Doctor Who The Coming of the Terraphiles by Michael Moorcock review
I’m rather ashamed to admit that, prior to The Coming of the Terraphiles, I’d never read a Michael Moorcock novel. The sheer body of work from this prolific author was one reason why I was afraid of tackling him. Another was due to a Michael Moorcock short story that I’d read, which seemed to be doing a million things at once, with the narrative branching off into innumerable tangents. This impression of Michael Moorcock was rather reinforced by the opening of The Coming of The Terraphiles, since the narrative also seemed to be doing a million things at once at this point. However, I persevered, as Michael Moorcock does have rather a brilliant reputation, much like the other famous writers recently attracted to Doctor Who, such as Richard Curtis and Neil Gaiman.
Michael Moorcock does appear to be very well versed in the Doctor Who universe, with various Judoon making an appearance as minor characters. Moorcock’s complex, jocular style is very fitting for Matt Smith, and so his portrait of the current Doctor is spot on. However, Michael Moorcock’s characterisation of Amy isn’t quite so good, and you get the feeling that her role here could have been played by any of the Doctor’s other companions.
While The Coming of the Terraphiles is very much fitting as a literary Doctor Who (with the plot being too complex and rambling to have ever worked on screen), it would also appear to derive much from Michael Moorcock’s previous works. Take, for instance, the mysterious figure of Captain Cornelius, who would appear to be a representation of Moorcock’s most famous character, Jerry Cornelius… The plot of The Coming of the Terraphiles is quite farcical in nature, with much turning upon the theft of a hat that rather resembles a spider… However, there is a real danger to be faced, even if the forces of antimatter seem to be quite clownish in nature… The Terraphiles themselves are fans of classic Earth (i.e. of our era) who have adopted traditional English sports, such as cricket, albeit with a few twists arising from mistakes in translation. This reminds me of a task set by an English teacher at school to depict football through the eyes of an alien, which resulted in many of us being admonished for the misapprehension of said alien that we were playing football with severed heads… Michael Moorcock can count himself fortunate that he did not have the same English teacher as me, as he gets away with several similar misapprehensions on behalf of these people from our distant future. The plot has several cliches that feature in many another Doctor Who novel. However, they’re encircled by Michael Moorcock’s own inimitable style, and once the narrative gets going, The Coming of the Terraphiles does become a very gripping read. Thus have the BBC added a most distinguished writer to their Doctor Who books (with the added aplomb of first publication in hardback format). Michael Moorcock should also have the added bonus of gaining a lot more readers for his other works following this highly successful crossover.
Doctor Who The Glamour Chase by Gary Russell
I’ve read a couple of Gary Russell Doctor Who novels before that haven’t impressed me a great deal, but I found The Glamour Chase to be an absolute delight from start to finish. Gary has the characterisation of Matt Smith’s Doctor spot on, and his portrayals of Amy and Rory are very convincing too. The story is very gripping also, with the depiction of a massacre in Little Cadthorpe being especially chilling. Although I’m not sure how the Doctor manages to fall into some sheep dip – he’s not usually that clumsy! Gary Russell has come up with some ingenious monsters for The Glamour Chase, especially the Weave, who seemed to be composed of some form of fibrous material like wool. Admittedly, their practice of shape shifting, which involves the kidnapping and imprisoning of the people they impersonate, is not particularly original, as the Zygons used this same method in the classic series (albeit for more devious purposes). The Glamour itself doesn’t appear to be too dissimilar to the Enamour that featured in Una McCormack’s recent Doctor Who book, The King’s Dragon. However, the fact that the two writers employed such similar devices is most likely down to coincidence, rather than collusion, and besides, both novels have rather different settings and stories otherwise. In the end, it’s a human threat that the Doctor has to deal with. The fact that the human at the centre of it is so likeable and compelling is a testament to how good a storyteller Gary Russell can be when he puts his mind to it.
Doctor Who Nuclear Time by Oli Smith
The Doctor lands the TARDIS in a small Colorado town in 1981. Everything looks nice and neat on the surface, yet the Doctor soon discovers that there’s something wrong. For instance, why do these houses have fake TVs and taps with no plumbing attached? It’s not long before the time travellers find out that they would appear to have stepped out onto the set of The Stepford Wives, although even the guys here are androids… Killer androids… While Amy and Rory do everything in their power to avoid being killed, the Doctor attempts to dissipate the explosion of a nuclear bomb without causing an international incident.
I think Nuclear Time would have worked better as a TV episode, as it involves a rather convoluted temporal theory that does not come over too well on the printed page, as it involves the Doctor travelling back over his own timeline. It certainly would have been neat to see the Doctor bicycling backwards! The relationship between Albert, the scientist who invented the androids, and Geoff, the Colonel who kidnapped him to ensure his work was carried out in secret, seems rather oddly informal. Perhaps Oli Smith was trying to avoid the usual cliche of having such characters as antagonists, or it could be that Albert is suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. All the same, their relationship was far more bizarre than Albert’s love for his robotic creation, Isley. The setting of the late 70s/early 80s allows Oli Smith to indulge in some harmless nostalgia, with several references to Star Wars. However, Amy and Rory are pretty much disposed with for much of the novel by being stuck in a burning house, probably because Oli Smith could not have seen them on screen prior to writing Nuclear Time, so he was possibly unsure of the faithfulness of his characterisation of them. Having written that, the character of the Doctor does not really ring true either, especially since Oli Smith spends some time mentioning what effects the temporal disturbance is having on the Doctor’s body. I’m not really used to reading descriptions of what the Doctor’s, say, stomach felt like. Although we have seen the Doctor eating and drinking, his alien body is usually not described in quite so human terms. Much like the adventure itself, Nuclear Time is a bit of a muddle.
Doctor Who The King’s Dragon by Una McCormack
I once met and chatted with Una McCormack in the late lamented Page’s Bar, so I decided to read The King’s Dragon before any other of the latest Doctor Who releases. At first, I was a bit disappointed, as the font used in the book was quite a bit larger than the last BBC book release that I read a couple of years ago, and the text more juvenile. Not that these are Una’s fault, as this is, of course, very much the default style for the current books (although one suspects that Michael Moorcock might well have been let off the leash a tad more with his upcoming Doctor Who novel The Coming of the Terraphiles). However, as I cast my mind back as to how the Target novelizations of the classic series read, I must admit that I was disappointed that The King’s Dragon was not written in the same style. Yet, now that I have finished reading The King’s Dragon, and have grown to love it, I appreciate that it’s a much different beast from the Target books of yore, very much due to the fact that it isn’t based upon a TV serial that featured regular cliffhangers (although the title is perhaps a nod back to the Peter Davison adventure The King’s Demons). No, The King’s Dragon is, by contrast, a much more measured piece that Una McCormack builds up gradually. Una does a splendid job of capturing Matt Smith’s new incarnation of the Doctor, along with Amy and Rory, which can’t have been easy, as she could not have based her characterisation upon seeing completed episodes (although the very fact that Rory’s involved so prominently in the book and the cover does tend to give the game away that he’ll be returning from the dead in the series, even though this book is set before Cold Blood). The Doctor takes Amy and Rory to the City of Geath (possibly named thus after one of Tom Baker’s best adventures, The City of Death), which is famed for its hospitality. However, although the citizens are not openly hostile to the time travellers, they are more wary than their reputation suggests. Amy soon discovers that even the humblest domicile is furnished with gold. It’s not long before they’re invited to meet the king, although, according to the Doctor, Geath has always been a staunchly democratic republic. The Doctor is also suspicious due to the large quantity of gold on display, as there shouldn’t be any on the planet. It could therefore be a flaw in the plot for the people of Geath to be so jealous of their horde of gold, if they have only recently been aware of its existence, never mind its value. Yet, as the Doctor soon explains, this substance that Amy, Rory, and even the Doctor have been taken to pilfering, is not gold, but the illegal material Enamour, which entrances all before its thrall. So, the time travellers decide to examine the mysterious gold dragon that resides in the king’s hall, and discover it to be the source of the Enamour (although it never rears up threateningly, as the front cover suggests). As the Doctor points out, Enamour is an alien technology far in advance of that of the local inhabitants, so how did it arrive on Geath? And who are the monstrous apparitions that are intent on getting Enamour back? Una McCormack is excellent at plotting, and characterisation, so much so, that you do really feel for the the main protagonists on Geath: King Beol, the Teller (despite the fact that he is basically a spin meister), and Hilthe, the former leader of Geath who was usurped by Beol, even although most of these characters do very much turn on our heroes at various parts of the story. The Doctor tasks himself with the role of deciding with whom the Enamour should reside, a job that is not so easy when they are alien spaceships blasting bits out of the city… Contrary to my initial fears that The King’s Dragon would be too juvenile, it turns out that Una McCormack has delivered a very thoughtful, mature, and stimulating Doctor Who adventure, and I look forward to reading more of her splendid work.
