With Tegan rejoining the Doctor and Nyssa on their travels, the trio travel to the British Museum in 1896. No sooner does the TARDIS materialize in the Egyptian Room, however, then Nyssa is kidnapped. The Doctor and Tegan give chase, only to lose their quarry outside — whereupon they are met by a butler with an invitation to the unwrapping of a mummy. The arrive to find to their astonishment that Nyssa is underneath the bandages, having somehow been transported 4,000 years into the past for the nefarious goals of one of the most dangerous foes the Doctor has ever faced.

This is the second of Justin Richards's many Doctor Who novels that I have read, and in many was it reads like the previous one, Dreams of Empire, in that it starts with disparate threads that are then woven together over the course of the book. It's not a writing approach that I particularly enjoy, yet Richards pulls it off well and sticks the proverbial landing nicely. Yet I finished the book feeling as though the author was a little too ambitious in his approach. His book serves as a sequel of sorts to the Fourth Doctor serial Pyramids of Mars, which is regarded as one of the best of the original television series. It's admirable that Richards takes it on, and while his story measures up well I feel as though he doesn't quite pull off the degree of menace conveyed by Sutekh in Lewis Greifer and Robert Holmes's original story. Perhaps such a comparison is unfair, but it's one that Richards himself invites by taking on such an iconic tale and can't help but influence any judgment of the book.

On a fortress built into an asteroid on the frontier of the Haddron Empire rests Hans Keysar. Formerly one of the three consuls of the republic, he is a prisoner after a failed attempt to become emperor that resulted in a debilitating civil war. Now on the eve of a visit by Milton Trayx — his friend, former co-consul and victor in the civil war — someone is engineering a plan of escape. But that plan doesn't factor in the unexpected arrival of the Doctor and his companions Jamie and Victoria, who arrive just as the first moves are made . . .

I must confess that early on in Justin Richards's novel I was tempted to give up on it, as it starts out slowly and introduces a number of ill-defined characters who were at times difficult to distinguish in the text. Once Richards sets the pieces of his story into place, however, the novel snaps together into a fairly entertaining book that leavens the "base under siege" storyline that was such a standard of the Second Doctor's era with a degree of political intrigue. The twists at the end — some predictable, others less so — keep things lively and entertaining as well. I'm glad I persevered with it, as it proved in the end to be worth the effort.

Doctor Who: The Angel's Kiss - Justin Ri... This audiobook was perfect, made more perfect by the fact that it is narrated by Melody herself, Alex Kingston. I think to have had anyone else narrate this book would have been insulting. Who better to portray River, than the actor who made her the larger-than-life character we all love?!

This was a typical Doctor Who adventure, sans the Doctor. It's like a prequel to "The Angels Take Manhattan". This shows us River in her full Melody Malone persona. She is sexy and a bit naughty without going too over the top. She's funny and witty in a way that is exclusively River Song. The story if full of intrigue as we follow Melody on a case in which she tries to find out who is trying to kill an actor and stumbles into the kind of mess that usually only the Doctor falls into. She handles herself brilliantly, as always, and saves the day...until the next adventure.

I truly hope they do more of these; because I highly enjoyed this!

A collection of short stories about the Doctor's time on the planet Trenzalore. Trenzalore was one of the more audacious conceits of the modern Doctor Who series. Featured in only one episode, The Time of the Doctor, it is implied that the Doctor spent 900 years defending the planet while waiting for his final death, having run out of regenerations. One consequence of this idea is that the Doctor spent about the same amount of time defending Trenzalore as he did Earth. The Doctor was supposedly about 1200 years old at the start of the episode, and he was 236 when he left Gallifrey, that means slightly less than 1000 years defending Earth. It also means that the entire body of Doctor Who adventures: TV, audios, novels, and comic books combined are roughly equal to the length of time he spent on Trenzalore.

 

Mountains of material could be written about the Doctor's time on Trenzalore, but if these stories are anything to go by it is probably not worth the effort. The stories are not bad, but given the constraints of the short format, the fact that we already know the start and the finish of the Doctor's time on Trenzalore, and the rather dull nature of Trenzalore itself, there is not a whole lot that the stories can accomplish. The stories feature four old enemies of the Doctor taken from the classic days of the series; the Ice Warriors from the 2nd Doctor's time, the Krynoid from the 4th Doctor, the Autons from the 3rd Doctor and subsequent appearances, and finally the Mara from the 5th Doctor. This is not a spoiler as all four are pictured on the book cover.

 

There are a lot of plot points from the episode that could have been expanded on or explained in this book but were not. Nothing about how the Silence changed from being invaders of Earth to being a religious order. Nothing about the crack in the universe that allowed Clara to contact the Time Lords, only a reference to Handles the Doctor's pet Cyberman head, not even a mention of Tasha Lem and her relationship with the Doctor. The whole thing feels kind of rushed, like they wanted to get something published before Trenzalore was forgotten. I hope in the future we will get more War Doctor material and not more Trenzalore.

A soviet era nuclear naval base has been abandoned.  The town surrounding it is surviving essentially at a subsistence level.  There is something far more dangerous than the radiation leaking from the subs.  It's been there quite a long time sending out a message for help, which Captain Jack inadvertently answers forcing him, Rose and the Doctor to ride in for the rescue. Though their Russian is perfect, at least one person knows that there's more to the arrival of the threesome than their cover story implies.

I love Doctor Who with a ridiculous passion but that being said, this book left so much to be desired. Because Eccleston was only the Doctor for a short time, these stories are precious.  After all, who doesn't want a bit more of the Fantastic?  Unfortunately, this book is almost painful to read.  It's a scant 256 pages and yet felt like a tome that was never going to come to an end.  This is the first of the Doctor Who books that I almost gave a DNF rating.

When the Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack arrive, they discover one young man dead and his girlfriend Valeria drained of her youth.  She is nothing but a husk, with no ability to communicate and absolutely incapable of taking care of herself. Because this is not the first time something like this has happened, townspeople have become suspicious and actually blame Vourdalk - a vampire from Russian folklore.  That sounds interesting doesn't it?  Naturally, it cannot possibly be Vourdalk as we discover when the Doctor begins investigating. Nope, it's all about aliens, glowing blue blobs and zombies.  It seems some people decided that they want to live forever.  The story takes a massive turn and feels like a bad rip off of Stephen King's Tommy Knockers.  Since King already told this story and brilliantly at that, inserting the Doctor does nothing but remind us that we're reading an author with less than half the talent of King.

The story quickly turns from an intelligent investigation to the Doctor, Rose and Jack running from the blue blobs, and setting shit on fire.  That's when it absolutely lost me because it felt like a complete bait and switch. Yes, I get that as much as the Doctor is a super brilliant Time Lord, he spends a good deal of time running and dodging to get away from the bed guys but that usually comes with a coherent story which The Deviant Strain greatly lacked.

In terms of characterisation it was absolutely off.  Yes, I can picture Captain Jack running into combat and working to save someone he saw as vulnerable and need of his help.  My question however is where did my smiling, flirtatious Jack go?  He was absolutely generic.  Even though The Deviant Strain is set before Torchwood, there should still be some sense of who Captain Jack is.  This character is such a cardboard cut out with no personality that he really could have been anyone with the name Captain Jack tacked on for fan service.


Then there's Rose, who runs around tossing herself at anything that looks dangerous.  She's like a fish out of water.  I didn't recognise her at all.  She seemed to be there so that the Doctor could explain what is going on. Yes, I realise that this is the main function of the companion in the Who universe, however; each companion has a personality that is distinct.  Rose just ran and threw herself at stuff without trying to figure out the big picture or even giving the Doctor a sense of humanity which is something that she was really good at.

 

 

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