Mission: Impractical by: David A. McIntee

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.