Who Reviews The Writers Tale by DJ Forrest

 

The Writers Tale is a collection of emails sent between Benjamin Cook of Doctor Who Magazine and Russell T Davies, over the course of a year, which took in Season 4 Doctor Who, including the Specials, Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventures, and including snippets of scripts from the episodes and how they were often changed before the final cut. 

It gave an insight to one of my favourite writers and producers of Doctor Who and how stressful it can be juggling so many ‘plates’ as it were, of scripts, and deadlines but the end results are always spectacular. 

I only wish I’d read this book first, because there is so much more to read in the emails than in the first book. 

If you read it from First book to Second, it makes reading the Second book a little bit of a chore, because a lot of the emails are the same, except with additional portions, but you don’t know that at the time, unless you open the First book to match, which I probably should have done. Except then, it becomes more of a study process and I’m only really looking for about an hour’s read before I shut the lights off for the night. So ideally you need to read the Second Book first and then jump to the scripts in the First book, to know what Russell is talking about. I wish I’d done that. 

However, that aside, I learnt a lot more about writing, the techniques of writing, character building, and so much more. I learnt that Russell’s take on the idea process is similar to how I think, and for a long time, I barely made notes except in my head. I worked with music on a loop for action scenes and discovered that Russell also did this, although he almost played the song to death – which after a while I stopped because it was driving me nuts!!! 

But you do need to read this book first. It makes more sense, and it’s more enjoyable, because the emails are longer, and it put me in the mood to re-watch Series 4 and Donna Noble.

What I enjoyed about the book, is that Russell never throws any idea away, and over the years and the various shows he’s written, including all the non-Doctor Who shows, you can see how an idea that he’d wanted for say Doctor Who, was later introduced into another series. I could see the ideas for one particular group of people being used in a futuristic series which later became Years and Years. Although I haven’t as yet seen the RTD series Boys, I discovered that other ideas in the book were later used for this – I made that discovery after a recent interview with Nathan Sussex who plays a part in Boys. 

There is so much to learn about Russell and his techniques, that it’s definitely not a book I want to part with. There are so many helpful tips for writers, that it would be crazy to let it go. You feel his pain and anguish regarding certain elements of his writing for Doctor Who, and how much Torchwood, in particular was a hard write for him. Kind of like you’re spinning so many plates and trying to keep them all spinning, until you have to stop and take a break, before you kill yourself. Torchwood took a lot of time and trouble to put together but you could imagine the cogs moving for ideas, but they’d be far different to those of Doctor Who. I found a great sympathy for him as a writer. We never think about that when we’re demanding more stories, or asking why certain characters have to be killed off. A good death scene is powerful in a drama, but yeah, losing a key component of the team, is gutting for many. 

The book is almost the thickness of War and Peace and if like me, you’ve only an hour a night to read it, you’re going to be reading this for some months to come. I’m over halfway through the book. There are photos of the cast of Who, including some great ones of David and the Master, and RTD with Phil and Julie. 

I would have loved to have been Ben, emailing back and forth with Russell, including into the early hours of the morning. Those 2am emails! They must have been such fun times back then. 

I miss that era of Doctor Who. You felt connected to the characters. You already loved the actors, and you’d been to Cardiff and wanted to revisit the sites where they filmed the series. The FX and the builds were absolutely awesome and that’s what reignited my passion for Who, and the spin-offs. Re-watching old episodes. The humour and All that running. 

I miss those times. 

I miss Russell T Davies. Thank you, Ben, for putting this together, what a wonderful way of learning how a script writer works, and all the pressures of working in the industry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beyond The Hub Conjuror by DJ Forrest

Written by John & Carole Barrowman

Published in 2016 by Head of Zeus Ltd

‘The first Conjuror came to America in a slave ship. In 1797 a lone ship drifted up a tributary of the Mississippi. Alonzo Blue, overseer of the Dupree Plantation, spotted the two-decker bobbing in the choppy water. As news spread of the ship’s strange arrival, the field slaves vanished into their damp huts, closed their shutters and shoved pellets of hardtack into their ears. They knew what was coming…’

Conjuror takes a new turn in the Matt and Em Calder - Hollow Earth series by introducing us to a new character, Rémy Dupree Rush, a seventeen-year-old boy of African race, who has a rare and special gift.

Unlike Matt and Emily Calder, who can fade in and out of pictures to transport themselves to another time, Rémy uses music, but he has to choose his moments, because just like the Calder twins, using his talents can raise a lot of suspicion and bring dark elements into play.

Conjuror is a page turner. Every chapter is short but has enough action and detail to keep you going, and you can’t just read one or two chapters, you need to reach a point where you have to say – ‘I need to go to work now’.

You could very easily finish this book in a day, and if I had a spare day, I probably would have. Carole has a way with words and if you thought that you’d had a history lesson alone with the last book of the Hollow Earth trilogy, then you’re not going to be disappointed with this one. Once again you become knowledgeable regarding your classic paintings and some you’ve now begun hunting down on search engines. Putting that aside though, those of us who have followed John through his Whoniverse life as Captain Jack Harkness, won’t be surprised to discover a nod to Doctor Who in one of the pages – whether that was deliberate or not, it raised a smile nevertheless.

A few swear words did make me wonder which age bracket we were looking at in terms of reader but then given a majority of John’s fans are of the ‘big kids’ category – (was going to say adults but are any of us mature enough to admit that yet?) I don’t think the odd ‘F’ word will offend anyone.

Conjuror is a brilliant, well held together novel that keeps you hooked to the very last page, and I have to admit, that when I reached the last page, I wished that I had another book to leap towards.

Conjuror is Part One of the Orion Chronicles – to find out more about the Orion Organisation, you’re just going to have to read the novel.  There are two more novels after this of which I will putting down on my Santa list.

Brilliant story guys – I had the characters in my head and felt I was there with them at times – Imagination truly is a powerful thing.

Who Reviews Target Zone: Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster by DJ Forrest

Written by Terrance Dicks

Published by Tandem Publishing Ltd

For Target in 1976

There are many alien creatures with a thirst for dominance of a far weaker species, and yet they all seem to think that Earth is going to be such a push over. It always seems to be the arrogance of the alien species that likes to brag about its deeds to the one person who can easily overthrow their plans, and if failing to enable them to see sense, will thwart every single plan of theirs.

Of course, without the might of the Doctor and UNIT, although to be fair, the Brig only has the regular weapons known to man at his disposal and its this kind of military screw up that can push the might of an alien race to declare war on earth, rather than using a more diplomatic approach, or capture the Doctor and watch him take your ship apart and use it against you.

I love a good Zygon story and if I’m pushed to choose between which alien species I like the most, it’s a tie between the Daleks and the Zygons at every turn. Both of them are determined as ever to dominate a planet and begin cultivating it to their own needs. Both have tunnel vision. They see only the end goal and a means to get it, but don’t figure on the might of the human race or the meddling Doctor.

In both stories involving Zygons (in book form) that I’ve read so far, although a little bit more advanced in the 10^th but still, the end game amounts to the same, but at least the Skarasen isn’t a threat in the 10^th novel unlike it seems in this.

The Skarasen I felt sorry for. Most cyborg creatures which were created to do their masters bidding, are often only doing it because they have little choice, and the Skarasen is no different. It becomes the Loch Ness Monster for the story because those were the waters it grew up in, and wearing attached Zygon technology, it charges towards the very person holding the device in order to snuff them out, or at best, to crush the device into the ground, so it can go back to peaceful waters.

The only problem with killing a Skarasen is that you’ll need a nuclear weapon in order to do so.

The Fourth Doctor is helped by Harry Sullivan, Sarah Jane Smith and UNIT which includes the Brig. I’ve always liked the Brigadier but reading through the old novels of the classic series, I am beginning to question what it is about the military fool that I liked so much – because the writings at the time gave UNIT more of a Keystone Cops approach to tackling the alien races that came to earth to dominate us human species.

Maybe I’m not giving UNIT enough credit. Back in the days of the 3^rd and 4^th Doctors, the world was a much different place, and UNIT were only just coming into being, the stiff upper lip and male arrogance was rife back then. And maybe the odd alien landing, Daleks and Zygons and other species I’m still learning about, including the Master, are species that UNIT are only just understanding. Perhaps I shouldn’t be poking a stick at them wondering why they’re not as on the ball as I’d like – especially when you look at UNIT now, it’s more of a military likeness to Torchwood. On the ball with alien species. Has an arsenal of weapons in order to defeat a mighty army and has the daughter of the Brigadier in charge – and you don’t want to mess with her.

As you’d expect, the Loch Ness Monster story is set in Scotland, and around oil rigs that are being destroyed, the reason of which you will discover towards the middle of the story. It’s a wonderful read and you can’t help but smile at Broton and his suckered band of maniacs as they are thwarted at every turn to take over the world.

Who Reviews The Power of Kroll by DJ Forrest

Written by Terrance Dicks

Published by W.H. Allen & Co. PLC

Target Zone

The 49^th novel in the Doctor Who library, this, another by Terrance Dicks was a fascinating story and this time with the Fourth Doctor and Romana. K-9 was limited to the TARDIS for this journey, purely because he’d sink and all his circuitry would fry. The Doctor and Romana are on the quest to find all the Keys to Time and have located one on the swampy marshland – to be more precise, they have located where it might be, but not what it might look like. That is revealed towards the end of the story – but no skipping the pages because that just ruins a jolly good read. I must stop saying jolly it’s a word that conjures up church fetes and tombola stalls and lashings of ginger beer and boys wearing tank tops and shorts and uttering spiffing good show and all that.

I also need to remind myself that Doctor Who is a children’s television programme and so I shouldn’t really expect to find anything ultimately scary in any of the novels.

I’m reliving my childhood. I’m remembering episodes of Doctor Who, with scenery unlike anything we see today, and remembering the Fourth Doctor in all his jolly jaunts and the language of the day, and the outfits, and the general way of how things were back then. It’s jolly. Jolly good fun. Jolly scary!

The Fourth Doctor was how we see our Doctors of today – the 10^th and 11^th especially, and perhaps a little of the 12^th, but most definitely 10^th, with the wide eyes and the beaming grins and the gung ho attitude.

When the methane based catalysing protein refinery threatened to do another orbit shot, which would seal the fate of all those on the ill fated refinery and those living in the swamps, the Doctor worked his magic to save as many lives as he could, while facing the prospect of losing his own life in the process.

It was a long time ago when I first watched the Classic series and yet, scenes were coming alive in my brain, and weirdly in the voice of Tom Baker!

Kroll is an oversized creature of the deep who has come to the surface to feed, because someone woke it up, and unfortunately for them, has an insatiable appetite for anything that moves.

There are some fun characters to be aware of in the story, thankfully there’s no idiot planning to take over the world, but an idiot who has ploughed a lot of time and resources into the refinery and doesn’t want the Sons of the Earth or the Swampies ruining it for him by existing. Not quite the Master but someone who you initially thought was a decent bloke turns out to be a complete nut job.

The green coloured natives who live in the swamps worship the great Kroll, who none of them have seen for hundreds of years because it sleeps beneath the lagoon, but who know that in order to keep Kroll happy should it awaken, must feed it dryfoots – those from the refinery, or all will be lost.

So, there’s religious nuts to contend with also. All in all though, it’s a fun read and the joy (not jolly) thing about Target novels, is that you could, if you had time on your hands, read a book in a day, or over two days as I did.

One rib tickling fact in my copy of the story is that during one portion of the story, it looks as if one of the Swampies might be a descendent from the Midlands. (someone forgot to proofread the novel before publication).

Who Reviews Target Zone: The Time Monster by DJ Forrest

Written by Terrance Dicks

Published in 1986 for

Target Books

‘Together we will become Masters of the Universe’

There’s something very quintessentially English about the Third Doctor era. It’s all very ‘pip pip’ and ‘jolly good show, eh, what?’. It’s very much a man’s world and women mustn’t even think of becoming a heroine, or lift a tyre iron, or the good old Brigadier will come over and patronise them – it’s amazing that he ever managed to marry and have children, what with that stiff upper lip and all.

However, the fictional world can often depict women in a much lesser light, and the Master who only really has eyes for himself, holds women in much the same regard as whatever he’s trodden in that day. Much like his likeness for Krasis, the High Priest of Atlantis, who suddenly finds himself zapped into the 20^th century grasping a crystal and feeling the might of Kronos – a creature that feeds on time itself as the crystal the High Priest is worshipping grows brighter.

Dr Ruth Ingram has been an instrumental factor in the scientific make up of the TOMTIT machine – I mean honestly, could they not have thought up a less ‘snicker behind the hands’ acronym? And when she begins to power up the machine before the big talk with the big wigs of the university it’s currently residing in, the Master can’t get there quick enough to pull the plug.

‘The meddling fools.’

By now we’ve come to realise that The ‘You Will Obey Me’ Master is a little too far up his own backside to notice the flaws in his machine. I guess when you’re that insane, you’re bound to miss a few key ingredients. Such as having the power to summon but not control the Chronivore.

Despite all it’s faults of the 20^th century, the actual story is a jolly good read, and in a way, it was fun journeying back to the 70s, the super speed ride in old Bessie, the Doctor recreating his TARDIS, the Master riding in his TARDIS cleverly disguised as a computer cupboard – of all the things to come up with. Might as well have been a Grandfather’s clock…oh wait…!

The Time Monster was a truly wonderful journey and I seem to remember scenes from the television episode that brought it all back to life for me.

 

Who Reviews The Coming of the Terraphiles by DJ Forrest

Written by Michael Moorcock

Published by BBC Books in 2010

Michael Moorcock is a prolific writer of more than 80 works of fiction and non fiction, and the creator of such characters as Elric, Jerry Cornelius and Colonel Pyat. He became editor of the Tarzan Adventures at the age of 16 and later edited The Sexton Blake Library and the controversial and ground breaking UK science fiction magazine New Worlds. In 2008, Michael Moorcock was named one of the ’50 greatest British writers since 1945’ by The Times and now lives in Texas.

So, that being said, Michael knows his way around the sci fi world. I had nothing to worry about. I could open this book and know that I’d see the Doctor bounding into the story from the get go. I’d have a ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ story and be done in a week.

Yeah…

Except, I wasn’t. I’m still seated. I’m waiting for the action to kick off, and I’m already at the end of Chapter 4 and I’m bored now. The Doctor has appeared only a few times but only from the distance, or introducing himself to Bingo Locksley, once, as part of the Re-enactment team, and once seated at the foot of Locksley’s bed, in a manner that seemed as if he were asking if he could blow his own nose. The Doctor had more of a lesser presence than the other main characters. The build up to the story seemed to take in Bingo and the Mr and Mrs B-Cannon and her family and his, and their pets and their possessions than anything else listed.

Put it this way. After the film I, Robot, I got into Isaac Asimov, and I forced myself to read one of the Foundation novels. As much as some of the stuff was way over my head, the dialogue was there, the story was there, and the characters were interesting enough that I continued reading till the end, because I wanted to find out what happened to the characters  and learn a bit more about sci fi. However, it’s a hard read. It’s mathematics – not my strong point – but there was enough to keep you turning the pages.

This book is like trying to fathom the Rubik’s cube, knowing you have at least achieved three sides but can’t get how you need to achieve the completed cube, and in your frustration, you heave it across the room. As a lover of books – I’m not throwing this anywhere – other than into the box for Sale items at next Boot Sale.

From what I’ve managed to glean from the 4 chapters I’ve struggled through – and believe me – Moorcock’s 4 chapters would be about half way through a regular Who novel, so you’d expect by now to know who, what and indeed where this is going by now, rather than just what and why, am I still punishing myself?

There is an Arrow Trophy which is worth it’s weight in gold and is the prize for the winner of the Re-enactment games. It has a deep history and has to be kept under lock and key in case of pirates. The pirates began this story in the first chapter, and for a high seas adventure, you could quite possibly get into it for that reason, except that at the end of that chapter it mentioned The Doctor.

Second chapter mentions The Doctor, but in a slow manner of worrying about an email he’s just received, which reminded me of Jim Carrey playing God and reading a list of praying emails from people across the world.

There’s something about Antimatter Men which feels as if there should be a joke in there somewhere.

There’s a hat that was stolen, but not by Bingo, as was initially planned, and somewhere in the story, a body is found. Whose, is anyone’s guess, and the pirates make a return somewhere I think, possibly, who cares!

If you’re looking for a ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ action story, or if you’re looking for the usual conventional Doctor Who story, by any of the 12 Doctors we’ve had thus far, this isn’t for you.

If it picks up in the middle of this novel then, perhaps I should read on and find out – but so far, nothing is engaging me with any of the characters, and I feel as if I’m missing out on so much in my life.

This has to be the first time I’ve ever given a negative review to a novel. Film, yes, television series, possibly, but a book?

I have tried, believe me, to get through this novel but have conceded defeat. I’m sorry Michael, but regardless to how many books you’ve written, your style is just not for me. Perhaps if it were written without the Doctor, it might stand a better chance of working, but it’s as if the Doctor is playing second fiddle to the rest of the characters and ideally shouldn’t be in it at all.

It was like I was waiting for Steven Segal to reappear in Executive Decision. You get to the point when you realise that it ain’t going to happen.

 

Who Reviews The Way Through the Woods by DJ Forrest

Written by Una McCormack

For BBC Books

Published 2011

‘Don’t stray from the path…’

My initial reaction when I began reading the first chapter was, that this book was geared towards a much younger audience, but then, convincing myself that, I’d started so I needed to finish it, the story improved. In fact, it began to take the shape of a YA novel on par with an Anthony Horowitz story – in as much as I couldn’t wait for break times to come around, or that breakfasts were longer, and only tonight, with a quarter of the book to finish, I lingered at the dinner table for another hour. It’s definitely a story that is hard to put down once you get into it.

I wouldn’t advise skipping the first chapter - as with any first chapter, that’s where the story begins. Unlike other Doctor Who novels, the chapters in this book are much, much longer. It’s not one of those books where you think, I’ll just read this chapter while I’m having my break then get back to work – it’s rather longer than a fifteen minute break. I’d go so much as to say, you need a good 30 – 45 mins to work through one convincing portion.

The Way Through the Woods is set in an ancient crop of trees known as Swallow Woods. It was there before the Romans. All paths and roads seem to veer away from the woods, and children are warned to not stray near the trees, or enter the woods, or they’ll never been heard of again. An old wives tale? Perhaps not.

Something strange is happening inside the Woods, and only the Doctor, Rory and Amy can solve it, except, the Doctor is helping the Police with their enquiries after teenage resident of Foxton village, Laura Brown has disappeared, and the Doctor with Amy are the only ones new to the village, so naturally they’re up to no good.

Amy has managed to entice Jess, a young journalist into the woods and Rory has been sent back to 1917 to walk Emily Bostock home, via the Swallow Woods.

I enjoyed this book thoroughly and am really glad I stuck with the book to read past the first chapter. The other thing I liked about it was, that as much as we know the companions so well, not all writers can bring them to life in such a way that you can picture them in that moment, but Una captures them perfectly.

Who Reviews System Wipe by DJ Forrest

Written by Oli Smith

For BBC Books

Published 2011

A number of years ago, when Lara Croft was a video game, and was sponsored by Lucozade Sport, or some such energy drink, there was an advert, which featured a gamer pausing the game while he nipped to the toilet. In that short space of time, the characters on the screen relaxed their pose, ripped open their energy drinks and despite being enemies in the game, appeared to get along like actors taking a break between scenes. When the guy returned, they returned to their frozen battle positions and awaited the Play button.

I’m wondering if Oli Smith, writer of System Wipe saw the advert too because the story puts you in game mode as soon as the Doctor hits the Play button. But if I’m thinking correctly, Oli Smith is a gamer in real life.

In 2222 AD, it’s the End of the World, again, and the Doctor, Rory and Amy, are once again trying to stay alive – with the added misfortune of the Doctor discovering a game station still plugged in and user logged in, and joins the virtual world of Parallife, while Amy and Rory, make friends with a very large, and quite docile, robot called Daryl.

To anyone who grew up in the 80s, having an artificial life form with the name Daryl, instantly takes you back to the schmaltzy sci fi story that had many of us sobbing before the end of the film. The music was a bit cringy if you were to listen to it now, but back then, it was a great kids movie.

Back to Parallife and the Doctor discovers that not only does he have to choose a body for himself, but to achieve anything within the game, requires him to ‘kill’ a few animals along the way – power ups. Of course, not being one to kill anything if he can, it takes him a while to find his feet in the game. He teems up with a young woman called Blondie who you discover in the first opening chapter is running away from the darkness.

As you can imagine System Wipe is a computer term, and does just what it says on the tin, but the Doctor, being the Doctor, isn’t about to leap out of the game and run with Amy and Rory as a sand storm heads in their direction, along with demolition robots, ready to flatten the city that they’re currently hiding in. Oh no, the Doctor wants to save everyone in the game – even though, none of the users are plugged in, because, this is the End of the World, and nobody is there any more.

System Wipe is a quick read book and it took me a day – would have taken me less if I wasn’t working in between, however, it’s an interesting book with lots of surprising chapters and possibly one of Oli’s best novels from the Eleventh Doctor series I’ve read thus far – even though I’ve probably said that before.

If you’re a gamer, then you’ll appreciate this story, and wonder why other people haven’t latched onto this kind of idea before – or maybe they have and I just haven’t found them yet. It makes me want to dig out an old game console and play Syphon Filter again.

Who Reviews Apollo 23 by DJ Forrest

Written by Justin Richards

For BBC Books

Published 2010

A man walks towards the bandstand during a lunch break, and dies of asphyxiation and a woman walking her dog not across the park dies on the dark side of the moon, her pooch by her side, and an astronaut suddenly appears in a shopping mall, right outside a fast food restaurant.

‘Houston, we have a problem!’

This was my first introduction to the Eleventh Doctor stories, that I read a long time ago, so it was a nice revisit. It’s a Doctor and Amy story, and takes place on Base Diana, on the dark side of the moon. There are illegal experiments with hardened criminals, who are undergoing treatment to remove the bad side of their brain, and have new memories replace them. However, nothing is ever as it seems, and before we’re midway through the story, the Doctor has discovered the truth, along with Amy, who at this point, has discovered that, poking your nose into things that are out of your intelligence range, can get you into serious hot water.

The Doctor in his usual, 'must help the locals fix their quantum displacement device', does so, only to discover that the locals up and sabotage it – why, well there’s the thing, it’s not revealed until nearly the end of the story, but there’s plenty in the story to keep you entertained until the big reveal.

I do enjoy the Amy Pond companion stories, and sometimes when Rory gets involved it often brings with it an enjoyable humour about it – but as I’ve noticed with Rory, he’s often an afterthought.

Justin’s novel is an enjoyable read, and there are plenty of characters involved in the story that you’re waiting for them to become who you imagine them to be, and unless I’d seen something similar on the television, I was still waiting for the UNIT guy to become something more than a suit and dark glasses kind of guy.

As with all Who stories, this one is no different. There’s some brainwashing aliens doing horrendous stuff to humans, because their own bodies can’t sustain them in different elements – and it’s not too difficult to picture them in your mind.

Some novels have that kind of ‘talking down to you’ feel about them. This one, by far, does none of those things. It’s an enjoyable read, and as you would expect from the front cover, it’s set in America – as well as on the Moon.

  

Reviews Something In The Water by DJ Forrest

Written by Trevor Baxendale

Published by BBC Books

ISBN 978-1-846-07437-0

GP Bob Strong would be late for his own funeral; he was late for everything else in his life!  He was meant to be meeting Nurse Carrick on a date but never made it due to a flat tyre.  Today as usual he was late for work at Trynsel surgery, and to cap it all, his first morning appointment was with Saskia Harden!

Saskia is a mysterious blonde in a raincoat, she isn’t beautiful but she has the ability of turning people’s heads.  The surgery had labelled her ‘Angel of Death’ from the amount of suicide attempts she’d had, having been pulled from ponds, canals, waterways, only to come back to life on a mortuary table.

There was something about Saskia that Bob Strong was scared of, and her visit left a horrible taste in his mouth. 

Owen and Jack are investigating ‘Big Guy’ a rogue weevil who has evaded capture on many an occasion but this time Jack has isolated exactly where he is and the pair head to a disused swimming pool.  But what they encounter is faster and far deadlier than the weevil and too fast to be captured. 

Gwen and Toshiko meet Professor Len at a service station and learn about Sally Blackteeth, a water hag.  Len tells them that she lives on the moors and came from the Middle Ages, but neither Gwen nor Toshiko accept this as anything more than scare stories until Toshiko becomes trapped on the moors and is almost sucked into the bog. 

Owen is sent to locate Saskia Harden, but discovers a sick Bob Strong, at home on his sofa, suffering the same symptoms as those of his patients, coughing and hacking and spitting up blood.  It seems half the country is down with a flu virus. 

And now so are the team of Torchwood, even indestructible Captain Jack Harkness – who never gets sick!

What is causing the widespread illness, why can’t Torchwood locate the cause, and why are the water hags interested in the Water Tower and what do they want with the Rift?

Something in the Water is written by Trevor Baxendale.  Its set in the Second Season, as it mentions the last time the Rift was opened.  It’s all about snot and mucus and blood and illness and water hags and strange creatures that I sort of imagine live at the back of the throat and hang there during a really heavy cold, a bit like that creature on the Mucus Relief advert.  It’s about the team pulling together and for once really struggling to contain what is happening, and they really, really struggle to keep on top of things, and when guns and ammo really don’t work, it’s down to Toshiko who is locked in the Hot House to find a cure, or something that can give them the edge against these strange ugly creatures, who are amassing an army, ready for invasion.

Once again Trevor writes a belter of a story and it keeps me focused till the end, there’s plenty to keep the reader entertained, even when Jack Harkness is suffering an invisible illness.  And although I never read these books in order, it’s a good indication that The Undertaker’s Gift was probably the next story to read after this, given the nod from the Hokrala Corp.

  

Who Reviews The Abominable Snowmen by Simon Mallinson

ISBN 0-426-11455-8

Publisher: Target Books, WH Allen & Co

Writer: Terrance Dicks

A single blow from the giant, hairy paw smashes the explorer to the ground.  Terrified, he flees from the monster's glowing eyes and savage fangs... Why are the peaceful Yeti now spreading death and destruction?  And what is the secret behind the glowing cave on the mountain.

When DOCTOR WHO discovers that a long-dead friend is still alive, he knows why his visit to the lonely Himalayan monastery has led to a struggle to save the Earth!

For the older of us that can remember Doctor Who with no repeats and no chance of seeing old stories, Target brings great and happy memories. How many times have I visited the local library as a kid hoping the latest book was in? No internet, no Amazon and no Twitter, was it a dark age, no we had Target.

Is it cold outside? Yes! Well pull up a seat and warm yourself with a much missed story from the Troughton era. Terrance Dicks stays true to the original script but seems to beam a picture of a furry yeti, monks and silver balls in your minds.

The story starts pretty slowly with Tardis scenes that will make the modern viewer groan for action, and scream ‘get on with it.’ Though the older viewer will start smiling from the off, the interplay between Victoria and Jamie is classic Who. 

The Doctor bumbles around as usual but always seems to be in the right place at the right time. Shifty monks (ahh the 60s stereotypes), make you wonder who is evil and who is well short of a few pennies. An old eccentric explorer who at times makes you think ‘shoot him now please.’

The story itself seems to lack the stamina of the later stories, but this adds to the general enjoyment of it, more fooling but with a touch of warning.

So, if you want a short smiling story please read this book and enjoy.