I suppose all you Vampire Science haters won't condescend to read another Jon Blum and Kate Orman book. It's your loss - Seeing I is brilliant. I was in agony for the Doctor, in a way I haven't felt since he fell off that radio telescope when I was about six. I'm used to Kate Orman torturing him in a variety of ways, but this is different, far more horrific and also very funny. I'm not one of those people (everyone?) who can't stand Sam, but it is a temendous relief to see her grow up and get a life. Her sections also made me terrified of becoming homeless on an alien planet (or on this planet, come to think of it).

Having to fork out all this praise is making me feel bad, so I'll just mention that the ending is absolutely awful. No, NOT more running round in cyberspace...no, NOT another ruthless alien invasion...no, NOT more Doctor-escapes-from-alien-spacecraft...oh well, never mind.

I agree. I enjoyed the first 2/3's of the novel, with its exploration of the Doctor's and Sam's inner mind. I was so absorbed by it that, when the alien invasion began, I was irritated by the intrusion. Then, after the obligatory chapter or two discussing the unstoppable force of the aliens, the Doctor stops them in 3 pages.

This was my first introduction to Sam, so I was expecting a lot worse. Yes, I got very tired of her yearning to "shag" (shades of Austin Powers!) the Doctor. I was a teenager once, though, so I just attributed it to over-active hormones and lenghty isolation with the Doctor.

The Doctor seems to be a vegetarian again.

The Time Lords need better anti-theft devices. For as powerful as they are, it seems every race has something they've stolen from the Time Lords.

Hey Mike, could we have a Gallifrey section where we can discuss the effects of 10 million years of absolute power, the invention of regeneration, the treachery of the High Council, the mysterious Earth/Gallifrey connection, the six mythical Founding Fathers, the future war with Faction Paradox, Gallifrey's influence on the rest of the universe, and, above all, the mind-boggling stupidity of the Time Lords?

Hmm...the Villain Section sounds like the right place for it...

Mee-yow! I think you could start a thread under "Ask the Matrix." If it gets a good response, maybe then I'll add an new section. I think we're starting to get a bit unwieldy.

Who are the six Founding Fathers? This must stem from a book I haven't read (of course, that's virtually all of them). I'm sure Rassilon and Omega, and I'll assume the Doctor. Am I half right?

Good book. Vampire Science is still rubbish though.

OK, Mike, I'm sure I'll get round to it sometime. If you want to save space, no doubt the erasure of the Chang Lee and Peter Cushing sections would go unmourned. Well, by me anyway.

Kevin, the third founding father was the Other, a past reincarnation of the Doctor. Everyone thought there was only three, but Lance Parkin obviously enjoys watching fans scream as their lifelong assumptions are torn from them, so he claimed there were six in 'The Infinity Doctors.'

Edje...have you changed your mind? Ever? On ANYTHING?

Well, I used to think that B5 was rubbish, but now I think it is the second best SF show ever (behind the obvious one).

Oh yes, and I used to hate Sam, but now I don't think she's that bad.

There's hope for you yet.

Have you changed your mind about your gran's choices in jumpers?

"CURSE YOU GRAN FOR MAKING ME WEAR THIS JUMPER THIS WAY!!!"

As usual, quote from Show 10 of This Morning With Richard Not Judy Series 2, originally spoken by Stuart Lee.

No. I guess not.

Guess what Jonathan Blum recently said about Seeing I on rec.ars.drwho:

'It could have had a stronger last few chapters -- they're weak not because we were especially rushed, but because we lost our nerve. (We were convinced the book was boring and needed a traditional-Who finale as payoff.)'

Imbeciles! Cretins!! Morons!!!

I read this last year, and something occurred to me as illogical. The Doctor eventually learns he has an implant in one eye, thus his jailers know his every movement. Why doesn't he just close that one eye, and try to escape with his normal eye open? Or did I miss something?

Wow. I never thought of that. And neither did the
Doctor, since he seems to seriously consider
gouging the eye out instead. There must be some
kind of explanation...I think that the DOCTOR
computer program sort of accessed his brain
through the implant, as well as seeing through the
eye, therefore it would still have known what he
was planning. But - joy and happiness - it's
obviously time for a reread.

Talking of DOCTOR, how on Earth could it be based
on Our Hero? In the end it runs off with a woman!
Well, a female computer program, anyway.

I suspect the implant works, whether or not his eye is open. Of course, the real reason the jailers know his every move is because the AI known as DOCTOR predicts them.

Maybe I'm just being thick, but could you explain the similarity with Face of Evil?

In both stories, the Doctor has to face a warped computerized version of his own personality.

OK, so I _was_ just being thick...

So the I not only can't think for themselves, they can't manufacture either? Why not take a few synthetic eyes and make as many as they want? And how come no one's heard of these things, not even the Time Lords? They seem to engage in blatant piracy pretty openly. You'd have thought after what happened to Savar, the Council would track them down and dispose of them.

Presumably the Doctor ran home to give the eyes back. What's Savar supposed to do with them now? Dig out the new ones so they can come "home"? Eww.

I'd like to have seen more of the Doctor's mind between when he realized he couldn't escape no matter what and Sam rescuing him.

Manufacturing eyes is obviously so much less fun than popping out the real things...

The High Council couldn't organise a ••••-up in a brewery. It's not surprising they failed to deal with the I, though they SHOULD of course have gone running to the Doctor for help. (I don't know why they ever let him off the hook - after about Brain of Morbius they stopped using the Doctor as their agent and only steered his TARDIS around when they wanted to drag him off for trial.)

This is the best of the Ormanblum co-written novels which is not to da.mn it with faint praise. After the first few dreadful pages - yes Sam, you left the Doctor behind but don't mention it every paragraph; it's tedious when it happens in real-life and even more so in print - it turns into a very good book. This happens because it is allowed to breathe; there is no frantic action which allows for subtle changes of speed in the narrative and thus ample chance for characterisation.

Then the I turn up and it all goes wrong. For those who like the Pertwee six parters it's just like old times - have one story finish and pad it out with a couple of tacked on episodes. It spoils what would have been a very good book otherwise.

On the subject of Sam isn't the need to age a character in their first few books a rather damning indictment that the series editor and authors got it very wrong? (apart from LM, obviously )

I have to agree with your second paragraph, Graham. It did jar with the tone of the rest of the novel. Sort of as if Woody Allen's "Interiors" had ended with an attack on the Death Star.

O and B did a great job realizing Sam as a person, not just an irritating teen. I don't think the editors got it wrong, I just think the other authors missed the point. Perhaps if they'd read "Vampire Science" a bit closer, they might have picked up a few ideas.

And YET AGAIN it's a bit of a disappointment, rereading one of those rare Who novels I thoroughly enjoyed at the time. When will I learn? (Plus, I'd totally forgotten the last third of the book. And frankly I've already forgotten it ALL OVER AGAIN.)

Sam is 'horribly filthy' - yet gets mistaken for a volunteer at the Shelter?

Sam's met a bunch of the Doc's ex-friends - like who? I can only think of Jo and Carolyn at this point.

'It was becoming positively fashionable to be a renegade these days' - you can bloody say that again.

'Down Among the Dead Men Again' - yeah, like Benny would EVER have got round to writing a sequel...

Why exactly doesn't the Doctor just overpower the guard who's waiting for him in the helicopter and fly to freedom?

Sam was only with the Doctor for ten or eleven months before Seeing I?

'Never been much good with a sketch' - well you looked pretty good in Deadly Assassin.

'The united colonies are skittish about Earth getting too much power again, so the bureaucrats in New Geneva keep dragging their feet on anything that would help them rebuild after the invasion...' - not quite sure how this fits in with all that high-tech in Fear Itself (obviously it's not gonna fit in with the audios' second Dalek Invasion so soon after the PROPER one).

So Rachel can mess with company computers with impunity for months, leading to massively embarrassing public revelations...but the DOCTOR gets caught at his first attempt?

We had this in Vampire Science, too - the idea that the Ultimate Evil is creating clones without higher brain functions, for experimentation. Sounds like a FANTASTIC idea to me. A FAR less immoral way of finding cures for diseases than experimenting on animals. And there's no 'migration of sentience' nonsense about them. (And didn't the Doc pick up one such baby to stuff the Timewyrm's soul in, in Revelation? I don't remember him being morally outraged by the situation one bit.)

DOCTOR seriously thinks the Doctor won't kill it in order to be free? For a computer programme that literally knows the Doctor inside out, it seems to be making the classic error of mistaking him for "nice".

The Eighth Doctor has question-mark boxer shorts! Bless!

OK, firstly all this nonsense about the tabby cat makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. Secondly, I REALLY don't appreciate it being ripped to shreds by three other cats, thank you very much.

Why don't any of Sam's friends ask why her superhero Champion of Life has been unable to escape prison for three years?

'There was no dust [in the TARDIS], there never was' - dammit, I'm SURE one of the novels I've read recently claimed there was a reassuring layer of dust in Sexy...and Wilf definitely accuses it of being grubby.

Companion in love with Doctor (and keen on handcuffs)...Information about the Doctor erased from the Internet...Swapping a gun for a banana...The Doctor having an 'embarrassing encounter' with a historical figure (alright, here it's Amelia Earhart rather than, say, Good Queen Bess)...never try to tell me the new series wasn't influenced by the books...

How can the Doctor POSSIBLY not have heard DOCTOR speaking to Sam?

Going on and on about Hirath isn't the wisest of ideas. You expect us to REMEMBER anything about Dreamstone Moon?

Maybe I've seen too much New Who (not that there's any such thing as too much New Who, obviously) but I was pretty shocked when the Doc threatened the bad guys with the Time Lords rather than, well, HIMSELF.

'He paused, touching his memories of a rose-petal woman with the scent of baking bread' - uh? Are we back with the NA goddesses, or something?

So why WAS INC so obsessed with that one patch of land if there's nothing in it - and no indication that there WOULD be anything in it?

I suppose 'cosmic sneezing fit' is a fairly original way of describing the TARDIS noise.

'I'll be willing to bet that DOCTOR will be back before too long - he's too interesting to ignore...' - DWM review. That's a point. Why DID DOCTOR disapear into obscurity? What sort of self-respecting copy of the Eighth Doctor's brain IS he? When the Companion Chronicles had a copy of Hartnell's brain in a jar, THAT resurfaced fast enough...

So how exactly do the Doctor's claims that 'not a single day went by' that he didn't search for dear old Samikins (except 'Wednesday 26 July, 2202. I spent the whole day looking at a kaleidoscope') fit in with Dreamstone Moon, in which he spends an estimated week shacked up with Aloisse the Spider, restoring her sight and attempting to persuade her to take Sam's place cos, hey, 'I just think that I should stop. Stop taking over people's lives, I mean. Assuming that because some child wants a break from home, she'll want to see the universe with me for the next few years. Perhaps she'd rather see the universe on her own'...?

The Eighth Doctor has question-mark boxer shorts! Bless!

And to think I assumed Capaldi was LYING in The Zygon Invasion/Inversion...

This is a Jewish colony planet (Time's Mosaic)?! That never occurred to me, feels somewhat anti-Semitic to assume this just because it's utterly and ruthlessly capitalist, did I miss some other clue...?