Doctor Who: Byzantium!

Past Doctor Adventures #44

by Keith Topping

A first Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright and Vicki novel.

When the TARDIS arrives in 64 AD, close to the ancient capital of Byzantium, Barbara is thrilled at the prospect of a glimpse of the Roman Empire at its height. But the Doctor warns of the brutality and corruption to be found behind its civilised veneer. And he is proved only too right...

Split up in a terrifying market-place brawl, the companions find themselves dispersed among the rival cultures that uneasily share the city. Barbara with the zealous Jews, Ian finding his feet amongst the divided Romans, Vicki, adopted by the kindly but exasperating Greeks, and the Doctor, helped by (and helping !) the gentle Christians, all believe that the rest of their party has been killed, and they are left alone to cope with the complex culture-clashes of this often barbaric city.

But even if they do reunite, their troubles are not necessarily over. After all, they have to reach the TARDIS before they can actually leave Byzantium. And in this shifting world, can it be relied upon to remain in one place?

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Time Travel, Media Tie In, Fantasy

283 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2001

About the author

Keith Andrew Topping is an author, journalist and broadcaster most closely associated with his work relating to the BBC Television series Doctor Who and for writing numerous official and unofficial guide books to a wide variety of television and film series, specifically Buffy the Vampire Slayer.He is also the author of two books of rock music critique. To date, Topping has written over 40 books.

One of the leading players in British Doctor Who fandom's fan-fiction movement during the 1980s, Topping's first published fiction was the BBC Books "Past Doctor Adventure" The Devil Goblins from Neptune in 1997. The novel was co-written with his friend and frequent collaborator Martin Day.
The pair quickly followed this up with the acclaimed novel The Hollow Men in 1998. Following Day's move into TV scripting, Topping wrote the novels The King of Terror (2000) and Byzantium! (2001) solo. The latter novel is the only BBC Books Past Doctor Adventure to be set entirely within one episode of the television series Doctor Who — 1965's The Romans by Dennis Spooner. Topping also wrote the Telos Doctor Who novella Ghost Ship which was published in 2002 and proved so popular that it was one of only two novellas reissued as a paperback edition in 2003.

As well as writing fiction, Topping has also authored numerous programme guides to television series as diverse as The X Files, The Avengers, Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Sweeney and The Professionals. These were all published by Virgin Books, and co-written with Martin Day and Paul Cornell. Cornell, Day and Topping also collaborated on the popular Doctor Who Discontinuity Guide, published by Virgin Books in 1995 and re-issued, in the US, by MonkeyBrain Books in 2004, a lighthearted guide to the mistakes and incongruities of the television series. The trio had first worked together co-writing two editions of The Guinness Book of Classic British Television (1993 and 1996 respectively).

Subsequently, Topping wrote The Complete Slayer: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Every Episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and a number of related texts on this popular series as well as guide books to The West Wing (Inside Bartlet's White House), Angel (Hollywood Vampire), 24 (A Day in the Life) and Stargate SG-1 (Beyond the Gate), amongst others. According to the 2003 book Slayer Slang by Michael Adams (Oxford University Press), Topping was the originator of the word 'vampiry' (adj. "exhibiting features of a vampire") in the January 2000 edition of his book Slayer (pg. 26). In addition, Topping is a regular contributor of articles and reviews to several TV and genre titles including TV Zone, Xposé and Shivers and is a former Contributing Editor of Dreamwatch. He also worked as Project Consultant on Charmed: The Complete DVD Collection.

On radio, Topping was the Producer/Presenter of the monthly Book Club (2005-2007) and currently co-presents a daily television review slot, Monday to Friday, on The Simon Logan Show for BBC Newcastle. He has also contributed to the BBC television series' I Love the '70s, Call The Cops and The Perfect Detective and has written for Sounds, the Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times Culture Supplement and many other magazines and periodicals.

Topping writes, and occasionally performs, stand-up comedy and has written radio comedy sketches, an (unproduced) stage play and a TV pilot (with Martin Day) that is, currently, stuck in “Development Hell.”

Topping continues to live and work on Tyneside. He achieved a lifetimes ambition in 2005 when his book on The Beatles, Do You Want to Know a Secret was published by Virgin Books.

Reviews

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 1 out of 5]

"http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1252990.html[return][return]There are some aspects of this book that are so awful that I almost wanted to claw my eyes out. It is set in the city of Byzantium (the future Constantinople / Istanbul) in the first century AD. The city's population appears to be mainly Jewish (divided between Zealots, Christians and those in between), with a Greek minority and a settled Roman ruling class. It has minarets. Huge thudding mistakes and discrepancies abound in the Latin phrases (one recurring example - the senior Roman government official in the city lives in the villa praefectus). And the first century city has minarets. The presentation of characters' names is horrendously inconsistent - some are Latinised, some Grecianised, some Hebrew (or possibly Yiddish), and one who is called 'Fabulous' (sic). And he seems to think that there were minarets in the city before the Turkish conquest of 1453, and six centuries before the foundation of Islam. Even the transcription of the opening of St Mark's Gospel in Greek is incorrect, which is pretty astonishing as all you have to do is find a copy of Nestl

[Michel Siskoid Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Doctor Who novel starring the first Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki. Not an unpleasant read, but it has no plot whatsoever. The four characters get separated in the opening scenes and are witness to some political and religious mayhem in 2nd-century Byzantium, oh and the Doctor helps translate the Gospel of Mark, and that's it. It's like a forum for Topping's research on the subject, but he hasn't written a story around it. To make matters worse, Ian is pretty unrecognizable, talking in a strange familiar vernacular, and sometimes coming off as an anti-Semite! To make matters worse, the novel is a mess stylistically. It tries to emulate the show by being split into episodes and fitting in just before "The Romans", but is also full of extreme violence and coarse sexual situations (Vicki almost getting raped). In the same way, the hip pop-tune chapter titles clash terribly with the quotations from Mark's Gospel accompanying them. The point of view keeps shifting violently too. It's a shame, because the era is captured vibrantly and the prose isn't bad.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok so it looks like I'm going to be one of the few who didn't like this book too much.

The story deals with an adventure of the first Doctor and his companions Ian, Barbara and Vicki. After the TARDIS transports them to 64 AD Rome the time travelers set out to witness and experience first hand some of the culture of The Roman Empire. Like in any Doctor Who story the Doctor and his companions get into a mess of trouble while being separated from each other. This is a common theme in almost every Doctor Who story of that time.

While I did moderately like the story over all, once it got going, it took a long time to get there. At times I felt like I was trapped somewhere between a history lesson and a religious sermon. There is no doubt that Topping has a great understanding of how life must have been in that time and has great skill in bringing to life a culture that is probably very foreign to the reader, it seemed to me that he dwelled to much on the historical background of the story.

There are some things that are a part of every Doctor Who story, usually there is a mystery unfolding as you read and it needs to be solved. There was no part of this aspect to the story. Instead it just dealt with the experience each of the four main characters had. In that aspect I was not very thrilled with the story. There are certain things you come to expect when reading a Doctor Who story. It could be said that this was a change from that recipe going out side the cookie cutter mold of past stories but one of the reasons a person (myself at least) reads the stories is for that recipe.

The four main characters were ghostly shades of how I know them. I don't pretend to be an expert on Doctor Who but my knowledge of the characters and the story lines is fairly extensive. I've read several Doctor Who novels by various different authors and have seen many episodes including all episodes with the first Doctor so I know these characters pretty well. They didn't do what they would normally do or at least did not react in a way that would be consistent with their usual behavior. He did get the Doctor closer to his character than the others but still missed on him. These were characters I didn't readily know.

Ian ran around like a school boy getting chased by every woman that laid eyes on him. Ian is supposed to be the knight in shinning armor type. He was originally put into the stories to be an opposite to the Doctors frail condition. In this story he was afraid of being overpowered by any woman that came along.

Barbara was pretty close to the character I know but still she waivered too much between the ultra smart school teacher and bumbling naive ditzy woman. Barbara was created to be the consummate damsel in distress but only when her wits could not surpass a physical barrier.

Vicki was always supposed to be the girl out of time, naive but completely super intelligent when it came to mathematics and problem solving. This Vicki was just a whinny little brat. At some point I stopped caring about what would happen to her and determined that anything bad that happened to her, she deserved it.

As I said the Doctor was the closest to the character I know. But even at that he seemed a little wrapped up in how bad things were for him. He felt sorry for himself to much for my liking. The Doctor I know is in control 95% of the time or at least thinks he is. The other 5% of the time he is so caught up in exploring/investigating something he doesn't even seem to notice the rest of the world. But the biggest problem with THIS Doctor is he didn't have to use his intellect or wits to overcome a problem, let alone have a problem. What's a good Doctor Who story if he's not using his head?

Another thing the author did that I found bothered me was he would use Latin at certain times to emphasis something a character in the story was saying. Literally the character would speak in Latin. Here is the problem with that, through a mental connection with the time travellers the TARDIS (the TARDIS is more than a time machine but it is also a living entity of a sorts) automatically translates all words, text, meaning for the travellers and gives them the ability to speak, read any language they encounter. The creators of the series established this to account for why the travellers were always able to communicate no matter where they went. Not only did the creators establish this BUT Topping also mentions it early on in the book. Therefore there should be no reason anybody was speaking in Latin. It should have been automatically translated so it was understood. Look I understand that when reading a science fiction or fantasy story you have to have a certain amount of disregard to things but within the criteria set up by that genre you need to fall in those guidelines. The only possible feeling I got out of it was that the author wanted to show me how talented he was. Instead I felt he was showing off and making a less than enjoyable story for me.

If I were reading this book just as a book on it's own then it may not have been so bothersome to me. However when you decide to write a story about established characters, situations AND you want to keep the same continuity as other stories in the series you MUST stay with the script that has been layed out by so many past stories. There are things that are expected and they need to be present.

[Ross Baker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Almost everything about this book reads as if Keith Topping has never seen or read any of the stories from the show's first two years. The sexed-up characters bare little resemblance to any other portrayal of them - Ian's regular use of hip '60s slang being a world away from his honourable but humble self - while inexplicable slips into Latin from the Roman characters kill off any hope of enjoyable dialogue.

All this could still leave an enjoyable book, out of context of the TV show, were there an enjoyable plot to follow. However, other than a fairly tension-free bit of treason, very little happens, and the TARDIS crew seem to simply exist, rather than interacting, a couple of scenes aside.

Despite all this, the book's setting is rich enough to deserve an extra star. A fair bit of thought and research evidently went into the portrayal of the city of Byzantium, and the various races, nationalities, classes and creeds inhabiting it at the time - if anything, it has whetted my appetite to find out more about the era. It's just a shame that Topping seems to have had no idea what to DO with it all.

This book is only really for two groups of people: Doctor Who completists, and those who think a scene of Vicki sarcastically asking a Roman guard to take her behind a wall to rape her is the sort of thing a Hartnell-era story needs. Hopefully the former outnumber the latter dramatically...

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Filthy, overtly-sexual, profane, violent & gory...it certainly skirts the line a Doctor Who historical novel usually doesn't cross...and in many respects, Keith Topping flirts with that line, but never entirely tumbles over it. That said, you get them impression that (1) an angry Mr Topping wanted to write and angry, in-your-face historical, and (2) it's quite refreshing. This is definitely not going to be to everyone's taste, but I for one found it quite enjoyable & thrilling.

[Jason · Rating 1 out of 5]

Have you always thought that First Doctor stories would be better if they had more rape and disemboweling? Do you want to read a book where the Doctor appears for maybe 20 pages and does nothing? Then this is the book for you!

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather enjoyed this First Doctor adventure, not too heavy on plot and with the travelers all separated it feels more like 4 mini stories in one.

[David Layton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not sure whether other reviewers who likened this to "Life of Brian" and I read the same book. Though the novel is set in ancient Rome and has the requisite political intrigue, gore, and luxury, I see hardly any "Life of Brian" in here and only a little "I, Claudius." So, let us get to the novel as is. This is a first Doctor adventure separated into five "episodes." The novel is set between "The Rescue" and "The Romans" and Topping provides justification for this by having the TARDIS stolen by the man whose villa the crew will occupy in "The Romans." Each chapter is titled based upon pop song references, but each also has an epigram from the Gospel of Mark. Title and epigrams bear only passing relationship to the contents of each chapter. These references then are a weakness, an attempt maybe to give literary depth to the story. Getting the other weaknesses out of the way, we have these: After the crew gets split up, the Doctor features very little in the novel and has no impact at all on the main events. The ending is too rush-rush, as though Topping knew he had run the length and just needed to get our heroes back together again. Ian at times seems disturbingly nonchalant about killing people.

The strengths of the novel are much more forceful. This is Topping's best for Doctor Who in a number of ways. First, he has a better grasp on his style, and seems much more comfortable with advanced rhetorical and literary technique than in previous novels. Second, he seems to have found his niche in the historical genre. The research shows through, and Topping does very well in capturing the flavor of life in Byzantium, 64CE. Third, Topping smartly avoids incorporating well-known historical figures, so that the reader gets a sense of "people's history" instead of official history. His characterizations of the various ethnic groups treats them with the dignity of maintaining ethnic identity without stereotyping or degrading. He is realistic about the types of people he uses to populate the story. The political intrigue story involving the prefect and the general is particularly interesting and keeps the novel going apace.

In short, I really think this is an underrated work, perhaps more mature than what readers may have expected.

[Kate Sherrod · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one felt as much like a religious tract or historical novel celebrating the early Christians (and, by contrast, booing everybody else, or at least the Romans and Jews; the Greeks come off as kind of okay. Mostly. They redeem themselves a bit in the end) as like a Doctor Who novel, especially since, as others have observed, Byzantium has next to no plot beyond "TARDIS crew gets separated; TARDIS crew has trouble reuniting; crew members get involved in contemporary lives maybe more than they should." It even has Bible verses quoted at the beginning of every chapter!

It also has Ian engaging in some rather hearty misogyny (though in his defense *I GUESS* all the women he encounters are pretty horrible, or at least annoying. But mostly horrible). The Doctor helping to write the Bible. Vicki whining all over the place. But Barbara, Barbara actually frees herself from her situation and tries to find the others. Barbara rules. Ian and Vicki drool. And the Doctor, well, meh the Doctor. I've never been that great a fan of the First Doctor, except in that dutiful "well without him we'd have none of the others" way.

I was pretty psyched when this was over, but I didn't hate enough to rage-quit it. Barbara saved it. Hail, Barbara.

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

While this novel captured the flavor of 1st century politics, it kind of missed the mark as far as the characters. Having not seen the original Doctor Who episodes, I've only been able to experience the characters through the novelizations, and the characters didn't ring true here. (Especially Ian, who seemed like a totally different character!) This novel also failed to capture the essence of 60's Doctor Who, trying to amp the excitement while instead creating a hodgepodge of a storyline. It focused more on the characters outside the series and was bookended by events after Ian and Barbara return home, but for no real purpose. (After all, the author makes note of one of the character's names, which would allude that the backstory would be explained here, when the actuality is that the character's name comes from the second episode of Doctor Who and is not even mentioned here.

[Denis Southall · Rating 1 out of 5]

Annoying and dull. Not a lot happens and what does is either historical and irrelevant to the story or involves the companions acting completely out of character. It may be an attempt at a more 'adult' story but this could have been done much more effectively with the characters being true to themselves. It picked up towards the end as even the author seems to have got bored with his own story.

[Jacob Licklider · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keith Topping is an author whose absolute best work had been with cowriter Martin Day. The Devil Goblins of Neptune was the perfect way to open the Past Doctor Adventures and The Hollow Men is a fascinating horror story, but after those two books he stopped working with Martin Day and his first solo novel, The King of Terror, was incredibly forgettable, building itself around one particular cliché joke from Douglas Adams and playing it straight. His second solo novel, Byzantium!, has a similar premise, taking a fairly comedic story and turning it into a more serious riff. The Romans is Dennis Spooner’s second Doctor Who story and the first story to be played as an all out farce. While there is certainly danger, Ian is sold into slavery and Barbara accidentally catches the eye of the lecherous Emperor Nero, it is all presented with this air of bawdy comedy so Keith Topping decides to do a serious take on the Roman Empire under Nero, sets the story in Byzantium, and plays it essentially straight while still being a prequel to The Romans. Where Byzantium! perhaps falls down the most is the fact that it is a prequel to The Romans and so is inextricably linked to that story’s format, structure, and tone while Topping makes the novel a novel with very little humor. Topping has clearly put in a lot of time to research Byzantium circa 64 CE and the rise and spread of Christianity specifically surrounding the Gospel of Mark, the first of the Gospels in the current Biblical canon to be written. He splits up the characters into their own subplots, just like in The Romans, though here everyone is on their own and there isn’t the comedic sequences of the just misses of characters meeting each other. The cover is especially evocative with the crucifixion as a form of punishment being something Topping attempts to analyze.

As this is a book full of subplots, it’s one that is essentially held together by how the point of view characters are characterized, and sadly that is a mixed bag. There is a scene in the TARDIS very early on where this is exemplified, Ian and Barbara are pretty okay in the scene, slowly simmering the sexual tension between them while Ian makes an odd joke, but the Doctor and Vicki are both almost flanderized. The Doctor is incredibly crochety, brushing off Vicki’s concerns and outright attempting to leave the time period out of fear that Barbara might try to change things, despite having gone on other adventures with Ian and Barbara, both of whom understand they cannot change history. Vicki on the other hand is portrayed as a petulant child, definitely younger than the 15-year-old age typically inferred from the casting documents and reflection on the character as a replacement for Susan. Here for a lot of the book she feels too young and too unintelligent, with Topping thinking that because she’s from the future it means she must not have common sense about history, despite the Doctor, Ian, and Barbara all mentioning how they teach each other about the places they visit. Byzantium! is a book that really does take advantage of its historical setting which is really where the book shines, it’s an examination of a culture from a purely historical viewpoint while attempting to distance itself from its farcical predecessor.

There is this especially beautiful scene where Ian shows Vicki several constellations and they have this amazing discussion about life and pollution. That’s also what follows the Doctor’s plot in the book as he deals with the translation of the Gospel of Mark, where Topping doesn’t have the Doctor take a religious stance so to speak, but a stance towards the artistic value of the gospel which I think is perhaps the best approach. It’s also here where the closest Topping gets to the more mischievous First Doctor, as he delights in running circles around others. Meanwhile Ian is also put into a situation where he comes into contact with early Christians so we explore his view of religion which is one of tolerance to deal with some of the fear of persecution that could happen in this historical setting. Though this doesn’t last with his best bits in the book being whenever we explore his past along with the prologue and epilogue which reveals he and Barbara have married and had a son which is equally nice. Barbara also is really well characterized, however, she doesn’t actually get a whole lot to do in the book.

Overall, Byzantium! is a book that has a lot to love about it. Keith Topping has done a lot of research and really spends much of the book using the TARDIS team to explore the history in often brutal detail. It may be a book that rub some the wrong way but unlike say Rags, there isn’t this contempt from the author for the era it is in, just instances of poor characterization perhaps due to Topping’s own writing style and personal preferences. It’s certainly a good read though it doesn’t quite go to that threshold of being a great read. 7/10.

[Ffion Horrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the book to be fairly enjoyable well reading; however, looking back there wasn't really a story arch as such. The doctor and companions get split up and experience a few weeks in Byzantium before reuniting. The book was more mature than other doctor who novels, featuring a lot of sexual, gruesome, and explicit language but I personally enjoyed this in the context of the story.

The characters were, on the most part, written fairly well and consistent with their other portrayals. Ian's character had a few issues, mainly with how nonchalant he was about killing people, and the language he used was also less formal than usual. The doctor didn't really have much to do; however, when he did appear I thought he was characterised well. Barbara's character was the most well written, with no real faults. Vicki was written for the majority of the time quite childish; however, there is one scene where she flirtaiously asks a Roman soldier to rape her to avoid getting raped which is a stark contrast to her in the rest of the book.

As the book starts and ends by looking at Ian's and Barbara's future with there child Johnny, I was expecting there relationship to be explored a bit in depth. However, apart from them sharing a room in one of the opening chapters, Barbara refusing to marry someone, and Ian refusing to sleep with numerous women who throw themselves at him, there isn't any hint that they are in a relationship or even have feelings with each other. I wish this dynamic had been explored more, even if it was only through the thoughts of the two characters and not their action.

The strongest part of the book is definitely the world building and detail that goes into making up Byzantium. The amount of historical detail that went into writing this book is quite astounding. The writer does well at creating a diverse but not stereotyped culture, and we get to explore all the different cultures fairly well through each of our main characters (Barbara the Jew's, Ian the Roman's, Vicki the Greek's, and the Doctor the Christian's). All of the cultures have good and bad characters and points of view shown, which helps show the complexity of living in Byzantium and stops us from seeing one side as purely bad and another as purely good.

Overall I would recommend the book especially if you love historicals, as long as you don't mind the exploration of mature themes or some religious elements.

[Steven Andreyechen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Byzantium! by Keith Topping is a weird one tonally with excessive violence and sex (both consensual and not, take this as your warning if you were thinking about reading it and are upset by this sort of thing) that while being somewhat fitting is not all necessary to get the point across, and strange moments of esoteric comedy.

I found that the main cast from the show to be generally well represented (though some have less to do than others) with the exception of Ian who, in my opinion, was far too much of a wisecracking buffoon to the point where I wondered if Keith Topping had only seen the Roy Castle version from the Dalek movies. He feels that out of place compared to the tv episodes this book is crammed between.

This book however does have some saving graces, though many of them come from having an interest in this period of history. The religious re-contextualization is fascinating as is the deconstruction of the stereotypical Roman position in history of the intolerant pushers of western “progress”. Though much of the history presented is either no longer novel or simply out of date given that this book is over 20 years old now.

While I did enjoy this book to a certain degree it is probably the Doctor Who Novel that has left me the most conflicted. It is not one I would readily recommend without giving people a proper heads up, but for those who can stomach it it is an interesting read.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are a lot of Doctor Who books that forego historical accuracy for the sake of writing a good Doctor Who story. There are others that fail to capture the original characters faithfully because they are just trying to tell a fun historical or science-fiction story and merely use the IP as a vehicle to do so. And there are some rare jewels that capture the television series’ characters perfectly whilst also telling a captivating story in its own right. This book fits into none of these categories. The characters, particularly Ian and Vicki, are unrecognisable from the television counterparts, the historical tidbits are frequently inconsistent or anachronistic, despite the endless attempts to shoehorn them in at every opportunity. And the storyline doesn’t even really exist. It’s difficult to summarise the plot because nothing really happens. It often feels more like an attempt at a history lesson, except by a teacher who gets in a muddle about what exactly they’re teaching, why and to whom.

[Frank Davis · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a big old NOPE from only a few pages in and it just got worse from there on. I don't have many nice things to say about this one. The period and the general "Doc and friends find trouble in a historic setting" theme would fit perfectly with what we have previously seen of the First Doctor's adventures but that's where the familiarity ends.

The characterisations were immediately off and never felt correct. The characters weren't even consistent within the story itself.

The plot felt like a weak attempt at boundary stretching as it focused largely on Roman era smut. It isn't that any of the sex and gore was historically inaccurate, just that it was an uninteresting subject matter. It didn't fit well as a first Doctor story at all and it didn't make a very engaging reader experience.

I rarely one star but I just didn't bite on this one at all.

[Aleph Sharp]

This book reads like a missionary heard about doctor who from an elevator pitch (NOT from any of the show's creators) and then got permission to write a book sight unseen. the characters are unlike any of their tv counterparts, or indeed almost any version of them, and this book's whole reason to exist seems to be to get the main characters to spout a bunch of ahistorical nonsense and antisemitism, and be proselytize about how great christians are.

[Stephen Wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Topping clashes the made-for-family-TV archetypes of the original TARDIS team with the brutality of actual history, exploring that tension and highlighting the unsustainability of the “pure historical” within Doctor Who. But while that’s interesting, the narrative around it isn’t particularly dynamic (perhaps by design?).

[Ivana Richards · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit of a slog to be honest. The first half (at least) is just so dull - not much plot and lots of discourse about religion. It picks up slightly, but not enough for me to be recommending it to anyone else. Plenty of fun references however to lots of stuff other than Dr Who including Monty Python and Carry On Cleo.

[Avarill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this just after finishing one of the new BBC books, and when this story opened with a gruesome description of a crucifiction, I knew I wasn't in Kansas anymore. Sex and violence notwithstanding, I do miss the 'adult' targeted Who novels as they provide a richer tapestry than the current offerings.

The Romans are always fascinating, from 'I, Claudius' to 'Gladiator' and all points in between. Byzantium must have been the product of deep research, and as a result the story enjoys a depth and breadth that is satisfying. It's very much in the spirit of the traditional Doctor Who historicals, and holds up well in comparison. Worthy of note is that while there is a sense of our heroes getting dragged along with events, they're not merely victims -- they actively influence the events that churn around them.

One of the first things Topping does is separate the TARDIS crew. This is a risk, but he carries it off pretty well. The individual plots that Barbara, Vicki, Ian and the Doctor find themselves in are compelling on their own and populated with interesting characters. Taken together, they tell a sweeping tale of history on the edge of a knife in ancient Byzantium. While Topping deftly juggles the four storylines, after about 2/3rds of the way through the book I confess I was more than ready for everyone to meet up again already.

Taken together, this is an excellent rendering of each of the TARDIS crew. Barbara is intelligent and serene, Ian is unassuming and honest, and there are some nice insights into the character of the Doctor as a young (in age if not appearance) man. The character that really shines is Vicki. She's always been hard for me to 'get', and most of the books -- and most of the tv episodes honestly -- don't do her justice. But Topping works hard to make Vicki make *sense* in a way she seldom has before. Sure, she's exasperating and often her own worst enemy -- but she's internally consistent and Topping provides a lot of insight into how her turbulent and tragic childhood has shaped her.

An engaging, satisfying read that I enjoyed more than I anticipated I would.

[Travis · Rating 2 out of 5]

So frustrating, as it had potential to be a good book, but lord the writer insisted on announcing how clever he was every three pages and so any good bits that could have won me over is immediately buried.

Basically, Topping does a reimagining of the TV episode 'The Romans', but wants to make it more 'mature' and 'realistic'.
Yes, that sound you hear is my eyes rolling.

So, if you are the kind of person who thinks "I like Doctor Who, but there could be more Implied rape and bloody gore.", then have I got a book for you!

If Topping had calmed down and lost all the pointless bible quotes and overly cute chapter titles, there is a decent story here...unfortunately, it's 'The Romans', so you are constantly comparing this book to a much better TV story.
But, this could have been a fun historical story.
Topping did a nice job of including biblical history. That's a minefield, and he actually managed to juggle it.

And I haven't even gotten into how out of character most of the Tardis crew are written.
Yikes, it was hard rooting for them the way they were characterized.

Again, not a terrible book, but so frustrating, as you can see the good book fighting to get out and the author spending so much time beating the good book into submission.

Just go watch the Romans or read the Target novelization.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set before 'the Romans', the doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki land near Byzantium. They get split up and each expeiences a different slice of Roman life. I really enjoyed this book but historicals were always my thing. The only problem is that Ian sometimes sounded too cockney, like it was written for Ben. A good read.

[Dan Hodges · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another 1st Doctor historical. Engaging enough, though pretty middling and perfunctory. Stars well, though begins to feel a bit like a history lesson rather than an adventure of any real excitement and there's some very questionable treatment of Vicki at certain points that just feels dark and mean-spirited.