Mission: Impractical
is a Doctor Who heist novel. Proudly
bearing Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor, Sabalom Glitz, and a duo of Ogrons on the standard
late 1990s photoshop cover gives the reader the exact impression of what type
of adventure they are in for. It’s pure
pulp fiction, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing as returning writer David
A. McIntee always impresses with his ability to spin a yarn. McIntee’s style is always a breeze be it pulp
to his darker novels like Sanctuary or The Dark Path, and Mission:
Impractical is no exception to this.
McIntee fills the novel with action sequences and shootouts somehow with
this sense of grace. It is obvious that
McIntee has a grasp on Glitz and Dibber, both highlights of the novel. Both characters were what sold The
Mysterious Planet and once again they steal the show in Mission:
Impractical. McIntee handles with
care connecting The Mysterious Planet, The Ultimate Foe, and Dragonfire
together in this story as we see what exactly Glitz and Dibber are up to, and
why exactly Dibber didn’t appear in Dragonfire. Where McIntee fails is that Mission:
Impractical attempts to be an out and out comedy with Doctor Who references
galore. We have Glitz and Dibber as
major characters, Ogrons, the Tzun make appearances from previous McIntee
novels First Frontier and The Dark Path among others, and there’s
a Mr. Zimmerman character who is apparently the Valeyard under an assumed name. The continuity is perhaps too much for one
novel to succeed on its own merits as the references tend to clutter things,
while McIntee needed to work more on the comedy.
The comedy here suffers due to the attempts McIntee
makes to be out and out funny when the best gags are the witty one liners
sprinkled throughout. The Ogrons in
particular fail to impress in the humor department, while the Holmesian double
act of Glitz and Dibber are highlights of the novel. This is also McIntee’s only work to feature
the Sixth Doctor, yet oddly enough the Doctor is excellent throughout the
novel. Perhaps closest to the persona
seen in the Doctor Who Magazine comics, by design, the Doctor goes right along
with Glitz as he has learned to at least trust more people since the end of his
trial. The Doctor also gets quite a lot
of the humorous dialogue and scenarios in this novel, not surprising
considering the coat. And finally the
companion of the novel is Frobisher.
This is not a drill. We have the big talking bird. McIntee obviously understands exactly what makes
Frobisher work: his absurdity. He’s
portrayed as a hard boiled noir detective who just happens to be in the form of
a penguin and continues to act like a penguin.
If you are looking for a cheap way of getting into Frobisher as a character
Mission: Impractical is the book for you, the only issue is that he
perhaps doesn’t feature as prominently as there is overshadowing with other
characters. That’s the novel’s biggest
flaw, things get overshadowed by the sheer amount McIntee funneled into the
book. Overall, the book still stands despite this pretty major flaw, but the
flaw does leave a mark and lessens the enjoyment factor. 7/10.
It perhaps would be an understatement to call Seeing
I a necessary novel for the Eighth Doctor Adventures. Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman’s novel is
responsible for wrapping up the Sam is Missing arc of the Eighth Doctor Adventures
and serves to remedy something that has been severely lacking in this specific
range. The character of Samantha Jones
has suffered from inconsistent characterization ranging from a lovesick puppy
to generic female from late 20th century Earth to activist. Seeing I instead of focusing on a
heavily involved plot, sticks with a small cast of characters to give Sam a
decent reintroduction as companion to the Doctor. Orman and Blum force Sam to grow up, setting
a novel over the course of three or four years both the Doctor and Sam spend on
Ha’olam. The technologically advanced
planet has mysteriously gained access to Gallifreyan technology which only
makes the Doctor stay once he’s tracked Sam’s location to the planet. Orman and Blum keep them separated throughout
the novel, Sam spending three years moving from job to job, attempting to make a
name for herself. Sam explores what it
means to be Samantha Angeline Jones and spends much of her time in reflection
as to why she ran away from the Doctor.
It does amount to being unable to process the idea that she is in love
with the Doctor and he would never reciprocate the feelings, so she attempts to
act like he would. This is a book where
she has to discover who she actually is and what she wants to be. Getting a desk job becomes far too boring for
her, Blum and Orman emulating the soul crushing boredom these jobs often
require of their workers. She saves her
money, quits, and then finds a cause to fight for: a job building houses for a
settlement outside the major city. This
section of the novel plays out not to dissimilar to Colony in Space while
INC, the central government, attempts to take away the settlement, but actually
succeeds. She then gathers her friends
to find the Doctor, who has been on the planet the entire time.
The Doctor’s half of the narrative is confined near
exclusively to the Oliver Bainbridge Functional Stabilisation Centre, in other
words a prison for the crime of espionage.
This particular prison manages to be one of the few cells to keep the
Doctor captured, paradoxically using what seems to be old tactics. The correctional officer, Dr. Akalu, who
treats the Doctor, or Mr. Bowman as his papers say, with the upmost
respect. Akalu serves as a psychologist,
attempting to get the Doctor to settle in and live the rest of his life in the
prison. The prison itself is almost a
utopia, giving its nonviolent inmates a place to stay and a place to work with
a purpose. There is a genuine thought process
of making the prisoners wanting to stay to stop any sort of rebellion. Yet this is all a front to break the prisoners
into living life, and slowly Seeing I breaks the Doctor. With each escape attempt, and each piece of
knowledge about the prison, the Doctor is three steps back in his escape
attempt. The Doctor seen two-thirds
through the novel is truly a sight for sore eyes, spending the end of his
imprisonment doodling over the walls.
The doodles start out at the level of the Sistine Chapel and devolves into
a child’s doodles. Orman in particular
has a history of putting the Doctor in these types of situations and once again
this type of torture is incredibly effective.
You see the Doctor lose his will to keep moving, he doesn’t know why Sam
would leave, and he cannot fathom why she wouldn’t come back. Their reunion at the climax of the novel is
incredible with both characters coming to an understanding about their relationship. Unlike Deceit, Sam has not changed to
become a darker character like Ace, but to become an established character.
Orman and Blum also expand on the Dark Sam idea last
seen in Alien Bodies as living in King’s Cross as a heroin addict. The mystery is only seen in the background early
on in the novel building intrigue to what possible relevance this version of
the character. Sadly after the Doctor
and Sam reuinite, the final showdown the DOCTOR and I, the two computer program
villains of the novel doesn’t live up to the slow burn that Orman and Blum set
up. The computer programs do serve as
fun villains, DOCTOR being modelled off the Doctor, and I being made out of
Gallifreyean technology gives both characters well rounded personalities. The finale just leaves the reader wanting
more from the book, something that is rare from these authors. Despite this Seeing I is perhaps the
best Eighth Doctor Adventure since Alien Bodies. 9/10.
Frontier in Space is
a story most famous for being the final story to feature Roger Delgado’s
Master, but was remembered by Jon Pertwee for being the only televised story to
feature the Draconians, his favorite alien.
It is fitting that Terrance Dicks first contribution to the Past Doctor
Adventures range serves as a well deserved tribute to Jon Pertwee and his era
on television. Catastropheia takes
place after the two story arc Frontier in Space and Planet of the
Daleks, and serves as a prequel to the Earth-Draconian conflict seen in the
former story. While it features a Draconian
prominently on the cover to entice fans to read, the majority of Catastrophea
plays out like a tense political thriller with the Draconian Empire in the background. The planet Kastopheria, like many planets, is
an Earth colony with an authoritarian regime.
Currently at a time of peace, there are protests against the government
waiting for rebellion leader ‘el Llama’ to start things off. Of course, the Doctor and Jo Grant get
involved through cases of mistaken identity and throughout the novel are
captured and released several times before being placed in a position where they
can help the inhabitants of the planet from the authoritarian General Walton
and corrupt politician Councilor Rekar. Walton
is your stereotypical buffoon military politician character (think Mr. Chinn in
The Claws of Axos) who is easily fooled by young and ineffective rebels
while Rekar is the scheming bigoted character who abuses his power.
Terrance Dicks uses Catastorphea almost as a
make up novel for the disaster that was The Eight Doctors. Instead of trailing back through the Doctor’s
timeline, Dicks uses this novel to celebrate an era of the show that he loves
while not letting the celebration overtake the central plot of the novel. Yes there are plenty of tropes here common in
the Pertwee era, but they are all present in the background and do not impede
much of the enjoyment of the novel. There
is a minor trap where Dicks perhaps has too many subplots going which makes wrapping
them up nicely in the end of the novel takes a bit of work, but as always the
easy to read prose quickly gets the reader to the point Dicks is attempting to
make. There’s a plot about an indigenous
cult who has the Doctor as their Messiah figure, commentary on indigenous
rights, and the standard political drama as tensions rise. Each of these subplots are in full swing before
the Draconians even appear in the novel.
Dick’s writing style makes pages fly by and having short chapters keeps the
pace up as there are tributes to every cliffhanger making the book difficult to
put down. The epilogue of the novel is a
chilling final note, not including the Doctor or Jo, but giving insight into
the side characters various fates. The Third
Doctor is masterfully characterized here from the word go: he’s as suave as
ever, puts Jo’s life above his own, and is willing to charm the authorities to
get them out of trouble. Dicks also
highlights just how many steps ahead the Third Doctor would be as he is
correcting for outside influences of other characters.
The Draconian subplot, while always a presence as
there is a blockade against them from the beginning of the novel, only comes to
a head in the final third of the novel.
That final third is perhaps the novel’s most exciting as we see tensions
between Draconia and humanity rise up to begin the war which was explored in Frontier
in Space. The war itself is one
which comes because of the personal interests of the parties involved, a theme
Dicks weaves throughout the book. The interest
of the young rebels, genuinely wanting a better life for themselves but falling
to naiveite of being unable to mobilize.
Or the interests of the natives who believe the Doctor is there to save
their plight and even the interest of the politicians who only want power. Dicks uses the setting of a jungle planet to
full effect with the sweltering heat representing the rising tensions. He can consider himself on his way to redemption
from the travesty of The Eight Doctors by writing a celebratory novel full
of tropes that still manage to make an excellent read. 8/10.
Paul Leonard’s Genocide was one of the earliest
Eighth Doctor Adventures to show that there really is a potential to tell expansive
and thought-provoking stories even with a companion like Sam Jones being as
bland as ever. Giving him a second
Eighth Doctor Adventure while Sam is missing should have allowed Leonard the
opportunity to rise above Genocide’s already high performance as a book
into something great. Like Genocide,
Dreamstone Moon is a story with a political slant: this time going up
against the corporate elite and an anti-drug lesson with another hint of
environmentalism for good measure. These
messages are nothing new and there is nothing wrong with implanting a message,
yet Leonard’s novel falls into cliché traps of ‘the planet is alive’ so don’t
damage it and a standard using drugs are evil message. The ‘drug’ in question is dreamstone, a metal
mined from the titular moon, which enhances one’s dreams into an LSD-like
trip. Leonard’s descriptions of the trips
taken with dreamstone are fascinating, especially the prologue which uses a
gimmick of being dictated to a machine to generate genuine tension. The plot of the novel itself is nothing special,
it’s a standard Doctor Who romp where protestors from many races are attempting
to stop a mining colony from taking the dreamstone while the Doctor gets
involved.
Much like Dancing the Code and Genocide
the real villain of Dreamstone Moon is a bit more abstract, if cliched
at this point. The twists Leonard includes
can be seen coming a mile away and unlike Genocide, the characters are
all pretty bland. There are several
alien races which all have about one or two character traits, yet it is
difficult to tell them apart. The Doctor
and Sam both have their own little side plots while not affecting much of the
novel. The writing style feels like Dreamstone
Moon was heavily edited from its initial pitch to fit into the arc and
include the character of Sam. Leonard is
unable to successfully juggle the two plotlines of the novel making both fall
flat. The editing makes it feel as if
Sam was added in at the last minute due to her absence in Legacy of the Daleks. Her plotline takes up the least amount of
pages and doesn’t actually develop her as a character. She hasn’t learned anything from running away
from the Doctor in Longest Day: she’s still in love with the Doctor and
only wants to go back because she seems to think she can make a relationship
work or at least keep her feelings in control.
Having the Doctor appear about 50 pages into the novel
does make Dreamstone Moon have a feeling of an attempted Virgin New Adventure
with little of the charm that makes the Virgin New Adventures work as
books. The Eighth Doctor’s
characterization is reverted closer to a standard Doctor for most of the book. Leonard destroys his Volkswagen Beetle and has
him preoccupied with finding Sam, as if he has been searching for her for a
long time. It is made clear however that
the Doctor has only just finished the events of Legacy of the Daleks which
is immediately behind Longest Day so there isn’t much time that has past
since Sam left. The Doctor acts like his
search is hopeless and while the final scene has some satisfactory rage it is
not earned by the characters. This is
also the penultimate installment in the arc and it does not actually set up any
finale. Dreamstone Moon can be
described as a novel with a lot of wasted potential, a rare black mark from a
great author. 3/10.
