Just remind us...how WERE you hideously killed in Ship of Fools? Ah, Hamlet, I knew ye well... *g* This is one of the more surreal NAs, with lots of fun theatre bits.
And lotsa my gal Benny..
Surreal? Theatre of War? Surreal?
Looks at Sky Pirates. Looks at Timewyrm: Revelation. Looks at The Scarlet Empress. Looks at the Blue Angel.
Oooooooooook.
I'm of two minds on this book. On the one hand, it was a fun read. I enjoyed trying to figure out which play titles were real, and which were fake (though I could have done without the fake critical papers). The Doctor et al were enjoyable to read, almost their old TV self.
On the other hand, I'm still not exactly sure who was manipulating who by the end. And could there BE a more elaborate plan than the fake theatre? I also waffled back and forth over the likelihood of an entire civilization founded on the theatre.
The first time I read this I thought it was brilliant. The second time it seemed a bit, well, dull. The bits on Menaxus were very good but the book seemed to lose steam once the location shifted back to Heletia where it became yet another capture, escape, recapture, escape treadmill. It even had Ace trying to destroy the machine because her emotions got the better of her and she didn't understand the Doctor's plan. Bet no-one saw that coming!
Apart from the mud statues being the first manifestation of Justin Richards' obsession with putting zombies into almost every book the in-jokes are the things that grate at times when they become too obvious. Peter Hinton as one of the authors? Then again, who am I to complain since I got name-checked in 'Ship of Fools' :-)
This book is like a poor wine. Drink it when first purchased and it will leave a sweet taste on the palette but leave it for a few years and it will slowly turn to vinegar.
Ah yes Just remind us...how WERE you hideously killed in Ship of Fools?
This book is like a poor wine. Drink it when first purchased and it will leave a sweet taste on the palette but leave it for a few years and it will slowly turn to vinegar.
To be fair, NO Who book except those by Lawrence Miles stands up to a reread very well. We were probably just so pathetically desperate at the time for ANYTHING with the Who label on it that we overlooked all the flaws. (Plus, in the case of Theatre of War...we've now got the benefit of a couple of decades-worth of Justin Richards and his bloody zombie obsession.)
The first time I read this I thought it was brilliant. The second time it seemed a bit, well, dull.
Interesting. Given that Justin Richards says in DWM, 'My intention was to write a book you could read several times and still get something out of.'
'There were a couple of tricks I wanted to play. The first was to tell the reader right at the start what's happening, and then let them forget that they know it' - unfortunately I haven't just forgotten what I was told at the start, but EVERYTHING ELSE ABOUT THIS BOOK.
Anyone read 'As I Walked out one Morning' - which apparently 'captures the essence of what I wanted the final performance to be about. Basically, it talks about how time will get us all in the end'?
Audio version:
'You said it wasn't a castle' - Ace. No, the Doc said it MIGHT not be a castle.
Bit stupid of the Doctor and Benny to hide behind the arras, given they know perfectly well what Hamlet scene they've just walked into...
'You think finding an old play makes Tashman's death worthwhile, and all those deaths five years ago' 'Of course not' - of course it does! How can they doubt it? The yearned-for, legendary missing play from the galaxy's premier playwright! It'd be like finding Power of the Daleks, for heaven's sake. So why aren't these people more excited?
OK, NOW one of 'em's sacrificing his life for it and now another of 'em's saying 'protect the machine [with the play in]!' as her spaceship is being shot at, but still...there should have been a LOT more squealing, not to mention ACTUALLY BOTHERING TO WATCH IT.
Come to think of it, why should Brax have figured the inexplicable not-bothering-to-watch-it into his calculations?
Why would a theatre-obsessed planet be conquering so many other worlds, committing genocide, fighting an interplanetary war? Shouldn't they be too busy watching plays or something?
Old-fashioned guns without an energy signature don't show up on weapons scans? Those are pretty rubbish weapons scans.
Why would the Doctor have a reader's ticket to the Braxiatel Collection number 0001? It's not like he and his brother are on such good terms that the Doc would have turned up for the grand opening/Brax would have sent him a ticket.
And why aren't tickets specific to the person they're issued to? Any old mugger could be turning up on the exclusive Collection.
So there's the ruins of an open-air theatre on a planet where it rains incessantly for two years out of every three - ruins which projections prove don't match up to how any theatre COULD have got itself ruined, with acoustics that only work with no audience - there's no sign of a single other building on Mexanus, there are loads of documents, every one of which concerns the theatre and all of which appear to be written by the same person...I'm not sure whether to be more shocked at the Doctor and Benny's staggering stupidity in failing to work out that THIS IS A FAKE or Braxiatel's staggering stupidity in making his fake so OBVIOUS.
Why not draw the killer-mud-statues off and then double back to the TARDIS? Why draw the killer-mud-statues off for HOURS - entailing one of the extras doing the Noble Self-Sacrifice thing - to give Ace and co time to clear the mud out of the spaceship's engines so they can double back to said spaceship and attempt to take off and fly through a war zone, abandoning poor Sexy?
Why does Benny sound so surprised when Brax offers her tea?
Brax doesn't recognise the Doctor's handwriting? Whatever happened to this godawful 'They're brothers!' idea Justin Richards is always pushing?
Benny doesn't ask how Brax is tracking the Doctor's every move from several solar systems away. Which is a shame cos I'd rather like to know myself. I hope he isn't spying on ALL Our Hero's adventures.
She also seems remarkably unfazed by the fact he's slaughtered loads of archaeologists in his ends-justify-the-means (failed!) attempt to end a war.
Why is Ace so shocked that whatsherface is grovelling to a spoilt brat? Which bit of the spoilt brat ordering a thousand or two executions a minute ago was too subtle for her?
Why doesn't the Doctor check the machine over sooner?
Look, it's one thing for someone to say to Ace 'You're quite a card' - it may not be remotely amusing but it has a POINT. But for Ace to say that to a bloke who isn't named after a playing-card...?
'You should have let me bring Nitro-9, Doctor' - since when has Ace needed the Doctor's PERMISSION for THAT? Especially after three years in the Dalek-fighting military, for heaven's sake.
'They've tortured and killed thousands' - yeah, and WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG, Ace?
The Doctor and Ace are talking REALLY loudly throughout that play.
Sorry, Brax just turns up with Sexy? Since when has he been the Doctor's delivery-boy? Since when has he had a KEY?
CD extras:
The Braxiatel actor didn't even realise he was a Time Lord before he found himself in the Gallifrey audios?! Blimey, no wonder the 'I'm the Doctor's brother, you know!' subtext is mercifully absent.
It turns out that all that stuff about brilliant acoustics in open-air theatres is rubbish, thus fatally undermining the whole premise of this book, viz, that the acoustics in this open-air theatre being rubbish means OMG! IT'S A FAKE AND A TRAP!!
Brax doesn't recognise the Doctor's handwriting? Whatever happened to this godawful 'They're brothers!' idea Justin Richards is always pushing?
I guess the Timeless Child stuff blew quite a hole in THAT little claim...
The Braxiatel actor didn't even realise he was a Time Lord before he found himself in the Gallifrey audios?! Blimey, no wonder the 'I'm the Doctor's brother, you know!' subtext is mercifully absent.
Well, not any more it isn't, though mercifully Brax WAS eaten by Ravenous two minutes after starting his 'I'm the Doctor's brother, you know!' spiel in Gallifrey: Time War 4...
Uh, yeah.
Listen, whether or not the Doctor has a brother is a VITALLY IMPORTANT ISSUE.
Hmmmm, a thought occurred. Since Jenny is his-her clone, would she be his-her daughter of his-her sister?
If the Doctor says she's their daughter she's their daughter!
(Of course, he then said that SHE'S DEAD! so he could do a runner, but never mind...)