spent much of my time reading this alternate wildly between "hey this is a cool idea" and "i cant take much more of this". still couldnt put it down. Stone thanks Fritz Leiber in the first pages of this book and man, you don't have to tell ME twice. feels a lot like the later Lankhmar books, in that it lavishes in the completely off-the-wall worldbuilding, the prose is totally self-indulgent, and it often leans into the realm of self-parody, and in much the same way and for many of the same reasons you may or may not be able to stomach this book.

i did have fun! at first i was worried this book was going to fall into certain characterizations of the Doctor that i find interesting enough, but tedious, but in the final act it pulls a couple reveals that totally turned all of that around. i think the lean into cosmic horror that happens here is a lot of fun and very well executed. it could have easily gotten overcooked and over explained, but i think Stone knows right where to stop in this respect. although maybe not in many other respects.

"Scream, I'll save you later."

I read 3 Paul Cornell books. I really loved all of them. I read a fourth Paul Cornell book. I really loved it. Big surprise.
As always the man's a great, subtle character writer who does some truly beautiful things with the dynamics here. The prose is gorgeous and punchy. The plot is wonderfully twisty. Cornell is one of those DW writers who gets how to make a story totally saturated with fun and interesting Concepts without letting the plot get bogged down by them, and this one has SO much fun snuck in amongst all the big important plot beats.
I love the Monk in this. This might actually be my first Monk story, in fact. He makes for a great villain with his grand and unbeatable schemes built on a foundation of pathetic, childish motivations, i always love that kind of contrast in a villain (or a hero, as this version of the Doctor dips into that sort of territory pretty frequently, and to great effect).
Ace also does pretty darn well here, starting out sinister and eventually coming back around and revealing her motivations. you get a great sense of just how much she's grown, and how even when she's got the darkness in her soul she's had since returning in Deceit, she's still managed to grow into an adult with a good heart and a good head. I dearly love the knight in shining armor she plays to the Woman in Red here. It's such a romantic role for her, and one that feels just right for the Champion's steward...
Bernice is great here as well, with so much heart and a bit of comedy. We get to see the complexities of her dynamics, caring deeply for her companions, understanding they're imperfect and getting frustrated with them, and still being maybe a bit too quick to forgive them some of their faults.
This is another story in my favorite genre (one that Cornell seems pretty keen on as well), one where the Doctor finds himself suddenly, terrifyingly, stumbling over his obstacles. He's left blind here, and nearly out-gamed if it weren't for the grace of Ace's loyalty. And he knows it too.
The emotional lows here are *low*, and it all wraps up in a happy ending that still manages to be bittersweet. It's hard. And maybe things wont get better in our lifetime. But this turned out alright, so maybe other things will turn out alright for us, too.
And of course I have to shout-out Cornell's returning love for rough and tumble sweetheart anarchists. Can't think of another piece of media that ends with the good guys wishing their buddy good luck with the anarchist revolution. Good for him.
10/10

A bit hard to follow plot-wise at points, but an incredible character study of my personal favorite character in all of Doctor Who: Ace McShane.

Paul Cornell immediately establishes himself as THE Ace writer here, a title that he definitely keeps up as time goes on. Cornell's Ace feels like the most natural development of her character from the TV show -- she's action-oriented and tends towards impulsivity, but is tempered by her kindness, virtue, and intelligence. She's a perfect foil to the Doctor, sharing many of his feelings and emotional experiences (particularly in relation to both of their pasts) while handling them in wildly different ways, bringing them head to head. They're a powerful match here in particular.

Much of Ace's arc here -- having her experience stripped away, her past altered, and finally her entire life replaced with sanded-down, perfect, painless version before reclaiming her self-knowledge and rising up, victorious -- really resonated with me as a queer fan. It brought me to tears at a couple points, which hardly ever happens. Ace's name is a tool of self-determination for her. She's Dotty to the childhood bully that nearly destroys her entirely, she's Dorry when she's been stripped down and reupholstered as a perfect, popular girl, and when she rises up again, bloody knuckled and wreathed in flame and victorious, she's Ace again, the name she picked for herself. Her clothes as well (her jacket of course) show her taking back her power and identity, going from pink sweaters and ungainly stilettos to her own boots and anorak.

She reclaims her identity at the same time that she regains control over her gender presentation. This isn't the really the main plot of the book, but it is the heart of it. It's the thing that allows her to help the Doctor (another character who picked their name for themself...) to save himself, and to become a better version of himself, which in turn allows him to defeat Ishtar once and for all.

Cornell sets the standard for Ace's characterization in this series -- a standard that is sadly rarely met. Revelation should, quite honestly, be considered one of the most successful queer empowerment stories in all Doctor Who media, whether created intentionally or not. This one earns an 8/10 from me.

9/10

Greatly enjoyed this one. I always get a kick out of the way Marc Platt writes Ace and Seven and their particular patter. Ace get's to be smart and richly characterized, and the Doctor gets to be tricky while still keeping his heart(s).

This story has a very pleasing amount of Stuff in it to me. McCoy's era of the TV series has a tendency to have a ton of different ideas and plotlines that all interlace, which can sometimes be very fun and entertaining, and sometimes get overwhelming (Platt's debut Ghost Light being a pretty good example here by most standards). I thought this one managed to keep the balance very well, with just enough Stuff to hit the entertainingly eccentric feel while keeping the conceptual clutter out of the way of the plot. Feels very pleasingly like watching an actual serial. Such a shame this one never got made, it could have been a wonderful departure for Ace.

(Although I think I still prefer their continued off-screen adventures)

a gorgeous little comic with a boardgame motif! definitely has some weaknesses re: visual clarity but still very charming, i think. this one's stuck with me since the last time i read it.

I think this book takes a bit to find its legs. The first couple chapters had me in love instantly, but once they hopped backwards in time the first time I started having doubts. The chunk of the story taking place in Tenochtitlan (expectedly) border on orientalism, and I found myself a bit confused on what the gang was trying to accomplish on a scene-to-scene basis. That particular feeling didn't fully let up until the final act, but the character writing and overall vibe more than made up for it to me. Orman is, as always, a character writer. Between this, Vampire Science, and The Year of Intelligent Tigers, I've found that Orman's writing has such a clear understanding of the appeal of spending time with these characters. She understands our main crew well enough to use their emotional conflicts devastatingly, and, as usual, our newly introduced sort-of-audience-surrogate Cristián is immediately lovable. Hummingbird isn't quite as much of a winner as Orman's later contributions, but it still delivers the industrial-strength hurt/comfort Doctor torture she'd become known for.

If I was a more principled man this would probably be a 7.5/10. Fortunately, I have no backbone and am a massive sucker for Ace+Seven, their headbutting, and seeing my favorite guys get emotionally and physically destroyed. So I'm giving this one a 9/10. Happilyeverafter.

An instant favorite. I'm already partial to stories about children being forced to deal with somewhat absurd horrors they have no control over, and I will never turn down grody creepy circus folk. Aaronovitch manages to balance soul-crushingly bleak with sweet pretty darn well here. This was my first piece of prose by him, and I very quickly found myself charmed by his style and vivid imagery. He really does a good job cooking up Gilliam-style visuals in this one, and I've found myself stewing on the character design and setting aesthetic for the last couple days since I gave this one a listen. I've already listened to it twice, in fact. Definitely see myself revisiting this again and again, and I'll be keeping an eye out for more of his writing from now on. Five stars and a favorite from me.

LOVED THIS ONE which isn’t surprising even a little because i love episodes where everything goes bonkers like this and the Giggle, i love a music theme, i love fourth wall breaks, and i especially love a big hammy villain who chews the scenery and laughs and screams and terrorizes everyone. i am so big on DW having magic in it. or at least things incomprehensible enough to be thought of as magic. it feels correct.

LOVE Maestro. the makeup is so on point particularly in that final outfit with the sickly looking dark eyes and smears around the mouth... and what a performance. good lord. they were tearing that shit UP. exactly as terrifying as necessary.

I’m liking the reoccurring stuff so far this season of stories/contrivance/formula and music… it really is reminding me of what i’ve seen of the Eighth Doctor Adventures and the way DWs form as a fiction series kind of gets addressed in those books. SO interested to know where all of this is going.

also i will admit when i saw the double decker bus with the number 77 parked in the background of i really did think it was a 22, and after how much I’ve been joking about Iris showing up in the new series i almost lost my mind.

5/5 for me BABY Maestro you are my everything…mwah

very stylish and cool with a few great individual scenes but so hard to follow. SO much new information is introduced here. please. my brain is only so big.

My second or third listen. I love this one. I think it’s really nice as a little taster of Seven, Ace, and Benny from the VNAs, giving you a look at their character arcs, and it still managed to keep me on edge even knowing what goes down. It's got body-horror bug aliens, and good character work, and the day is saved by the power of self respect, it's a really satisfying listen and one I will probably come back to again in the future. I will always love a story where somebody has to give a big desperate speech about hope and love to save the day, especially when theyre less of an expert at it than the Doctor, and the Determined Monologuing in this one is just perfect.

my high point is absolutely the Doctor and Benny’s mind-journey where she rips into him and he faces the facts about his behavior and how it effects his friends. It really feels like the whole situation was just an inevitability of all his scheming…

The audio (and cover image) quality is definitely Not Good but I think it’s charming. It's the audio drama equivalent of cheap-o plywood sets and papier mache monsters to me. 9/10 for this one. peace and love on planet earth.

I'm sorry that this ends up being my first review honestly. I'm not just a hater I promise.

The st4rshiptr00per household agrees: bloated, too many ideas being introduced while other, previous, interesting ones are dropped unceremoniously -- and the whole Timeless Child concept completely overshadows the Doctor's character as someone whose superpower is being inhumanly Humane and loving, and reduces them to simply The Chosen One. An absolutely buckwild decision to make with a beloved character who contained infinite possibility. All mystery is removed, and all their importance is now due to them being The Big Magic Guy. And for the record: I also hate this being done in the Cartmell Master Plan. I simply do not think this should be done to the Doctor.

Goodbye to the Lone Cyberman I guess, thought that guy was interesting and important but were TCE-ing him away now.

I continue to be put off by the Doctor/Master dynamic in this era. Other people have complained about Spymaster feeling completely disconnected from Missy and how her character arc ended, but I'd go further and say that Thirteen's feelings towards him feel jarring as well. All previous modern-Who Doctor/Master dynamics have been very clear on the Doctor still having some love for the Master that puts them in conflict with their companions who only see the Master as a supervillain. But Thirteen seems to just outright hate him, and the Spymaster is only slightly less vicious about it than she is. I feel terrible for Sascha Dhawan. I want so badly to like his character -- I love his scenery-chewing, and I can perfectly envision him doing spectacularly with a more complicated, dramatic, romantically-tinged Doctor/Master dynamic like we've had previously, but the way the two of them are written in this past season is so lacking.

Note: I have seen the theories about the Spymaster actually being the regeneration between Simm!Master and Missy, and I think it's a bad sign if your audience has to come up with an unsupported conspiracy theory to make your characterization make sense. I've also seen this turn from Missy to Spy described as a "relapse", which is slightly more compelling. However if that was the case I'd want to see that actually addressed by canon. Also, the concept of a semi-ex-villain suddenly relapsing to a full on world-destroying supervillain was done infinitely more artfully in Dragon Ball Z with Vegeta's Majin arc, something I would much rather have watched, frankly.

Across the board: I have not enjoyed what this era's writers have done with the main cast, and this episode is just another low point of several this season for me.
[INSERT ANY MAIN CAST ACTOR'S NAME HERE], baby, I'm so sorry about what these doofuses did to you. You deserved better.