Another stirring adventure for our time-travelling hero and company, in which he once again manages to save the day despite the interference of that big wuss the Doctor.
(Since the Doctor comes out with all these uncharacteristic insults for Sabbath - including calling him fat at one point - it's quite to our hero's credit that he doesn't start calling the Doctor equally inappropriate names like 'big girls blouse' or 'strutting fop'.)
No, I'm serious. Sabbath has to be the hero and right (or more right than the Doctor) otherwise this arc has no dramatic punch whatsoever. The Doctor's view of time travel is argued from a position with no experience or authority to back him just a vague idea that he has some kind of aristocratic privilege that pertains even though all the ground rules have changed.
In all the time distortion no-one questions how the attendees at the seance were able to sing 'Jerusalem' (Blake's 'preface to Milton' not being set to music for another 20 years or so) and why they all simultaneously got the
first line wrong.
Mind you, it does have Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer in it...
BAD person! Just because (up till Camera Obscura anyway) Sabbath runs rings round the Doctor, getting the better of him every time, and saving his life just to add insult to injury, doesn't mean that the Doctor isn't right and Sabbath wrong (let alone that Sabbath 'saves the day'). Yeah, the rules of the universe have completely changed, and the Doc can't remember the old rules anyway, but...well...he's the DOCTOR, alright? Even in amnesiac, congenital idiot, half-heated mode, my bet's on him being right - not because he's a Lord of Time but because he's far more intelligent, wise and experienced than Sabbath, not to mention more compassionate, handsome...er...where were we? Look, Sabbath's the kind of amoral idiot who'll wipe out an entire race because his 'friends' tell him to. Not only is that not a nice thing to do, I'm prepared to bet his 'friends' are fooling him. (Admittedly I have the benefit of hindsight, i.e. reading Time Zero, it's a shame that thanks to spoilers I can't mention that Sabbath gets everything WRONG WRONG WRONG...oops, I just did.) Whereas our beloved Doctor is the same man who was in the habit of saving the universe six times before breakfast (OK, I realise I may be exaggerating slightly, not to mention totally contradicting everything I said on the Cold Fusion thread). Losing his memory didn't stop the Doctor reinventing the sonic screwdriver (albeit taking him over a hundred years, not to mention the creation of the sonic suitcase) and it didn't stop him working out the new rules of time either. Look at his description of Gallifrey's non-existence in Adventuress - it was so clever of him to realise what was going on. (_I_ didn't and I'd had the advantage of reading The Ancestor Cell.)
Don't ask what the point of the arc is - we seem to be back to square one, with Sabbath removing the Doctor's heart (so how come he can still travel in time with no ill effects?) and the Doctor claiming to be regrowing it. But it's still got plenty of dramatic punch, and I'm sure more rabbits will be pulled out of hats before it's over...I want to know who Sabbath's masters are. (And seeing him die hideously would be quite nice.)
I agree the Doctor's insults to Sabbath were uncharacteristic (and the kind that Americans would use rather than an Englishman (well, sort of Englishman) like the Doctor) which was one reason I mentioned them in the review (the other being that I just LIKE calling Sabbath an ass, jerk and son of a ••••• and I'm sure in normal circumstances Mike wouldn't let me).
Without having actually read the book, I have to say the summary strongly reminds me of the recent DC Comics "Zero Hour" arc, with Sabbath as the Hal Jordan Green Lantern, and the Doctr as the Kyle Rainer Green Lantern.
*(awaits Emily's savage attack for mentioning comic books)*
I don't doubt that Sabbath will turn out to be wrong and the Doctor right or that Sabbath's choice in associates isn't a particularly wise one. It would be just be more interesting - and more relevant to the arc - for the Doctor to be wrong. As it is the EDAs are stacked in the Doctor's favour - some of the worst passages in Camera Obscura are the loaded Doctor-Sabbath arguments where the author is clearly rooting for the Wigged Wonder (and the whole destruction-of-the-universe theme seems to have been added solely to make the Doctor look more responsible than Sabbath). Even though all the certainties have been stripped away (allegedly) post-TAC, the Doctor still gets to be right not because of any special knowledge or experience or wisdom but because he's the Doctor.
Meanwhile, can I just anticipate Emily by announcing: "Pah! Comic strip nonsenses!"
OK, I realise you don't love, worship and adore the Eighth Doctor the way he deserves to be loved, worshipped and adored. And I'm not complaining, especially given how much worse your attitude to, say, the Seventh Doctor is. I also appreciate that you have a right to freedom of speech. BUT...don't you ever, EVER call him the W***** W*****!!!!!! EVER!!!! Understood?????? Paul McGann might, possibly, have been wearing one of those...things...but the Eighth Doctor has all his own hair! Alright? My god, didn't he PROVE his hair-growing abilities in Adventuress?!
I don't know if the Doctor comes across as much more responsible than Sabbath. Sabbath wanted to save the universe by killing Chiltern. (I think it was Chiltern?) Sounds like a perfectly good idea to me. It was the Doctor who irresponsibly put his ideas about sanctity of life above the safety of the entire universe. (I wouldn't mind if he could just be a bit CONSISTENT. He wasn't blathering on about sanctity of life when he burnt alive some (probably) perfectly innocent aliens in Turing Test.)
Oh, so Lloyd Rose is rooting for the Doctor, is she? With friends like that...
Pah! Comic-strip nonsenses!
Oh. Beaten to it.
How does 'Toupeed Thunderbolt' sound as an alterntive?
Absolutely fine. Any particular preference on how you wish to die?
At a ripe old age surrounded by many beautiful women?
I'm afraid that's not an option - 'hideous' and 'lingering' were my main criteria. Perhaps I could permit you to select your own death from the works of Lloyd Rose. If I'm feeling generous I could throw in the works of Daniel O'Mahony as well. Not that they'd be much of an improvement, hideous death-wise.
Now that I'm FINALLY able to buy BBC Books in North America (thank you, Diamond Distributors!), I'm slowly catching up with this arc. So far, I'm noticing that the authors like to throw in some tiny bit of pre-Gallifrey destruction to tempt us. Case in point--the time travel mirror device in this story. Did anybody else notice that these were the time-travel mirrors from "Evil of the Daleks"?
And I'm glad I'm not the only one that spotted Spike (or Bloody William, to be more precise), Daniel....
Have still failed to spot Spike...though admittedly I forgot to look for him.
Were these really the mirrors from Evil? I thought they used a lot more than eight, though admittedly it's a bit tricky to verify this visually...
RED warning lights alerted the Doctor about time interference! Does he not realise that it should have been mauve? Red is camp!
This time round I kept my eyes open for ANY indication of why (oh why oh why) would Fitz of all people suddenly decide to go on a Siberian trip for no reason, but I found precious little. Going to a LECTURE as 'my first fragile step towards self-improvement', fine. Wondering 'how those artic explorer blokes managed with just dogs', fine. Going to see for himself...NOT such a good idea. The attempt to give him a bit of a mid-life crisis over being merely a universe-saving-assistant falls rather flat when Anji points out that he was previously a shop-assistant.
Love all the references to adventures the Doctor can't remember. Though I'm obviously unsure about him leaving his heart in San Francisco...
'You said something yesterday about having most of it stolen' says Fitz. YESTERDAY???? That was several days ago, BEFORE the Doctor got killed, operated on, moved around the country, convalesced etc etc.
The Doctor has orange-ish blood? Of course, it's a bit tricky to tell when certain stories don't show any blood EVEN WHEN HE GETS HIS HAND CHOPPED OFF.
Fitz announces that he's turned 33. How the hell would he know, what with all the time travel, not to mention not exactly being the original Fitz?
Sam was 'a teenaged girl' when they met? I assumed she was out of her teens by then, what with those three years in Seeing I and all.
It's weird seeing the Doctor so concerned about the possibility his thuggish kidnapper might actually get what he deserves, i.e. death. I was trying to puzzle out what THAT was all about for ages before it hit me: the Doctor used to be REALLY compassionate. I'd honestly forgotten, what with Eccy and Tennant having a bit more edge to them.
Why is picking the lock of this particular house (p162) ironic?
'In the old days, he would simply have shifted his vision into areas of the spectrum invisible to human eyes' - he would? I know CoaRP implied the Doc could do this sort of thing, but I've seen precious little evidence of it elsewhere.
Honestly, I wouldn't mind the constant whinging about being a mere mortal, human, so much less than he was...if the Doc didn't OBVIOUSLY still have superhero-type healing powers, what with running around the country mere days after getting his heart crushed and his ribs smashed through his back into the floor.
Sabbath says that each time the Doctor materialises a new timeline breaks off. Thought the new series made it clear that every time ANYONE did ANYTHING a bloody new timeline broke off.
So the Doc's trying to drive Fitz away. Threatening to break every bone in his body, though...going a bit far for any Doctor, let alone McGann.
Oh, Anji's in trying-to-get-home mode. She must be a schizophrenic.
OK, all that afterlife is a sense-metaphor. Fine by me. Except that this doesn't explain how the Doc managed a chat with a genuine dead Chiltern.
'I have absolutely no memory of that Welsh house' - why? The Chilterns split apart long after their Welsh house childhood, didn't they? So why doesn't he remember it - other than as an excuse so the Doctor can drop in on the afterlife.
Adore Sabbath's rant (p246) about the Doctor's narrow escapes. Shame he's wrong about no-one ever shooting the Doctor in the head (Indestructible Man).
'I may have managed to make the sensors work on a fine enough level to detect the machine when it's off' - and AGAIN the afterlife-trip is revealed to be completely unnecessary!
Number of visits to the Crystal Palace, it's amazing the TARDIS crew didn't bump into the Eighth Doctor, Charley and C'rizz from Other Lives.
Why are the police guarding the Crystal Palace only worried about vandalism? What about theft of all those valuable rare items?
Lloyd Rose in DWM: 'I was interested that no one writing the books following up Henrietta Street planned to do much with the issue of the Doctor's missing heart - so I volunteered.' How public-spirited of you. Also very tactful to use the word 'interested' instead of, say, WHAT THE HELL'S THE MATTER WITH THESE PEOPLE?
'Camera Obscura is about a man who has had his heart torn out. Given that rather traumatic mutilation as the initiating event, I think the book is about what you'd expect' - actually I expect the Doctor to follow up this particular trumatic mutilation by shaving off his beard and watching people have sex with poodles and wave around magic pinking shears. Perhaps that's just me. Well, me and everyone else who's had the misfortune to read Mad Dogs and Englishmen.
Justin Richards: 'From now on, Sabbath will be more prominent when he appears. Whether he develops and behaves in a way that Lawrence Miles expects or hopes, we'll have to see...' - that would be a 'No'.
(Since the Doctor comes out with all these uncharacteristic insults for Sabbath - including calling him fat at one point - it's quite to our hero's credit that he doesn't start calling the Doctor equally inappropriate names like 'big girls blouse' or 'strutting fop'.)
Or, to quote the Dream Lord, 'You big flop-haired wuss.'
Losing his memory didn't stop the Doctor reinventing the sonic screwdriver (albeit taking him over a hundred years, not to mention the creation of the sonic suitcase)
Gods, to think that JODIE! managed to whip up a Sheffield Sonic in two minutes flat despite ALSO having amnesia.
Look at his description of Gallifrey's non-existence in Adventuress - it was so clever of him to realise what was going on. (_I_ didn't and I'd had the advantage of reading The Ancestor Cell.)
On second thoughts, I'm not convinced that reading The Ancestor Cell (twice!) is exactly helpful in working out what the hell is happening to the universe...
(And seeing him die hideously would be quite nice.)
I never meant Sabbath should be condemned to ETERNAL TORMENT! I've really got a PROBLEM with eternal torment!
Camera Obscura is also the name of a segment of the 1970's TV show Night Gallery.
This time round I kept my eyes open for ANY indication of why (oh why oh why) would Fitz of all people suddenly decide to go on a Siberian trip for no reason
Especially as he really, really, REALLY hates the cold (Emotional Chemistry).
That ass, jerk and son of a ••••• (the Doctor's descriptions of Sabbath, not mine) shouldn't have been able or willing to remove the heart so easily
Yeah, when Adventuress describes him whipping out said heart from THE DOCTOR'S body, it was made very, very clear that 'Lucien had a penchant for exaggeration and metaphysical imagery...his testimony...must not be taken literally...it's a fairy-tale version of the story, drenched in symbolism. That Sabbath performed some form of operation is clear, but even Sabbath himself wouldn't have claimed the supernatural powers invested in him by this account'...