climax, and it's not overly exciting. The book picks up tension once the Daleks finalise their experiment and the Kotturuh’s ultimate destruction nears.

The final battle is epic and has that season finale feel to it. It's great to see the three Doctors unite to save Gallifrey from the Daleks and their new Symbionts, even if Nine and Ten know that their planet is gone in their time.

If you follow the guide and read the second Eaglemoss story (Victory XX) before All Flesh is Grass, it will spoil the twist of Gallifrey being the Daleks’ Ultimate End for you.

This book is exactly what I wanted from it and more.

Big, blockbuster Who in novel form. The Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Doctor interactions are just as fun as you'd imagine, whilst also sticking true to their characters, and their individual experiences. The Ninth and Tenth Doctors, for example, understandably act different to the idea of saving Gallifrey in the Dark Times than the Eighth Doctor, who is unaware of what the Ninth and Tenth Doctors believed had happened to their home planet.

The Dalek action as ever is thrilling, and Brian The Ood proves once again to be a fantastic addition to the Whoniverse. Get that character on TV please!

This book certainly started off with a bang, the opening segment and conflict with the Doctors was just superb, unlike any multi Doctor story I've consumed before. I didn't know how the main event of TLV would be, but it was good. Lost me a little in the middle, but ultimately it was really a strong entry to this saga.

I think the 10th Doctor is very dark at the start, but he mellows far too quickly. I wish we got more of that, maybe at least half of it being him at his worst. The 9th Doctor was heartbreaking in this, seeing Gallifrey again and all those little references like 8 not knowing what's to come. I really appreciated this tying into other EU stuff with references to Charley and Romana being president.

I absolutely love Brian, hope we get more of him. Such a unique and interesting character, so funny too! The Daleks plot in this was unexpected, and SO Dalek. I really, really enjoyed this.

This carries on from the previous novel The Knight, The Fool and The Dead, so if you haven’t read that, there’ll be spoilers for it here.

The Tenth Doctor continues his quest in the Dark Times to end the Kottururh.

I was soo pleased by the end of the last novel: My questions had been answered. Ever since I listened to the Enemy of my Enemy audio, where, at the conclusion, the Eighth Doctor planned to go back to the Dark Times, I was quite looking forward to find out what happened. But somehow, never got there. With the Tenth being the protagonist of The Knight, The Fool and the Dead, I’d wondered how it had taken the Doctor so long to get there (maybe the time war had got in the way). But then just at the end not only did the Eighth turn up but so did the Ninth!

If you’ve read any other of my TLV reviews, you might know that I only planned to listen to the Big Finish audios. They barely touched on the story, which is why I then watched the Daleks! webcast, read these two novels, the BF short trips, and planned to get the Minds of Magnox audio book that follows this. I would definitely recommend doing some research if you plan to delve into the TLV series, I would have slotted things in differently.

This is definitely the other half of The Knight, the Fool and the Dead. Its the continuation of the same story, so you really need that to enjoy this.

Three Doctors! The Tenth, The Eighth and the Ninth. I don’t know much of how the Ninth Doctor got involved, I think there was a DWM comic that explains it (which I might look into (I did!)), but he comes along with the vampires. The Eighth, as I’ve heard the audios, arrives with Daleks. So including the Kotturuh, its three Doctors and three foes.

The different Doctors are written nicely - I can almost hear the different actors speaking the parts.  Though sometimes I did have to check which one was speaking - at the end of the day the Doctor is the Doctor. But even being a fan of Big Finish it was still a joy to have the other Doctors present.

You are quite worried by the Tenth Doctor in his determination to wipe out the Kotturuh (living up the the Time Lord Victorious name). The two previous Doctors have come to stop him, so Doctor against Doctors. Even then, there’s still the issues of Daleks in the Dark Times to deal with.

As with the first novel I enjoyed it - plenty going on. Brian the Ood, as ever is on hand to help. Having listened to Mutually Asssured Destruction its nice to have things fall into place, though as I said, if I’d of thought about it I would have read this prior to it.

At the time of writing, June 25, its available for download for 99p so not a bad price.

Although the novel is an enjoyable read, and it is nice to see the three Doctors interacting, the plot here is extremely convoluted and is not a very satisfactory end to the Time Lord Victorious story arc.

All this had been building towards the Tenth Doctor changing the future and challenging death because of his misplaced ego, and the first novel was very effective in continuing that narrative. The main plot point was that killing the Kotturuh would change reality as we know it, granting infinite lifespans to races who should have died - but then, the Kotturuh all die.... and nothing happens? And then there is a last Kotturuh, whose death might open the gates of death... but it doesn't? 10 vaguely says sorry and everyone goes home? What was the point, really? The doctors team up to defeat the Daleks, but the act of actually committing genocide on the Kotturuh has absolutely no consequences. The cliffhanger of the previous novel is rendered null.

I did enjoy the Ninth and Tenth Doctor seeing Gallifrey one last time, and all the schemings of the Daleks - which somewhat make sense, although why they would ever accept this Vampire/Dalek hybrid I'm not sure.

I'll keep on listening to and reading the last few TLV stories, but this is clearly meant as the big conclusion, and it does not make the myriad stories before it feel earned of worthwhile.

P.S.: there being no common characters between Monstrous Beauty and this novel is a shame; the fact that Rose is written off as recovering on a far-off planet is a cop-out; the Eighth Doctor being written and described as his movie incarnation but depicted on the cover(s) as his NotD incarnation is very strange; the Kotturuh barely mattering in the end is also very strange... All in all, although I understand the will to have every story stand on its own, what happens when you read and listen to them all is that nothing fully makes sense and plot ploints/side characters are dropped left and right.