For those who haven't read this one, don't. It's worse than bad. It's incoherant. If it were a movie, it would have been directed by Coleman Francis.

So does that mean you can't send me a summary?

After having read it, I'm still not sure what the plot is. That's how incoherant it is. It has something to do with three beings born in different times that are connected in some manner. Or something like that. I sometimes got the impression that the author had never seen an episode of Doctor Who.

Infinite Tedium.

It appears to be a few bits of creative writing looking around for a plot that someone cares about. There's no real motive for the Sensopaths to do what are doing other than they can. It is rightly forgotten when remembering the NAs because it commits the ultimate crime of being dull, dull, dull.

The Doctor made the pointless-interactive-hologram-of-himself for Ace, WHY exactly? And why tactlessly TELL Benny this?

How is Suzi's life 'downhill all the way' if she's risen from assistant to Chief Archivist and Librarian of a whole planet?

Why does Suzi risk her life for a few book-disks? This isn't Alexandria, there'll be plenty of copies on other planets.

If the General is so vain she's had 'a dozen wrinkle-jobs', why not get 'the greyish mole just above her mouth' removed too?

The Doctor is still bruised, wounded-in-the-shoulder AND 'drained' SEVERAL WEEKS after his last 'adventure'? Look, I realise being at Kate Orman's mercy isn't FUN, but you'd think he'd've got over it by NOW. Well, maybe his mistake was to spend said weeks bizarrely meditating instead of FIGHTING MONSTERS.

The Doctor thinks he's 'unlikely' to ever see Ace again? Does he not REALISE the NAs are unlikely to sever one of their few links with REAL Who?

'Even after all his suffering, the refuge and comfort of regeneration had not been afforded him' - the WHAT! You DIE. Another man goes sauntering off in your place. AND IT ALWAYS HURTS.

'He was afraid of dying alone' - well, THAT'S spot-on, anyway. This is the guy who invites his friends to have a nice picnic and watch him snuff it.

'And now, he was wishing he had not let the girl disappear so quickly' - QUITE. Letting your quarry get away so you can go feed ducks and enlist Benny's help in tracking down said quarry was a bit...stupid.

The Doctor had to use HYPNOSIS on a technician to let him log on? Whatever happened to natural charm/authority-in-voice, etc? Time to get that psychic paper, loser.

Why does Benny run desperately for Tilusha's flat as we're assured she'd 'never been one to stand by when she knew someone was suffering'...and then stop outside the door saying 'Do we go in or what?'

'Dark hair cut so close to her pale skull that it was almost invisible' - surely dark against pale is NEVER invisible?

'There was a time, Bernice knew, when the Doctor had been overly protective of his companions' - er...WHEN? First time Benny met the git, he was sacrificing the Love of Ace's Life to the monsters...'But the two of them had become so close by now that she knew he would never send her into real danger' - !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Doc packs Benny off alone to the middle of a warzone with an insane genocidal Sensopath in it, because 'it might not be safe' to stay in modern-day London with a considerably less insane genocidal Sensopath.

'The whole structure of the cosmos could be at stake' *sigh* of course it could. There's nothing a substandard Who story likes more than claiming the entire UNIVERSE is endangered, in a pathetic attempt to jazz itself up.

'There were currently members of over seven hundred cultures residing in the centre, fifty-two of which had a history of finding the unclad body offensive' - only one-in-fourteen? Practically all human cultures have a nudity taboo, and almost all the aliens I've seen have SOMETHING on, even if it's just a string vest...

To be continued...

'Religious faith ceased to have any meaning for me, long ago, after seeing so much conflict' - I'd've thought that THE DOCTOR of all people would get over god-bothering without needing CONFLICT to persuade him.

Alternatively, I'd've thought that THE AVATAR OF THE GODDESS TIME wouldn't be so quick to dismiss gods...though I suppose if you've actually TALKED to 'em, you don't need faith...

Why do the victors decide to meet in the Plaza - where they can be, and are, ambushed by every Tom, Dick and Harry - instead of their ship?

Since when would doctors in the twenty-fourth century have had to choose between mother and child during childbirth? And since when would they have chosen the BABY?

Kelzen watches the Doctor's exploits on the time-space visualizer (Didn't Pertwee cannibalise it for some MA or other, um, Eye of the Giant?): '"Are you aware that there are gaps in the earliest data?" "Ah, well." The Doctor shrugged. "I did wonder." His brow creased. "I always intended to sort that matter out with the Time Lords. It wouldn't surprise me if they hoarded them on the Matrix for their own self-indulgence."' - OK, leaving aside the fact that's the least funny in-joke EVER...why WOULD Time Lords have chosen to hoard HARTNELL and TROUGHTON adventures??

'"I left her in the Zero Room. Safest place." Bernice looked confused. "I thought the Zero Room had been jettisoned ages ago?" "It was," said the Doctor, with a mischievous look in his eye. "But that was before I got my old TARDIS back from the Silurian Earth - remember?"' - oh god. The SEVENTH DOCTOR seriously told Benny all about 'Some magic room I used to have that I accidentally jettisoned'?? Has he even told her he can REGENERATE yet? Why not just trust the fans to work out the Silurian Earth TARDIS stuff? (Leaving aside Fifth Doctor audio Renaissance of the Daleks' claim that he had a new Zero Room...)

Why should faith-in-his-Companions work on a SENSOPATH? They're not VAMPIRES.

'She sniggered to herself as she thought of the irony. The kids had come here, looking for her so they could steal her gun, and there had been one in the safe only a few metres away, had they bothered to look' - and, er, had they known the combination of the safe.

The Doctor's been called 'Nanoceph' WHEN, exactly? (And isn't he forgetting 'Snail'?)

'We're being made to fight this war against our will, and for no purpose' - sorry, I thought YOU were the one who insisted on coming to fight here?

Heaven isn't Benny's 'homeworld', moron, it's just the place she happened to meet the Doc.

'His Phracton friend' - this must be the fastest bromance EVER.

'[Benny] wanted to be there at the heart of the action, because in her experience it was those who just sat back and did nothing who got hurt' - leaving aside the arrant stupidity of joining a suicide mission in a superstitious attempt to save her own skin...in EVERY adventure with the Doctor Benny must have seen brave, active people killed.

'"You realize, when we get there," Bernice said, "that there'll be no way of telling our Phracs from hers?" "Yeah," answered Leibniz. "I'd thought of that." "And do you have a solution?" "No," he said' - er...I'm no military genius, but...you could try PAINTING MARKINGS on your Phracs, or something. Just a thought.

'"I may be a mere Earthling, but I'm not stupid, Doctor. Don't patronize me." He smiled briefly. "You remind me of Sarah Jane."' - really? When did Sarah ever tell the Doctor not to patronise her? And what has she got in common with a weak-minded murderer?

'Benny liked to admit her fears, but Ace had always been one for pretending she didn't really have any' - funny, I distinctly remember Ace admitting to fears of spooky houses, clowns, firing squads, the Destroyer...and which was that story she suddenly confessed for no readily apparent reason to being 'really really scared, Professor'? Silver Nemesis?

Yeah, not really getting the whole dying-for-the-boy/there's-an-option-to-return stuff.

'But it's not as if it's history!' - what kind of archaeologist/time traveller ARE you, you half-wit? Of course it's history!

Yeah, this really isn't very good, is it.

I don't know why the Doctor bothered making a hologram of himself – and obviously neither does he, as it's never happened before or since.

Well, sigh, she has now. See The Secret in Vault 13.

Bookwyrm:

'"Clear as Draconian chess, Doctor," said Liebniz. Later, it transpires that Liebniz's wife was killed using a Draconian toxin...Except this is 2387, some hundred or so years before the first encounter between humans and Draconians, as made clear in Frontier in Space' - oh.

Yeah, not really getting the whole dying-for-the-boy/there's-an-option-to-return stuff.

'The ending sets up for a sequel, but you'll be unsurprised to learn that readers in the 1990s weren't clamouring at the Virgin gates to have one published' - what wimps Virgin are, like a little fact like THAT ever stops Big Finish...

Re your quotation in your last post--I could have sworn I just read that in the "Cloister Library" web page before I clicked on this forum. Could it be we read the same reference materials?

As for the book itself, I see I'm not alone. I was somewhat confused as to what was going on in the first half, and then I managed to misplace my copy for a few weeks, leading me to read other non-Who books (Did you know there was such a thing as non-Who books?!) until I eventually came across it again and resumed where I left off--having forgotten much of the first half. I managed to muddle through it, with the help of the plot summary on the Doctor Who Reference Guide website (a great site, which for reasons unknown has not been updated since 2013). And I'm STILL confused as to what the heck was going on!

Oh well, off to the Seventh Doctor PDA "Matrix" next.

Re your quotation in your last post--I could have sworn I just read that in the "Cloister Library" web page before I clicked on this forum. Could it be we read the same reference materials? :-)

Ooh, I didn't know about this Cloister Library thing - v useful though could do with longer reviews in place of the continuity obsession. Robert Smith? co-wrote Bookwyrm as well as doing most of the Cloister reviews so any similarities are unsurprising.

I managed to misplace my copy for a few weeks

*Suspicious look*

(Did you know there was such a thing as non-Who books?!)

Weird isn't it.

until I eventually came across it again and resumed where I left off--having forgotten much of the first half.

That happens even when you DON'T leave it for a few weeks. It's like the book has an automatic mind-wipe function.

I managed to muddle through it, with the help of the plot summary on the Doctor Who Reference Guide website (a great site, which for reasons unknown has not been updated since 2013).

I knooooooow! Gross dereliction of duty! And a great loss.

Oh well, off to the Seventh Doctor PDA "Matrix" next.

Oh. Dear.

Oh no. That bad is it?

To quote the DWM interview with Perry n'Tucker:

'We tried to get Matrix past [Virgin editor Rebecca Levene] and she said "no f***ing way!"' 'She actually said it was unpublishable!' 'She even said that when I danced around the Emmerdale offices waving the published copy in her face. "You said it was unpublishable!" "It is unpublishable!"'

Well, that could be either good or bad. lol
I guess I'll find out for myself.

And don't forget to share your abject horror with Nitcentral!

Well, the first couple of chapters aren't promising. But I'll hold back any further comments until I've finished it--and on the proper thread.

I don't know why the Doctor bothered making a hologram of himself – and obviously neither does he, as it's never happened before or since.

Well, sigh, she has now. See The Secret in Vault 13.

The Doctor provides an alleged 'adaptive hologram' of herself in Survivors of the Flux but frankly it doesn't SEEM very adaptive, more of an answerphone message...

The Doctor provides an alleged 'adaptive hologram' of herself in Survivors of the Flux but frankly it doesn't SEEM very adaptive, more of an answerphone message...

OK, credit where it's due, she definitely got there in the end with an INSANELY adaptive hologram...