Perhaps that was the Cushing Doctor
People seem to mutate into Wirrrn at oddly convenient speeds, with or without the little pills.
Was "Sox" really the best name the author could think of for Carrington's assistant? I kept thinking she was some half-human, half-cat alien who would be distracted by balls of yarn.
The author also has the very annoying habit of introducing someone just long enough for them to be (a) killed, or (b) turned into a Wirrrn.
The whole Stacy and Ssard bit was too much of an in-joke, even for a stone-cold Who fan like me. I had to have Emily explain who there were before I got the "joke."
Another author sin--not only does he retro-steal the idea of the Borg for the Wirrrn, he admits it in the foreword! Didn't anyone read him his rights ("You have the right to remain silent..)(Or is that not used in the UK?)?
The idea of an alien Olympics is a favorite of classic pulp sci-fi; it's also one of the stupidest. Because aliens will have natural advantages over other races, there's no contest. For example, if your race comes from a high-gravity world, don't you think that you'll all win the weight-lifting and other strength-related contests?
In this book, just touching a Wirrrn slime-trail is enough to turn you into a Wirrrn. Yet in "Ark in Space", the Doctor touches plenty of slime and he never got infected. Ditto for Harry.
The Reverend's anti-evolution arguement is so full of holes that an elementary school student should have been able to poke holes in it. And anyway, all Sam had to do is say, "My friend the Doctor has seen evolution in action, so tough darts to you!"
Why didn't the Doctor tell Sam about any of his past companions? Peri knew about Jo Grant; Sarah Jane knew about Victoria, and so on. And "The Bodysnatchers" says that Sam is now staying in Nyssa's room, so she's bound to have come across something about her.
Yes, that debate on religion was one of the stupidist, as well as boringist, passages I've ever read.
I think we still have a right to remain silent in the UK. But nothing Gary Russell says in his forward compares with Ben Aaronovitch's confession in The Also People.
The athletes were pretty thick accepting those pills. Surely they'd be drug-tested? I've have just watched all my rivals take them, then gone and told tales to whoever was in charge of the Games.
I think it was tactful of the Doctor not to mention other Companions to Sam. If I was travelling with him, I would want to feel I was the most important person in his life, not that I was merely one of scores of temporary guests who'd come and gone, blips in his thousand-year life. And I'd have got worried that, as they'd all left, so would I one day, instead of staying on till I died of old age (or less natural causes). And Sam was especially close to the Doctor - being in love with him and all - so he probably sensed she'd be extra jealous. Especially as he'd dumped her at a Greenpeace meeting, had fun with *shudder* Stacy and Ssard, and only remembered to come back for her a year later.
Isn't this basically just another novel in which various Gary Russell characters sit around for chapters complimenting each other on how great they are?
The blurb on the back cover is suspiciously more focused (and Stacy and Ssard free) than the text, which gives me the impression that the manuscript may have diverged from the original synopsis.
Why is it that, though the book is set a mere 2001 years after publication date, Sam - and other characters - keep using the phrase "twenty thousand years" as a mystifyingly significant period?
The Doctor spends most of the book ignorant of the fact that the Wirrrrn are the villains. He (allegedly) realises only when Sam gives him a very generic description of big green insects. My guess is that he was just keeping it to himself in the hope of blaming the Foamasi.
I quite like Green Fingers, though the idea that this one character is both the Ambassador to the Federation and the entirety of the Foamasi government stretches credibility a bit - though not as much as the idea that Foamasi society is composed entirely of criminal gangs!
And I won't even mention the Kleptons...
This is an awful book. The first half isn't too bad but the end dissolves into Target-style prose to wrap it all up quickly. Which is a blessing of some sort, I suppose.
Since when did two millennia become 20,000 years according to the Doctor?
All right, Emily, let's get your views on this. Page 116: "Or was it a quirk of this new personality of his that he regarded humans a little less tolerantly since becoming acquainted with his own - how could he put it? - genetic heritage?"
Ritchie: "I propose we use our SSS training to get out of here." Dallion's next question: "So what now?" Ritchie: "Now? Now we wait. I'm sure the Doctor has a thing or two up his sleeve." Apparently SSS doctrine calls for waiting for the Doctor to rescue you.
Ah ha! Now we have it in black & white the formal requirements for the position of companion: be exceptional, intelligent, have a strong personality, be pretty good in a tight situation, and care about people. Um... do any of his on-screen companions meet all the criteria?
When the Foamasi Lodge patriarchs gathered to talk, why did they continue to use their synthesizers? It's like watching a movie where Germans are talking to each other in English.
I kind of liked the Foamasi, but they kept reminding me of Ferengi.
I imagine Emily's response will contain several words (••••, •••• and •••• being the most prominent) pointing out that the book was written by Gary Russell and therefore any suggestion of any of his goddess-awful prose being used to support any argument concerning half-human (or indeed anything related to 'Doctor Who') should be met with large amounts of derision.
I can't forgive him for replacing LM's comments on the mystifying storage of the Doctor's coat (a line about him being 'at one' with his pockets) with a prosaic (and dull) explanation that he sews an alternate dimension into them.
Yes, I found the pocket explanation a bit disappointing. Part of DW's charm is it's mystery. I'm not too keen on going into great detail on how the Eye of Harmony works or the TARDIS' interior dimensions.
Oh, and which Doctor could alter electrons in people's brains to alter their moods? I found that too prosaic as well.
All right, Emily, let's get your views on this. Page 116: "Or was it a quirk of this new personality of his that he regarded humans a little less tolerantly since becoming acquainted with his own - how could he put it? - genetic heritage?"
Well actually (aside from that nonsense about not being tolerant of humans) I don't really object. It's not (for once) Gary Russell's fault that the telemovie came up with all that half-human nonsense. And I wasn't particularly impressed by the 'Don't mention the half-human-ness' attitude of all the other EDAs. Ignoring a (hideous, enormous) problem isn't going to make it go away.
Ah ha! Now we have it in black & white the formal requirements for the position of companion: be exceptional, intelligent, have a strong personality, be pretty good in a tight situation, and care about people. Um... do any of his on-screen companions meet all the criteria?
Hmmm...Barbara doesn't come off too badly. Neither does Leela, other than the caring about people, obviously. (She SEEMS pretty thick, but that's deceptive. She invents atheism on her planet, after all.)
I imagine Emily's response will contain several words (••••, •••• and •••• being the most prominent) pointing out that the book was written by Gary Russell and therefore any suggestion of any of his goddess-awful prose being used to support any argument concerning half-human (or indeed anything related to 'Doctor Who') should be met with large amounts of derision.
Ah yes, there is that. What excellent points, excellently made. I feel as if my symbiotic nuclei (or something) is spreading amongst the population...
I can't forgive him for replacing LM's comments on the mystifying storage of the Doctor's coat (a line about him being 'at one' with his pockets) with a prosaic (and dull) explanation that he sews an alternate dimension into them.
AND Frontier Worlds claimed that the Doctor ripped the lining of his pockets! Pathetic.
Oh, and which Doctor could alter electrons in people's brains to alter their moods? I found that too prosaic as well.
He did WHAT?! Rubbish!
I couldn't possibly find the page now, but the Doctor was reflecting on how each body gave him something special. The one that "could do all sorts of martial arts without really having to learn them" was obviously Pertwee, and the next one in the list talked about the electron thing. Maybe that's how TB managed to sway Leela from thinking he was the baby-eating Evil One to someone worth risking her life for in 2 mins flat.
Oh, here it is - page 216: "Each new body offers me something new, something unique. Once I was a master of unarmed combat without any training. Another one could fractionally disrupt the brain's electrons at a touch, changing people's moods and emotions. Another one lacked the innate ability most of my bodies have of discerning praxis gases [Davison and his celery, I'm guessing]. Simple, really."
Another one could fractionally disrupt the brain's electrons at a touch, changing people's moods and emotions
Perhaps that was the Cushing Doctor
I'm guessing it was T. Baker, since he falls between the martial arts Doctor and the celery wearing Doctor. And he'd did seem to have the best luck in changing people's moods
The one that "could do all sorts of martial arts without really having to learn them" was obviously Pertwee
Hmmm. I have vague memories of one of the books mentioning the Doctor being trained by a Venusian, but then how could he have been? He was stuck on Earth for ages straight after his regeneration. (And I certainly can't imagine Troughton getting the training shortly before The War Games.) When did we first see the Third Doctor shouting...um, whatever it was that he shouted...and Venusian Aikido-ing people?
Perhaps that was the Cushing Doctor
Nonsense! There WAS no Cushing Doctor! I deny this reality!
I'm guessing it was T. Baker, since he falls between the martial arts Doctor and the celery wearing Doctor. And he'd did seem to have the best luck in changing people's moods
Yeah, but that was because he was Tom Baker! One look at those goggle eyes, that toothy grin, that ultra-long scarf, and who WOULDN'T be falling at his feet and worshipping him?
'[Seeing I] contained possibly the most thorough psychoanalysis of the complex relationship between a companion and the Doctor in print, but Placebo Effect...sums up Sam's feelings towards the Doctor as "a bit of a crush"' - well, isn't DWM spot-on with its review...oh wait, now it's claiming that godawful creationism/evolution debate is 'the most individually successul section in the book'.
Oh, and which Doctor could alter electrons in people's brains to alter their moods? I found that too prosaic as well.
He did WHAT?! Rubbish!
Well, Dave Stone books go a LOT further than the Doctor merely altering moods...
The one that "could do all sorts of martial arts without really having to learn them" was obviously Pertwee
Hmmm. I have vague memories of one of the books mentioning the Doctor being trained by a Venusian
To hell with the books, JODIE! Herself has announced 'Venusian Aikido. Grand Master Pacifist. Temporarily paralyses, while also being fundamentally harmless. Very clever, those Venusian nuns.'