Once upon a time…

Context for novelisation

• Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks (if you’re boring, it’s Doctor Who and the Daleks) serves as the very first Doctor Who novelisation. And it’s an interesting little oddity. In many ways, this novelisation can be seen as an alternate beginning for Doctor Who as a whole. Whilst also acting as a condensed version of the iconic original Dalek story. Being the first ever novelisation, David Whitaker decides to play fast and loose with DW canon and decides to give us a completely new version of Doctor Who's first story that then transitions into a retelling of Doctor Who's second story. So where better to start, than at the beginning... 

Chapter One - A Meeting on the Common

• The first chapter of Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks (or if you’re boring, it’s abbreviated title of DWIAEAWTD) is perhaps the book’s most iconic part. Clocking in at sixteen pages, we effectively get a completely new introduction to Ian, Barbara, Susan, the Doctor and the TARDIS.
• Unlike many other DW novelisations, this is written from Ian’s first-person perspective. And in this version, Ian is a disgruntled science teacher who, at Barnes Common at 9 o’clock at night, discovers the wreckage of a car crash. There he meets Barbara, a secretary turned tutor who was driving one of her students, Susan, home. When they got hit by a lorry driver, Rest in peace, unnamed lorry driver. Upon stumbling from the wreckage, Barbara asks Ian to help her find Susan. Instead, they find the mysterious Doctor, who eventually and unwittingly leads them to his home; a blue police box. Ian and Barbara force entry, only to find the ship bigger on the inside. Before they both faints, he hears the Doctor and Susan discuss their new arrivals. Lamenting that they'll just have to take them with them…
• Chapter One is one of those pieces of Doctor Who PROSE that I can just read again and again. The setting is so well realised, the language so descriptive and the characters so interesting to follow. While the original Episode One of An Unearthly Child will always be iconic, this version offers a much more eerie and mysterious version. While reading, I constantly envisioned a foggy landscape in pitch darkness. With an ominous but inviting shape of a police box off in the distance.

Characters and Characterisation

• In Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks (or if you’re boring, Doctor Who and the Daleks - David Whitaker - Introduction by Neil Gaiman) Ian acts as our main character for this adventure, far more than the titular Doctor himself. While most of his dialogue is lifted from the original two episodes, this Ian does act quite differently from his iconic TV counterpart. Ian is far more quick tempered and aggressive in this novel. Quick to snap back and argue with other characters, namely the titular Doctor himself. I don’t dislike this new Ian by any means, but I can’t exactly envision William Russell either. In Big Finish, Ian is sometimes played by Jamie Glover, and that’s the voice I hear for this Ian. Far deeper and far more, for lack of a better word; butch.
• Barbara’s character is mostly unchanged in terms of personality. Though out of her depth, she’d far more accepting of the TARDIS and the situation than Ian is at first. Around the middle though, Barbara gains a more cynical and snarky side, largely due to her frustration with the situation and her growing romantic feelings for Ian. I do quite like Barbara’s frustration in the middle as it makes her feel more real. She starts off accepting the situation of being whisked away in time and space. But as the novel goes on, you see that she’s just bottling up her emotions about everything before snapping at Ian. She’s not just a blank female lead who goes along with everything because she has no character; she does so not to worry anyone before getting exhausted and letting it all out. I’m not quite a big fan of the romance angle though. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ian and Barbara as a couple. I ship it. But in the context of this novel, she’s known Ian for at most two days. And in the final chapter she has a “I can’t hide the way I feel about him” scene with another Thal. Maybe I’m just ignorant about how women fall in love. Or maybe David Whitaker is, who knows.
• Susan is perhaps the least changed in this novel. The most changed is her surname no longer being Susan Foreman but Susan English. Very inconspicuous. She does still get her moment to shine by trekking through the forest to retrieve the anti-radiation gloves drugs. Though it’s less of a big moment to due an issue I’ll talk about with the Daleks. Other than that, like in the original, Susan just unfortunately doesn’t get a lot to do.
• The Doctor is equally barely changed, keeping his origins vague and aura still mysterious. He’s still a bit untrustworthy, but considerably less untrustworthy. By the end of the novel, you get the feeling he has softened a bit and genuinely cares about his new travelling companions. One nice change occurs in Chapter Four. In the original story, the Doctor confesses to both Susan and Ian that he lied about needing mercury for the fluid link. Both characters are angry at the Doctor, with Ian refusing to give the fluid link back until they find Barbara. In this version, Susan leaves the room and the Doctor confesses, almost apologetically to Ian. Whilst thanking him for not revealing it in front of Susan and promising to get them home. It’s a nice scene and makes this Doctor feel more welcoming than his television counterpart. It’s a weird fusion of Season One Hartnell and Peter Cushing’s Dr. Who.

The Titular Exciting Adventure with the titular Daleks

• But in Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks (or if you live in a backwards world, Skelad Eht Dna Ohw Rotcod) we’re all here for one thing. Chances are, if I read this as a child, I’d be breezing through the book until we get to the tyrannical pepper pots themselves. And they too get some interesting additions. For starters, we get a great horrifying description of what the mutant inside the casing actually looks like. You have to remember that this was around the time of the TV Century comics and everyone just assumed the Kaleds were humanoid aliens. As a result, the mutants are far more humanoid in shape. But their features, I shan’t spoil. Namely because it’s so linked to this book’s other iconic scene. This book also features the very first Glass Dalek, almost acting as the Supreme. It’s only around for the final chapter, but it's a cool scene when it shows up. David Whitaker also probably took a look at his own title for Chapter Four and thought “Ooh, that’d be a good title for a Dalek story someday”. The great illustrations also probably provided kids in the sixties with a screen-accurate look at the Daleks too. Chances are if you’ve seen any Dalek-mania merch from the time; you know that people got the Dalek design a bit wrong sometimes.
• However, I’d be lying if I said the Daleks are probably the weakest part of this novel. Namely due in part to Ian’s first-person narration. Shockingly, Ian is not involved in every single scene in the original story. This means that many scenes in the original are either cut or have to be hastily exposited to Ian after they happen. Susan’s trek through the dead forest is hastily retold to him after they’ve been given the anti-radiation gloves drugs. The Daleks plan to trap the Thals is hastily retold to him after Susan delivers the letter. The death of that one Thal I can’t be bothered looking up the name for by the swamp is hastily retold to him after he dies. The Doctor and Susan getting captured during the climax hastily retold to him after the Doctor and Susan are captured by another Thal I can’t be bothered looking up the name for. And perhaps most harmfully, so many iconic scenes with the Daleks by themselves are completely cut. Meaning that the titular Daleks are barely involved in the titular exciting adventure. We meet them in Chapter Four, escape from them in Chapter Six, and then don’t see them again until Chapter Nine. Bearing in mind this book is ten chapters long, and the Daleks have unfortunately nearly no presence in their own novel.

Conclusion

• Despite that negative bit at the end, I don’t hate Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks at all. It’s such a charming little novel in the history of Doctor Who and infinitely rereadable. A part of me even prefers this to the original story due to its condensing of the original's weakest elements. Except for the infamous cave part. That bit always sucks no matter what version of The Daleks you’re experiencing.
• Speaking of which, did you know there's five ways of experiencing The Daleks? There's the original serial, then the original serial in colour, then the Peter Cushing film, then this novelisation, and then another illustrated version of this novelisation. Take your pick.
• I would wholeheartedly recommend Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks to anyone. It’s only 162 pages long and acts as a new way to experience one of Doctor Who’s most iconic adventures.
• “Now read this book. Visit another world.”

“Oh you disappoint me. You really do. I’d thought you’d have come up with something a bit more original than that.”

• The Doctor: Chapter 10 - Page 174

Context

After finally clearing my backlog of EDAs, I felt like I needed a palate cleanser. Fortunately, one of my local charity shops supplied me with a good old fashioned New Series Adventure. And one with my childhood Doctor, no less.

I hate the criticism of calling something a “nothing burger” but I really am having a hard time describing Paradox Lost as anything else.

Basic Plot:

London 1910: A string of grisly murders have gripped the city. Fortunately, Professor Archibald Angelchrist is on the case. Quickly uncovering an invasion by some terrifying monsters; the Squall.

London 2789: The Doctor, Amy and Rory witness the rusted remains of an AI being dredged from the Thames. The AI has a message for the Doctor, warning of the Squall’s invasion.

It’s up to the Doctor and friends to solve the mystery and stop the monsters. Easy right?

Yes. Actually. Incredibly easy.

+ A short list of positives

• The main TARDIS trio are characterised very well. It’s very easy to read their dialogue and picture their actual actors saying them. Eleven is equally intimidating as he is funny, Amy is snarky and Rory is bumbling. Honestly, it’s very hard to come across a NSA that actually mischaracterizes its respective TARDIS team.
• Paradox Lost actually has the dubious honour of being the first Doctor Who story to use the Bootstrap Paradox as a core plot point. Predating Before the Flood by a whole four years. I’ll admit, Before the Flood does it infinitely better, but it’s worth acknowledging.
• The novel does do something interesting by splitting up the TARDIS trio. The Doctor goes back to 1910 and meets Professor Archibald Angelchrist. While Amy and Rory stay in 2789 (at least for a bit) and meet Arven.

- The side cast (or lack thereof)

One of my biggest pet peeves with any book is where there’s far too many characters to keep track of. Too many subplots going on with overly complicated names is an easy way to make me lose interest. Paradox Lost must’ve heard me because here we see the inverse of that criticism. We have two, count ‘em, two members of the side cast.

•  Professor Archibald Angelchrist and Arven. Now Angelchrist starts interesting as an old supernatural investigator who’s approaching his twilight years. He sees the investigation with the Doctor as “one last adventure” before his retirement. The problem is that is where Angelchrists involvement in the plot begins and ends. He just follows the Doctor around asking questions and going along with everything the Doctor says. There’s no disagreement, no conflict, nothing. The most Angelchrist offers to the plot is a map of where all the murders are and a car so the cast can get around quickly. That’s it.

• Arven (otherwise known as RVN-73) is the companion for Amy and Rory. And shocker, an emotionless monotone AI is not the most interesting character. On top of that, the moment you meet him, you immediately know that he’s the AI dredged up from the Thames. For a whopping 65 pages, you know the twist before the characters do. Everyone grows so attached to this AI that they’re sad to see him sacrifice himself, and I’m sat here wondering why? He’s not funny or quippy or emotional at all. He even gets a fake-out death as if I, the reader, care about him.

OK. We’ve got an incredibly small and incredibly dull side cast. But what about our villains; the Squall? They’re on the cover and everything, surely they can add some spice to the book?

- The Squall

Let me be clear here. No jokes, no quips, no snarky remarks. Here is everything you need to know about the Squall:

• They are a race of dimension hopping demon aliens that want to come to our universe and eat people.

That's it. There are no named Squall. There is no culture for the Squall. There is no backstory for the Squall. There are no interesting gimmicks with the Squall. No leader, no Queen, no real plan; NOTHING.

Oh scratch that they have ONE gimmick. They’re a hive mind so every Squall are the collective for one mind.

• So. Every. Scene. With. The. Squall. Is. Written. Like. This.

And every scene with them ends with some variation of;

• We. Will. Feed.

Does that sound fun? Does that sound intimidating or scary? Well great news, here’s a 238 page book choc full of it.

- The biggest problem + Conclusion

• The worst part about Paradox Lost is its complete predictability. The Doctor makes an off-hand joke at the start about going back in time, stopping the monsters and saving the day. And with moments like that, you prep the reader for some twist or subversion. A spanner that gets thrown into the works that completely changes the direction of the story. But there’s nothing. No “extra thing” that gets added to the mix.
• I can’t even recommend the book on the basis of “if you like Eleven, Amy and Rory” because there are several books more subversive and interesting than this one. Touched by an Angel, The King’s Dragon, The Way Through the Woods, Dead of Winter; are all far more worthwhile books than Paradox Lost.
• The Doctor finds an AI in the future that knows him. Then Amy and Rory meet an AI that accompanies them. They all go back in time to 1910. Monsters are killing people. They got here through a hole in space. So the Doctor makes a device that attracts the monsters. Then he throws the device into the hole in space. The monsters are dead now. The End.
• Oh and a guy called Angelchrist was there who went on to meet Iris Wildthyme or something.

“Hullow” 🐯

If I could sell you on one of the best Doctor Who books of all time in a few words, they would be as follows…

Doctor Who and the Silurians except the Doctor sides with the Silurians. And the Silurians are tigers.

If I could sell you on one of the best Doctor Who books of all time in a few more words, they would be as follows…

- Negatives 🐯

• The title. I keep misremembering it as “The Year of THE Intelligent Tigers” or “Year of the Intelligent Tigers”. I feel like a better title would’ve been just “The Year of the Tigers”. Boom, simple.
• Not really a criticism, just a bit of advice for newbies. While this book is very good for beginners, there are a few bits that are enhanced if you’ve read some previous EDA’s (or at least know some appropriate context). A lot of the Doctor’s frustrations in this book come from his amnesia, which he got at the end of The Ancestor Cell. Over the course of six books and over one hundred years, the Doctor was a wandering amnesiac (this is where the two “breaks” in the book take place) . It's not required reading (I still haven’t read the very important EDA’s myself) but it does help to know. I mean I didn’t know anything when I read this for the first time and I still loved it so what do I know?

+ Positives 🐯

• God, Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum just GET the Eighth Doctor. This is, to me, the perfect portrayal of this incarnation. I hold all other Eighth Doctor media up to this book because of how much it gets him right. The Doctor is just full of equal boundless enthusiasm and brooding melancholy. He wants to fit in with this world of outcasts so badly but he just can’t. He’s so old at this point that he can’t stand to see another Silurian-like incident go the exact same way. Again. He’s a Doctor who can rip a group of selfish humans to shreds in a matter of seconds, and earnestly play with some tiger kittens the next.
• One of our key members of the supporting cast is Karl Sadeghi. And he and the Doctor are, so the kids tell me, hella gay (happy pride month btw). Seeing the Doctor form such a genuine connection to him during the early chapters is so goddamn wholesome. You really get the sense that the Doctor is, for once, trying to fit in and has found companionship with someone. So if anybody tells you “Uh, I can’t believe that Fifteen had a gay kiss, the Doctor isn’t gay”, friendly reminder that this book was written in 2001, was also released in June of that year, intended for the relationship to be 100% homosexual, and that plenty of the EDA’s (before and after) can get far, far gayer.
• The book's structure is quite unique. Instead of parts, the book is broken up into sections named after music terminology. First verse, first chorus, solo, second verse, etc. You’ll get what I mean if you look it up on the wiki. Normally, I’m not a huge fan when the EDA’s shake up their chapter structure (my mind immediately jumps to The Taint) but this one just works, and helps emphasise the musical theme of the whole book.
• Speaking of which, the way this book goes about describing music, playing music and what music can do is genuinely ethereal. You can tell that either Kate Orman or Jonathan Blum have such a deep passion for music as an art form as it just shines through the prose. It’s something I can’t really describe, you just have to read it for yourself. What I’m saying is, get Kate Orman or Jonathan Blum to write the inevitable target novelisation of The Devil’s Chord.
• One of this book’s big claims to fame was its premise. That being a subversion of the typical Silurian/Sea Devil story. What if the Doctor (who has seen this situation go the same way a dozen different times) said “sod it, fix the problem yourself, I’m siding with the other lot”. That alone is a fantastic hook. Most Silurian stories are good, but let’s face it, if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. The Silurians are hostile, the Doctor tries to broker peace, the humans attack at the worst moment, the peace plan goes up in flames, the Silurians follow suit and the human race gets a good talking down too. A good formula, but an overdone formula. The Doctor, by this point, is sick of the scenario playing out the same way. He’s finally clocked onto the fact that the human race might just not be worth it sometimes. But over the course of the novel, the premise is expanded on and deconstructed. Is it right for the Doctor to try at all? That technically counts as interfering with history? Does the Doctor have the right to broker peace? He doesn’t live on this planet, yet he decides what’s best for everyone is sharing it with another species. That angle from the book and the levels of depth it goes to is fascinating. And it’s what I always love in expanded media; taking a Doctor Who trope we know and completely flipping it.
• I dare not spoil how this book ends. But it is simply electric to read. And the final “gotcha” moment when it comes to subverting a Silurian esc story. The Doctor is going to save this world, whether they like it or not.

+ Stripey Positives 🐯

• Yes the tiger content is so good, they get their own section. So the Doctor goes to live with the tigers for a bit. OK, more than a bit, ⅔ of the book. And it’s here we meet the tiger sidecast, and the mystery surrounding them.
• First we have the leader, Big. If we use Doctor Who and the Silurians as an example, Big is effectively the Okdel of the novel. The wise old leader who instigates the plan, but doesn’t necessarily want there to be bloodshed. What I love about Big is that, despite his name, he’s not a big lumbering brute who has to be convinced to take the peaceful route. His reasons for his plan are fascinating (and deeply linked to the mystery, which I won’t spoil) and you almost want him to succeed. It’s simply that; he’s a tiger. And the way he went in executing his plan could’ve been better if he had just, ironically, communicated better. He’s also just surprisingly charming, laidback and funny. While reading, I was constantly thinking “this guy absolutely sounds like Shere Khan” But slightly nicer.
• If Big is the Okdel of the story, then Longbody is the story’s version of Morka. While Big wants a peaceful solution and wants to understand things, Longbody just wants to kill. Which you’d think would make her a boring character to follow. But she really isn’t. Not to spoil too much, but Longbody pretends to be a dumb animal for the first third of the book, before revealing her true nature and returning to the wild. And we get plenty of insight into her thinking with several thoughtracks. Longbody prides herself on being able to act so stupid that no one would notice her. But the problem is, she is actually not very intelligent. While many of the tigers want to learn and grow, Longbody couldn’t be less interested. She sees no point in wanting to make peace or learning anything, because she’s completely apathetic to nearly everything that isn’t tiger like. Longbody is effectively an idiot who thinks she’s this super smart tiger pretending to be an idiot. But the book doesn’t immediately present Longbody as an antagonist, if anything, she’s surprisingly likeable and funny early on. But you slowly clock onto the fact that she doesn’t really care about anything and how dangerous that is. All leading to the tailend of the second act, which is an undeniable page turner.
• In a book full of emotional blowouts, character deconstructions and big bold questions, you need some form of levity. And fortunately, the book presents this in the form of Bounce. She’s the first tiger to “meet” the Doctor when he leaves the humans. And rather than kill him, she observes him. And the two start a genuine friendship. Now, Bounce really isn’t that important to the book's proceedings. She doesn’t really plan anything or oppose anyone or really do anything significant. But she is just so damn wholesome. She’s just fascinated by everything around her and, in complete contrast to Longbody, is excited by the prospect of learning new things. She’s just a cute bundle of joy who almost, considering Anji and Fitz are helping the humans, acts as the Doctor’s surrogate companion. Bounce is the wilderness years companion we never got, there I said it. Could you imagine if the Doctor just had a talking tiger for a companion? One that effectively acted like Jo but could also kill you in an instant? That’d be so cool.

Conclusion: 🐯

This is, simply put, one of the best Doctor Who books I’ve ever read. A small cast that is pushed to the limit, with fantastic language and prose, a spectacular subversion or a tried-and-tested trope, a beautiful setting, tigers, and in my eyes; the definitive version of the Eighth Doctor. Please please please, if this review has piqued your interest, if you have even the slightest interest in the EDA’s, I implore you to read this masterpiece.

Basic Plot:

The time: August 1933.

The place: The sleepy English village of Marpling.

A bioweapon from the future has accidentally landed in the garden of one Charles Rigby. And a trio of time travelling commandos have been sent to retrieve it. And if things go south, they have permission to nuke the area. But something has found and activated the weapon before them. The Doctor has faced many terrifying creatures in the universe. The Daleks from Skaro. The Cyberman from Mondas. And who could forget the dreaded Quarks? But tonight, the Doctor must face the most evil, ruthless, creatures in the cosmos…

Wasps.

- Negatives

• While the Doctor gets a lot to do in this novel, Fitz and Anji are criminally underserved. Anji moreso. With so much of the novel confined to the Pink estate, Fitz and Anji just mostly sit around waiting for the Doctor to arrive.
• I don’t hate it when companions call out the Doctor for being disconnected and somewhat blase about death. It’s not inherently a bad trope and it can lead to some great drama. But my God, I am sick of it. Anytime it happens, it just boils down to the companion (in this case Anji) yelling at the Doctor for not caring enough. The Doctor shrugging their shoulders and saying them’s the breaks and the companions just going along with it.
• The trio of time travelling commandos really aren’t interesting. Kala is a stoic leader who is willing to give the Doctor a shot but ultimately has no real character development. Fatboy has next to zero characterisation, though that is explained later on. And Jobe is an incredibly frustrating “forget waiting, I want to fight” type of character. Something that makes him more of an obstacle rather than a character. If you’ve seen Monster of Peladon, or Ambassadors of Death or Frontier in Space; you know exactly what kind of character I’m on about.
• The story does suffer from “Classic series story loop” syndrome. There’s a lot of going from one location, then to another, then back to the first. Characters thinking one way, randomly changing their mind for drama, then changing right back. Characters getting captured, then escaping, captured again and escaping again. I expect that with Classic Who, not in an EDA.

+ Positives

• 280 pages, 36 chapters, each one lasting about 5 pages. I cannot stress how that is the perfect structure for a book. If you ever want to write a good book, just do that. It’s the definition of a page turner. Which makes Eater of Wasps just fly by.
• The setting of a sleepy English village in the middle of nowhere is just a damn good setting for a Doctor Who story. Maybe it’s my own personal travels, but I can vividly picture everything in Marpling perfectly. If you struggle with visualising this, just picture the novel in Emmerdale.
• By this point in the range, the Eighth Doctor, Fitz and Anji are refined to a T. If you want to get into the EDA’s and struggle with navigating the huge story arcs; do yourself a favour and just get one with Fitz and Anji. Personally, I’d recommend this novel, EarthWorld, the Year of Intelligent Tigers. The Eighth Doctor is perfect here and Fitz and Anji are their usual selves.
• Considering how normal the side cast is, I’m surprised how in depth they are and how invested I became in them. You have the Pink brothers, poor unfortunate Charles Rigby, Liam and his mum Gwen, the ever-confused reverend, the surprisingly intelligent Inspector Gleave, and who could forget the insufferable Miss Havers? All of these characters feel incredibly developed, with believable goals and history. I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if Trevor Baxendale based these characters off of real people; they’re that well characterised. Additionally, the lack of complicated names is a big bonus. So many EDA’s fall flat because of the side cast having stupid complicated names.
• Despite the sleepy village setting, the book isn’t without interesting set pieces. There’s multiple car chases, murders, and the undeniable highlight of the train chase and climax. Thinking about it, the whole climax is surprisingly Lazarus Experiment esc. But in a good way.
• And who could talk about Eater of Wasps without talking about the stars of the show; Charles Rigby and the Wasps themselves. Without giving too much away, they are the most interesting and horrifying part of this novel. That cover? That title? That happens. And it is cathartically gruesome throughout. Most Wilderness Years content is defined by its edge. The swearing, drugs, the sex, the blood, the gore, all that stuff. But Eater of Wasps is more about body horror than anything, and Mr. Baxendale (for all his faults) is stellar at writing body horror. This book is brilliant in conveying how terrifying an angry swarm of wasps can be. Charles Rigby (poor unfortunate Charles Rigby) is effectively piloted by a swarm of wasps inside him. And the body horror doesn’t stop there. Without giving too much away, the wasps slowly change Charles Rigby into something else. And my God, it's delicious nightmare fuel.

Conclusion:

I have my problems with Trevor Baxendale, but I genuinely can’t deny how good his Doctor Who output is. Eater of Wasps is up there with Fear of the Dark and Prisoner of the Daleks as some of his best work, and some of the best Doctor Who books in general. While it does suffer from quite a bit of story looping and not knowing what to do with its companions, Eater of Wasps is a standout and accessible EDA. And thankfully, one you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to get.