12 - The Pit

This is definitely the worst-written prose I’ve seen from the VNAs so far, and I have the least to say about it.  There’s nothing offensive in this one like Timewyrm: Genesys, but some sections made me laugh with how inept they were, with the short, choppy sentences often deflating any kind of emotion Penswick was trying to invoke.

To kick off this adventure, Benny asks the Doctor if she can visit the Seven Planets, which mysteriously disappeared before she was born.  The duo are quickly plunged into a scattered narrative featuring a group of androids, two shapeshifters, a nuclear weapon nicknamed Pandora’s Box, and an offbeat political drama.  None of these plot threads really go anywhere, and none feature the Doctor, who is plunged into a hellish underworld for most of the story.  There, he meets 19th century poet William Blake, who travels with him to Victorian London and present-day Wiltshire.  The parts with the Doctor and Blake are by far the most entertaining sections of this book, but they’re few and far between.  Most of the story focuses on Bernice’s escapades with the androids, and on the characters Carlson, Brown, and Kopyion as they investigate a series of murders.  At the end of the story, the Doctor re-emerges and is captured by Kopyion, who reveals himself to be a figure from Gallifreyan history.  The Seven Planets were the site of a conflict involving the Yssgaroth (or the Great Vampires), and Kopyion detonates Pandora’s Box to ensure that the gateway to their dimension remains closed.  Benny is left shaken, questioning the Doctor’s refusal to interfere.  This ending would be emotionally powerful if it was written well, but unfortunately it just... isn’t.

The Pit is very skippable for anyone who isn’t a completionist; on top of the poor prose, it is so overstuffed with half-baked plot threads that I considered moving on to Deceit halfway through.  I can’t be too angry about it, though; from what I can tell, Neil Penswick never wrote for Doctor Who again, and has spent his life working in child protective services and as a social worker, and he seems like a lovely man.  To quote The Pit itself: “Things didn't seem to matter anymore. He thought about the words in the Book. Just words.”  Time to move on.

05 - Cat’s Cradle: Time’s Crucible

This story was exactly what I was looking for from a Doctor Who novel - it’s esoteric, bizarre, time-bending, and introduces some wonderful world-building that will come into play later, giving us a look into Gallifrey’s past.  While not remotely approachable for newer Who fans, I found it to be an excellent installment in the franchise!

As these novels are prone to do, we start in two places at once.  A monstrous worm-like being called the Process invades the TARDIS, causing it to begin falling apart before the Doctor and Ace’s eyes.  At the same time (but also far in the past), a small group of telepathically-linked Gallifreyan adventurers begin one of the planet’s first experiments in time and space, before crashing into the TARDIS and landing in a vast silver city.  Ace lands in the same city, and before long she realizes that it loops back on itself, containing three time zones in one.  She meets the Gallifreyans at two different points in time, and before long she realizes that the city is none other than the TARDIS itself, inverted so that it is bigger on the inside in time instead of space!  Can Ace find the Doctor and set the TARDIS - and Gallifrey’s past - back on track?

Marc Platt really excels here with his descriptions of a world where the laws of time are flipped on their head.  In particular, he paints a picture of a city contained within a hollow sphere that ripples and bends as the TARDIS collapses, nearly two decades before Inception would make use of similar visuals  For the first time, Platt also allows us to see into the depths of Gallifrey’s history; the planet is ruled by a line of clairvoyant queens called Pythias, while a young Rassilon threatens to topple the old order.  The last Pythia uses her psychic abilities to possess one of the young Chronauts, but the Doctor thwarts her plans as he rebuilds his TARDIS, thus ensuring that Rassilon becomes her successor instead.

Time’s Crucible was originally pitched for the 6th Doctor (Colin Baker) as part of season 22, but the script was rejected for being too ambitious to work on-screen.  I completely agree, and I think it’s a story better suited for prose, where its world isn’t constrained by a BBC budget.  I definitely recommend this story, and it’s a strong start to the Cat’s Cradle “trilogy.”

11 - The Highest Science

[Note: Gareth Roberts, the author of The Highest Science, is a bad person.  Although I liked this book and recommend it, this review isn’t an endorsement of him or anything he’s said.]

After saving humanity from the horrors of efficient public transportation, the Doctor detects a temporal anomaly known as a Fortean flicker and is drawn to a nondescript planet called Hogsuum, where he finds he is far from alone.  The flicker has caused several parties to converge upon Hogsuum: a train full of passengers from 1993, three young men on their way to a music festival in 2112, and a turtle-like race of warlike aliens called Chelonians.  The Doctor becomes embroiled in the conflict between the 20th-century group and the Chelonians, before his life is saved by the arrival of a spaceship containing a band of criminals.  This is a big ensemble cast, and one of the immediate challenges of a book like this is how it balances and interweaves the various subplots.  I found that The Highest Science did this somewhat well, popping between several perspectives - including the villainous Chelonians - as it slowly becomes clear that the criminals are treasure-hunters led by the notorious Sheldukher, searching for the lost planet of Sakkrat and its mysterious technological secrets known only as “the Highest Science.”

This is an intriguing premise; we have a legendary planet woven throughout many cultures, with the promise of an intergalactic Philosopher’s Stone for whoever finds it.  Roberts also taps into the culture of urban myth, with the character Molassi’s obsession with the rock band Zagrat mirroring real-life theories such as the Publius Enigma.  Most interestingly, the entire legend is caught in a bootstrap paradox!  Sheldukher stole a lifeform (called “the Cell”) that he thinks will help him find Sakkrat, and the planet has been constructed as a perfect trap.  The creators of the Cell did not know when Sheldukher would arrive, so they wrapped their machines in a slow-time field, which then malfunctioned and created the Fortean flicker.  The anomaly, in turn, created the legend of Sakkrat in the first place, completing the loop.  Who wrote Beethoven’s fifth, indeed!  I love this idea, since it puts a timey-wimey twist on what would be a standard MacGuffin (which never existed in the first place!  A myth within a myth!)

My main criticism of this book is that it consists of two plots which are largely disconnected apart from the Doctor’s involvement.  The first is the Sakkrat plot, which I found to be far more interesting, and the second is the conflict between the Chelonians and “eight twelves,” which was later partially adapted into Roberts’ TV script Planet of the Dead.  I think this story would benefit from some slimming down, maybe by replacing the present-day train with another group interested in the Highest Science.  To be fair, I’m assuming Roberts plans to return to this narrative later in the VNAs, given that the Doctor freezes the Chelonians and humans in time at the end of the story, so I wouldn’t say I find that subplot completely unnecessary.  The first half is slower-paced as a result of the split plot, which made this a less entertaining read than it could have been before the climax.

I definitely recommend this story for newer VNA readers, since it’s probably the closest the series has gotten to the tone of McCoy’s TV range but still brings its own fresh ideas.  I’m sure there’s more good stuff to come in The Pit...

10 - Transit

I completely understand why this book seems to be so polarizing.  Reading other reviews, it seems that many fans have problems with the sex scenes and explicit content, which does get graphic at times.  Although I do have some problems with Transit, I personally didn’t mind the sexual stuff, since I’ve gotten used to the VNAs being edgy at times, but I don’t blame anyone for hating it.

By far my favorite part of this book is the worldbuilding.  Aaronovitch envisions a 22nd century human race that has conquered the solar system and constructed a massive interplanetary transit system.  Characters quickly flit back and forth between a number of settings on Earth, Mars and Pluto, and Aaronovitch makes sure to focus on the cultural diversity of the resulting interconnected society.  As in Cat’s Cradle: Warhead, we see the soft underbelly of humanity in the form of the neglected Plutonian slum known only as “The Stop,” where Benny finds herself after being separated from the Doctor.  The book’s conflict results from an Icarus moment; humanity tries to harness forces it doesn’t understand in the name of progress, lets an abstract entity through from another dimension, and chaos ensues. I love the setting, and by the end of the first half of the story I was itching for more!  The Doctor’s pseudo-companion for this story is Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart, the Brig’s adoptive great-great-granddaughter, and she was also a highlight of the story.  A genetically engineered student with a mysterious past and promising theories of time travel, she reminds me a bit of Zoe Heriot, and would make an interesting futuristic protagonist even without her familiar last name.

Unfortunately, this story has some cracks in its foundation that widen to massive canyons in its second half.  Having just left Ace in Love and War and begun his travels with future archaeologist Bernice Summerfield, the Doctor’s psyche (and Benny’s) should be a major focus of the story.  We do get some references to Ace - still not as much as I’d have liked - but Benny gets it even worse!  She’s possessed by the entity for most of the story, like Sarah Jane in “The Hand of Fear,” so we don’t learn much about her - even though this is the perfect setting for her area of expertise, given that it’s in her past but our future!  Aaronovitch seems to have made up for the lack of Benny by having the Doctor chase after multiple fake Bennies created by the entity instead, but this just acts as padding and lasts far too long.  The cosmic horror aspects of the first half also fall away past a certain point, and I think I would have preferred a more abstract ending.

I do recommend Transit for fans who find the setting interesting, but if I were to reread it I think I’d stop at the end of Part One.  Definitely a huge step down from Love and War, but basically anything would be.

02 - Timewyrm: Exodus

Terrance Dicks’s second installment in the New Adventures delivers in every way that Genesys failed, bringing the Doctor and Ace to Nazi Germany for a time-hopping adventure that would have been far too spicy for TV.

After leaving ancient Mesopotamia, the Doctor and Ace land in another classic trope of time-travel fiction: a Nazi-occupied Britain in the early 1950s.  The Seventh Doctor really shines here; he effortlessly takes the role of a Nazi official sent from Berlin, demanding authority so convincingly that even Ace is alarmed.  Following some intel gathering in 1951, the duo takes a brief hop to 1923, where the Doctor befriends a young Adolf Hitler to gain his trust.  Having learned that the timeline diverges in 1940, he then uses his connection to the Fuhrer to worm his way into his inner circle, where he discovers the involvement of not one but two alien races!  The Timewyrm is trapped in Hitler’s mind, but the War Lords (from 1969’s The War Games) have arrived as well, hoping to assist Hitler for their own ends.

There are some truly great timey-wimey ideas thrown around in this story, and Uncle Terry explores most of them in a way the reader will find satisfying.  Ace asks the obvious question - why not just kill Hitler?  Not only would a Nazi victory be stopped, but millions of deaths would be prevented.  The Doctor counters with a famous line of logic; had Hitler died in the 1930s, a more competent subordinate would have taken his place, and perhaps would have wreaked even more havoc.

Unfortunately, Exodus fails to connect to the Timewyrm arc to the extent that the authors intended.  The story, while brilliant, seems only to include the Timewyrm herself as an afterthought, shoving her into the middle of an unrelated alien plot in a way that some readers may find contrived.  However, it’s still a very fun read, and is a prime example of the sort of story that the franchise can explore now that it is free from the restrictions of family TV.

01 - Timewyrm: Genesys

I had several people warn me about this book when I first decided to start the VNAs, and I can't say their warnings were unwarranted!  To put it lightly, this was not a great start to the series; having read the next two installments at the time of writing, I’m glad that it quickly recovers.

Let's start with the positives (because there are some!).  The Epic of Gilgamesh is an excellent setting for the first entry in a new chapter of the Doctor Who franchise - for the first official full-length novel, it’s only fitting that the Doctor and Ace should plunge into one of the oldest stories in the written record.  The character of Enkidu is particularly interesting - the “wild man” who becomes Gilgamesh’s friend in the original story is recontextualized as a wayward Neanderthal, who suffers from profound loneliness due to the knowledge that he is the last of his people.

However, for a story that should focus on new beginnings, Genesys seems to have an obsession with meaningless references to its parent show, as if to reassure the reader that yes, this is in fact Doctor Who, please stick around!  The call to adventure is given by a vision of the Fourth Doctor, and Ace lists off numerous references to her short catalog of stories (including Paradise Towers, which she wasn’t even present for!) within the first few dozen pages.  During the climax, the Doctor assumes the personality of Pertwee’s Third Doctor, and you really get the impression that John Peel did not particularly enjoy writing for McCoy’s more scheming incarnation.

And now for the elephant in the room.  This book, much like Torchwood S1, is obsessed with proving its willingness to stray into adult themes.  However, it goes much, much further, crossing a line in the very first chapter as it sexualizes the prepubescent priestesses of Ishtar in a way that makes me feel gross just reading it.  Gilgamesh, who should ideally be a heroic and prominent character in the narrative, seems to exist almost exclusively to sexually harass and grope every woman and girl in sight.  I’m not opposed to these topics being tackled in principle, and the Doctor has often wandered into societies with less-than-savory customs.  However, here the Doctor not only tolerates this behavior, but actively scolds Ace for daring to resist the advances of Gilgamesh, in a disgusting exchange that’s possibly the most out-of-character I’ve ever seen him behave.

Simply put, this story left me with a bad taste in my mouth within minutes, regardless of its redeeming qualities later on.  Completionists may get something out of it, but casual readers may want to avoid the gross parts and start with Exodus.