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Eighth Doctor Adventures #72
Doctor Who: To The Slaughter
The solar system is being spring cleaned. Under the supervision of celebrity planetary make-over decoratiste Arisotle Halcyon, the number of moons of Jupiter is being brought down to an aesthetically pleasing level. But with eco-terrorists taking an active - and deadly - interest in the work, corrupt officials lining their own pockets, and incompetence leading to the demolition of the wrong moon, the Doctor and his companions realize that not everything as is aesthetic and innocent as it seems.
Will the Doctor be able to stop dangerous experiments in genetic engineering and overturn a clandestine evil plan to conquer the solar system? Will Trix escape from the deadly space sheep? And will Fitz become the galaxy's next megastar designer on the future equivalent of "Changing Planets?"
256 pages, Paperback
First published April 27, 2005
2 people are currently reading
256 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Cole
229 books146 followersSee also: Steve Cole.
Stephen Cole (born 1971) is an English author of children's books and science fiction. He was also in charge of BBC Worldwide's merchandising of the BBC Television series Doctor Who between 1997 and 1999: this was a role which found him deciding on which stories should be released on video, commissioning and editing a range of fiction and non-fiction titles, producing audiobooks and acting as executive producer on the Big Finish Productions range of Doctor Who audio dramas.
Stephen Cole (born 1971) is an English author of children's books and science fiction. He was also in charge of BBC Worldwide's merchandising of the BBC Television series Doctor Who between 1997 and 1999: this was a role which found him deciding on which stories should be released on video, commissioning and editing a range of fiction and non-fiction titles, producing audiobooks and acting as executive producer on the Big Finish Productions range of Doctor Who audio dramas.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 1, 2013
Most of the time when writers concoct entire plots around explanations for things that maybe like six people would have noticed or remembered, they tend to ram their explanations down our throat at the expense of things like, say, the plot because all that matters is that reconciling the fact that someone was left handed in one scene and right handed in another.
It's to Cole's credit then that I didn't realize he was trying to explain anything until the book was over and he told us so in the afterword. You see, apparently in the Fourth Doctor story "Revenge of the Cybermen" the topic of the number of Jupiter's moons came up and the number that was cited in the story was out-of-date about five minutes after the episode was broadcast and way off by the present day, where Jupiter has at least count something like sixty-something moons. Now chances are you aren't going to rely on a story called "Revenge of the Cybermen" as your primary source for scientific fact (I wouldn't take its word on gold's effect on the respiratory systems of cybernetically enhanced organisms as gospel either, but that's just me) but Cole decided that he was going to try and explain how the Doctor could have possibly been right about the number of moons in the context of that story. And with that as our dubious foundational premise, off we go.
But you know, it's not half-bad.
Judging by other reviews I've seen of this, it seems to have not been well-received and as I kept reading I kept bracing myself for the moment when a so-far decent story was going to completely devolve into something utterly awful and make me believe I had wasted the time spent wading through it. But either my standards have become so low that I'll just take whatever swill they shovel at me or I'm starting to feel generous in my old age but I found not too much to complain about.
The Doctor and crew wind up somewhere around the vicinity of Jupiter after the TARDIS runs out of mercury for the fluid-link yet again (you'd think they'd start just filling one of the many swimming pools the TARDIS seems to have with the stuff, just in case) just in time for a local conglomerate to shift into a spin campaign after one of their subcontractors apparently blows up the wrong moon. It seems that a famous artist is revitalizing the solar system by improving its feng shui and this involves taking out of some of the moons that are just cluttering up the place. However, as with anything involving the Doctor, before too long it seems clear that the accidental demolition wasn't quite as accidental as the company would have folks believe and instead of just getting the mercury and bailing, he decides to hang out to see what's really going on.
And what's going on is astoundingly complicated. I've knocked other books for their "old-school" feeling, for trying to resurrect specific eras without constructing anything more than hollow shells for us to shove our old memories and nostalgias inside, but here he seems to have crafted a story that is defiantly old-school without seeming creaky at all. The elements of strangeness that have characterized the best books is missing here, and the locales are those old-standbys of future boardrooms and spaceships and asteroid cities and the like, the kind of grimy lived-in future that the series has done a thousand times before (and will probably keep doing as long as they can find some inventive way to keep reusing those sets). But instead of using that setting as a generic backdrop to have people talk about space and saving the world, he does the one necessary thing to make any of this workable: he constructs an entire scenario that exists in a type of twisted homeostasis and then proceeds to drop the Doctor inside to upend the entire affair. The Doctor is forcibly inserted inside a series of plots already in motion and he manages to mess things up simply through a combination of presence and action. This makes his actions a bit more meaningful than having him drop into the midst of a crisis and save the day (or cause the problem in the first place) and forces him to do some digging to figure out the real story, playing on this Doctor's incessant curiosity.
It also means that the scenes without the Doctor are just as interesting as the scenes where he's saving the day (in fact, he plays the White Knight so often here it's almost better when he's not around) because Cole has amped up the supporting cast into a melange of contrasting motivations and desires. Untangling the web of who wants what and who is really working for who becomes part of the fun of the book and it's impressive to see him keeping so many balls in the air at once without resorting to padding or having to rush the ending of the book. A common problem with the BBC line has been the pacing to make it fit the predetermined page count and this is one of the few times when it feels like they got just enough story for the space. Cole accomplishes this by giving us a plot that actually for once shifts gears, so that instead of being told what the conflict is going to be five pages in and then proceeding to watch the Doctor vamp for two hundred and sixty five more until we get the ending we know has been coming all along, the plot is more layered than it at first appears and even the villains don't quite the whole scheme of it. It's nice to read a book and see the initial problem resolved about halfway through and pleasantly realize that enough has shifted to keep the book going without treading water.
He also gives everyone something to do. Putting aside the usual contrived reasons for everyone to separate, just about everyone from hero to villain to in-between has something to contribute to the various aspects of the plot, whether it's Fitz hanging out with the artist and his handlers, Trix wrangling with the board members or the Doctor bouncing everywhere, it means for once very few scenes are wasted. Fitz and Trix getting expanded roles is a bonus, especially for the latter. Finally, as we get close to the end of the series, they decide to start integrating Trix properly and while she's lost some of her "thief with a thousand faces" angle (it's been toned down, although she does impersonate a cooking staff member early on) she proves herself to be rather capable, improvising on the fly and seems to have finally fully accepted the fact that she's a time-traveling adventurer. Fitz still gets the romantic subplots and the sometimes comical effects of the "reach exceeding his grasp" syndrome but for the first time in a while the TARDIS crew seems like a whole, with everyone doing their part. Even the Doctor and Trix work together with a minimum of friction.
It's a combination of the bigger plot and the little moments that make it work, whether it's the love that comes from a fish-man, the Doctor's anguish at seeing animals injured, the wrath of the best food ever, guessing who the other bidders are at a secret auction, or just watching the Doctor save the day as events spiral rapidly out of control in the midst of a hundred other little memorable things. It's watching all the gears meshing together smoothly and seamlessly without turning into a mess, and seeing a book acknowledge the elements of a classic "Who" story without mindlessly rehashing them, creating something new that isn't innovative and still manages to entertain. Comfort food without the guilt, as it were. If there's any complaint to be made about this story, it's that coming so close to the end (it was published a month before Eccelston and his northern accent would revive the franchise again), with the next book advertised as the last, I had hoped for some more of the introspection and "coming to a close" feel that had characterized the last few Virgin Seventh Doctor books, the impending sense of an era ending. Here it's delightful business as usual (though there are more hints that Fitz is thinking of leaving) with a tone that is lighter without being comedic, with a familial warmth (a lot of hugging goes down in this one) that seems to acknowledge we've come a long way to get here. And maybe it's geared toward those of us who have read all books before this to get here but after so many stories of wildly varying quality it's a pleasure to have a nice, normal story that doesn't make you embarrassed to like a well-done, nice, normal story. Maybe this is the last gasp of normalcy before the end. In which case, let's remember this fondly for what it is, and applaud that someone got it right at least once more before it was all over.
It's to Cole's credit then that I didn't realize he was trying to explain anything until the book was over and he told us so in the afterword. You see, apparently in the Fourth Doctor story "Revenge of the Cybermen" the topic of the number of Jupiter's moons came up and the number that was cited in the story was out-of-date about five minutes after the episode was broadcast and way off by the present day, where Jupiter has at least count something like sixty-something moons. Now chances are you aren't going to rely on a story called "Revenge of the Cybermen" as your primary source for scientific fact (I wouldn't take its word on gold's effect on the respiratory systems of cybernetically enhanced organisms as gospel either, but that's just me) but Cole decided that he was going to try and explain how the Doctor could have possibly been right about the number of moons in the context of that story. And with that as our dubious foundational premise, off we go.
But you know, it's not half-bad.
Judging by other reviews I've seen of this, it seems to have not been well-received and as I kept reading I kept bracing myself for the moment when a so-far decent story was going to completely devolve into something utterly awful and make me believe I had wasted the time spent wading through it. But either my standards have become so low that I'll just take whatever swill they shovel at me or I'm starting to feel generous in my old age but I found not too much to complain about.
The Doctor and crew wind up somewhere around the vicinity of Jupiter after the TARDIS runs out of mercury for the fluid-link yet again (you'd think they'd start just filling one of the many swimming pools the TARDIS seems to have with the stuff, just in case) just in time for a local conglomerate to shift into a spin campaign after one of their subcontractors apparently blows up the wrong moon. It seems that a famous artist is revitalizing the solar system by improving its feng shui and this involves taking out of some of the moons that are just cluttering up the place. However, as with anything involving the Doctor, before too long it seems clear that the accidental demolition wasn't quite as accidental as the company would have folks believe and instead of just getting the mercury and bailing, he decides to hang out to see what's really going on.
And what's going on is astoundingly complicated. I've knocked other books for their "old-school" feeling, for trying to resurrect specific eras without constructing anything more than hollow shells for us to shove our old memories and nostalgias inside, but here he seems to have crafted a story that is defiantly old-school without seeming creaky at all. The elements of strangeness that have characterized the best books is missing here, and the locales are those old-standbys of future boardrooms and spaceships and asteroid cities and the like, the kind of grimy lived-in future that the series has done a thousand times before (and will probably keep doing as long as they can find some inventive way to keep reusing those sets). But instead of using that setting as a generic backdrop to have people talk about space and saving the world, he does the one necessary thing to make any of this workable: he constructs an entire scenario that exists in a type of twisted homeostasis and then proceeds to drop the Doctor inside to upend the entire affair. The Doctor is forcibly inserted inside a series of plots already in motion and he manages to mess things up simply through a combination of presence and action. This makes his actions a bit more meaningful than having him drop into the midst of a crisis and save the day (or cause the problem in the first place) and forces him to do some digging to figure out the real story, playing on this Doctor's incessant curiosity.
It also means that the scenes without the Doctor are just as interesting as the scenes where he's saving the day (in fact, he plays the White Knight so often here it's almost better when he's not around) because Cole has amped up the supporting cast into a melange of contrasting motivations and desires. Untangling the web of who wants what and who is really working for who becomes part of the fun of the book and it's impressive to see him keeping so many balls in the air at once without resorting to padding or having to rush the ending of the book. A common problem with the BBC line has been the pacing to make it fit the predetermined page count and this is one of the few times when it feels like they got just enough story for the space. Cole accomplishes this by giving us a plot that actually for once shifts gears, so that instead of being told what the conflict is going to be five pages in and then proceeding to watch the Doctor vamp for two hundred and sixty five more until we get the ending we know has been coming all along, the plot is more layered than it at first appears and even the villains don't quite the whole scheme of it. It's nice to read a book and see the initial problem resolved about halfway through and pleasantly realize that enough has shifted to keep the book going without treading water.
He also gives everyone something to do. Putting aside the usual contrived reasons for everyone to separate, just about everyone from hero to villain to in-between has something to contribute to the various aspects of the plot, whether it's Fitz hanging out with the artist and his handlers, Trix wrangling with the board members or the Doctor bouncing everywhere, it means for once very few scenes are wasted. Fitz and Trix getting expanded roles is a bonus, especially for the latter. Finally, as we get close to the end of the series, they decide to start integrating Trix properly and while she's lost some of her "thief with a thousand faces" angle (it's been toned down, although she does impersonate a cooking staff member early on) she proves herself to be rather capable, improvising on the fly and seems to have finally fully accepted the fact that she's a time-traveling adventurer. Fitz still gets the romantic subplots and the sometimes comical effects of the "reach exceeding his grasp" syndrome but for the first time in a while the TARDIS crew seems like a whole, with everyone doing their part. Even the Doctor and Trix work together with a minimum of friction.
It's a combination of the bigger plot and the little moments that make it work, whether it's the love that comes from a fish-man, the Doctor's anguish at seeing animals injured, the wrath of the best food ever, guessing who the other bidders are at a secret auction, or just watching the Doctor save the day as events spiral rapidly out of control in the midst of a hundred other little memorable things. It's watching all the gears meshing together smoothly and seamlessly without turning into a mess, and seeing a book acknowledge the elements of a classic "Who" story without mindlessly rehashing them, creating something new that isn't innovative and still manages to entertain. Comfort food without the guilt, as it were. If there's any complaint to be made about this story, it's that coming so close to the end (it was published a month before Eccelston and his northern accent would revive the franchise again), with the next book advertised as the last, I had hoped for some more of the introspection and "coming to a close" feel that had characterized the last few Virgin Seventh Doctor books, the impending sense of an era ending. Here it's delightful business as usual (though there are more hints that Fitz is thinking of leaving) with a tone that is lighter without being comedic, with a familial warmth (a lot of hugging goes down in this one) that seems to acknowledge we've come a long way to get here. And maybe it's geared toward those of us who have read all books before this to get here but after so many stories of wildly varying quality it's a pleasure to have a nice, normal story that doesn't make you embarrassed to like a well-done, nice, normal story. Maybe this is the last gasp of normalcy before the end. In which case, let's remember this fondly for what it is, and applaud that someone got it right at least once more before it was all over.
June 28, 2020
A pretty fun read overall - it was nice to get something that was at least a bit lighter after The Deadstone Memorial. While it still has its grimmer, darker moments - because it's an Eighth Doctor novel and that's inevitable! - it does feel a bit like its making the most of one final run around the universe before things come to an end with the next - and final - book.
A small standout moment for me is
A small standout moment for me is
November 29, 2015
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2558046.html
Penultimate book in the Eight Doctor Adventures range of novels, written (as the author explains in an afterword) to explain away a minor continuity error in Revenge of the Cybermen, but actually quite successful in its own terms as a story of grand redesign of parts of the Solar System for ostensibly aesthetic purposes that gets hijacked by several different groups with their own agendas, and a vehicle for the somewhat obscure companion Trix McMillan. Although the tone of the book is comedic for most of the story, Cole does manage to make the chaos and carnage wrought on the worlds he has created come across as really mattering - TV Who (both Old and New) sometimes seems to have a reset button after every alien invasion of Earth; it reminded me that he is one of the better Who writers - he hasn't done a Who novel since Sting of the Zygons in 2007, but has done several rather good Big Finish plays (as well as other work, of course).
Penultimate book in the Eight Doctor Adventures range of novels, written (as the author explains in an afterword) to explain away a minor continuity error in Revenge of the Cybermen, but actually quite successful in its own terms as a story of grand redesign of parts of the Solar System for ostensibly aesthetic purposes that gets hijacked by several different groups with their own agendas, and a vehicle for the somewhat obscure companion Trix McMillan. Although the tone of the book is comedic for most of the story, Cole does manage to make the chaos and carnage wrought on the worlds he has created come across as really mattering - TV Who (both Old and New) sometimes seems to have a reset button after every alien invasion of Earth; it reminded me that he is one of the better Who writers - he hasn't done a Who novel since Sting of the Zygons in 2007, but has done several rather good Big Finish plays (as well as other work, of course).
October 7, 2016
The final quarter of the novel goes a bit pear-shaped as the unleashed chaos seems to be reflected in the storytelling. The tight, focused, interesting mystery & building tension just goes out the window...and I was really enjoying the tight, focused, interesting mystery & building tension. In spite of that, this is certainly one of Stephen Cole's stronger "Doctor Who" novels, with dollops of witty, snappy dialogue, and a superbly characterized 8th Doctor.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews