The bits in the Dominion were quite unbelievably tedious (‘Is it a sea? Is it a sky? No...it’s a sea-sky!’ repeated ad nauseam) but I enjoyed the rest of it for a while until it stopped feeling enjoyably traditional and started feeling utterly, totally unoriginal.

I have to agree that the Doctor is really badly done. The Eighth Doctor is enough of an idiot compared to the Seventh without him being further reduced to helpless indecision. And I don’t like the implication that so much of his personality depends on the TARDIS. Still, I liked the apology to the cushion.

As for that UNIT general who thinks the Doctor is a traitor because ‘people die when you’re around’...well, I can just about accept that, given that 'military intelligence is a contradiction in terms', but I cannot accept that someone with insider knowledge of the Doctor's behaviour for the last 20 years would _lock him up in a laboratory_.

And why on Earth – given that the place is crawling with alien monsters – does Fitz doubt the Doctor’s opinion that an alien invasion is going on?

He's actually not a general, but rather 'Major Wolstencroft'. Anyways, using his logic that when the Doctor is involved, people die, I'd like to see Wolstencroft's track record; not a single person died in any of his campaigns? Amazing!

My portrayal of the Doctor in this book seems to have divided opinion - some people love it, others don't. As usual, those who don't are more vociferous. I stand by what I did, emasculating the Doctor. It's not because I hate him, it's because I wanted to examine him without the 'super powers' he gained in the TV Movie. The irony of him telling the alcoholic farmer that he was going to live a long life, which was the last thing the poor guy wanted to hear, and then having him killed horribly by alien nasties, was one of my favourite parts of the book although I say so myself.

As for the plot holes - bring 'em on! They are there for all to see. At least no-one's mentioned the vice yet.

Off to IKEA now to buy a bookcase!


Nick

I'd forgotten about that Doctor-gets-it-wrong moment vis a vis his fortune-telling skills. Yes, very nice indeed (especially to see an author not just ignoring the Eighth Doctor's inexplicable prescience (well, Bodysnatchers mentioned it as well, but I'm damned if I'm going to give Bodysnatchers credit for ANYTHING)). The trouble with making the Doctor's entire personality dependent on his TARDIS, of course, is that you're in BIG trouble when Shadows of Avalon comes along...

Vice? What vice? I really don't want to reread so perhaps you could elaborate?

Nope. Re-read it!

Oi, Skagra! Stop being so rude! Thought I told you never to reveal your presence to the hordes.

But now you have, what horror will be unleashed!

Good point, though. I'm saying nowt about the vice, so poor Emily will have to re-read DOMINION to find it! Mwa ha ha!

Unless I, Skagra, reveal all!

Go on then, see if I care.

Shan't.

Aw, go on...please?

By the way... did anyone who read this feel a tad reminded of this computer game called "Halflife"? I did - and it gave me nightmares. Thanks bunches!

did anyone who read this feel a tad reminded of this computer game called "Halflife"?

Funnily enough, the DWM review mentions that the aliens, 'although latex at heart, convey, through the author's detailed description, the sharp image of computer graphics'.

It also describes UNIT's 'characteristic xenophobia' which is rather unfair. They were a multinational organisation with an alien scientific adviser, for heaven's sake. Plus, the aliens always WERE out to get them.

for the plot holes - bring 'em on! They are there for all to see. At least no-one's mentioned the vice yet.

Vice? What vice? I really don't want to reread so perhaps you could elaborate?

Nope. Re-read it!

Have duly reread it. Still have no idea what the hell you're talking about

'As he stood, prevaricating' - but he's NOT prevaricating. Procrastinating, certainly.

Fitz doesn't accidentally hit ANY switches whilst STANDING all over our beloved console?

The Doctor says Sexy's 'going to take a long time to heal' before saying on the next page that 'Could be days, months, or even years. Or never' - so basically he hasn't got a CLUE how long, or even whether, the TARDIS will heal, so why bother lying about this 'long time' thing? Especially as a long time means a drastically different thing to a Time Lord than it does to a mere human.

'His velvet frock coat looked pristine as ever' - and yet he's brushing bits of twig off it?

The Doctor sniffs the air and deduces he's on Earth? How pathetic Eight is compared to darling Thirteen, tasting the soil and deciding that twenty-five miles away there's an alpaca farm, and gift-shop with a very low TripAdvisor rating...

'Just be thankful we're not here in the middle of winter. We'd have died of exposure before now' - WE, Doctor? Didn't you survive millions of years hibernating in the Antarctic ice in Frozen Time?

'Johan was gone, perhaps for ever' - PERHAPS? (OK, as it happens he does reappear before going splat but honestly, on the existing evidence you should TOTALLY assume he's dead as Dodo.)

'So whatever had happened to Johan had happened to others' - well, you don't know that, you didn't bother asking the policeman who broke the news of other disappearances if half their HOUSES had disappeared alongside them.

'He looked back down into the hole, which was now a crater big enough to park a car in' - wasn't it that BEFORE the Doc accidentally increased the size? Like, 'a spherical chamber about twelve feet across'...?

'To Bjorn's incredulity, he started making little piggy "oink-oink" noises' - so the whole speaking-to-animals-and-babies thing DEFINITELY occurred post-Eighth-incarnation, then...

'I think I'm going through the same thing' - er, NO, Doc, mislaying Sam and thinking she might be (through no fault of your own) a gonner is IN NO WAY comparable with getting a beloved wife killed.

I mean, she's only SAM.

'"I'd rather have tea," said the Doctor, smiling sadly. "Coffee gets my hearts racing"' - a) why doesn't Bjorn react to the whole 'hearts' thing and b) someone check all the other EDAs and Eighth Doctor audios (and Telos novellas and, um, that one PDA) for McGann drinking coffee IMMEDIATELY!

Did anyone bother informing Johan's parents (or Kerstin's) that OH GOSH HE'S BACK FROM THE DEAD? Let's hope not, in view of the misfortunate 'Oops, definitely dead NOW' sequel. But Kerstin doesn't even bother to THINK about this during her hours staring at him in the hospital?

'Aliens. She'd never seriously considered such a thing - seen films, read novels, entertained the intellectual possibility of life on other planets...' - Yeah, that's not what Beige Planet Mars said. ('Everyone knew by the last years of the twentieth century that human affairs were being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own' - admittedly this isn't the ONLY thing contradicting that claim...)

'The Doctor had a natural sense of direction where the TARDIS was concerned. A feeling for her presence. It was his home, after all' - ye-esss...I don't really think s/he DOES, tbh.

'Johan could be the unwitting spearhead of the alien invasion. If he was, the Doctor would find out in the TARDIS lab' - er, aren't we being a trifle over-optimistic,what with the whole THE TARDIS MAY NEVER RECOVER! stuff?

'There was no way he could test the blood now. No way he could tell what was going to happen to Johan' - yeah, it's not like HUMANS in 1999 have LABS.

'Under siege, there's only one thing we can do - barricade ourselves in and try to hold out' - or, er, you could SUMMON HELP using one of those magical 'mobile phone' devices?

'He could just hear Sam, telling him if he'd never smoked he'd be able to run without wheezing like a faulty TARDIS' - like a FAULTY TARDIS? Like a NORMAL TARDIS, surely (or at least one with the handbrake left on)?

'He hated being locked up. Hated it. Hated it. Hated. It.' - since WHEN! I thought he considered it all in a day's work, or possibly positively enjoyed it.

'C19. The part of the British government that funded the UK arm of UNIT. In return, they took possession of all the alien technology UNIT left behind' - ah! I've never really been sure what that C19 was all about. And I suppose that helps explain why UNIT didn't have any alien tech around, though I can't honestly see Pertwee happily handing over that sort of stuff to C19...

Sam hasn't eaten or drunk for ages, why does she feel 'tired and hungry' instead of her thirst having priority?

'How did you rescue me?' - why is that more important than WHY did you rescue me?

'The Doctor cut her short. "Advance, my pants!"' - when has he ever mentioned his pants? (Except in Zygon Inversion, obviously.) 'The Doctor waved his hands in the air, suddenly angry. "Oh, socks to the probes!"' - socks too...?

Wolstencroft fought in Kebiria and the Welsh valleys - i.e. has been in NUMEROUS Pertwee-era UNIT stories, yet doesn't seem to know the Doctor - other than as some legendary figure who can be blamed for every death in his vicinity?

'Do you realise that not only are you responsible for the imminent destruction of Earth, but for the genocide of an entire alien race?' - several entire alien races, surely?

'Usually all I have to say to my companions is "number forty-seven" and they know what to do' - only Sam. Ever. (Something made clear earlier in this very book when Fitz doesn't have a clue when the Doctor throws numbers at him.)

'All the UNIT troops were probably preparing for their trip through the wormhole. A surge of impotent anger. Nothing he could do about that' - you could always try PHONING THE BRIG...

A ••••••• BUTTERFLY shows Kerstin which TARDIS switch to press? Cringe.

'Almost as if she wanted it to happen' - um, so why DOES Sexy want a wormhole snarled in her bowels like a tapeworm? (Is she THAT desperate to get rid of Sam?)

Yeah, sorry, I'm sure it's supposed to be a devastating twist that it's not the wormhole, it's our universe destroying the sea-sky appalling-waste-of-space but I SO don't give a toss.

'He went to say something, but she silenced him with a kiss on his alabaster lips' - *wince*

'Her room was gone - there was simply nothing there in its place, just a blank wall. She wasn't that bothered. There were plenty of other rooms in the TARDIS' - and Sam didn't have ANYTHING from her TARDIS-travels in her room that she treasured?

Having lost her fiance, Kerstin 'would need normal things around her, whatever she thought now. Another trip in the TARDIS would probably unhinge her' - oh nonsense, plenty of people have survived jumping straight into the TARDIS after the loss of their wife/aunt/galaxy etc.

Discussion of Fitz-in-this-book in the Companions: Novels; Fitz section. (No discussion of the Eighth Doctor or Samantha Jones in THEIR sections, obviously. Which is not so much a criticism of this book as of the characters of the Eighth Doctor and Samantha Jones. I suppose I SHOULD discuss the whole 'You're the guy with two hearts, who never farts' outburst but I'd rather die.)

Wow, thanks for this! Dominion seems a long time ago now. Because it was!

I would write it a lot differently (better) now. Writing is one thing that gets better as you get older.

'The guy with two hearts, who never farts' is a perfect description of this Doctor, I stand by that. And now the Doctor is female it's even more true as I understand women NEVER fart.

Yeah, the Dominion was scary, with the Founders, the Vorta and...

Whoops, wrong Dominion!

My inspiration was actually The Sisters of Mercy...

I would write it a lot differently (better) now. Writing is one thing that gets better as you get older.

Oh, I dunno, you haven't beaten Fall of Yquatine yet...

'The guy with two hearts, who never farts' is a perfect description of this Doctor, I stand by that. And now the Doctor is female it's even more true as I understand women NEVER fart.

You obviously need an SJA: Mona Lisa's Revenge rewatch...

My inspiration was actually The Sisters of Mercy...

*Googles*

'We are a rock'n'roll band. And a pop band. And an industrial groove machine. We are intellectual love gods.'

Oh-kay...

Floodland, track 1.

OK, can't see what this has got to do with the book. In which there is no sand, dust or prayers. Though I suppose the in-the-land-of-the-blind-the-one-eyed-man-is-king stuff could apply to Fitz knowing about fire...?

Arg!

It was just the inspiration for the title. You're reading too much into it!

Nick, my mention of the DS9 Dominion was a joke.

Tim, yes I know - I just wanted to point out what my actual inspiration was.

You're reading too much into it!

This is what happens to people when it's been MUCH MUCH TOO LONG without new Who on TV...

...OK, this is what happens to ME when it's been much much too long without new Who on TV, other people have other reactions, like writing Dominion...

it's been much much too long without new Who on TV, other people have other reactions, like writing Dominion...

Uh, Emily, Nick wrote this book years before New Who started.

Yeah, it was three years after the telemovie, we were all in a state of desperation/despair.

Here's how it really happened...

Paul Leonard phoned me at work one Friday in mid-1998, and said, 'Nick! Nick! There's a gap in the EDA schedule and Steve's desperate to fill it, so if you can come up with a story over the weekend, he'll probably commission it!.

••••, thought I. Woah!

Thinking cap on.

Er um er um... Right. Er um.... er. Gah!

Bollocks.

BOLLOCKS!

My mind is a complete blank.

How about, in desperation, I pick two TV shows and mash them up? Say, The X-Files and Stargate. Yeah, that'll do. And instead of setting it in England, boring boring boring, set it somewhere I've actually been.

Sweden!

And base one of the characters on my ex!

(That'll teach her.)

Now, a title. Hmm. Something... I dunno. It's going to be about some alien realm or something. [Glances at CD collection].

Aha! Dominion! Thank you, Mr Eldritch!

Two days of furious writing commences at the end of which I have a sample chapter and synopsis. I email this to the BBC on Monday.

Tuesday evening, the phone rings: 'Hello, is that Nick Walters? Steve Cole here....'

JURASSIC PARK!

Paul Leonard phoned me at work one Friday in mid-1998, and said, 'Nick! Nick! There's a gap in the EDA schedule and Steve's desperate to fill it, so if you can come up with a story over the weekend, he'll probably commission it!.

Why don't I have friends like that!

My mind is a complete blank.

DON'T confess things like that, one's mind automatically starts thinking 'That explains EVERYTHING!'

How about, in desperation, I pick two TV shows and mash them up? Say, The X-Files and Stargate. Yeah, that'll do.

*Wince* you didn't think maybe, say, Lambert-Who and Hinchcliffe-Who would have been BETTER programmes to choose?

And instead of setting it in England, boring boring boring, set it somewhere I've actually been.

Sweden!

Sweden is WAY more boring than England.

(Well, that's the impression I've got from Dominion, anyway. Even when it's got an alien invasion going on it's very very boring.)

And base one of the characters on my ex!

(That'll teach her.)

Oh, THAT'S why poor Kerstin was tormented with visions of becoming a Companion before having it cruelly snatched from her! That will DEFINITELY teach her...

Tuesday evening, the phone rings: 'Hello, is that Nick Walters? Steve Cole here....'

Bless! Nothing more fascinating than seeing the randomness of the destiny of our Doctor...

JURASSIC PARK!

UH?

Jurassic Park - Alan Partridge reference.

I'll just leave this here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=W_2hjj5vGtc&fbclid=IwAR3A8Afe4whO1BPNnisJCSNj80tJqoCIZyKWzbsC7R6oRC4s3B3zOiczAAg&app=desktop

Aww, BLESS.

Though it's typical wet-brain chauvinism to think the CHUMBLIES would ever invade Earth.

I was convinced that the Swedish girl existed just so Fitz could do her; imagine my surprise when nothing happened.

It's not just YOUR surprise, Fitz is obviously also struggling with this fact as late as Fall of Yquatine: 'He'd helped save the creatures of the Dominion, but he had lost Kerstin, who was presumably still moping about in Sweden' - because OF COURSE saving-a-species is completely counterbalanced by not-shagging-a-Swede...

'You're the guy with two hearts, who never farts. Never swears, smokes, drinks or even sweats.'

The Face-Eater: 'The sweat dried cold on his Time Lord body.'

Just sayin'.

What can I say?

Not having read The Face Eater, not a lot!

Was is his own sweat?

You can...just not read these things?

Why did no one tell me this SOONER!

Definitely his own sweat.

But of course Face-Eater was also the book that claimed the Doctor needs to go to the loo so what does it know about, well, ANYTHING.

'[Ace] and the Doctor kept up their sweat-soaked sprint' - At Childhood's End.

Of course, different Doctors must have different rates of sweating and I shouldn't really use the Dominion thread to post every time a non-Eighth-Doctor perspires but I just have the feeling I'm going to anyway...

Of course, different Doctors must have different rates of sweating and I shouldn't really use the Dominion thread to post every time a non-Eighth-Doctor perspires but I just have the feeling I'm going to anyway...

Yup, totally am.

Just War: Wolff sneers at the sweat on McCoy's pacifist degenerate brow.

Conversely, Thirteenth Doctor novel Maze of Doom:

'He was melting, but somehow the Doctor remained cool, even this close to the fiery monster.'

Well, Fitz was only SAYING he never sweats in a moment of anger, I wouldn't take his word as gospel.

I don't take gospel as gospel. But of course I'm gonna take Fitz's word for something if that means I can eke out more nits!

And honestly, who knows the Eighth Doctor better than Fitz? Certainly not the Eighth Doctor himself, given how much of his on-screen, audio AND novel lives are spent having amnesia.

Admittedly Fitz hasn't known the Doc for that long by Dominion but they've run away from enough monsters together to tell if he sweats...

Devil Goblins From Neptune:

The Third Doctor 'drew a Paisley handkerchief to wipe across his brow. "Is it me, or is it getting hot in here?"'

Well, Fitz was only SAYING he never sweats in a moment of anger, I wouldn't take his word as gospel.

*Sigh* Frontier Worlds:

'Sometimes it was the small things, like the way he didn't seem to sweat when it was scorching hot. Maybe that was the perspiratory bypass system [Fitz]'d overheard [the Doctor] tell Compassion about' - !

Tom is sweating a lot in Deadly Assassin. Admittedly most of it is imaginary (being Matrix sweat).

Wooden Heart:

'Martha could see the beads of sweat on the Doctor's forehead.'

Wintertime Paradox: We Will Feed You to the Trees (re the Seventh Doctor):

'I can almost hear his mind working beneath his sweat-streaked brow.'

'You're the guy with two hearts, who never farts. Never swears, smokes, drinks or even sweats.'

Prince Andrew?

One has the sneaking suspicion that Andrew might not have been 100% truthful with his sweat-free-pizza alibi.

After all, promises to lesser species have no validity...

Sixth Doctor in Palace of the Red Sun:

'Mopping his forehead with a handkerchief...'

Emotional Chemistry:

Hey, have we actually got an...EXPLANATION for the sweating discrepancies? From the Amnesiac Loser of all Doctors?

'His face felt flushed and he dabbed it with his handkerchief as he waited for his biological thermostat to compensate'...

The Third Doctor's looking 'pale, drenched in sweat' in Scourge of the Cybermen. (OK, so he's dying of radiation at the time. That's not the POINT.)

Dalek Generation:

'The Doctor could hear his hearts thudding with exhaustion and feel perspiration trickling down this face'...

At last, a bit of evidence in Dominion's favour: 'There wasn't a bead of sweat on her perfect cool-white body' - Cabinet of Light re Mestizer, aka THE MASTER!!

History 101:

'He huffed his long fringe out of his eyes, although some sweat-dampened strands resisted.'

Shouldn't this be in the History 101 thread?

Nope, Dominion was the novel that claimed the Doctor never sweated so Dominion is the thread in which every single instance of the Doctor sweating is...lovingly regurgitated.

Ah but it was Fitz saying that, he was exaggerating.

But I'm pretty sure he/she never farts.

But Fitz has some support for his view, viz, Emotional Chemistry's biological thermostat...

Does it really matter if one non-canon source contradicts another non-canon source?

I doubt most people would care one way or another. Of course, Emily is not like most people (and I mean that in a good way).

Does it really matter if one non-canon source contradicts another non-canon source?

Yes.

'You're the guy with two hearts, who never farts. Never swears, smokes, drinks or even sweats.'

Infinity Doctors: Time Lady Larna 'reeked of sweat'. And Time Lord Glebun 'would be Glebun the Flatulent until the day he died'...

Loving the Alien: 'His disembodied voice sounded muffled inside the Doctor's sweaty, dark hood.'

Art of Destruction: 'Sweat started streaming from his pores.'

OK, never let it be said I suppress the evidence when it doesn't go my way...

Escape Velocity:

'Annoyingly, he had kept pace with her the whole way...and had failed to break into a sweat or begin to lose his breath'...

OK, never let it be said I suppress the evidence when it doesn't go my way...

Escape Velocity:

'Annoyingly, he had kept pace with her the whole way...and had failed to break into a sweat or begin to lose his breath'...

On the other hand, Eight has cold sweat on his forehead when bloodfasting a vampire in Vampire Science...

Hartnell making his feet perspire is a major plot-point in Farewell, Great Macedon...

The Dispossessed:

Ace: 'Drop a tower-block onto you and you barely break into a sweat. Hang on. DO Time Lords sweat?' Doctor: 'I'm going to ignore that question' - *sigh* I s'pose it's past time I followed his example...

Wait a minute. The author is in this thread? Good thing I actually liked the book. I thought Daniel O'Mahony was the only one in this forum.
Is there any chance Neil Penswick can join because I'd really like to complain about The Pit!

So a major plot point here is to get two aliens together for the sole purpose of having sex (or whatever they call it for this species). Oh and having babies as a result of said fornication. This might be a first for Doctor Who.
I'm not sure what to call Sam and Fitz for encouraging it to happen.

Speaking of Fitz, for once he didn't seem pathetic. I actually liked him this time. Could he be improving?

I don't get why Kerstin couldn't join the TARDIS crew. Too many Companions for authors to keep track of maybe? But did the Doctor tell Tegan she couldn't stay because her aunt was murdered? Did he tell Jamie to stay behind because Bonnie Prince Charlie's cause was lost? Etcetera for Victoria losing her father?
Let's not get started on everything Nyssa lost!

Wait a minute. The author is in this thread?

Yes! Nick actually does his Nitcentrally duty by ALL his books, unlike the rest of 'em!

Good thing I actually liked the book.

Though...really weird.

I thought Daniel O'Mahony was the only one in this forum.

We've had the occasional one drop in, I still feel awful about Martin Day's 'Sorry to hear you disliked the book'...

Is there any chance Neil Penswick can join because I'd really like to complain about The Pit!

We can complain about The Pit behind his back, no problem!

Also, say what you like about him, at least he had the decency to crawl away and die (or whatever) after writing it instead of inflicting MORE godawful piles of •••• on us, unlike most of Who's REALLY BAD writers.

So a major plot point here is to get two aliens together for the sole purpose of having sex

Blimey. Is THAT what happens?

I'm not sure what to call Sam and Fitz for encouraging it to happen

Pimps?

Speaking of Fitz, for once he didn't seem pathetic. I actually liked him this time. Could he be improving?

Fitz is The Perfect Companion and it's about time you realised it!

Let's not get started on everything Nyssa lost!

To be fair, wiping out her galaxy DID make it a bit tricky for the Doc to dump her back home should he be so inclined.

Wait a minute. The author is in this thread?

Cool, right?

Greg Cox, one of my favourite Trek authors, is in the same Facebook group as me (devoted to the Classic Star Trek show). I've had a few chats wit Mr. Cox (and I own all his Trek novels).

You WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!

How many WHO books have you read, dammit!

Yes I'm here

This is a great site!

Keep on picking they nits, don't hold back

I can take it

Nick W