David Bailey (2)Besprekingen

I am loving these Eleventh Doctor Adventures from BBC Children's Books. Aside from their shorter than average length, I really don't find anything that screams "You're reading a book written for kids" in them. As in the other two I've read (Rain of Terror and Terrible Lizards), the story line was solid, the characterization of Eleven, Amy, and Rory were spot on, and it was just a fun read.½

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one story for each of the first seven Doctors, with linking material featuring the Eighth, and although the stories' themes are linked, they are also different. The least successful was the first, "The Duke’s Folly" by Gareth Wigmore, which seemed to me to have the First Doctor and companions way out of character. "Angel", by 'Tara Samms' [Stephen Cole], with the Third Doctor and Jo, is gloomy but well-written. "Suitors, Inc." by Paul Magrs features the Fourth Doctor, the second Romana, Harry and Sarah and gets very silly perhaps at the expense of plot, but it is fun. Also fun but much better controlled is Rebecca Levene's "Too Rich For My Blood", in which she demonstrates her knowledge of poker (she was working on a book about it at the time this story was written) and also of the Seventh Doctor, Benny and Chris. So all in all, a decent jumping-in point if you want to sample this series.½

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Another of the two-in-one Doctor Who books for younger readers starring Eleven with Amy and Rory. The first of these, Terminal of Despair by Steve Lyons, has monsters that consume hope from their victims. Lyons normally cranks out a good base-under-siege story (I guess he is the modern master of that sub-genre) but here I felt he was writing down to his readership a bit, reaching for the Terrance Dicks channel without quite reaaching it. The second story, The Web In Space by David Bailey, has some good moments but a rather complex plot involving space wars, cute if mildly homicidal anthropomorphic robots, and a cosmically giant spider and I didn't think it hung together all that well. One to get for younger friends or relatives who are sad that Amy and Rory have gone.½

My ongoing journey through Bernice Summerfield's "monster season" brings me to Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Poison Seas, which brings back the Sea Devils, who appeared in Doctor Who in 1972's The Sea Devils (well, duh) and 1984's Warriors of the Deep. In an interesting twist on the usual storyline, instead of confronting latecomer humans on Earth, the Sea Devils (here described by the political correct "Earth Reptile" name) are themselves latecomers on the human colony world Chosan, previously seen in author David Bailey's The Secret of Cassandra. (Hardly the most auspicious beginning, as that story was among the Benny series' worst.)

Though it's a noble idea, The Poison Seas is pretty much an utter failure. Foremost among these is that the Sea Devils are nearly unintelligible, the usually reliable David Darlington committing a rare lapse in sound design. You can figure out what they’re saying enough to follow the plot, but I couldn’t tell any of the Sea Devil characters apart beyond that some were male and others female, and because they all speak in a whisper, all the scenes they feature in lack any kind of dramatic energy. Things only get worse when the Sea Devil computer speaks up, as it seems to have an additional electronic effect designed to make it even less intelligible. Come back Ice Warriors, all is forgiven; the Sea Devils are surely the Doctor Who monster least suitable to audio.

You can read a longer version of this review at Unreality SF.

Seven Deadly Sins is the 12th title in the Short Trips series of Doctor Who anthologies which contain short stories from various authors. The stories in this particular book are all connected with a brief introduction about a showman who has several invited guests each of whom has a particular experience conducted by the showman. There is some indication towards the end that the showman is the Eighth Doctor, but that was pretty obvious from early on. However, it's never made entirely clear who these guests are, where they are or even what is going on.

Each story has the theme of one of the seven sins and a different Doctor, going in order from One right through to Seven, with Eight included in the linking stories. I thought these short stories were in general fairly average, although quite a few of them still left me going 'huh?!' at the end which always annoys me. I rather liked the story Suitors, Inc and the idea of the Erotic DoctorBots, especially if there was a Tenth Doctor version. The 57th was one of the better stories but I still wasn't entirely sure what happened at the end. I think this wasn't as good as The Muses that I read recently, although I did like the linking stories and the general idea a lot better.

For the first time ever, I have to mark a BF audio down quite severely for poor production values. The Poison Seas brings Benny back to the world of The Secret of Cassandra to visit an old friend who happens to be a Sea Devil colonist. Unfortunately the Sea Devil characters are almost incomprehensible thanks to their distorted sibilant voices, and their computer is completely impossible to make out. The plot seemed OK, and Jenny Livsey as human conspirator Carver showed promise, but the annoyance of not being able to hear half the dialogue properly made this in places quite an unpleasant listening experience.

I have to admit I'm finding Bernice's audio adventures a bit hit-and-miss at the moment. Too often I'm finding a fairly flimsy plot held up by the usual good acting and sound. The Heart's Desire, unfortunately, left me with just this feeling. I don't want to say too much for fear of being spoilery but the main plot device is one which has been used far too recently in this series and just as poorly to my mind. The story starts off with Benny bounding from perilous situation to perilous situation, pretty effective if not too imaginative, before the aforementioned plot device kicks in. Somewhere after this point I pretty much stopped caring. Things then back-and-forward a bit too much before the ending has to be spelled out to us rather than be naturally revealed. Disappointing½

The Secret of Cassandra was a nice set of character studies, spoiled by a silly plot. Why on earth should the captain, charged with a vital military mission, stop off to pick up passing strangers? And the switch of loyalties of the computer Cassandra was most unconvincing.

The Skymines of Karthos was OK. I liked the concept of Benny going to the rescue of her friend, trapped in a troubled marriage and peculiar planet. The interaction with the dubious errant husband was also very well done. But I was puzzled by Benny's pregnancy - presumably a part of the background story I had missed?½