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Eighth Doctor Adventures #13
Doctor Who: Placebo Effect
It is 3999. An artificial planetoid, Micawber's World, is hosting the intergalactic Olympic Games, and athletes from all the worlds in the Galactic Federation are arriving to take part. But when the Doctor and Sam arrive, the murders soon begin.
The Doctor finds himself drafted in to examine some bizarre new drugs that claim to enhance the natural potential of the competing athletes. But what is their real purpose? Why are members of the Security Forces disappearing randomly? And just why is Chase Carrington, manufacturer of the drug, so protective of his company's secrets?
Watching and waiting, at the very heart of Micawber's World, are a race of parasites the Doctor has fought before. The Wirrrn have come to the Milky Way from Andromeda, determined to spread their seed throughout a whole new galaxy, and it seems to Sam that the Doctor's hands are too full to pay their threat full attention.
This is another in the series of adventures featuring the 8th Doctor and Sam which reintroduces the Wirrrn from the 1975 television adventure The Ark in Space.
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 6, 1998
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316 people want to read
About the author
Gary Russell
197 books171 followersGary Russell is a British freelance writer, producer and former child actor. As a writer, he is best known for his work in connection with the television series Doctor Who and its spin-offs in other media. As an actor, he is best known for playing Dick Kirrin in the British 1978 television series The Famous Five.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
March 19, 2018
Whilst attending a wedding, The Doctor and Sam soon get embroiled in an alien invasion plan by the Wirrren as Micawber's World is due to host the 3999 intergalactic Olympic Games.
This installment in the Eighth Doctor range is a fun read, but gets slightly bogged down in trying to include too many elements.
For example the wedding of Stacey and Ssard (two characters that featured in a Radio Times comic strip) shows the levels of continuity that Russell brings to the story.
The Wirrren making their reintroduction for the first time in 23 years are wonderfully used. Once their plan is revealed, it adds to a really great showdown.
Maybe one of the weaker books in the series, it's still an enjoyable read.
This installment in the Eighth Doctor range is a fun read, but gets slightly bogged down in trying to include too many elements.
For example the wedding of Stacey and Ssard (two characters that featured in a Radio Times comic strip) shows the levels of continuity that Russell brings to the story.
The Wirrren making their reintroduction for the first time in 23 years are wonderfully used. Once their plan is revealed, it adds to a really great showdown.
Maybe one of the weaker books in the series, it's still an enjoyable read.
February 5, 2012
To sum up: Sam begins to question her faith in a god or the Doctor, and the Doctor realizes he needs to talk to Sam. Also, some cute shenanigans between Sam and the TARDIS.
There, I've saved you the trauma of having to read this useless, confusing, and dreadfully boring book.
Thank me later.
There, I've saved you the trauma of having to read this useless, confusing, and dreadfully boring book.
Thank me later.
December 26, 2021
*There may be SLIGHT spoilers in this review. nothing major*
So at the time of writing this review, the overall rating for this book is a 3.03, and honestly, that's perfect. Because that's what this book is. Very very average.
The issue is, that after Seeing I, basically ANY 8th doctor book is going to be good. The bar has been set so low, that you could just basically step over it.
Placebo Effect is very much a "Monster of the week" kind of story. There's definitely moments where they remind you that 3 years passed in the previous novel, but they don't focus TOO too much on it.
The stakes, while high for the planet on this book, feel negligible. Kind of like, the doctor and sam, are just having fun. lots of people are dying around them as per usual, but i never really felt a sense of DANGER with these two. like they treated the whole situation like a "oh dear, ANOTHER situation where genocide might be a thing? oh you silly alien races, tee hee".
There's never a moment where i worried they were in REAL danger and just kind of went along for the ride, which, after the previous books in the "missing sam" arc, can be a little refreshing.
There ARE a few weird things about this book though. So the doctor is going to the wedding of two of his old companions, stacy and ssard. they're apparently 2 people who traveled with 8 for a bit after he lost sam. we didn't SEE this though as this was during some comics.
You'd think with the return of these two companions, they'd be...you know, useful in the story, but
once they get married, they literally disappear from the story
that's so weird. like, why make them named characters you've met before only to have that happen when the story's JUST picking up. Wasted potential.
The next issue with this books is there's SO many side characters it gets exhausting. They keep adding new characters nearly every chapter in which a good 1/2 of them just show up for a few pages, get their entire backstory told and then die horribly. It got to the point that whenever a new char showed up i kind of just read what their job was and then was like "Welp, no point getting invested. they'll be dead soon."
A good section of this book is devoted to Sam's struggle with religion which, to me at least, was an odd choice. Like, not sure why they thought Sam's agnosticism was worth more pages than the doctor doing stuff but...i guess they were riding the "high" of "Sam's deep character" from the previous book?
I'm not entirely certain why these authors are feeling i need to have a "Deep dive" of Sam. like, they think i actually CARE about her childhood when she was forced to visit church, or her current feelings on religion. which, (i know this is shocking) i don't. I signed up for doctor shenanigans. Can i see more of him? Thankfully, there was LESS sam than Seeing I, but then again, it would be nearly impossible for them to have had MORE and have the doctor in the book at all.
The villains were pretty stock, generic twirling mustache "assimilate a planet" plans (despite them being a callback to a tom baker arc) and Sam was in full "i'm older now and therefore my ego is now bigger" mode which gave me Clara from capaldi flashbacks.
It was fine for what it was, but it 100% is not going to light the world on fire. What i DID like about it though, was i did like how it felt happier and more light spirited than the previous book. Even with all the death, to the two main characters, it was just another wacky adventure, and there were enough comedic moments to make it all right.
Not great, not bad, straight in the middle generic. Which, all in all, compared to Seeing I, it's a blessing. Solid 3 out of 5.
So at the time of writing this review, the overall rating for this book is a 3.03, and honestly, that's perfect. Because that's what this book is. Very very average.
The issue is, that after Seeing I, basically ANY 8th doctor book is going to be good. The bar has been set so low, that you could just basically step over it.
Placebo Effect is very much a "Monster of the week" kind of story. There's definitely moments where they remind you that 3 years passed in the previous novel, but they don't focus TOO too much on it.
The stakes, while high for the planet on this book, feel negligible. Kind of like, the doctor and sam, are just having fun. lots of people are dying around them as per usual, but i never really felt a sense of DANGER with these two. like they treated the whole situation like a "oh dear, ANOTHER situation where genocide might be a thing? oh you silly alien races, tee hee".
There's never a moment where i worried they were in REAL danger and just kind of went along for the ride, which, after the previous books in the "missing sam" arc, can be a little refreshing.
There ARE a few weird things about this book though. So the doctor is going to the wedding of two of his old companions, stacy and ssard. they're apparently 2 people who traveled with 8 for a bit after he lost sam. we didn't SEE this though as this was during some comics.
You'd think with the return of these two companions, they'd be...you know, useful in the story, but
once they get married, they literally disappear from the story
that's so weird. like, why make them named characters you've met before only to have that happen when the story's JUST picking up. Wasted potential.
The next issue with this books is there's SO many side characters it gets exhausting. They keep adding new characters nearly every chapter in which a good 1/2 of them just show up for a few pages, get their entire backstory told and then die horribly. It got to the point that whenever a new char showed up i kind of just read what their job was and then was like "Welp, no point getting invested. they'll be dead soon."
A good section of this book is devoted to Sam's struggle with religion which, to me at least, was an odd choice. Like, not sure why they thought Sam's agnosticism was worth more pages than the doctor doing stuff but...i guess they were riding the "high" of "Sam's deep character" from the previous book?
I'm not entirely certain why these authors are feeling i need to have a "Deep dive" of Sam. like, they think i actually CARE about her childhood when she was forced to visit church, or her current feelings on religion. which, (i know this is shocking) i don't. I signed up for doctor shenanigans. Can i see more of him? Thankfully, there was LESS sam than Seeing I, but then again, it would be nearly impossible for them to have had MORE and have the doctor in the book at all.
The villains were pretty stock, generic twirling mustache "assimilate a planet" plans (despite them being a callback to a tom baker arc) and Sam was in full "i'm older now and therefore my ego is now bigger" mode which gave me Clara from capaldi flashbacks.
It was fine for what it was, but it 100% is not going to light the world on fire. What i DID like about it though, was i did like how it felt happier and more light spirited than the previous book. Even with all the death, to the two main characters, it was just another wacky adventure, and there were enough comedic moments to make it all right.
Not great, not bad, straight in the middle generic. Which, all in all, compared to Seeing I, it's a blessing. Solid 3 out of 5.
August 31, 2010
I have read an enjoyed several Doctor Who books by Gary Russell.
This was the most average of the lot. The basic idea is good--we have two hostile groups of aliens (the Foamasi from the Tv episode "The Leisure Hive" and the Wirrrn from the Tv episode "The Ark in Space". We have the IntergalacticOlympcis going on. We have people disappearing and corpses of aliens being found. With all that going on, you'd expect some really slam bang scenes....
It was an okay read--it's Doctor Who, after all--but nothing exceptional. I did not want to throw it across the room, but I was not really impressed either. Try Gary Russell's "The Scales of Injustice " instead, if you can find a copy--it's the best book of his I have read so far.
Worth reading for Doctor Who fans or any other Sf readers who find the ideas interesting.
This was the most average of the lot. The basic idea is good--we have two hostile groups of aliens (the Foamasi from the Tv episode "The Leisure Hive" and the Wirrrn from the Tv episode "The Ark in Space". We have the IntergalacticOlympcis going on. We have people disappearing and corpses of aliens being found. With all that going on, you'd expect some really slam bang scenes....
It was an okay read--it's Doctor Who, after all--but nothing exceptional. I did not want to throw it across the room, but I was not really impressed either. Try Gary Russell's "The Scales of Injustice " instead, if you can find a copy--it's the best book of his I have read so far.
Worth reading for Doctor Who fans or any other Sf readers who find the ideas interesting.
January 4, 2025
The EDAS is a range of novels I’ve been meaning to continue reading for some time, after reading the incredible and mature storytelling that was Seeing I, I gave them an almost 2-year break.
Placebo Effect by Gary Russell is probably the most fan wanky novel of this range so far but it doesn’t forget to be fun and warm-hearted at the same time with a really sweet ending. It’s dark but it’s cool seeing a story with both The Wirrn and Foamassi of all things!
It’s not a perfect novel and it feels like the wedding aspect of the story which is at the start of this novel gets forgotten about until the last few pages.
Overall: A fun Eighth Doctor novel that’s worth a read if you want something more light and fun to enjoy. 6/10
Placebo Effect by Gary Russell is probably the most fan wanky novel of this range so far but it doesn’t forget to be fun and warm-hearted at the same time with a really sweet ending. It’s dark but it’s cool seeing a story with both The Wirrn and Foamassi of all things!
It’s not a perfect novel and it feels like the wedding aspect of the story which is at the start of this novel gets forgotten about until the last few pages.
Overall: A fun Eighth Doctor novel that’s worth a read if you want something more light and fun to enjoy. 6/10
December 18, 2010
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1583791.html
Another Eighth Doctor novel, with the Foamasi and Wirrrn (Russell adopts the Ian Marter spelling) competing for attention in subverting a future interplanetary Olympic Games. Russell's depiction of the Foamasi is competent and his Wirrrn are memorably awful and nearly invincible. But the book is somewhat spoiled by a half-hearted enquiry into the nature of religious belief, which is territory usually left unexplored in the Whoniverse, and I think wisely so
Another Eighth Doctor novel, with the Foamasi and Wirrrn (Russell adopts the Ian Marter spelling) competing for attention in subverting a future interplanetary Olympic Games. Russell's depiction of the Foamasi is competent and his Wirrrn are memorably awful and nearly invincible. But the book is somewhat spoiled by a half-hearted enquiry into the nature of religious belief, which is territory usually left unexplored in the Whoniverse, and I think wisely so
March 14, 2021
I find this to be Gary Russell's most under-rated Whoniverse novel. It's still a fanwank-fest of epic proportions, but it also sets up the idea of the Doctor dropping off his current companions to have separate adventures with different people. It's something 21st century "Doctor Who" fans take for granted, but writers such as Gary Russell laid the groundwork with novels such as this one. It's also a wedding/space Olympics mash-up...what's not to like?
November 22, 2025
i am an edgy 14 year old atheist with an unexamined transformation fetish and this is my first book
September 5, 2014
If you read some of the other reviews of this book, you might be tempted to believe this is one of the worst ‘Doctor Who’ books ever written. Don’t worry – it isn’t. But I sympathise – I tried reading it when it first came out and gave up because I found it so, well, *flawed*. I picked it up again six years later and managed to finish it, but then – as now – I can’t overlook the fact that my first impression wasn’t entirely wrong.
I do need to be consistent in these reviews. And having drawn attention to aspects of ‘Mission: Impractical’ it’s only fair I point out that ‘Placebo Effect’ suffers from the same faults but on a larger scale. Here, we have a generally superb author who is desperate to make everything *fit*. Ever wondered what would happen if two random Doctor Who alien races appeared in the same book? Well, here we have it – and both the Foamasi and the Wirrrn get a good deal here, as Russell takes the time and effort to try and give some background to, respectively, these races’ society and motivation.
Less successfully… we also have Russell trying to tie in the short-lived Radio Times comic strip to the books range. That may have seemed a nice idea at the time, but with the benefit of 16 years hindsight, the wedding between human Stacey and Martian Ssard adds little to the plot. Arguably the addition of a third green-skinned, aggressive alien race to the main plot would have confused things, but in that case why include them at all?
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, of course. Like all people who realise they’ve had too much of a good thing, Gary Russell now subscribes to the opposite view of continuity – not everything has to link up. And nor should it – Doctor Who was never designed to be like that, and a glut of references to previous adventures will never be a substitute for a story without substance. Even more derivative are the references to other TV shows like ‘The Bill’ – nice in-jokes they may have been, they can’t help but detract from telling a story.
At its heart, this is a good story. But, much as I’d like to, I can’t get past all the continuity references. Also, there’s no denying that at this point in the EDA range, readers were missing the familiarity of books set on Earth. And the Doctor and Sam – whilst characterised as well as they were at this point – clearly needed company on their travels.
But all told, if you can overlook its faults, this is worth a look.
I do need to be consistent in these reviews. And having drawn attention to aspects of ‘Mission: Impractical’ it’s only fair I point out that ‘Placebo Effect’ suffers from the same faults but on a larger scale. Here, we have a generally superb author who is desperate to make everything *fit*. Ever wondered what would happen if two random Doctor Who alien races appeared in the same book? Well, here we have it – and both the Foamasi and the Wirrrn get a good deal here, as Russell takes the time and effort to try and give some background to, respectively, these races’ society and motivation.
Less successfully… we also have Russell trying to tie in the short-lived Radio Times comic strip to the books range. That may have seemed a nice idea at the time, but with the benefit of 16 years hindsight, the wedding between human Stacey and Martian Ssard adds little to the plot. Arguably the addition of a third green-skinned, aggressive alien race to the main plot would have confused things, but in that case why include them at all?
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, of course. Like all people who realise they’ve had too much of a good thing, Gary Russell now subscribes to the opposite view of continuity – not everything has to link up. And nor should it – Doctor Who was never designed to be like that, and a glut of references to previous adventures will never be a substitute for a story without substance. Even more derivative are the references to other TV shows like ‘The Bill’ – nice in-jokes they may have been, they can’t help but detract from telling a story.
At its heart, this is a good story. But, much as I’d like to, I can’t get past all the continuity references. Also, there’s no denying that at this point in the EDA range, readers were missing the familiarity of books set on Earth. And the Doctor and Sam – whilst characterised as well as they were at this point – clearly needed company on their travels.
But all told, if you can overlook its faults, this is worth a look.
February 5, 2022
Gotta hand it to Gary Russell- he had some great ideas here. Not only did he bring back a 4th Doctor villain in the Wirrn, but he also acknowledged and made canon Ssard and Stacy, companions from the comics who traveled with 8 while Sam was missing. Watching The Ark in Space arc with Baker's Doctor isn't necessary before reading this, but it might help with the background of the Wirrn, what they look like, and how they function and take over other bodies.
Now, for a book about the Wirrn and the Olympics, I was surprised at how little they were actually in the novel. The Wirrn really don't show their faces (antennae?) until about 2/3 of the way through the book. Up until then it's just things going wrong, people being killed or going missing, political intrigue, drugs being passed around, warring between Foamasi lodges and of course, the wedding. It sounds interesting, but there is honestly so much going on that just isn't interesting at all, with characters that are not important or who will die shortly anyways, so why bother to remember their names? There's also a random theology argument in here- pages and pages of atheist versus belief in god that's just not necessary, and grinds the story to a halt. It felt like it was just there to pad the page count.
The Doctor and Sam seem like they're just coasting through this story. Like they never really consider themselves in active, life-threatening danger, and they sort of act like it.
It's a fine, if forgettable installment of the EDAs. Some great ideas, some fan service, but in the end, fairly middling.
Now, for a book about the Wirrn and the Olympics, I was surprised at how little they were actually in the novel. The Wirrn really don't show their faces (antennae?) until about 2/3 of the way through the book. Up until then it's just things going wrong, people being killed or going missing, political intrigue, drugs being passed around, warring between Foamasi lodges and of course, the wedding. It sounds interesting, but there is honestly so much going on that just isn't interesting at all, with characters that are not important or who will die shortly anyways, so why bother to remember their names? There's also a random theology argument in here- pages and pages of atheist versus belief in god that's just not necessary, and grinds the story to a halt. It felt like it was just there to pad the page count.
The Doctor and Sam seem like they're just coasting through this story. Like they never really consider themselves in active, life-threatening danger, and they sort of act like it.
It's a fine, if forgettable installment of the EDAs. Some great ideas, some fan service, but in the end, fairly middling.
January 15, 2022
When you sit down with a Gary Russell-penned Doctor Who adventure, you know there's gonna be a lot of fanwank. Within the first 25 pages of Placebo Effect, you've already got Wirrn, Foamasi, the Daleks' Master Plan time frame, and two companions from the comic strips getting married. Reading while your eyes have rolled all the way back inside your head is, shall we say, a challenge. Because it doesn't stop there. I suppose to this is a love letter to the comics strips because we soon get Kleptons and Meeps and tons of others, much of it pointless in story terms. And Russell insists on spelling Wirrrn with three r's because that's how the Target adaptation of The Ark in Space did it. It's the kind of nerdy attention to detail that could drive me mad, but a good story could make me forgive it. Alas. This unfunny lark features a cast of dozens and had me asking "who is this again?", a feeling not helped by the fact that half the cast is either being impersonated by Foamasi or possessed by Wirr(r)n. At the same time, we get several descriptions of the Doctor and Sam through the eyes of various NPCS... To reference a fictional Prime Minister: Yes, we know who they are. And then, the Doctor seems to jump around from location to location, appearing in this office or that without connective tissue. It just felt very messy and disjointed, and a waste of its far future Olympics setting.
May 23, 2021
Space olympics and absorption into an alien intelligence that triggers interesting ruminations on faith which might also apply today to identity politics, left and right.
Russell is always the continuity king and there some of the most obscure references here you could ever come across. But it’s nice to see the Wirrrn in a story that’s more thoughtful than Nick Briggs’s noisy sub- Alien BF episodes, and the Foamasi are developed into a much better mafia/ clan type species than the Slitheen.
And just in case anyone was losing sleep over what happened to Stacey and Ssard from the short lived post TV movie RT strip, here they are getting married and promptly vanishing afterwards. It’s an element too many in a conceptually crowded book but that’s better than the alternative.
Plot wise this is nothing too unusual , though the Wirrrns plan is clever and neatly plays on drug abuse in sport, but it avoids being either plain dull like some of the books or nonsensical like some others. The EDA range would do much better, but also much worse.
Russell is always the continuity king and there some of the most obscure references here you could ever come across. But it’s nice to see the Wirrrn in a story that’s more thoughtful than Nick Briggs’s noisy sub- Alien BF episodes, and the Foamasi are developed into a much better mafia/ clan type species than the Slitheen.
And just in case anyone was losing sleep over what happened to Stacey and Ssard from the short lived post TV movie RT strip, here they are getting married and promptly vanishing afterwards. It’s an element too many in a conceptually crowded book but that’s better than the alternative.
Plot wise this is nothing too unusual , though the Wirrrns plan is clever and neatly plays on drug abuse in sport, but it avoids being either plain dull like some of the books or nonsensical like some others. The EDA range would do much better, but also much worse.
March 25, 2020
I’ll give Placebo Effect a solid 4 stars. The plot is great, the Doctor and Sam are just well written in this one, and it was fantastic to have both the Wirrrn and Foamasi as villains.
My only gripe would be the cast of thousands. There are just so many characters, it’s hard to find those one off characters you root for during these stories.
Gary Russell really does know how to craft a proper multi-part story though. This book reads like an 80’s Who with plenty of alien nasties and dumbfounded supporting players unsure why they’re now following the Doctor around. It also has a bit of that 80’s camp that some of the JNT stories dropped in.
All in all, I enjoyed it. Maybe finishing a book about an genetic invasion was a little too much during a global pandemic but I enjoyed this nonetheless.
My only gripe would be the cast of thousands. There are just so many characters, it’s hard to find those one off characters you root for during these stories.
Gary Russell really does know how to craft a proper multi-part story though. This book reads like an 80’s Who with plenty of alien nasties and dumbfounded supporting players unsure why they’re now following the Doctor around. It also has a bit of that 80’s camp that some of the JNT stories dropped in.
All in all, I enjoyed it. Maybe finishing a book about an genetic invasion was a little too much during a global pandemic but I enjoyed this nonetheless.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 10, 2024
1.5 stars
Incredibly middling coming after Doctor Who: Seeing I. I found there to be very little actual substance in the plot; I thought the usage of the Wirrn was fine, but the whole thing was infertile in execution. The handling of the religious debate segment was hamfisted and embarrassing. The politics of the entire book are lukewarm and I really hope this series picks back up soon... I know quality and themes are going to be all over the place in a series with multiple authors, but I wish the 'filler' books were at least still thoughtfully done. All the spying and bluffs and double bluffs and different agencies were a bit much and cancelled out, ending up juvenile and sort of boring.
Incredibly middling coming after Doctor Who: Seeing I. I found there to be very little actual substance in the plot; I thought the usage of the Wirrn was fine, but the whole thing was infertile in execution. The handling of the religious debate segment was hamfisted and embarrassing. The politics of the entire book are lukewarm and I really hope this series picks back up soon... I know quality and themes are going to be all over the place in a series with multiple authors, but I wish the 'filler' books were at least still thoughtfully done. All the spying and bluffs and double bluffs and different agencies were a bit much and cancelled out, ending up juvenile and sort of boring.
December 14, 2023
A muddy, muddy story that misadvertises itself and fails as a result.
I mean, this is heavily advertised as a sequel to THE ARK IN SPACE. But instead it spends almost its entire volume messing around with lizard gangsters. And the plot is just all over the place. I'm not even sure why a lizard murder at the heart of the volume happened at this point. (I know we went by it at some point, probably the inter-lizard fighting, but it was lost amidst the morass.)
And we get so many other plots and subplots and characters that should have been pruned. Like the characters from the Radio Times comic strip. Pretty cool inclusion, but not only utterly irrelevent, but they also totally disappear.
Overall, a disappointment and a mess.
I mean, this is heavily advertised as a sequel to THE ARK IN SPACE. But instead it spends almost its entire volume messing around with lizard gangsters. And the plot is just all over the place. I'm not even sure why a lizard murder at the heart of the volume happened at this point. (I know we went by it at some point, probably the inter-lizard fighting, but it was lost amidst the morass.)
And we get so many other plots and subplots and characters that should have been pruned. Like the characters from the Radio Times comic strip. Pretty cool inclusion, but not only utterly irrelevent, but they also totally disappear.
Overall, a disappointment and a mess.
September 20, 2025
The Doctor and Sam are invited to the wedding of two companions from the comics; Stacey and Ssard (possibly the first instance of cross media interaction in the franchise). The wedding is a nice bit, if a little slow, but it's nice to see the current companion being able to share notes with a past companion. After the wedding the two are basically just packed off for their honeymoon, leaving the Doctor and Sam to take on today's dangers. This is where the story really starts to get interesting. The criminal Foamasi are at large in the city, and the Wirrn are amassing to build up the Swarm using the Olympic Games.
March 23, 2022
Dull and hard to follow story. I could barely keep track of what was going on. The first half followed a wedding of two of the Doctor's friends who I had never heard of (are they from the DWM comics?) and suddenly that was abandoned to be replaced by a rather bland sci-fi alien invasion plot. Oh and there was some sort of religious cult hanging around too. It feels like there's too little substance here to even review, but Goodreads makes me so I give it one star.
August 4, 2024
Parasitic monsters attack the Olympics — in space — in this overstuffed, underpowered Doctor Who book. There are plenty of moving parts but the Doctor and Sam aren’t significant enough among them. There’s a certain fun to be had with the premise, particularly when you add in the Foamasi (cuddly space criminals who adopt human disguises), but it never fully held my attention.
1.5
1.5
September 24, 2024
look how they mischaracterised my girl & my boy also like oh my godddddddd why was everyone in this book so annoying?? yeah this was pretty bad. like ajsnhanushausoaun she would not think like that she would not say that she does not act like that free my girl sam jones
also it was using an alien from a 70s serial and i didnt recognise it for agessss like ? ive seen that episode lol
also it was using an alien from a 70s serial and i didnt recognise it for agessss like ? ive seen that episode lol
October 2, 2025
Wasn’t as much a fan of this one. There was a lot of ‘fanwank’ which I personally like but other people might find frustrating. The plot with the Formasi completely went over my head, I had no idea what was happening through half the book. The Wirren saved it for me though, loved them as a villain and loved same and Kyle. Worth a read if a fan, miss it if you want a random book to pick up.
July 10, 2020
At first it seemed like every 5 pages a new character was turning up and once the book got beyond the myriad introductions it served it’s purpose as a Doctor Who novel in that it had the Doctor in it. Good premise, averagely executed with some unnecessary filler.
September 14, 2017
It wasn't that it was bad - just sort of... chaotic, with too many POVs here and too long dialogues there (and I do love dialogues as a general rule). All and all, this book seems a bit undercooked.
February 23, 2019
One of the best Eighth Doctor novels so far, plotting, intrigue and the return of the Wirrn.
March 18, 2024
I read this book 6 months ago and am struggling to recall much about it , there seemed to be too convoluted a plot to make much sense of.
October 9, 2013
The Doctor and Sam go to a wedding of the Doctor's friends and get tangled up in an alien invasion. This is a fun, light read after all the bleakness of the previous 8 Doctor books. It's nice to see characters from the new adventures, and the Radio Times comics. The Wirrn's plan for invasion is very clever and its fun to see species from the classic series turn up in the books. At first I thought it might be a fanboy book, then I decided that it was just a fun and clever way to use the Dr Who universe. A good read.
March 8, 2009
Aside from the idea of two Doctor Who monsters fighting and a hint of some different companions for the eighth Doctor, this was a fairly bland book.
The Wrrynn ( probably spelled that wrong) do have a great sense of menace to them, the Foamasi come across as a bit weak.
Decent read, but mostly a good idea the became a pretty dull book.
I mostly picked it up because I'm a sucker for two monsters fighting each other.
The Wrrynn ( probably spelled that wrong) do have a great sense of menace to them, the Foamasi come across as a bit weak.
Decent read, but mostly a good idea the became a pretty dull book.
I mostly picked it up because I'm a sucker for two monsters fighting each other.
August 11, 2009
Placebo Effect was just a bit too messy for me - it introduces too many characters far too early and then added some more, and some more. What's more the characters were in the main poorly constructed. Perhaps I'm doing a disservice to Gary and some of the other writers; they are working to dead-lines I suppose and perhaps some of these books are suffering accordingly.
December 19, 2012
I love Gary usually, and everything here should work - it just doesn't quite. If I can put my finger on it, I'll rewrite this.
Oh, and the Foamosi are kind of like the Ferengi - that's not a complaint, they're very much DS9, complex, structured, society which I find intriguing and engaging.
Oh, and the Foamosi are kind of like the Ferengi - that's not a complaint, they're very much DS9, complex, structured, society which I find intriguing and engaging.
May 17, 2008
Not bad, but a bit of a fan wank!
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