Doctor Who: The Awakening

Doctor Who Target Books (Numerical Order) #95

by Eric Pringle

The Doctor has promised Tegan that they will visit her grandfather in the English village of Little Hodcombe, in the year 1984, a precision of timing and location that the TARDIS has not always achieved...

When the Type-40 machine comes to rest, the view on the scanner screen only serves to confirm Tegan's rather low expectations of the TARDIS's performance.

The most sensible course of action would be to leave immediately — but despite Turlough's protests the Doctor rushes out to take on a seemingly hopeless rescue mission...

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Ebooks

144 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 13, 1985

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable novelisation of the Fifth Doctor serial set in the fictional village of Little Hodcombe.

As it’s only a two part serial Pringle is allowed to flesh out the quaint village with the traditional Target page count.
There’s a good sense of foreboding as the local residents seem to be obsessed with reenacting the Civil War during 1643.
Schoolteacher Jane Hampden feels that glorifying the war has gone far enough, I really liked the scenes involving her character.

Just like the TV counterpart this story is normally overlooked, it’s a fun adventure with just enough atmospheric tension throughout.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a novelization of the second adventure of the twenty-first season of Doctor Who, which was broadcast in January of 1984. It features The Doctor in his fifth iteration, along with companions Tegan Jovanka, an Australian airline stewardess, and Visior Turlough, an alien undercover anti-assistant. Eric Pringle adapted his own teleplay for the book, and had to add considerable material in order to flesh the short, two-part adventure out to the standard Target length. His background additions to the life in the small English village and the school teacher's character are enjoyable, but some of the wordy descriptions could have used an edit. The Doctor takes the TARDIS to Little Hodcombe so Tegan can visit her grandfather and they find that a civil war battle re-enactment has taken on sinister repercussions due to evil alien influence. There's a bit too much talk about "harnessing psychic energy," but it's a fairly fun, straight-forward story with a few interesting twists due to the mingling of the times 1643 and 1984 times. This one has one of the worst covers in the series, though the descriptions of the face on the church wall in the text are satisfyingly creepy.

[David Layton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eric Pringle has stuck closely to his original teleplay for this novel. The Doctor and companions are off to visit Tegan's grandfather in the quaint little village of Little Hodcombe. However, the village is running a re-enactment of a battle from the English Civil War, a re-enactment that is getting all too real. The basic premise of the story is fine enough. Where it goes off the tracks is that Pringle keeps adding more and more so that the plot becomes rather unwieldy, all built around the harnessing of "psychic energy." Pringle's novelization keeps most of the dialogue and all of the scenes from the original, while adding mostly light interior monologue that helps the reader understand the motivations of the characters.

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1063804.html#cutid2[return][return]Often the novelisations of two-part stories bring new material and imagination to the narrative, and I thought at first that this was going to be one of those, with good introductory description (especially of Jane Hampden, one of the great companions who never was). However, the pace isn't really sustained, and the plot sinks under its own flaws; notably, Pringle misses the opportunity to make something more of the Malus's physical appearance on the page, and the whole thing ends up essentially as a cut-down version of The D

[Gareth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhere between a 3 and a 4 for me - certainly much better novelisation of a 2 parter than the last one, the King's Demons, and feels fleshed out rather than padded out here.
The book manages to evoke quite an interesting atmosphere for the story, really giving us a feel for what it is like for the characters in that regard, and is something of a more idyllic setting than normal.
The overall idea is pretty good I feel, and the main antagonist is described well here, and certainly comes across better than in the TV series.
The Doctor and Tegan are in good form here, and nicely fleshes out Tegan's story a bit more, and Turlough when there has some good scenes, but overall feels a bit less present than the other two.
The one off characters are a good mix again, certainly quite different drives, motivations and characteristics, allowing for some good interesting scenes, with not too much black and white.
Overall an enjoyable read.

[Joe Tobin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Look; you'd be hard pressed to find a more sympathetic reader of these books. I already rate them on their own 1-5 scale. And I'm only here for the fun nostalgia vibes anyway. But even by those standards, it's tough to rate this any higher. There's just no story here. And since the novelization was written by the screenwriter, you'd think maybe they'd be equipped to at least flesh things out a little? (And to be fair, I haven't seen the serial in a long time, so maybe Pringle did flesh things out.) The writing of the book is fine, I guess; that's not the issue. There's just not much happening. Whch is too bad! There was some potential. But this is just another rough outing from the JNT era.

[Gordon Mcghie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dipped in to this classic 5th Doctory story and listened to the audiobook. Although I watched this on the original broadcast back in the 1980s I had no recollection of the story so it was interesting to see if any of it came back to me as I listened.

Nope - as fun as it was to have a Roundheads vs Cavaliers story (but it wasn't really that) I did not recall a single thing about this tale. And having listened I can see why - lots of running around but not a lot of content. Not my favourite.

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doctor Who : The Awakening (1985) Eric Pringle is the novelisation of the second serial of the twenty first season of Doctor Who.

The Doctor, Turlough and Tegan travel to the village of Hodcombe in 1984 to see Tegan’s grandfather. There is a big reenactment of Civil War England going on there but some of the reenacting folk are verging on being unhinged. The Doctor encounters a boy who appears to be from the 1600s. The trio also can’t find Tegan’s grandfather.

It’s an OK serial but it’s not a high point of Doctor Who but it’s quite amusing.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A faithful adaptation by the author of his own work. He does a job worthy of the great Terrance Dicks himself: a straightforward prose re-telling of his two episode, 5th Doctor adventure that adds just the right amount of extra expansion & detail without going overboard. A thoroughly enjoyable novelization of an often forgotten little "Doctor Who" gem from 1984.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I vaguely remember this episode. The Fifth Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough were one of my favorite Doctor/Companion combinations so I was more then happy to read this story It was good. I liked how past and present were melding because of an alien influence and how the three time-travelers get involved. Overall a fun story!

[Gina Guesby Mays · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess I'm just not that big into the Whoverse. This story started slow for me as I waited for the plot. Then the war and then men playing it. And finally the Doctor shows up and he has two companions. And they must save the day and one of the companions grandfather. I guess it just didn't grab me. Maybe visually, it would, but not as a book.

[Ian Banks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a lot of fun: Pringle gets to expand the characters and backstory of his script, giving the reader more of a rustic/time-slip/folk-horror tale than we got on screen. This is a story that benefits from the then-new policy of slightly increasing the word count and giving the original script writers more of an opportunity to novelise their own scripts.

[Deb F · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't bother. When the author includes the same adjective three times in two sentences, (get a copyeditor!!) and even the musical pings on the audiobook can't make it exciting, it's just not worth finishing the book. I should have lemmed after the first hour, instead of sticking it out.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marvellous book. The Fifth Doctor is always a favourite of mine

[Dan J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Watch out the big face will getchya!

[Mark Pidgeon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these Historical Who books they are so much fun.

[Julian White · Rating 4 out of 5]

pdf 138 pages

Penned by the script writer this is an expanded version of the televised story which was compressed into two episodes and which is correspondingly somewhat opaque. On route to visit Tegan's granfather the TARDIS takes the team to an abandoned church in which a malignant entity is housed that becomes awakened by a Civil War re-enactment of a battle that took place in the village centuries ago...

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Awakening isn't the best regarded of stories, not bad really, just... there. It's the one with the big scary face on the wall in the church and I haven't seen it since it was on TV in the 80s.
The book isn't a masterpiece, but I found it quite fun. It perfectly evokes a quiet English village on a hot summer's day. Nobody is in any real danger and everyone has a nice cup of tea at the end. Can you imagine any Doctor other than the Fifth having that kind of adventure?

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good TV episode is turned into an equally good book.
Visiting Tegan's Grandfather, the Fifth Doctor and company discover that something is wrong with the quaint little village as ghosts from the villages past are appearing.

Nice, little mystery with good creepy atmosphere and a monster that really needs to be brought back for another story.

[Regina Hunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

"...that brown liquid.
You mean ale?
No, tea!"

[Jennifer]

A promising story of historical re enactors gone too far but alas suffered the curse of the library CD and became unusable. I assume the Doctor saves the day.

[Bryan Frazier]

I found this novel ( Doctor Who ; The Awakening ' by Eric Pringle , ) to be an enjoyable read!! The story moved at a brisk pace , and the threat of the Malus , ( The main villain in the story !! ) to be a formidable one !! Even the Tardis does not escape unscathed in this adventure !! ( In " Doctor Who And The Sontaran Experiment , " a story of the FOURTH Doctor , the Tardis is said to be " indestructible . " This does not relate to normal humans managing to almost , by being stopped , break through the Tardis' door !! The villain even manages to spread his evil INTO the Tardis itself !! It is a battle of wits and determination between the Malus and The Doctor , which is touch and go until the very last second !! ) I heartily recommend this book !! It will please the Doctor Who Fan !!