I *hate* this book. Easily Orman's worst.
Cough! *fanwank* Ahem.

I loved it! It was such a fun read. Pity the end was so rushed.

I think the reason Benny never went back before was because she never had the exact time and space coordinates until the old Admiral gave them to her. Also, I think she was embarrassed about her father's alledged cowardice, which the Admiral also disspelled.

Benny must have known when and rougly where her father disappeared, and a bit of basic research should have given her the exact coordinates. A major space battle, the scarpering of a never-seen-again Admiral...it would have made the news. She's a highly intelligent historian (well, OK, archaeologist) with plenty of research skills and access to a space/time machine...in fact one of the deciding factors in going with the Doctor in Love and War was finding her dad...so what took her so long?

Other things kept coming up? Like the Monk's vendetta against the Doctor, being thrown through time by the Ants, nearly getting killed a half-dozen times, etc.....

Pah! All in a day's work for a true Companion...

I mean, how about in Warlock, when Benny, Ace and the Doctor spent an entire year lounging around his home in England rearing kittens? Shouldn't she have pestered the Doctor into taking a quick trip then? Or when she was getting married. Fathers are quite important at such events, I gather. Given how many trips the TARDIS made to fetch people from previous adventures, who Benny could scarcely remember (OK, who the unfortunate reader could scarcely remember) you'd think she could have told the Doc to nip back for her dad.

I don't have any problem with RotLD as it stands but I'm not sure that 'the search for dad' was worthwhile in the first place. It turns something that's part of a character's history and background into a problem to be solved - the Fox Mulder effect.

On the other hand it could have been worse. What if Benny's dad had turned out to be the Time Lord explorer Ulysses and her mum an Egyptian princess called Annalise...?!

WHAT?! Oh god, we're talking Leakey Bible here, aren't we?

RotLD is also better than the original Original Sin idea of having Benny's dad as a TARDIS-travelling tramp called Tom.

And what's wrong with having a crazed old tramp called Tom in the TARDIS? It would have been fun having him regale the Doctor and Benny with stories of how he was mistaken for Shirley Williams or Jon Pertwee. And saying things like "Ah, my dears, what this place needs is... badgers!"

Tom - Baker - is - NOT - A - TRAMP!!!

But you just said "a TARDIS-travelling tramp called Tom". Who know doubt would wish to fill his new home with badgers - and why not?

Because everyone knows that the only animals allowed in the TARDIS are cats!

[starts singing] That's whyyyyyyyy Tom Baker is a traaaaaaaaaaaamp!!!!!

I remember liking this immensely the first time I read it. Can't think why now. It seems as if it couldn't decide to be a character piece or an adventure piece and dropped down a most unsatisfying crevice between the two. There was an occasional nice turn of phrase but overall it was stylistic tricks ahead of content and therefore rather empty. Given the talent of the author it's bitterly disappointing.

My copy stayed in one piece in a manner not seen since a Paul Leonard book. I guess that says it all.

Maybe it was this book that seeded a few ideas in the heads of New Who writers? I mean, pre-Return of the Living Dead fathers as a species seemed not to exist - except of course in the case of Victoria, Leela and Nyssa, where papa appeared as a character in his own right...so that he could be ruthlessly killed off. No one ever wonders what Dad made of them vanishing off the face of the Earth. Hell, even Hartnell-and-his-GRANDDAUGHTER never give her old man a second thought.

Yet when the new series came along...Rose nipped back in time to rescue daddy, wiped out the human race and more importantly the Doctor, lost daddy again, before finding him in an alternative universe, watching him scarper, getting rescued by and stuck with him, etc etc. Sarah also accidentally slaughtered humanity in order to save (i.e. kill) Daddy and Mummy. Martha and her mother may or may not have got her estranged father back courtesy of a year's slavery under the Master. Donna never asked to see her dead dad despite the fact the Doctor was perfectly happy to nip back in time to borrow a quid from him. And Amy, of course, unexpectedly found her lost parents down the back of the sofa...sorry, a Crack in space and time. Even Adam's motivation in The Shooting Scripts were all about his dad's arthritis...until RTG cut those bits. Only Captain Jack inexplicably showed zero interest in enlisting the Doctor's help in finding the aliens who'd murdered his father and taken his brother.

And wasn't one of the resurrections-that-mercifully-didn't-happen supposed to involve the Doctor spending an entire season looking for daddy Ulysses or *shudders* something?

'The Osirans influenced the culture on hundreds of planets. And, thousands of years after the, the Exxilons took their own version of Osiran culture and spread it even further' - haaang on, there's nothing in Death to the Daleks or The Exxilons Fourth Doctor audio or the True History of Faction Paradox audios to suggest that the Exxilons nicked their Beacon-obsessed culture from the OSIRANS.

Jason wears pyjama bottoms? I'm...surprised. This is, after all, the bisexual ex-prostitute and future xeno-pornographer and prototype Captain Jack, I'd definitely have expected him to sleep naked. Especially as his wife does.

Roz's parents 'were always very annoyed that I didn't want kids. To pass on the genes, you know' - Roz has PARENTS since WHEN! (Also, not a problem as her sister grew her own Roz-clone. Though I dunno what its reproduction-chances are since its mum smashed the Earth Empire into starving warring cannibalistic smithereens.)

The Doc's 'come up with a magnificent Victorian wooden cradle' - so his own cradle was good enough for Amy's spawn but not for Benny's? (Mind you, I'd've been the first to have a fit of screaming hysteria at any suggestion Our Hero had ever been one of those BABY things, this was the era of Looms and suchlike.)

'Homing in on the TARDIS by instinct' since WHEN!

'That wormhole could terminate in a black hole, or the heart of a sun, or nowhere at all. We'll be protected in the TARDIS' - sorry but I don't believe for a moment that Sexy could protect you from a black hole or the heart of a sun.

'There were two or three dozen types of coffee listed on the blackboard' - in a one-street 'village' in 1983?

'We have contacts all over the world. We find them, bring them here, and make sure they get home' - So, er, you somehow summon their people (the ones who left 'em behind when invading Earth in the first place) for collection? Hmm. (Also, how does this fit in with Face the Raven's Trap Street? Why don't you just send 'em there?)

Also, how does this fit in with 'We try not to keep lots of aliens around. London's the best place for them, or sometimes New York' a few pages later?

'That's why you've been expecting the Doctor.' 'We've been tidying up his messes for twenty years' - HIS messes!!!!

''The ones who don't want our help are UNIT's problem, or sometimes the CIA' - aren't you forgetting numerous other organisations? *45 pages later* 'UNIT, or the British or American military. Or Department C19, or the secret service, or the CIA. Conceivably the KGB' - that's better but you're still forgetting Broadsword, Torchwood, the Forge, MIAOW, MOOO, etc etc...

'The Doctor stirred his tea. "I've often wondered what happens to all the leftovers," he said' - since WHEN!

'"Doctor, will the nanities you injected into my system stop me from becoming pregnant?" "Oh," said the Doctor. "No. They don't even notice the human genome, which means they won't protect you from cancer or autoimmune disorders, either"' - well, THAT contrasts healthily with Sarah-Jane-in-Interference's suspicion that said injections would not only prevent pregnancy but also plant Time Lord DNA in human victims...

'"Hey, do you feel like coming with us? For a while, anyway?" "Are you kidding?" said Joel. "I don't want my arse exterminated"' - Joel isn't much of an expert if he thinks the New Adventures Doctor EVER encounters Daleks.

'There was an elderly cat sitting in the hallway, its single eye wide with surprise' - well, I suppose you might as well combine the inevitable eye-gouging with the inevitable oochie-torturing.

'"We turn up," grumbled Roz, "and immediately, pow, there's a crisis"' - one missing alien is hardly a CRISIS.

'The two Ogrons were adamant that they hadn't eaten anyone for weeks' - OH THAT'S ALRIGHT THEN.

'It was bad enough having to hear about the Doctor all the time. But at least I could do stuff with you the Doctor couldn't do' - whereas Jason is so jealous of his father-in-law because, er, he CAN'T do things with Benny that HER FATHER couldn't do...??!! (Also, sorry to break the news Jason, but she probably DOES shag the Doctor at the end of The Dying Days.)

'World War Three never happens' - so, er, how come the Peking Homunculus almost caused World War Six...?

'"What's your name?" Dreamily, the Doctor told him. Roze called out, "Must be hard getting that on the front of an envelope"' - but there's only one time s/he COULD tell anyone her/his name! Drugged or not!

'I'm looking for Jason. He doesn't usually sulk past lunchtime' - it didn't occur to you that he might have MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARED like all those other people (and TARDISes) have, said 'excitements' being the ONLY things that have happened in this book so far...?

'"What did you say about his father?" said the Doctor. Benny took a deep breath. "That he might kill the man. To stop him from beating his children."' - when did Benny say anything about Jason's father? And why the hell would she not realise that killing Jason's father in 1983 wouldn't so much stop him torturing Jason's little sister as stop her being conceived in the first place?

Oh for heaven's sake, since when has the Doc had SUCH a connection with Sexy that he staggering around blindly toppling over because '"She's found the TARDIS," he said hoarsely. "She's found it."'? (And, later, 'I knew she was on board the ship that was arriving above the crop circle' - the HELL you usually would!)

I really should have read these books in order, but the Roz/Chris snogathon doesn't really seem to fit in with all the others.

'What she and Jason had, what Roz and Chris were beginning to feel, even what she felt for her father...all of it, so simple, so alien to him. The things she took for granted were beyond his comprehension' - well Chris n'Roz don't bother with these FEELINGS after this book, you divorce poor Jason in a few months and the Doctor IS actually perfectly capable of human emotions - have you never realised he has a GRANDDAUGHTER - also if you really think this why are you trying to seduce him in a few months when he turns into McGann?

Oh, the Doctor THOUGHT he'd dealt with the alien-torture-centre but, oops, it's still going strong? What a criminally careless git. Ah well, at least he made sure that cat-torture-centre was shut down in Warlock, that's the main thing.

To be continued...

'Benny had insisted on waiting for two hours in the bitter cold. There had been no sign of the Doctor' - but TennantDoc told Rose to 'Always wait five and a half hours'! Why didn't he say the same to Benny!

'"The whole Navarino culture is based on frivolity and recreation," said the Doctor, as though he was lecturing a dull pupil. "They're so harmless the Time Lords even let them have limited time travel so that they can go on holidays." "And you tax us mercilessly for it," said Albinex' - oh-kay...kudos for trying to explain what the •••• was going on in Delta and the Bannermen (though some things you should just LEAVE WELL ALONE, frankly, like those Victorian gents inventing mirror-related time-travel) and for foreseeing, decades before the misfortunate Gallifrey audios, that the Lords of Time would be SERIOUSLY short of a bob or two (e.g. 'We can't take in 5,000 refugees from the Time War! We can't afford to FEED them!!') - but to be brutally honest you're JUST NOT HELPING.

'It's almost impossible to escape from anywhere through the ventilation shafts...because air doesn't need much space. If you need to ventilate something - an underground complex, a huge building, a luxury spacecraft - you can do it quite adequately through ducts too narrow for a cat' - YOU TRAITOR TO DOCTOR WHO!

'The only bargaining chip he has is the TARDIS...I can't do anything for [the ghost] until I get the TARDIS back' - which makes it really weird that the Doctor didn't escape Albinex's ship in Sexy, thus saving the Love Of His Life and robbing the Baddie of his bargaining chip, instead of through a stupid hole in the air.

'"Tell me about your plan," said the Doctor..."All right," said Albinex. "That was easy," said the Doctor, opening one eye. "I want you to know"' - but the Doc said 'Tell me about your plan' NEVER worked in Vampires of Venice!

Ah, Ogri! I love Ogri! Though I don't know why they're being ALLOWED to mutilate cattle, the silicon gits. If they still stood still in a field surely they wouldn't need any blood?

Gods, what small amount of momentum the book had has come to a screeching halt, characters are now acting like they KNOW they've gotta stretch out the page-count so the Doctor's being endlessly interrogated and the ghost is siding with the Baddie instead of the Doctor for no reason and the Doctor is deliberately getting himself captured for no reason and Benny's sobbing that the Doctor might die cos HE FELL IN A LAKE and it's really getting on my nerves. Orman wrote ONE-TENTH of the New Adventures and NONE of her books are any bloody good (even So Vile a Sin which really felt like it could and SHOULD have been brilliant). Not that I'm saying the other 90% of NAs were any good either, but at least the males managed to produce one or two gems between 'em.

'I ordered Albinex not to hurt you' - so, er, you thought the Doctor would give up the codes for you to start a nuclear war WITHOUT being hurt in any way? Riiiiight.

'We have to keep the pace of weapons development going. The Cold War is going to end this decade. Within two decades, there'll be massive disarmament, a move away from the military-industrial complex. There'll be peace on Earth. Then the Daleks will come, and find the planet practically defenceless' - um, that's not the way it happened on THIS planet and it really wouldn't be the way it happened in the Whoniverse, did they have NO faith that Who would return in glory to our screens and the aliens would come flooding back in the early twenty-first century, long before 2154 (the ludicrous date given here for the Dalek Invasion of Earth)?

How come Jason's with the Doctor's team at Greenham Common when on the previous page he was staying put with the ankle-biter?

Roz and Chris are tugging on their armour HOW, exactly? They weren't wearing it when they left the TARDIS and they haven't been able to go back to Sexy for it cos she's AT THE BOTTOM OF A LAKE. (You don't usually get these careless little mistakes from Kate Orman, obviously even SHE'S lost interest in this book.)

'"I've made this possible," said Isaac firmly. "I have to stop it if it kills me"' - oh gods, what's the point of having a twenty-year Evil Plan To Start A Nuclear War if you're THAT easily dissuaded?

'Wish I could read Navarino' - we really didn't realise till New Who that Sexy translates writing as well, did we.

Benny is too far away to get in the path of the projectile? Why the •••• would she want to get in the path of the projectile? Sure it might kill her father if she doesn't but frankly so what? His behaviour has been such that she shouldn't •••• on him when he's on fire, let alone take a bullet for him.

'"Jeez," he said faintly. "Barney wants to destroy the Earth"' - er...why? Seriously, the Whoniverse has had some poorly-motivated attempted-destructions-of-Earth but this really takes the biscuit.

'The Doctor put him back together with some of my aeroplane glue' - haaaang on, Graeme's an Auton spatula, can't he just...pull himself together? Auton-Mickey looked pretty flexible.

'It might have been a Fortean Flicker' - I'm no expert but that would surely have been a HELL of a lot weirder.

'Wish I could read Navarino' - we really didn't realise till New Who that Sexy translates writing as well, did we.

Maybe that's a feature that was added during the Time War.

I thought of that and then dismissed it. The Time Lords didn't have the sense to upgrade THEMSELVES during the Time War (I was SO SURE they'd sensibly given the Doc those 507 regenerations he mentioned in SJA: Death of the Doctor then, but did they hell) or their TARDISes (have you SEEN the War Doctor's hideous mess in Day of the Doctor) so their chances of doing some research to ensure that something sensible but less important like ensuring they could READ STUFF PROPERLY is...unlikely.

Bookwyrm:

'Written with the knowledge of what's coming in the telemovie, the Doctor's response to learning about his own death is "surprise, denial, curiosity, acceptance". Certainly, fandom's response was almost exactly the first two' - WAS it, though? Surely fandom would - no insult to Sylvester - be more than happy to see the back of his artificially-long-drawn-out reign and get ourselves what we'd sometimes despaired of, an EIGHTH Doctor?

'The only real monsters that we meet are the faux-Ace and faux-Doctor from Witch Mark, who have become violent creatures who try to tear your throat out with their teeth. Which feels like a justifiable response to Witch Mark' - (Though honestly, there were plenty of torturing-monsters around (it's an Orman novel for heaven's sake), they were just really unmemorable.)