Jac Rayner = excellent
WELL DONE J.R. (not hartley I hope!) another winner.
What do you mean "another winner"...I thought this was her first Doctor Who novel?
She was also the co-editor of "Short Trips and Side Steps"; I'm not sure if she wrote anything for it, though.
I just finished this...some genuinely witty moments and a mostly solid story.
However, whilst the three Princesses seem to be constantly threatening to be really great characters, they never quite make it for me. I sensed too many stolen shades of Miranda Richardson in Blackadder 3 for one thing.
There's nothing wrong with exploration of the role and thought processes of the companion, but I found Anji's e-mails to her dead boyfriend pretty absurd. Is it not a desperate attempt by the author to one-dimensionally represent grief within the strange circumstances Anji has found herself in, rather than explore how the grief has affected Anji's personality and behaviour?
Any sexual/"emotional" exploration of Fitz just feels silly and superfluous to me. We don't need that kind of pre-pubescent garbage. I wish Fitz would go away and stay away.
I don't find the e-mails absurd - they're a really effective, unusual way of getting inside her head. We do see grief affecting Anji's personality and behaviour, but this way we get a deeper insight - I wouldn't have seen her mention of Dave to those teenaged terrorists as trying to use her boyfriend's death to draw attention to herself, but once she mentions it it's obvious.
What I do wonder is why accidentally blowing up an entire fleet of ships full of people - albeit alien people who were debating whether to invade Earth - doesn't upset Anji a BIT more.
I'd agree that we don't need any more sexual exploration of Fitz - I've heard QUITE enough about his Doctor obsession, thank you very much - but OF COURSE we need a bit of emotional exploration! How would you feel if you knew you weren't the REAL you? Just a lump of biomass packed full of TARDIS memories? Wouldn't you wonder what happened to the original? Think about Kode, who in effect sacrificed his life for you? I mean, SEVENTEEN BOOKS have passed since Fitz was resurrected, and he never gives it more than a passing thought. I realise that a) It would be a LITTLE difficult to discuss Fitz's feelings during the Earth arc, and b) meeting Father Kreiner would have brought this question to the fore, but all I can say vis a vis Fitz's (extremely poignant and amusing) crisis in EarthWorld is it's about time!
If you don't like Fitz as a character, that's a different matter. Personally I regard him as an unprincipled, unreconstructed 60s chauvinist, but I think he works rather well.
I think Fitz's behavior is entirely appropriate for his space/time origin, and he's begun to grow on me. A bit.
I think he did do some angst-y wondering about himself in "The Ancestor Cell", when he finally met Father Kreiner face-to-face.
It would be a bit tricky NOT to do some angst-y wondering about himself when face-to-face with Father Kreiner!!!
Fitz's behaviour WOULD be appropriate if he hadn't been through so much with (and without) the Doctor. I'm not suggesting he should be entirely angst-ridden by now, just not so juvenile in his outlook, especially with all the Father Kreiner stuff coming to the fore during EarthWorld. The novel handles this quite effectively, but doesn't make up for all the trashy Fitz stuff contained elsewhere. I do think he COULD work well, but I'm getting weary with the wait!
The Doctor and Anji were able to relive Elizabethan's death because they were both reliving Hanstrum's memories, not hers.
Oh. Um. Er. I should have noticed that. Oh well. What were his memories doing in the machine, anyway?
Apparently the trips obsessively recorded anyone's memory that they could get their psychotic little hands on. Hanstrum also worked with them in the early days, as their teacher.
Well, all I can say is he should have had the sense not to let them record his memories of murdering their mother.
And why did Hanstrum pretend that Elizabethan hadn't died, and rig up that andriod? The Doctor says it's so that the President won't realise he's a widower, free to remarry and produce less homicidally inclined offspring. But Hanstrum must know that the President is sterile, given that Elizabethan chose HIM to father her brats.
And Mike, I really don't think the Doctor and Anji were both reliving Hanstrum's memories. Anji was, but the Doctor quite obviously marched up to Elizabethan's memory bubble and was possessed by HER spirit. He even knew when to 'die' and everything, despite Fitz stopping Anji from killing him.
The proof-readers are at it again on p.156 where Hoover suddenly becomes Hanstrum for a sentence and then switches back.
Still good fun, second time round.
Since when has the Eighth Doctor had a blue gemstone ring?
Since when has the Doctor automatically assumed that a President is a 'him'? Alright, he's spent over a century stranded on a very sexist planet, but almost a tenth of that WAS under Margaret Thatcher...
The three boys are SHEEPISH about the fact they've gotta tell the Doctor and Anji they're all gonna be executed?
'In which year did Earth astronauts first land on Mars?' 'Never happened in the twentieth century' says Fitz. How can he have forgotten Ambassadors of Death and Dying Days? Alright, they were a bit after his time, but he seems REALLY confident that at some point in his travels he's learnt the history of twentieth-century space travel.
There are THOUSANDS of EarthWorlds? I find that hard to believe.
Also, what HAPPENED to all of Earth's history? There's no mention of an Only Human-style cataclysm which might explain the lack of historical knowledge.
Bit stupid of Venna to TELL Fitz she's gonna kill him after he cooperates with her. Kinda removes the incentive. Also, has she thought how she'll explain where all this totally-contradictory-to-received-wisdom information COMES from?
'"You don't have feelings," said the Doctor. "You only feel as if you do."' - Blimey, he's not prepared to cut the poor androids any slack, is he. What precisely is the difference between having feelings and FEELING as if you have feelings?
'They're trying to herd us towards [the barrier] so we'll be trapped' - except that, er, you've got a getting-through-the-barrier device, you moron.
'Information on other organisations from carefully vetted galaxies' - earlier you were talking about 'across the galaxy' - singular.
'I think it's a maze. I thought they were Greek, but maybe they were Egyptian too' - Anji KNOWS that everything here is grossly inaccurate!
Why don't the Doctor and Anji make any effort to persuade Venna through the door not to blow Fitz's brains out?
'The girl loved that kitten. I discovered later that one day it was found in one of the girls' beds, dissected' - ah yes, the traditional Who-book feline-dismemberment. These people are SICK.
Why does Fitz believe that this is the REAL Elvis? Whatever Anji thinks, he's not a TOTAL MORON.
Why the hell would an Arthurian experience have NO GUINEVERE? Given that they have actually HEARD of her, well, Gwinnyveer, anyway?
'The Doctor wanted this more than anything else in the universe' - that's funny, cos in the other books (especially Half-Life, where the specifically turns down such an offer) he's not particularly bothered about his missing memories.
'Ignorance is never bliss' - so why haven't you asked Fitz what HE remembers, then?
'Had their spirits taken over Anji and the Doctor somehow?...Does anyone here know how to do an exorcism?' - what is Fitz, MEDIEVAL? He KNOWS about the memory-machine...
In-vitro fertilisation isn't ROCKET-SCIENCE, y'know. Why would a geneticist mess it up so badly?
'She only remembers up until the last time the triplets took a memory print...Which means she does not remember her death' - so how come the Doctor managed to re-enact said death?
'The Doctor wanted this more than anything else in the universe' - that's funny, cos in the other books (especially Half-Life, where the specifically turns down such an offer) he's not particularly bothered about his missing memories.
So did he implant a post-hypnotic suggestion in, well, HIMSELF or something to not sweat it about the whole amnesia thing? If so, why did it stop working just for EarthWorld? If not, why didn't the most curious person in the universe give a toss about his OWN MIND?
The Doctor wanted this more than anything else in the universe' - that's funny, cos in the other books (especially Half-Life, where the specifically turns down such an offer) he's not particularly bothered about his missing memories.
To be fair, there's a moment in Emotional Chemistry when he has a minor freak-out on the subject of his memories ('The fact that Razum knew him, and the suggestion of gaps in his life, was acting like subsidence, undermining the foundations of his thoughts, his self.') But it was massively uncharacteristic.
why didn't the most curious person in the universe give a toss about his OWN MIND?
Ditto for SPOILERS FOR FLUX
JODIE! in Flux...
...At least McGann had reason to suspect he'd go insane remembering he'd destroyed his entire species (even if he, y'know...hadn't) what's JODIE!'s excuse, given that she specifically went looking for said memories, even if that meant dealing with dawgs...
'The Doctor wanted this more than anything else in the universe' - that's funny, cos in the other books (especially Half-Life, where the specifically turns down such an offer) he's not particularly bothered about his missing memories.
To be fair, there's a moment in Emotional Chemistry when he has a minor freak-out on the subject of his memories
And for what it's worth (very little, this IS The Burning) he claims in The Burning that he wants to know who he is.
'In which year did Earth astronauts first land on Mars?' 'Never happened in the twentieth century' says Fitz. How can he have forgotten Ambassadors of Death and Dying Days? Alright, they were a bit after his time, but he seems REALLY confident that at some point in his travels he's learnt the history of twentieth-century space travel.
Alright, if SARAH JANE can forget Ambassadors of Death...(Warriors of Kudlak: 'Well, after today, he might want to be an astronaut. Be the first man on Mars. The first human man on Mars, that is.')
'"You don't have feelings," said the Doctor. "You only feel as if you do."' - Blimey, he's not prepared to cut the poor androids any slack, is he. What precisely is the difference between having feelings and FEELING as if you have feelings?
Weird that EIGHT is supposed to be the softie and yet wonderfully-ruthless Twelve would be screaming WET-BRAINED CHAUVINIST!! at him, about now...