Author: James Goss
Publisher: Crown Publishing
Rating: WARTY!
DISCLOSURE: Unlike the majority of reviews in this blog, I've neither bought this book nor borrowed it from the library. This is a "galley" copy ebook, supplied by Net Galley. I'm not receiving (nor will I expect to receive or accept) remuneration for this review.
I never got into the habit of reading Doctor Who novels because the medium is such a visual one so closely tied to TV that it feels wrong, somehow, to read the stories, but I'm excited about the impending new season with a new doctor, and I did actually review a novel some time ago titled Shada. I made an exception for that one because it was written by Douglas Adams, and because it was canonical - based on an un-transmitted TV show script written by Adams himself. Some of that script was even filmed, but it was never finished. Part of it (well, two brief scenes) was shown as an integral part of the 20th anniversary special titled, The Five Doctors transmitted in November 1983.
When I saw two novels available for review with the new doctor on the cover, I decided to take a chance - and hope the novels were not older ones which had simply had a new cover slapped on them. Yes, I'm an addict, and I admit it. I couldn't wait for my august fix in August! When you think about it, it ultimately doesn't matter given the history of the show, with its ever-mutable doctor, yet when it comes to novels, The Doctor is really defined by his companion, so if Clara is in it, for example, you know that The Doctor can only be the Matt Smith or the Peter Capaldi Incarnation (so far). This story could be about either one notwithstanding the cover.
In this particular novel, we find The Doctor in prison on an asteroid, apparently incarcerated for nefarious crimes which are unspecified. Clara is initially nowhere in sight. The story is, disturbingly, told from first person PoV by the warden of the prison. It's a curious thing, because it does, in a small way, evoke the viewer's experience when watching the show, but a moment's more thought will show that it's just not right.
The problem is that when we're actually watching a show, we're directly seeing what The Doctor and his companions are up to, but putting the warden between us and The Doctor forces us to cut that immediate connection. Instead of watching The Doctor, we're constrained here to watch the warden watch The Doctor and it makes the story awfully third-hand and depressingly dreary. We're no longer part of the action, but confined to listening placidly to a story told by a boring narrator - and the story isn't that interesting to begin with.
The energy of the TV show comes from The Doctor or his companion(s) doing their thing, and being threatened, and overcoming obstacles. You can't tell it passively. This was rather like when Ian Fleming wrote The Spy Who Loved me and it worked just as badly.
The Doctor is initially referred to as Prisoner 428, but it's obvious who it is. Clara shows up briefly, in short scenes where she's a visitor trying to get in to see The Doctor, and trying to get the governor to let him go before bad things happen. (Perhaps either I or The Doctor might have worded that better!).
The Doctor doesn't actually seem in much need of being freed, since he can evidently, and despite having all his belongings confiscated, escape from his cell at will. Getting off the asteroid is a larger problem, but he doesn't want to - not immediately. He tries to warn the governor of the danger, although in true Doctor Who fashion, he's too vague. The problem is that there's something running loose on the asteroid - something which is preying on the prisoners, you see....
I have to confess that I wasn't impressed by this novel. It struck me as being very derivative of the season six episode The God Complex, wherein Matt Smith's Doctor, along with Amy and Rory, find themselves trapped in a "hotel" with something stalking they and others, who are trapped there with them. The only real difference is that in that episode, the prisoners ("guests") were running around outside the cells (rooms), and the dangers were in the rooms, but there was also a 'monster' stalking them.
I wasn't a huge fan of that episode either, although I did find myself dearly wishing that Amara Karan, who played Rita, would become a companion. She was smart, amusing, resourceful, strong, and interesting, as well as being a positive replacement for the usual white Anglo-Saxon companion of which we see all too many in the show. Unfortunately, Toby Whithouse killed her off, and Steven Moffat didn't stop him!
I cannot recommend this novel because it really was not very interesting. The 'settings' were constrictive and monotonous, without much excitement in them. Clara, who has been a powerful companion rivaling Amy, and who is a delight as such, was completely marginalized here, and for all practical purposes portrayed as a bit of a ditz, which was not appreciated. There was nothing exciting or inventive happening, and I couldn't even finish reading it. I reached page 81, which is roughly 60% of the way through, and couldn't generate sufficient enthusiasm to read any further.
