I've just read this. Enjoyed it quite a lot, despite a) the incredible unoriginality of trapping the Doctor in a fictional reality, and b) the irritating characters - no-one should try creating a village witch, they always fail to live up to the definitive article, i.e. Miss Hawthorn. And I LOVED it when the Famous Five's dog got put down.
But what really drove me mad was Ace. How DARE she shout and swear and call the Doctor unrepeatable names every five minutes? It really ruins my happy memories of them strolling off into the sunset together after every TV adventure.
You could probably add Batman to the Roots section as well. And there's a board game based on the old Nightshade show, from the novel of the same name.
who populates his Land with lots of comic-book type characters and a twisted version of the Doctor named Professor What.
He does? I don't remember a Professor What...
I've just read this. Enjoyed it quite a lot
Boy, have I regenerated since writing THAT.
Still, it's not as blow-your-own-brains-out excruciatingly boring as many surrounding NAs so no doubt I was just RELIEVED.
Even if the ONLY thing I remembered about this before making the mistake of rereading it was the Famous Five's dead dog.
A REALLY slow build-up as we get introduced to every dull-but-weird inhabitant of the town. If it's trying to gradually lead us to the realisation that THIS ISN'T REAL, it REALLY shouldn't have put that cartoon character on the cover...
'She had, after all, made herself a firm promise that the next time the Doctor took her to any place remotely suitable, she would pack her bags and go' - Benny's gonna ABANDON the Doc!! WHY?? Sure, he's been forced to be ultra-dark and manipulative for the greater good recently, but then he was doing exactly that when they MET so it can hardly have come as a shocking surprise.
'Things had not been the same between the pair recently, not since Silurian Earth and the way in which the Doctor had condemned that other-dimensional planet's billions of life-forms to certain, lingering death.' - OK, firstly it wasn't just about EARTH, it was about that ENTIRE ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE, most of whose planets were presumably a lot happier than that godawful Silurian Earth in which practically all the humans had been slaughtered. Secondly, the Doctor considerately ensured all the people they MET there would be able to live out their normal lifespans. Also, he only did it to save the REAL universe and YOU sure as hell didn't come up with any BETTER alternatives.
Arcturans have driving licenses?
Ace KNOWS the Doctor's not just another Time Lord...?
Alright, Ace is feeling off-colour but she should be able to fight off the bad guys even with a headache.
Ace can hardly dare to believe that anything could be so stupid. My problem is the opposite - this just isn't stupid/silly/funny/crazy ENOUGH. The Land of Fiction should be more...different. Special. Bizarre.
Isn't it way too risky for the Doctor to write HIMSELF into the fiction?
Blimey, there's so much wife/girlfriend-beating going on I had to double-check it wasn't written by Rob Shearman.
Ace (who, lest we forget, is a TOTAL ***** for the duration of this book) offers herself as a human shield for a couple of near-strangers she KNOWS are fictional?
'I don't kill people' - er...you DID just confess to bringing down a spaceship and killing people.
Admittedly I didn't work out who the serial-killer was. Mainly because I didn't CARE.
How DARE this call the TARDIS SEMI-sentient!
'"There'll be no one watching or reading about us anymore?" "No one."..."Well," muttered the Doctor when he was sure she was out of earshot, "no one out of the ordinary, anyway."' - sorry, is the Doctor implying he KNOWS his adventures are being turned into rubbish books? Are you trying to imply he is, in fact, a FICTIONAL CHARACTER????????
Considering that, usually and separately, they're all fantastic characters, some of the most powerful and enduring in the Whoniverse...it takes AMAZINGLY bad writing and ideas to make the team of the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Bernice seem like the absolute nadir of TARDIS-crewship. Yes, I'd LITERALLY prefer to read about the Sixth Doctor and Mel. I realise Steve Lyons is just doing his duty by the bloody stupid story-arc, but he could not have done it worse.
The REALLY irritating thing is that he obviously REALISES this, as seen in the Message From Fred when Ace is told she's stupid and boring and readers are tired of her.
LOVE the form they want you to fill in and send off at the back. Are you married, divorced/separated, or single? It's obviously UNTHINKABLE, in 1994, that any Who fan should be living in sin...
Isn't it way too risky for the Doctor to write HIMSELF into the fiction?
Troughton seemed to think so in Mind Robber:
DOCTOR: Well, when someone writes about an incident after it's happened, that is history.
JAMIE: Yes.
DOCTOR: But when the writing comes first, that's fiction. If we'd have fallen into the Master's trap, we would have become fiction.
Of course, since then the Fourth and Sixth Doctors have had some fairly excruciating audio adventures in the Land of Fiction, maybe they picked up a few tips then, I wouldn't remember owing to aforementioned excruciatingness...
Bookwyrm:
'A description of Ace: "You are now, were once, have always been, worthless. A mere supporting character, your inspiration plucked from a film, modified for your new genre, and granted with a limited potential that you have long since outlived." Harsh. But fair' - I was going to claim that Bookyrm is being way too harsh when I saw I said basically the same thing...