THE SEEDS OF DOOM

[Tony]

Here we are discussing Philip Hinchcliffe's novelization of THE SEEDS OF DOOM! If you want to hear your review of or comments on this book read on the air, or you have a specific question about the book, please post it here by no later than 5pm CST on Friday, February 19!

[Damon]

A good read quite dark in places for Doctor Who better than the TV version which is a little overrated.

3.5 stars

[Dave]

There are, for me, two main problems with this story on television. The Doctor, when beating the chauffeur unconscious, seems to relish the violence a little too much. On the page, the chauffeur is almost accidentally knocked out and, though the Doctor is ready to hit him, he quickly decides he doesn't need to.
The other problem is the story's structure. It only occurred to me when I listened to the commentary track on the DVD of a later story, in which the script editor of the time, Anthony Reid, said that, for a six-parter, they liked to "dogleg" the story. What he meant by this was that the story would seem to be coming to a close near the end of episode 4, and then go off at a tangent for the last two episode.
That's sort of what happens here, but it's the wrong way round. The tangent, with the second pod and the location shift to England, happens after only two episodes, with four episodes still to plough through. Because of this, though each episode is well paced, the story as a whole drags, for me at least.
On the page it's not so bad., possibly because the longer part of the story is compressed to fit the page count, though I think I would have preferred the Antarctic scenes to have been shortened to a prologue, rather than a third of the book.
There are a couple of other slight problems on screen which aren't as noticeable in prose. The Brigadier would have appeared but Nicholas Courtney wasn't available, so all the authority figures that the Doctor turns to for help seem a bit anonymous.
This was supposed to have been the last story for Sarah Jane Smith, but Liz Sladen got to hear about the next story, thought she'd like to be in it, and asked to stay on. I don't know how Sarah was supposed to leave, but I think the corny scene at the end, with the Doctor intending to take Sarah to a vacation planet and ending up back in Antarctica was tacked on in a hurry. Thankfully it's gone in the book.

[Michael]

One of the dozen or so Pinnacle books that were ubiquitous when I first discovered "Doctor Who," "Seeds of Doom" is an interesting take on the TV version.

The first two parts take up a third of the book while the final four installments are fairly compressed. Amelia Ducat is sidelined a great deal. It's still a fairly grisly, scary story that is probably the best example of why John Nathan-Turner didn't like six-part stories.

The audio, narrated by Michael Kilgarith, is good, though he lacks the menace that Tony Beckley brings to Chase.