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Doctor Who: The Last Dodo (Doctor Who: New Series Adventures #14)

3.72 of 5 stars 3.72 · rating details · 702 ratings · 51 reviews

The Doctor and Martha go in search of a real live dodo, and are transported by the TARDIS to the mysterious Museum of the Last Ones. There, in the Earth section, they discover every extinct creature up to the present day, all still alive and in suspended animation.

Preservation is the museum's only job - collection the last of every endangered species from all over the univ...more

Hardcover, 256 pages

Published April 19th 2007 by BBC Books

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Dec 16, 2007 Floyd rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Time Lord fanatics, Sci Fi geeks, PETA members

Shelves: doctor-who

Tom Baker will always be THE Doctor in my eyes, but the tenth Doctor is really growing on me. I love how these books manage to portray all the moods, mannerisms, quirks and curiosities that make David Tennant's character so damn lovable.

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Apr 10, 2008 Trin rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: filmtv, ficbutnot, sci-fi, english-lit, time-travel

I think the basic premise of this book, in which the Doctor and Martha visit the Museum of the Last Ones, is quite cool; the book in general, however, is rather blah. Not terrible, but it reminds me why I don’t usually bother with tie-in novels (and why, if I need some extra-show kick, fanfic is infinitely preferable): they completely lack the ability to change the status quo. I think it’s the rare tie-in novel in which you’ll encounter a “gasp” moment—a moment where the established paradigm shi...more I think the basic premise of this book, in which the Doctor and Martha visit the Museum of the Last Ones, is quite cool; the book in general, however, is rather blah. Not terrible, but it reminds me why I don’t usually bother with tie-in novels (and why, if I need some extra-show kick, fanfic is infinitely preferable): they completely lack the ability to change the status quo. I think it’s the rare tie-in novel in which you’ll encounter a “gasp” moment—a moment where the established paradigm shifts, or a character grows and changes. Those moments are one of the major reasons I enjoy serialized entertainment as much as I do. (That and the pretty pretty boys.) Without them, you’re not left with much. And unlike in fic, in tie-in novels, you don’t even have the expectation of sexxors to spur you on.

Sorry, this has turned into MY THOUGHTS ON TIE-IN NOVELS. Back to this particular tie-in: weaknesses included not particularly interesting OCs, no real Doctor/Martha relationship development (purely platonically, understand), and some headdesky moments whenever Rayner shifts into Martha first-person POV, as opposed to the alternating generic third. I just don’t believe it sounds like that in Martha’s brain—very scattered and fluttery? No. Martha’s a doctor, I want to see her think like a doctor. Also, I really doubt she’d see a black man driving a fire truck and think, “There’s a black man driving a fire truck.” I could be totally off-base, of course, but I think Rayner needs a Characters of Color POV lesson from Neil Gaiman (or even better, any writer of color; but see Anansi Boys if you don’t know what I mean).

I liked all the stuff about the extinct animals, mostly because I like weird facts about things like extinct animals. For that, I’d probably be better off reading Gerald Durrell, though.

HOWEVER, these thoughts are based on my impressions from when I actually read this book, several months ago. Since then, I’ve sat through the Doctor Who S4 premiere. In comparison, this novel seems AWESOME. Way to lower my standards, Rusty.(less)

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Mar 19, 2011 ϟ Jess ϟ rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: doctor-who

This book really brought out the Doctor for me. It had his personality pretty spot-on and made me smile while reading it. It also reeeeeally makes me want a Dodo; it was adorable. It had a lot of cute moments and I can never turn down dinosaurs being brought back to life!

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Dec 22, 2008 Angela rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: doctor-who, sf

The first book of my 2008 book log (note the shift in icons to designate these posts!) is another Doctor Who novel: The Last Dodo, by Jacqueline Rayner. I'd previously read and enjoyed her The Stone Rose, so I wanted to give her another shot. This one's a Ten-Martha--but I have to halfway wonder whether Rayner just has a preference for Ten-Rose, or perhaps just a better grasp of Rose, because she didn't seem to get Martha quite right at all for me.

Which is a shame, because there's a big chunk of...more

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Aug 19, 2011 Nathaniel ΘΣ rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Doctor Who fans

Shelves: doctor-who, librarybook, 2011books

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is a Doctor Who novel featuring the Doctor in his Tenth incarnation with Martha Jones as his companion. I'd been looking forward to reading this book for quite a while because I thought it sounded like an interesting plot. Also I've read other Doctor Who novels from Jacqueline Rayner and enjoyed them.

It was a little bit preachy with regards to animal conservation and protection of endangered species, and also with a discussion on the morality of zoos as well. Educational aspects like this a...more This is a Doctor Who novel featuring the Doctor in his Tenth incarnation with Martha Jones as his companion. I'd been looking forward to reading this book for quite a while because I thought it sounded like an interesting plot. Also I've read other Doctor Who novels from Jacqueline Rayner and enjoyed them.

It was a little bit preachy with regards to animal conservation and protection of endangered species, and also with a discussion on the morality of zoos as well. Educational aspects like this are part of Doctor Who's history but more tricky subjects such as this need to be handled carefully otherwise they can come across as sanctimonious as happens here.

The Doctor's character was very well captured. I think Rayner is one of the few authors that can write Ten and really do him justice. In comparison, her own characters were rather flat and lacking any distinguishing personalities. The character of Martha was told both in first person and in third person and the switch between the two was seriously annoying. It made no sense to have the story split this way, there was no reason given for it either; it wasn't presented as a letter or diary entry or even a conversation, even though it was written as if she was speaking to someone. It would have been better to have the entire story told in either the first or the third person, not both. It just didn't work. In addition to that, Martha's voice in the first person didn't fit her at all. It sounded far too young and kind of patronising, as if she was talking to a small child who didn't understand. It just wasn't the way she talked. It seemed as though the story was initially written with Rose as the companion but then had to be changed for Martha as it was more Rose's voice and she would have been more suitable.

As soon as the I-Spyder thing was introduced where Martha gains points for each different species she sees, I knew that Time Lord would be the most impressive and the most vital. With the theme of collecting the last of each species to be preserved for all time, it was also obvious that the last of the Time Lords was going to be a desirable part of the collection. The idea of 'collecting the last of the Time Lords' also appears in The Doctor Trap, although that is a later book and the theme is executed in a completely different manner.

The ending of the book left a lot to be desired. My main issue was it that it was very reminiscent to the ending of Wooden Heart and that was rather unfortunate as I'd not long since read it. Even more unfortunate is that this book comes directly before Wooden Heart in the series. I know both books are written by different authors but you'd think someone would have noticed both books having similar endings. Collapse(less)

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Jan 17, 2012 Siskoid Siskoid rated it 3 of 5 stars

In The Last Dodo, the Doctor and Martha stumble upon a museum filled with the last of each species (Mr. "Last of the Time Lords" should have said uh-oh right there), and I was surprised at how fun it was. Jacqueline Rayner's other New Series novels have been, quite frankly, complete rubbish. Annoying pop culture descriptions, strained coincidences and stupid plots. In this one, I find the Rayner I liked from the Doctor Who audios: Having a bit of fun with the format and producing a quality romp!...more

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Feb 01, 2012 Nate Rawdon rated it 3 of 5 stars

The story-line of this particular novel would make a fantastic episode of the show, or even a film detached from the Doctor Who franchise. It is one of the best of the New Series Adventures and contains a suitable combination of action, suspense and comedy. The characters are, as seen in most of the other New Series Adventures' novels, not entirely memorable, though they are still good enough to keep you entertained until the end. I wasn't entirely enthused by the narration throughout the novel,...more

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Sep 16, 2010 Katie Bookworm rated it 5 of 5 stars

I Thought That this was an excellent and fascinating book By Jacquline Rayner. It is told partly through the eyes of Martha and partly from third - person and captures the true essence of doctor who. The book is about (No Spoilers here!) A Whole Mueseum in space filled with Animals the last of their kind -The Last Ones - Including The Last Dodo. But things are going haywire - Creatures are being stolen! It's Up to The Doctor and Martha to Possibly save the Last ones and discover who or what is t...more

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Jun 11, 2012 Melyssa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: vo, doctorwho

Je partais avec un peu d'appréhension - si j'ai aimé le quick read de Jacqueline Rayner, je n'étais pas plus fan que ça de ses incursions dans les NSA (j'ai même été franchement déçue de Doctor Who: The Stone Rose je dois dire). En plus de ça, la couverture est relativement moche, et y a pas à dire, ça reste important niveau première impression. Du coup, cette affaire de Dodo a doublement été une bonne surprise. Disons que si le point faible de Rayner est de pondre des histoires bien trop décou...more Je partais avec un peu d'appréhension - si j'ai aimé le quick read de Jacqueline Rayner, je n'étais pas plus fan que ça de ses incursions dans les NSA (j'ai même été franchement déçue de Doctor Who: The Stone Rose je dois dire). En plus de ça, la couverture est relativement moche, et y a pas à dire, ça reste important niveau première impression. Du coup, cette affaire de Dodo a doublement été une bonne surprise. Disons que si le point faible de Rayner est de pondre des histoires bien trop décousues pour qu'on y croie et que son point fort reste la façon dont elle cerne les personnages, j'ai trouvé que cette fois le point fort l'emportait sur le point faible. Bien sûr à un moment donné on se retrouve dans un gros bordel à l'intérêt limité, comme toujours, mais pour le reste, j'ai vraiment aimé ce livre - surtout la première moitié.

Ce que je retiendrai de ma lecture, c'est que j'ai beaucoup ri. Dialogues percutants, situations burlesques, parfois racontées à la première personne par Martha elle-même, qui n'hésite pas à rajouter une bonne couche de ridicule à ce qu'elle décrit, et un gag de dernière page complètement crétin, mais dans le bon sens du terme.

On rit, donc, et c'est agréable.

Par ailleurs, c'est aussi sympa comme tout, ces petits passages à la première personne: les paragraphes de Martha sont savoureux et le court passage où c'est le Docteur qui prend la main est à briser le coeur.

On a quand même un petit souci avec Martha: la Martha du livre (surtout au début, ça s'atténue un peu sur la fin, à moins que je m'y sois habituée) est pétillante, rigolote, tête brûlée.... Rose. Avec plus de jugeote, certes, mais c'est surprenant parfois à quel point Martha est Rose ici... ça s'explique une fois qu'on découvre l'histoire: le livre, à l'origine, ETAIT un Rose/Ten. Il devait sortir dans le dernier trio de Rose/Ten quelques mois plus tôt. Décalé pour cause de "j'ai pas fini, désolée" et adapté avec les moyens du bords... on a l'idée générale.

Normalement, on doit considérer ça comme un mauvais point pour le livre, nous sommes d'accord. Mais.... Martha m'a fait rire, Martha m'a touchée... j'ai aimé Martha. Vraiment. Finalement, elle m'agace à l'écran pendant que Rose m'agace à l'écrit; mais il suffit de me proposer un combo des deux pour que ça passe!

(less)

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Apr 08, 2009 Nicholas Whyte added it

"http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1246406...[return][return]Another solid enough Tenth Doctor novel from Rayner (I haven't checked, but she must by now be one of the most prolific of Who writers, combining books and audio). In a slightly confusing stylistic quirk, about half of the book is told by Martha Jones in the first person, while most of the rest is also from her point of view but in the third person in varying degrees of tightness. This does give us odd moments of nice characterisation like...more

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Mar 06, 2008 Corrielle rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Whenever I read media tie-ins, I can't help but making the inevitable comparison to fanfic. I ask quite a few of the same questions. Does it capture the characters in a way that rings true to me? Is it consistent with my vision of the show and the people? Now, I haven't read much Doctor Who fanfic other than what's been written by some people I know personally, so I didn't have other actual stories to compare with, but I did have the expectations of a reader who was familiar with the universe as...more Whenever I read media tie-ins, I can't help but making the inevitable comparison to fanfic. I ask quite a few of the same questions. Does it capture the characters in a way that rings true to me? Is it consistent with my vision of the show and the people? Now, I haven't read much Doctor Who fanfic other than what's been written by some people I know personally, so I didn't have other actual stories to compare with, but I did have the expectations of a reader who was familiar with the universe as presented in another medium.

This one wasn't half bad. The premise was interesting - Martha and The Doctor end up at a museum that collects the last living specimen off every planet in the galaxy. The Doctor was very much in character. The author had his sense of humor down, as well as the way that he can be deadly serious one moment and playful and childlike the next. I also thought that his aversion to zoos in general was very much in keeping with what we already know about him. Martha was... a little less true for me. She was a bit too ditzy, a bit too, "Oops, pushed the wrong button" for me. (That's Gwen Cooper's job... ;-) ) Not so bad it was unbearable, though. She still sounded like Martha for the most part.

The obvious "Hey stupid humans, stop destroying the earth!" message was here in abundance, but strangely enough, it wasn't expressed by The Doctor. That was good on the author's part. The Doctor knows that humans have their foibles, but he's still enamored of them and not preachy. He's obviously saddened by the idea of species dying out unnecessarily, but instead of dwelling on it, he focuses on something that he has in common with a lot of humanity - wonder at the natural world.

All seriousness aside, the really fun part was seeing the Doctor and Martha run around looking for missing specimens, running into the odd people who trade in rare animals, and having to deal with dinosaurs accidentally getting beamed into the middle of London.

And The Doctor gets to drive a fire truck. What more could one ask for?(less)

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Aug 11, 2011 Benedict Reid added it

The most disappointing modern Dr Who book I've read (by modern, I mean not the old target books).

Especially disappointing as the same author wrote "The Stone Rose" which is one of the better books since the TV series restarted.

I think some of the problem was that there was no sense of character for Martha. Perhaps the author started writing the book before the role was cast, it sort of shows.

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Oct 15, 2011 Chiara rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: doctor-who, reviewed, audiobooks

The storyline was witty and it made me laugh really much at certain lines. The beginning was a little disappointing, but then it recovered pretty well. The Doctor's dialogues sounded really much like on TV - for this I think the author made a really good job.

I didn't like the first person narration - it made the book much more childlish than those in third person.

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Sep 07, 2009 Catherine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Not as bad as I thought it'd be (not had good overall reports of the Martha books). I liked all the i-spyder facts in it (not sure what was fact or fiction, but meh) and I liked the image of the Doctor facing down dinosaurs, lol. But a lot of it was very confusing and in the end I was glad to finish it.

But it really wasn't all that bad, and I kind of want a pet Dodo now, eheh.

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Jun 10, 2009 Lightreads rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: derivative-fiction, fiction, science-fiction

In which the Doctor uses a ladder to climb over a dinosaur and gets to drive a firetruck. And there's some plotty mcplotness, but that wasn't all that exciting and I'm not a particular Rayner fan, so the charm here is the little bits of awesome Doctor and the excellent narration by Freema Agyeman on the audio.

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Jun 16, 2009 Marsha rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: did-not-finish

I was nearly halfway through this book when I realized that I have sooooo many better books to read on my TBR list. The parts that are narrated by Martha make her sound like a breathless teenager, and I cannot picture most of the Doctor's dialogue coming out of the mouth of David Tennant. A disappointment.

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Dec 07, 2008 Lela rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this one. Jacqueline Rayner seems to be my favorite author of the Doctor Who books. The character of Martha really drives me insane sometimes but the Doctor counters that so I can still read it. This would have to be one of my favorites so far.

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Jan 07, 2008 Amy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008-books-read, science-fiction, time-travel, television-spin-off

The Doctor & Martha encounter a planet filled with a museum of the last animal of its kind for each animal that has become extinct in the Milky Way galaxy. And each is in suspended animation so that the species doesn't die out. Will the proprietor try to enshrine the last of the Time Lords as well? Will the last dodo be saved by the Doctor?

This was a quick read. There was a bit of bad logic here and there, but the author at least tried to tie up the loose ends at the end, including adding in...more

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Dec 05, 2007 Writerlibrarian rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: doctorwho, read2007

This is the weakest Doctor Who I've read to date. The idea for the story was okay but the execution was badly done. 3 narrator, 2 in the first person, one is Martha and the other the dodo and a third external narrator. The point of view blinks from one to the other. It's tedious and somewhat amateurish. This is not the first Who book for this writer but she completely missed the boat in this one. So the plot, there's this museum of the Last Ones where the last specimens of a specie is kept in st...more

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Apr 09, 2011 Kristin rated it 1 of 5 stars

I could not even make it past the first chapter of this book. The writing style did not feel right and the inner monologue for Martha did not sound like how she would talk. Maybe I will look for the audio book and see if I can get through it that way.

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Jan 27, 2013 Rosie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Any doctor who fan will love this!! It captures David Tennant and Freema Agyeman perfectly. their brilliant sense of humor and personalities really come to life with this amazing book!

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Aug 03, 2011 Tim Dunn rated it 4 of 5 stars

So many Doctor Who books (and I have all the new ones)....a written review is unnecessary for them all. *** once again this is one of the better Doctor Who books, if you're interested in reading them and haven't yet.

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Jul 30, 2011 Heather Schmidt rated it 5 of 5 stars

A very quick read - I read it in about two hours or so - but was enjoyable. I loved the idea that there would be a museum of 'last ones' of every species in the future.

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May 24, 2009 Brandon rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love the TV show then my friend handed me the book and I was amazed to see that someone could get the energy of the show in a book.

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Nov 22, 2009 megan rated it 4 of 5 stars

i remember not wanting to read this because martha was in it and not rose but i actually loved it.

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Dec 29, 2008 Kevin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Starts out a bit cheesy, but overall plot is pretty good. Ends a bit weak.

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Apr 22, 2013 Sumaya rated it 1 of 5 stars

I read this when I was 11 and I'm still not over how boring this was.

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Aug 11, 2012 Melanie added it

i was on the edge of my seat every socond of it! it was a great book

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Apr 05, 2012 Rob rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, music-tv-movies

A good story, but when Martha breaks character to talk to the listener about her reasoning, it takes away from the story.

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Apr 03, 2012 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was really good i enjoyed it gave a unique perspective of the Doctor being the last timelord as well as the exintict species

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About Jacqueline Rayner

Jacqueline Rayner is a best selling British author, best known for her work with the licensed fiction based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

Her first professional writing credit came when she adapted Paul Cornell's Virgin New Adventure novel Oh No It Isn't! for the audio format, the first release by Big Finish. (The novel featured the character of Bernice S...more

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Doctor Who: The Last Dodo (Doctor Who: New Series Adventures #14)

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