Bulis is great at
captioning the transition in between the relationship of the Doctor and the
Brigadier after Inferno and before Terror of the Autons. The Brigadier has had his eyes opened even
more since Inferno which served as a
real catharsis for the character as he and the Doctor finally buried the
hatchet after the rather rocky start as seen in Season Seven. The two characters really reach an
understanding as the Doctor is given full command of the expedition through the
temporal anomaly with the Brigadier holding down the fort at UNIT until the
focus is brought back onto the Earth for the lackluster finale. The novel also introduces the character of
Mike Yates who at the time the novel is set is still a Sergeant with Sergeant
Benton. The cover prominently features
Yates acting as if he will be a main character, but really his role could have
been accommodated with Benton in the role as he is more of a gentleman while
Yates is really nothing like that. Sure
he’s a nice guy in the series, but the gentleman of UNIT is Sergeant Benton. Bulis did however give a little backstory as
to how Yates took the news that aliens exist which is a very interesting idea
as how do you get people to come around to aliens when their mind is hardwired
to military way of running things which is at odds with the bizarre nature of
aliens. Osgood from The Daemons also makes an appearance here where he somehow has even
less characterization than in that original story.
The crew of the film
featured in this novel is almost a snapshot into the society of the 1930s film
industry. They’re all working off a very
loose script and getting shots that will tie in with the finished product, not
really caring if it will make sense.
Their only care is that it will look good in the end when it gets to the
theaters and that their secret island isn’t discovered until they are finished
with it. Nancy Grover, who becomes the
main villain of the story by the end, is the typical diva and prima donna as it
is going to be her way or the highway.
Liz Shaw is also really good in the novel as she is portrayed straight
out of Season Seven. I can just imagine
Caroline John being in the part as she is extremely snarky to Jon Pertwee’s
egotistical Doctor. It leaps right off
the page and something great really happens as you realize just how good their
relationship was on television and what we were really missing when Caroline
John sadly left the series after only one season.
To summarize, The Eye of the Giant is a great novel
overall as it deals with a very standard sort of adventure that was from the
era of Season Seven. It has a few glaring
flaws in the fact that Yates is prominently featured on the cover, Osgood
appears in really a way that doesn’t do anything to add much depth to the
character and the last fourth of the novel goes and rips off Inferno with a parallel timeline bleeding
through. Nancy Grover is a great
character until the end where she becomes a demigod who just wants attention
which is weird. 83/100
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