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| What: | Death Riders / Heart of Stone (2-in-1 Eleventh Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Benjamin Blackburn, Leigh-On-Sea, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Tuesday 6 December 2011 |
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| Rating: |   8 |
I liked it very much
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 | clever and well thought out |
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| What: | The Memory Cheats (The Companion Chronicles audiobooks) |
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| By: | Clive T Wright, St Lawrence, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Saturday 3 December 2011 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
The title says it all.
Zoe is really standing out well in this series although faced with a real challenge of how to bring her back, Big Finish have really hit the nail in the head with her run of stories andi hope it continues.
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| Shouldn't have ended like this |
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| What: | The First Wave (The Companion Chronicles audiobooks) |
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| By: | Clive T Wright, St Lawrence, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Saturday 3 December 2011 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
I was beginning to enoy this new companion and sad to see him go, but what it worse was a plot full of so many elements from Charlie pollards departure, which weakened what on it's own is a good story.
As ever the voice of the first doctor is outstanding and really helps carry the plot along.
A creature murders singers, that's what the story deals with. Original, but it feels like it's been used more often (Something alien kills people with special traits) But Sarah Pinborough is a very good writer, and her writing style just makes you shiver. The main characters aren't very well characterized, especially Jack and Ianto's relationship, and the way Gwen has feelings for another character, but the rest is fine
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| Not a bad one, but I've read better |
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| What: | Autonomy (BBC New Series Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Hessel Hoekstra, Maassluis, Netherlands |
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| Date: | Monday 21 November 2011 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
The storyline is just basically like "Rose" but more expanded, and it's a good one. The Autons are cool in the story, but the other characters aren't described very well, and also the Doctor is not really a Tenth Doctor.
But after all, it's okay. Could be better, could be worse
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| Well written and fun to read. |
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| What: | The Bodysnatchers (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Emma Bowman, Sydney, Australia |
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| Date: | Saturday 19 November 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
I really enjoyed this book, I thought it was very well written. It inspired me to go and watch the original Fourth Doctor tv episode where Professor Litefoot first appeared, and I thought Morris did a good job of bringing this character to life in this novel. I enjoyed how he represented the Doctor and Sam, and the storyline was engaging and fast paced. Unlike so many EDA books, I didn't get bored at any point throughout. Definitely a good novel that I will enjoy reading again. Highly recommended!
A fascinating insight into the man best known for his creation of the Daleks but did so much more. Blake's 7, Survivors, The Saint, The Avengers.
A clever, hard working man who had such a fascinating imagination and enriched British TV in the 60's, 70's & 80's.
| What: | The Prison in Space (Miscellaneous script books) |
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| By: | Trevor Smith, Nottingham, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Friday 18 November 2011 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
From those wonderful people Nothing At The End Of The Lane a script for a story that came perilously close to being made. Thank goodness it didn't.
This story is really of it's time. You expect Sid James or Kenneth Williams to pop up in this sexiest 60's adventure for The Doctor, Jamie & Zoe.
None the less despite the story's short comings this a fascinating insight into how Who was made in the 60's and is full of really interesting bonus material. Recommended.
| What: | Colony in Space (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Friday 18 November 2011 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
From a strong season of Doctor Who, with Terror of The Autons and The Daemons and The brilliant Mind of Evil, it might be very hard for the other tales to come close to those excellent stories. But Colony In Space is highly entertaining and brilliantly done.
My own quibble with this story is why the Primitive ruler didnt just destroy the doomsday weapon himself if it had brought so much trouble and death to his world. But maybe he wouldnt kill all his people who were still inside the weapon and worshipping it and sacrificing to it, I dont know, but it is a little bit of a plot hole, but doesnt have nowhere near as many as many new series episodes thats for sure.
But in all other respects, this story is engaging. And the theme of battling between the colonists and the ugly pig headed and psychotic miners is done almost to perfection, in Ashe we have a highly sympathetic leader figure for the colonists, and its marvellously offset by the thug Dent, Captain of the IMC spaceship. And then we have the henchman Morgan, whose a right little piece of rubbish. And Bernard Kay again impresses with a likeable role as a miner who isnt one of Dents killers.
But my favourite character has to be Helen Worth as Mary Ashe. Shes very young here, but she's really flipping good. Shes one of those apparently feeble looking Girl characters, but actually has quite a heart in her when needs be.
Roger Delgado as well puts in his usual brilliant performance as the Master, and steals all the scenes hes in. His act of trying to persuade the Doctor to join him in his scheme is an excellent scene, full of tension and revelation all at the same time. And the two actors just work so brilliantly together.
Katy Manning gets her first trip into space, to a grubby looking quarry again but whats wrong with that when those kinds of places resemble an alien clime at any rate? And this one is particularly barren and awash with mud, as two of the cast in particular find out in their rather wet and disgusting scrap!
I like Doctor Who in the Jon Pertwee time, it has a lot to say on many different subjects, it had a high moral fibre that was greatly riddled throughout many of the stories, Barry Letts said he never wanted the stories to be about nothing, and they never were. (Although a few were less tinged by the notion than others) This story tackles human rights to land and food, a very sore subject on this planet in many areas indeed, and the script addresses these elements very well indeed.
In all, this is yet another fine script from Malcolm Hulke, full of his trademark good and interesting characters, with the one single niggle that keeps it from being a ten out of ten effort. But as this was also Michael Briant's first directors outting, its rather splendidly done all in all. A great slice of Doctor Who.
| What: | Series 6: Part 2 (BBC new series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Friday 18 November 2011 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
The first half of the season ended with the lamentably woeful A Good Man Goes To War, which was following in the now usual vein of a Doctor Who with a plot so complicated as to be unfathomable. But just for once, which was a surprise, part two of the series is far better than the first, there are still a few stupid moments but overall this is starting to get there at long last, and goodness knows its taken long enough.
Let's Kill Hitler appears with freshness and maybe not a mind blowing plot, but at least its a three times better episode than the one that came before, although my main gripe here is just what was the use of having such a historically infamous character in a story if all he's gonna do is act dumb and be locked in a cupboard for petes sake? I found that very very stupid in the extreme. However, the other elements of the episode are far stronger, such as the Anti bodies and those shape shifting robot things. ALthough I have to say I find Matt Smith excellent here, his acting lights the story up no end, and its good to see a Doctor beginning to have fun again, and then such a gripping last few moments.
Night Terrors returns to the better form of the likes of Boom Town, The Girl In The Fireplace and The Stolen Earth, in being brilliant for once. Those wooden dolls truly are absolutely creepsville. And to have a little kid turn out to be an alien for once is a good little plot string. And the transformations of characters into dolls is pretty yuck and disturbing actually, well done for once. Mark Gatiss returns to form here definitely, and this episode is one of the best of the series. Its frightening and bold, and directed well.
The Girl Who Waited is a highly original and different kind of story, and makes me like Karen Gillan a whole lot more. The only slight niggle i have here is for the unneeded and unwanted return of the oh its the doctor's fault all over again, really that vein has been done to death beyond any reasonable doubt. But the rest of the story, with the two Amys is highly engaging and Karen shines very bright indeed. Pity though that Matt Smith is banished to the TARDIS for nearly the whole lot of the story, but this is a good episode for highlighting the strength of Karen and her character, very good indeed in that respect. And I just love Arthur Darvill still, that comic yet amiable chap.
The God Complex in my book is very strong, and for once has a good and unpredictable twist towards the conclusion. And the Minotaur looks brilliant, although the Gorilla less so Im afraid, about the worse one Ive ever seen used in a TV programme. But thats the only niggle in this story, who impresses the most here is David Walliams, perfectly placed in the role of that ratty mousy thing. And the ending here to this episode is unexpected and sad all at the same time, this story can be likened to the classic series, for its mentioning of the Nimon is great for this classic series fan!
Closing Time is the comic gem of the series, although once again its slightly marred by the woeful underuse of the Cybermen themselves. I hate these new cyber stories for that factor, the BBC seem to think no one wants to see the Cybermen hardly ever at all. And I dont get that at all. The Cybermen need to be given more. But the Cybermet is riddling cool I can tell you! What great teeth, whilst in keeping strongly with original Tomb of The Cybermen design. And its a real nice touch to see Lynda Baron back again, in a comic and light relief role. But Craig and The Doc are the best here, and the baby scenes are funny and light hearted against the harder moments of this series. Not too bad a story at all, just wish there'd be more cybermen in it. When will the BBC get it?!
For once the series finale is understandable, and in fact is very good indeed this time. What with the return of the Silence and Madam Kavorian, who is as ever rather a mysterious and unexplained character still even now. And for once the timey wimey stuff isnt overdone, and its explained well all along for once. And the Doctor's escape is brilliantly done, although for once I did guess what he would have done to escape the moment of death. But sometimes a little predictability is good. The final scene of addressing at very long long last the question of the whole series Doctor Who? does actually whet the appetite for what is to come in the next season of Doctor Who. But what Id like is a multi doctor celebration story. Thats what Im hoping for. But for once this season end isnt bad at all.
| What: | Seeing I (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Emma Bowman, Sydney, Australia |
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| Date: | Thursday 17 November 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
I think I can safely say that this is my favourite Eighth Doctor novel to date, and I am so surprised that it didn't have at least an 8 on the rating scale. The storyline really resonated with me, and I found the quality of the writing to be quite excellent. Sam is one of my favourite companions, and she did a lot of growing in this storyline, which was very satisfying to see. Blum and Orman write well for the Doctor and Sam, and unlike so many other EDA authors, they really get their "voices" right, which goes a long way towards validating the plot. It is an advantage to have read "Dreamstone Moon" first before starting on "Seeing I", just to help with the story arc continuity. I highly and enthusiastically recommend this book!
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| Simple plots done very well. |
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You need to go into this book with an open mind, and realise this is aimed at younger reader. If you can get passed that then both these stories are actually pretty good. I probably enjoyed Death riders more than Heart of Stone.
The departure of Elizabeth Sladen from this world has been very very sad. She was a terrific actress, and was probably at her all time high in The Sarah Jane Adventures. The first three series were excellent, but this fourth is the best of the whole complete seasons by far in my book. The stories here are quite a bit more adult I think, and some of the storylines are new and original.
One of the highlights has to be the return of the awesome Katy Manning as Jo Grant, and the flashbacks to the past Doctors always makes a smile come to this Whovians face. And Katy gets some decent stuff to do, and the Shansheeth are pretty good and a different kind of alien for the world of Who and Sarah Jane, as theyre not totally psychotic for once. I love the final scene where Sarah talks about others who she thinks have met the Doctor at one time or another, and thats nice too.
Other stand outs are the brilliant Lost In Time, my favourite two parter of the whole four and a bit seasons of this terrific series. Whoever would have thought Nazis would make it into a kids show eh? but the story is excellent, and the three seperate plot threads come together very very well indeed here. And theres the added mystery of who the man with the parrot is and now it will probably not be answered due to the fact that no more Sarah Janes are being made, due to the sad loss of Liz.
The Empty Planet is another of the real stand out ones, being very very eerie and a good platform for those brilliant Rani and Clyde characters to show what they can really do once again in a story basically nearly all to themselves, and the plot is great afore the robots arent there just to destroy again, but are seeking a person who is on Earth. A very smart tale indeed this one.
The series has a brilliant beginning too, and is a great chiller of a story. The Nigtmare Man would surely have been a returning villain had Liz have lived longer. It is truly sad that there will be no more of these brilliant adventures that are better than The New Doctor Who series by far overall. Ive loved this more than most of the Doctor Who tales of the last two seasons.
| What: | The Lost Stories: The Elite (The Lost Stories audio dramas) |
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| By: | Alan Reilly, glasgow, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Saturday 5 November 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Shame this never made it into the fifth doctor's actual tv seasons , really good plot and a shock return of an old foe and tegans first time to meet it in audio , real good story and well worth a listen
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| Classic 70s Who action with some monster |
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Devil goblins is like a B movie, with a dash of James Bonds. Sticking to the typical 3rd Doctor plot but with some welcome character development for the UNIT team. Whilst nothing challenging about the goblins the real monster again is man. At times moments of action felt rushed or simply skipped possibly due to the shear amount of it.
All in all it's a great light read.
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| Absolutely brilliant read! |
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| What: | The Shadow in the Glass (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Emma Bowman, Sydney, Australia |
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| Date: | Thursday 20 October 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
I was skeptical upon starting this book because I am not a huge fan of the Sixth Doctor, but I shouldn't have let my prejudice skew my expectations of this book. This book is now one of my favourite other Doctor novels.
Justin Richards and Stephen Cole write incredibly well together, and not only was I impressed with the excellent quality of the plot development and the speed of the the plot progression, but also the amount of research that the authors had clearly undertaken to do justice to the era and subject matter. They did a marvelous job of designing an intriguing and exciting story around one of the humanity's most evil men, and it is a fantastic ride from start to finish.
What's more, I read this book in mid 2009, and just a couple of months later the news picked up the story that the skull that had originally thought to have been that of Adolf Hitler's had now been identified as a female skull instead, thus casting doubt on the previously accepted circumstances surrounding the death of Hitler. Although a complete coincidence, the timing was astounding and I couldn't help but think of the ending of "The Shadow in the Glass" and wonder. Richards and Cole probably never dreamed that their piece of DW fiction might be closer to the truth than anyone could have guessed at the time of publication.
I do truly recommend this book to all Whovians.
| What: | The Way Through the Woods (BBC New Series Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Adam Regula, Horseheads, NY, United States |
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| Date: | Thursday 20 October 2011 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
I really liked this one the best out of this set of 3 books. More of the Timey -Wimey Stuff than some of the other books in the 11th doctor series so far.
Very cool central characters as well.
Great Read!
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| What's all the fuss about? |
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| What: | Alien Bodies (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Emma Bowman, Sydney, Australia |
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| Date: | Thursday 20 October 2011 |
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| Rating: | 2 |
I had really been looking forward to reading this book, as it had received so many good reviews from other EDA fans, and I had read some of Lawrence Miles's other stories and found them to be of a reasonably high quality.
However, before I had even finished the first two chapters I was beginning to have doubts. The plot seemed confusing and poorly defined, and the villain characters were distasteful - but not in the way villains were supposed to be. And the concept as I understood it at that early stage seemed somewhat ludicrous.
Patience, I told myself. Some stories just need a little more time to get fully established, to iron out the wrinkles, and to explain the confusing bits. So I kept reading, waiting and hoping that with a bit more time the storyline would snap sharply into focus and I would find myself fully enjoying and understanding the plot.
That just didn't happen.
The deeper into the book I ventured, the more confusing it became. The plot just smacked of the author over-trying to design a wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey storyline that would intrigue the reader, but failed to develop into a legible and coherent story. I disliked the new characters and also Miles's representation of the Doctor and Sam. Entire chapters seemed completely irrelevant to the progression of the story and only served to further confuse the already jumbled plot.
Personally I am astounded that this book received a rating anything above a four. I'm not even giving it that. A dissatisfying and overrated EDA novel.
| What: | The Taking of Planet 5 (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Joseph Kemp, Killem, Canada |
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| Date: | Tuesday 18 October 2011 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
What a tasteless jumble. I don't even know what was happening here. Too much information, all the time. No suspense.
Weird. But not entertaining.
No atmosphere. No pacing. Too many references that hold no weight. Unless you've read A LOT of H. P. Lovecraft, none of them make any sense.
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| This was worth EVERY cent I paid for it. |
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| What: | The Power of the Daleks (TV episode audio soundtracks) |
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| By: | C G Harwood, Dunedin, NZ, New Zealand |
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| Date: | Sunday 9 October 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
I cant really add much more to this review, as the three reviews before me said everything I felt about this absolutely wonderful piece of Dr Who. This is how the Daleks should be remembered - cold, calculating, and devious. I loved the way they played with the minds of the colonists. And with Anneke Wills describing what was happening helped me enjoy this very much.
