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“The Price of Paradise: A Paradise Planet with Potential, but No Spark”

Colin Brake’s The Price of Paradise offers all the ingredients for a classic Doctor Who adventure: a paradise planet disrupted by monsters, a clash between natives and human explorers, and the Doctor stuck between two worlds, trying to save the day. Unfortunately, while the premise is sound, the execution leaves much to be desired.

The story revolves around the Laylorans, including a wise shaman and the young Kendel, alongside the spaceship Humphrey Bogart, led by Captain Petra Shulough and her small crew. The abridged audiobook, read by Shaun Dingwall (Pete Tyler in the TV series), takes its time introducing the extended cast before Ten and Rose enter the fray. Rose befriends a local while the Doctor ends up imprisoned by the human visitors, with both gradually unravelling the planet's mystery.

While the setup is promising, the characters and setting fail to truly come alive. The indigenous Laylorans are portrayed with familiar tropes—shamans, rituals, and a reverence for nature—making them feel more like generic stand-ins than a unique culture. There’s some amusement in Rose’s interactions with the locals, who struggle with human customs, but it’s not enough to lift the story.

The pacing also suffers, particularly in the first half, which drags as it sets the stage. The second half picks up slightly, but the sluggish narrative prevents it from gaining real momentum.

Brake does, however, introduce an intriguing idea: the entire planet as a sentient being, allergic to humans and fighting back through monsters and possessions. It’s a fascinating concept that sadly remains underexplored in the broader context of the story.

📝Verdict: 5.79/10

Ultimately, The Price of Paradise has flashes of creativity but fails to sustain interest, leaving it a middling entry in the New Series Adventures.

I’m not really sure how to start this review of The Price of Paradise and that’s because, unfortunately, I didn’t really enjoy it that much.

The BBC’s ‘new series’ novels have, it’s fair to say, been a bit of mixed bunch (of the one’s I have read so far). It’s hard to avoid the fact that they are clearly targetted at a younger readership than the EDAs, PDAs or any of the Virgin ranges. Of the one’s I have read, only a couple stood out and many seemed rather humdrum, pedestrian or a bit silly. The silliness usually stemmed from aliens who just seemed a bit childish. I can’t quite believe I’m writing this as I’ve been a staunch supporter of the opinion that Doctor Who’s success lies in the fact it is, by and large, a family show with child viewers very much in mind. But in prose, I suppose, this is an approach which, for me, doesn’t always work.

The Price of Paradise isn’t silly but it is rather pedestrian. I found myself quite unenthusiastic about picking up the book to continue reading and, as I’m not the quickest of readers anyway, this has lead to the book being rather dragged out (which probably didn’t help it’s cause). Some of you may wonder why I stuck with it if I wasn’t enjoying it but that’s for two reasons: 1) I rarely give up on a book even if I’m not enjoying it and 2) It’s Doctor Who – I’ll love it on some level.

And that second point is true. There were bits of this book I did like. The central conceit of a planet having an allergic reaction to non-natives is a fun one and there’s some relatively good character work for the guest cast. The Doctor and Rose are written well and Colin Brake, the author, doesn’t seem to have chosen to emulate the rather smug relationship between them that permeated Series 2. Seeing as this novel was published after Rose’s departure in Doomsday this could easily have happened but thankfully he seems to have steered clear. The Doctor could be said to be a little generic, but on the whole it’s fine.

The monsters of the piece, the Witiku, are a bit lacklustre – big and hairy with talons; but the revelation that they are the indigenous people transformed adds a slight edge to them. Aside from this, though, the locals aren’t painted as well as the visiting spacefarers with the exception of Rose’s new ‘boyfriend’, Rez. Brake puts more effort into the offworlders (of whom Rez is technically one) and we get three memorable characters in Rez, Kendle and Professor Shulough. Kendle, in particular, starts out as if he is going to be the usual, gruff, at the end of his career, military type but actually develops into something a bit more three-dimensional. Shulough, too, has some depth which is developed by her being around Rez which is only slightly undercut by a rather sentimental ending.

Overall, the story didn’t seem to have a huge amount of meat to it. The revelation about the Witiku comes quite early on and then there’s a bunch of toing and froing which never seems to amount to anything except some cliffhanger chapter endings which are quickly resolved on the next page.

Brake wrote The Colony of Lies, a 2nd Doctor novel. It was, much like The Price of Paradise, an okay book but, interestingly, it featured a not dissimilar plot. An alien planet; indigenous species, wolf-like monsters, spacefarers and the like. On the strength of these two stories, Brake is not an author I’m going to seek out or look forward to.

I thought this was fine. It was a quick read, but I don’t particularly like Rose. I would have appreciated a more concrete explanation around the Witiku rather than just the environmental symbolism and message.