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chicafrom3At the rate I am going through this readthrough, I will finish the PDAs in...I'm not doing that math.
The Sixth Doctor and Peri deal with sinister experiments in an isolated island community that spurns modern technology.
I really liked this one! The first twist (the Doctor and Peri think they've landed in the Victorian era but it turns out to be contemporary times, just a community that prefers to model themselves on 'traditional' ways) is heavily signposted (and tbh the scene in which the Doctor realizes his mistake triggered my embarrassment squick a little) but it comes early enough in the novel that it's hardly a true twist at all. The plot moves along at a steady pace, the big twists feel both earned and interesting, the supporting characters are dynamic and and distinct, and the island community is given an intriguing amount of depth.
And the Doctor and Peri are beautifully drawn; my pet peeve (I've spoken about this before, I'll speak about it again, I'm sure) is Who writers presenting these two as so antagonistic that it's impossible to understand why Peri sticks around. Richards lands on the right side of the dynamic, with playful banter and real affection under it. They enjoy each other while still taking swipes -- it's exactly the voice I want to see for them. (I really love this Doctor/companion team, and it frustrates me how hard it is to find good content for them -- this book really nailed it.) Peri gets to be active and contribute to the plot and do the hard stuff and even her moments of distress (mostly) arise naturally from the adventure. (She also gets sexually menaced by a creep. Because of course she does, it's the PDAs.)
The Second Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria are caught in a bubble universe the size of exactly one midwestern American town inhabited by a killer intelligence; meanwhile(-ish), the Fourth Doctor and the First Romana are caught up in intrigue involving UNIT, the Provisional Department, and Aleister Crowley.
On the one hand, I wonder if I'd have enjoyed this one more if I was a fan of The Simpsons. I know enough about the show from pop culture osmosis to have picked up on some of the references throughout the book, and to have figured out that more of the references were just flying by me.
On the other hand, I'm pretty sure I still wouldn't have loved it. The pacing was not great, and the ending was pretty much "and now it's over!" The idea of a multi-Doctor adventure in which the two plotlines affect each other but the Doctors never actually interact with one another is pretty interesting, but having the climax here be "the Fourth Doctor hides in the Second Doctor's TARDIS for a minute and then leaves" didn't work as payoff for me at all. Honestly, almost nothing about the resolution worked for me.
Which is not to say that it's all bad: there's a lot of great character work. Victoria, in particular, shines throughout. There's a tendency for Who authors to write her as the naive waif, but Stone gets at her snarkier side, and it's delightful; she gives the Doctor a lot of pushback throughout. Also:
#LetVictoriaSayFuck2023
He also gets at Romana's more unlikable side, which seems like an odd thing to praise him for, but I genuinely find Romana delightful when she's being an aristocratic brat with no people skills, so there we are.
Also! Since I've been pointing this out in every PDA, I want to make a note of it here as well: no one gets sexually assaulted, menaced, or threatened in this book, and it's so sad that that's an oddity, but I had to point it out. Victoria does get uncomfortable because the Doctor checks the trio into a kink motel by mistake and the clerk assumes they're there for the obvious reasons, but she's not threatened by it; at no point does anyone assume she's unconsenting or assume they have the right to invite themselves into her company, and while she's grossed out she doesn't at any point think the Doctor or Jamie are going to take advantage. Romana also gets tortured (or, uh, attempted torture) by a sexist military officer, but while his reasons behind the torture include misogyny (he explicitly picks the one woman out of the group to torture for answers), his methods do not at any point cross into the sexual; he attempts to throw a punch at her, yells at her a bit, and attempts to hypnotize her for answers, but there's no sexual threat, implied or explicit. Good job, Dave Stone!
Anyway, the book is rather silly and the pacing is bad, but it does have redeeming features in its treatment of the main characters (and also supporting character Katherine Delbane, who I liked a lot, although her role in the resolution also falls apart a bit). Overall I guess I'd rate it fairly mid.
A favorite moment, to end on a high note:
The Sixth Doctor and Peri deal with sinister experiments in an isolated island community that spurns modern technology.
I really liked this one! The first twist (the Doctor and Peri think they've landed in the Victorian era but it turns out to be contemporary times, just a community that prefers to model themselves on 'traditional' ways) is heavily signposted (and tbh the scene in which the Doctor realizes his mistake triggered my embarrassment squick a little) but it comes early enough in the novel that it's hardly a true twist at all. The plot moves along at a steady pace, the big twists feel both earned and interesting, the supporting characters are dynamic and and distinct, and the island community is given an intriguing amount of depth.
And the Doctor and Peri are beautifully drawn; my pet peeve (I've spoken about this before, I'll speak about it again, I'm sure) is Who writers presenting these two as so antagonistic that it's impossible to understand why Peri sticks around. Richards lands on the right side of the dynamic, with playful banter and real affection under it. They enjoy each other while still taking swipes -- it's exactly the voice I want to see for them. (I really love this Doctor/companion team, and it frustrates me how hard it is to find good content for them -- this book really nailed it.) Peri gets to be active and contribute to the plot and do the hard stuff and even her moments of distress (mostly) arise naturally from the adventure. (She also gets sexually menaced by a creep. Because of course she does, it's the PDAs.)
'We often seem to land up somewhere pretty much at random, you know.'
'Sounds like an interesting life.'
'That's not the half of it,' Peri said.
'So what do you do, exactly? You and the Doctor?' Janet asked.
'I get confused, mostly,' Peri told her. 'And the Doctor, well, he does the confusing.'
The Second Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria are caught in a bubble universe the size of exactly one midwestern American town inhabited by a killer intelligence; meanwhile(-ish), the Fourth Doctor and the First Romana are caught up in intrigue involving UNIT, the Provisional Department, and Aleister Crowley.
On the one hand, I wonder if I'd have enjoyed this one more if I was a fan of The Simpsons. I know enough about the show from pop culture osmosis to have picked up on some of the references throughout the book, and to have figured out that more of the references were just flying by me.
On the other hand, I'm pretty sure I still wouldn't have loved it. The pacing was not great, and the ending was pretty much "and now it's over!" The idea of a multi-Doctor adventure in which the two plotlines affect each other but the Doctors never actually interact with one another is pretty interesting, but having the climax here be "the Fourth Doctor hides in the Second Doctor's TARDIS for a minute and then leaves" didn't work as payoff for me at all. Honestly, almost nothing about the resolution worked for me.
Which is not to say that it's all bad: there's a lot of great character work. Victoria, in particular, shines throughout. There's a tendency for Who authors to write her as the naive waif, but Stone gets at her snarkier side, and it's delightful; she gives the Doctor a lot of pushback throughout. Also:
"I'm fine," she managed, biting back an exclamation which would, if let out, have been rather stronger in nature than bless me.
#LetVictoriaSayFuck2023
He also gets at Romana's more unlikable side, which seems like an odd thing to praise him for, but I genuinely find Romana delightful when she's being an aristocratic brat with no people skills, so there we are.
Also! Since I've been pointing this out in every PDA, I want to make a note of it here as well: no one gets sexually assaulted, menaced, or threatened in this book, and it's so sad that that's an oddity, but I had to point it out. Victoria does get uncomfortable because the Doctor checks the trio into a kink motel by mistake and the clerk assumes they're there for the obvious reasons, but she's not threatened by it; at no point does anyone assume she's unconsenting or assume they have the right to invite themselves into her company, and while she's grossed out she doesn't at any point think the Doctor or Jamie are going to take advantage. Romana also gets tortured (or, uh, attempted torture) by a sexist military officer, but while his reasons behind the torture include misogyny (he explicitly picks the one woman out of the group to torture for answers), his methods do not at any point cross into the sexual; he attempts to throw a punch at her, yells at her a bit, and attempts to hypnotize her for answers, but there's no sexual threat, implied or explicit. Good job, Dave Stone!
Anyway, the book is rather silly and the pacing is bad, but it does have redeeming features in its treatment of the main characters (and also supporting character Katherine Delbane, who I liked a lot, although her role in the resolution also falls apart a bit). Overall I guess I'd rate it fairly mid.
A favorite moment, to end on a high note:
"Fail-safes?" said Victoria uneasily. "What exactly do you mean by fail-safes?"
"Oh, you know the sort of thing," The Doctor waved an airy hand. "Protocols that prevent us from materialising around some solid object, or in the heart of a sun, or in some universe other than our own. Not to worry though..." He rubbed his hands together in a brisk and workmanlike fashion. "Such things are unimportant if one knows precisely where or when one is going. Allow me to demonstrate."
And with that, before either Jamie or Victoria could even so much as draw breath to protest, he reached for the console and pulled a lever.
* * *
"Now I think," said the Doctor, a number of hectic seconds later, "I know what it was I did wrong..."
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