Doctor Who: Last of the Gaderene

Past Doctor Adventures #28

by Mark Gatiss

'My name is Bliss,' said the newcomer, 'and I bring great news for you all!'

The new owners of a Second World War aerodrome promise a golden dawn of prosperity for the East Anglian village of Culverton. The population rejoices - with one or two exceptions. Former Spitfire pilot Alec Whistler knows the aerodrome of old, having found a strange, jade-coloured crystal there years before...

When black-shirted troops appear on the streets, Whistler takes his suspicions to his old friend Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. The Doctor and Jo are sent to investigate and soon discover that all is not well in the seemingly idyllic village.

What are the black coffin-like objects being unloaded at the aerodrome? What horror lies behind Legion International's impeccable facade? And what is the monstrous creature growing and mutating in the marsh?

As Culverton gears up for its summer fete, the Doctor finds himself involved in a race against time to prevent a massive colonisation of Earth. For the last of the Gaderene are on their way...

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

284 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 3, 2000

About the author

Mark Gatiss (born 17 October 1966) is an English actor, screenwriter and novelist. He is best known as a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen, and has both written for and acted in the TV series Doctor Who and Sherlock.

Fulfilling a lifelong dream, Gatiss has written three episodes for the 2005-revived BBC television series Doctor Who. His first, "The Unquiet Dead", aired on 9 April 2005; the second, "The Idiot's Lantern", aired on 27 May 2006 as part of the second series. In addition, Gatiss was the narrator for the 2006 season of documentary series Doctor Who Confidential, additionally appearing as an on-screen presenter in the edition devoted to his episode. Gatiss did not contribute a script to the third series, but appeared in the episode "The Lazarus Experiment", as Professor Lazarus. After his submitted script for the fourth series, involving Nazis and the British Museum, was replaced at the last minute with "The Fires of Pompeii", he eventually returned to the programme in 2010, writing the (also World War II-themed) episode "Victory of the Daleks" for the fifth series, in which he also appears uncredited as the voice of "Danny Boy". It has also been confirmed that Gatiss will be writing an episode for the 2011 season of Doctor Who, although details about the story are yet to be revealed.[19]
Gatiss wrote an episode of Sherlock, a modern day Sherlock Holmes series co-produced by him and Steven Moffat. The unaired pilot was shot in January 2009 and a full series was commissioned. This was aired in August 2010 and consisted of 3 episodes. Gatiss also starred in these as Holmes' older brother Mycroft. A second series has been confirmed, but dates have yet to be decided, since both Gatiss and Moffatt have additional commitments.[20]
Gatiss also wrote and performed the comedy sketches The Web of Caves, The Kidnappers and The Pitch of Fear for the BBC's "Doctor Who Night" in 1999 with Little Britain's David Walliams, and played the Master in the Doctor Who Unbound play Sympathy for the Devil under the name "Sam Kisgart", a pseudonym he later used for a column in Doctor Who Magazine. (The pseudonym is an anagram of "Mark Gatiss", a nod to Anthony Ainley, who was sometimes credited under an anagram to conceal the Master's identity from the viewers.) The pseudonym was used again in television listings magazines when he appeared in episode four of Psychoville, so as not to spoil his surprise appearance in advance.
In mainstream print, Gatiss is responsible for an acclaimed biography of the film director James Whale. His first non-Doctor Who novel, The Vesuvius Club, was published in 2004, for which he was nominated in the category of Best Newcomer in the 2006 British Book Awards. A follow up, The Devil in Amber, was released on 6 November 2006. It transports the main character, Lucifer Box, from the Edwardian era in the first book to the roaring Twenties/Thirties. A third and final Lucifer Box novel, Black Butterfly, was published on 3 November 2008 by Simon & Schuster.[21] In this the protagonist finds himself serving Queen Elizabeth II, in the Cold War era.
Gatiss also wrote, co-produced and appeared in Crooked House, a ghost story that was broadcast on BBC Four during Christmas 2008.

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

It doesn't come as too much of a suprise that Gatiss has perfectly captured all the best elements of the Third Doctor era seeing as his a big Pertwee fan.

This quintessential nostalgic tale hits all the right beats, it could quite conceivably have been a televised serial novelised.
From Pertwee's neck scratching trait to the small country village who's areodrome is hiding a monstrous secret adds to the Season Ten vibe.

It's a great showcase of the UNIT family and was the perfect choice for the Third Doctor as part of the 50th anniversary reprint collection back in 2013.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Gatiss gives good Who. This is most obvious in 'Past Doctor' books where he makes sure that what he is writing is, first and foremost, Doctor Who.

Other authors burst free from the constraints of 1970's television. They fill the sky with fleets of invading spaceships or send the doctor to far flung corners of the globe to fight huge monsters in epic battles of sex and blood.

But not our Mr Gatiss. He realises that proper Doctor Who aliens invade Earth by sneaking into small villages in the home counties. This one has a village green, a retired Wing Commander and – joy of joys – a fat policeman who summonses help with a trusty whistle.

The effect of this is, of course, is that reading the book is like watching a rediscovered series.

So far, the choices in the 2013 anniversary series have been a little odd in that the books have not really reflected the series. But this one and the next (Festival of Death) transport fans of a certain age back to the sofas they first hid behind.

[Scott Haworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can understand why some readers criticize this book for just being a standard Doctor Who adventure story, in that it does nothing groundbreaking or remarkably different with the characters or the story, but as a standard Doctor Who story, I can't really find fault with it. The horror elements of the story remind me of the Tom Baker years more than Jon Pertwee's era, but I'm not complaining. I've read too many below-average Doctor Who novels to complain about a good story told well.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1944, the lives of a newly-engaged couple in the East Anglican village of Culverton are shattered when what is taken to be a Nazi buzz bomb explodes nearby. Over three decades later, the aerodrome outside the village has been sold to an unknown organization whose smiling representatives promise to turn it into a major airport. Yet a retired RAF officer in the village suspicious of the motives of these mysterious people places a call to his old friend Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, prompting inquiries about the transaction. When the Doctor and Jo Grant arrive, they soon discover that the new owners are far more than they seem – and that they pose a threat not just to the nearby residents, but to all of humanity.

A longtime fan of the Doctor Who franchise, before he wrote scripts for the NuWho revival Mark Gatiss contributed several novels to the various in-franchise series the BBC produced in the 1990s and early 2000s. His affection for it is evident in this book, as it captures nicely the tone of a serial from the Third Doctor era. This faithfulness is both the novel’s strength and its main flaw, as he does little to explore the boundaries of the series or take things in a fresh direction. What he provides instead is the literary equivalent of comfort food: an enjoyable novel that provides a nostalgic revisit to a much-loved era of the franchise, complete with a less-than-surprising cameo that is included mainly for that reason. In that respect it offers much that is within the spirit of the Past Doctor Adventures series.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a little bit crazy when it comes to Doctor Who. Chances are, if it involves the Doctor, I want in on it -- I want to see it, I want to read it, Pin it, and/or I want to collect it. I pretty much begged the tour coordinator (thank you, Lisa!) at TLC Book Tours to get on the tour for at least one of the books in this 11 book, 50th Anniversary Collection. I must have convinced her that I was a Whovian since I ended up with two books from the series PLUS the new Who-ology Doctor Who book. I have to say that after reading just this one book, Last of the Gaderene, I'm probably going to have to make sure I get the rest of the books in the series.

What, you may be wondering is this book about and why is it worth reading? Well, for starters it's written by Mark Gatiss who isn't just an author of books, he's a multi-talented guy. He's written a few episodes for the actual Doctor Who TV series AND co-created a certain TV series about the world's only consulting detective for BBC and Masterpiece Mystery that you may have heard of called Sherlock (insert obligatory picture of Benedict Cumberbatch)! I know, right?! I thought just based on the author's background that it was probably going to be a stellar book and I wasn't disappointed at all.

Enough about the author, you really want to know about the book itself, right? Well, if you are at all familiar with any of the TV series's, the classic episodes or the reboots, you might know that the Doctor's favorite thing to do is to run! While we don't meet the Doctor in this book until a few chapters in, when we do meet him what do you think he's doing but running? This gave me a chuckle because I honestly didn't know what to expect in a Doctor Who story since (GASP!) I've never read one, but he was exactly the same as the Doctor I'm familiar with from the show. In that respect, Gatiss did an excellent job.

The story in and of itself moved along at a fast pace, as you might expect in any sci-fi adventure. The Doctor's companion and friends, Jo Grant and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart of U.N.I.T. help the Doctor to investigate the strange goings on at the newly closed Culverton Aerodrome. With citizens disappearing left and right, nobody's really sure what or who is behind it. The Doctor suspects something otherworldly and his gut turns out to be correct. It just so happens, the Gaderene's, as well as an old foe of the Doctor are busy plotting more than just a take over of a small English village but the destruction of humanity!

At just over 300 pages, this is one story that doesn't let up. I have to admit to being more weirded out by the Gaderene's than just about any of the aliens that the Doctor has encountered on all his adventures. I imagine I'm not alone in thinking that face sucking aliens and aliens that take over bodies are some of the all-time creepiest dudes! I get the heebie jeebies just thinking about those guys! In my opinion, it's books with not only memorable heroes but memorable foes that make the best stories. The only teeny thing that bothered me was that there were a lot of characters to keep track of so, while reading, I often had to take a second to stop and get them all straight in my head. However, I won't soon be letting this book go from my collection and highly recommend it to all Whovians and science fiction fans. Mark Gatiss did an excellent job and would have gained a fan for life in this girl if I wasn't already from all his top shelf TV work!

~ My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars ~

*I received a complimentary copy of this book for review from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255.*

[C. Hall · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't really like writing negative reviews, but unfortunately I feel compelled to do so after reading Doctor Who: Last of the Gaderene. My comments are not wholly negative; merely cautionary. And of course, your mileage may vary.

I normally enjoy Mark Gatiss' work, but in this instance I found his text over-written, rich in adverbial excess and passive voice. The pacing is meticulous to a fault, with the writer's attempts to breathe life into the supporting cast (an admirable goal) falling prey to what reads more like stalling for time and padding pages. And, while the basic plot perfectly emulates the structure of the typical Doctor Who serials of this period, the narrative misses the mark in several important ways: of the novel's first 100 pages (NOTE: pagination refers to the 2013 50th Anniversary edition), the Doctor appears on a mere 27 of them; for a U.N.I.T.-era adventure, there's rather a shortage of U.N.I.T.; and the alien menace's goals and methods are so familiar, so routinized that the menace is, by story's end, virtually indistinguishable from a dozen others we already know and love.

Sadly, had the book been about one third shorter, free of its too-numerous asides, Gatiss would've crafted a wonderful pastiche of the Pertwee era; the book definitely demonstrates a firm grasp of the show's flavor in that period. Instead, we're treated to a routine story that isn't really worthy of the space taken to tell it. Last of the Gaderene suffers from the same "decompression" effect that plagues too many modern comic books: in the interest of stretching the work to a desired length as opposed to one which develops organically, the work becomes bloated beyond its ideal scale. Of course, it's only fair to admit that classic Doctor Who--committed to X number of episodes per serial for budgetary reasons--often had exactly the same problem.

[Christopher Hatch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably one of the best Doctor Who books I have read so far. It is very much in the style of the series at the time with the extended UNIT family being used to good effect.

[Holly (2 Kids and Tired) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can honestly say that the third Doctor, amazingly portrayed by John Pertwee, really was my first Doctor. I have vague recollections of watching the last story in which the third Doctor, receiving a fatal dose of radiation, regenerates into the fourth Doctor. I remember being terrified at the spiders, and haunted watching the third Doctor struggle and fight for life.

So imagine my joy when I got to review a book about my very first Doctor, written by Mark Gatiss. If you are unfamiliar with who Mark Gatiss is, go and watch Sherlock, and also watch some of the Doctor Who episodes that were written by him.

I honestly felt like a little kid who had not only managed to find a candy jar, but empty it, put it back on the shelf and have no one notice.

Over the years, the storytelling in Doctor Who has changed, and yet each of the episodes has a familiar flow and timing. The Last of the Gaderene is so well-written and so perfectly balanced that it could easily have been plucked from the early 1970s. The characterizations are fantastic, both in the Doctor, his companion Jo, and the supporting cast of Unit members. Even the non-repeating characters are well-written, with a personality that just flows off the page. I will not spoil your enjoyment by giving away too much of the story, but this is one of those times where, as a child, you would watch the screen, and all of a sudden some creature or some person would be revealed, and your first thought would be ‘damn it – it’s……. again’.

I am grateful to Mark Gatiss for writing such a fantastic story, and for giving me a trip back to my childhood. They say you can never go home again, but in reading this I was back to being a 12-year-old boy sitting in my bedroom with the new Doctor Who book, oblivious to the world, and enthralled as once again the Doctor took me places and expanded my mind in ways that nobody else can, or ever will.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Gattis has written some of the most well-received episodes of the new series to date. Who can forget The Unquiet Dead? Or The Crimson Horror? I even like Victory of the Daleks(Yes, that's it. Facepalm all you want.). But how does his book compare to his Doctor Who episodes?

Well, the answer is, remarkably well. Mark Gattis has written a story here that never grows dull. You are entertained right from the moment Whistler loses his girlfriend during World War 2 to the part of the book where the Doctor briefly meets Whistler and shakes his hand. It feels very much like what you'd get if you stuck Robert Holmes, Steven Moffat and Mark Gattis in the same room and asked them to write a Doctor Who story.

The idea of the people being controlled by the Gaderene(blob things on the victims' faces) grinning insanely in particular is quite a creepy one. It's reminiscent of something from a RTD era Steven Moffat story.

However, don't get me wrong. The book does feel like it belongs in the Jon Pertwee era. It's pretty small-scale for a Doctor Who book(which usually have big blockbuster-style plots)but this only allows it to fit into the Jon Pertwee era canon easier. Any character you would associate with this era during Jo Grant's time as companion is present. Even a certain former enemy of the Doctor's has a part to play. There couldn't have possibly been a better choice to represent the Jon Pertwee era in this 50th anniversary reissue collection.

So overall, a fantastic book that's as good as any Mark Gattis episode of Doctor Who and a fun read from start to finish.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a kid who grew up in America in the 70's and 80's my first Doctor was Tom Baker and for most kids of that time Tom Baker has always remained their favorite Doctor. Not me. Once I saw Jon Pertwee as Doctor Who when they started airing his episodes on public television I found my favorite Doctor. This still stands today. Jon Pertwee was a very suave Doctor with his smoking jacket and demeanor. He was very different from all the other Doctors. He was a scientist, a colleague and a friend. His episodes in the 70's definitely had a unique feeling to them. I loved it. Mark Gatiss captured all of that superbly in this novel. Throughout the entirety of the novel I felt like that kid again watching an episode of his favorite Doctor. The delivery of the story was exceptional. Spearhead from Space and Terror of the Autons all over again. Gatiss really managed to capture the essence of the Doctor and other characters as well, such as Jo Grant, The Brigadier and even Sgt Benton. They never did or said anything that seemed out of character for them.

The novel is truly a wonderful read for any fan of Science Fiction whether you are a fan of Doctor Who or not. Being a Doctor Who fan, especially a Pertwee fan, just makes it that much more of a treat.

Highly Recommended!!!

[Stephen Osborne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good story, and some very good characters. Noah and the Wing Commander were great. But points taken away for hissing. At least five times, "Hissed" is used instead of said. As in, "Go away!" he hissed. This doesn't normally bother me, even when the phrase doesn't have any sibilant sounds. I know what the author is intending. But 5 times? Really, find another phrase. And then we have the Master, who snap his fingers...shortly after being described as wearing gloves. Ever try to snap your fingers while wearing gloves? Damned near impossible. Actually, I think it IS impossible. So a good story and great writing is marred by sloppy editing. Okay, I'm done now. I'm going to go off and hiss the name Noah a few times, just to see.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2235024.html[return][return]This is a satisfying return to well-known themes of the Third Doctor's era - the country village, the Master, the sinister scientific installation, the aliens taking over people's bodies - updated for the audience of the year 2000, with the government being rather more obviously malicious rather than incompetent.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK fair does I have actually already read this book, but felt like re-reading it on the ole Kindle device as its part of the 50th anniversary reissue hooh-hah. This is a nice copper bottomed Pertwee era romp and v. enjoyable. By far the worst bit is in the first couple of pages where there is SLAVERING at Jo Grant in a hot pink bikini. We get it dude! Formative years and all that! But DO keep the screwdriver in yr pants.

[Tjb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is what Who is meant to be like, reading this was like a trip back in time for me. Mr gatiss gets it.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confusing- I like Doctor who, I like the Third Doctor, I like Mark Gatiss' writing, but somehow these elements fail to coalesce.

[Elizabeth (Miss Eliza) · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Special Content only on my blog, Strange and Random Happenstance during I ♥ ♥ The Doctor (October-December 2013)

Wing Commander Alec Whistler fell in love with the town of Culverton, as well as a young lady, when he was stationed there during the war flying spitfires out of the aerodrome. He might have lost the love of his life in an air raid, but thankfully he survived the war and went on to make Culverton his home. Though as the village fete approaches it is a sad day in Culverton because the Ministry of Defense has closed the aerodrome and sold it to a mysterious company, Legion International, "getting us where we want to go." When Legion International breaks the quite of this quaint town with their loud lorries and there black-shirted employees who are a little overzealous in meting out punishment on those that stand in their way, Whistler calls up an old friend with connections to get to the bottom of what is going on.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is glad to help an old friend. Luckily The Doctor is still hanging around, though his imposed exile on 20th century earth, which included a forced regeneration, has blessedly been lifted, the Brigadier asks for him and Jo Grant to check out the situation in Culverton. The instant they arrive they know something is wrong. The head of operations at Legion International, Bliss, is an odd and secretive woman. Plus, when The Doctor sneaks into the air hangers he sees somethings that don't add up with the company's proposed purpose. Why a vertical wind tunnel? Then the very man they came to meet, Wing Commander Alec Whistler, disappears, and his young neighbor, Noah, who was doing some investigating with Whistler shows up in such a state of shock his life is feared for. Whistler isn't the only one who has disappeared... though some have returned. Different. Smiling. Strange. The Doctor calls in the Brigadier to come to Culverton. He needs his governmental clout, and if that doesn't work, he needs his weapons.

It is no surprise to me that when they chose the lineup of books to mark the 50th anniversary this year that among them was a Mark Gatiss book. Besides being one of the writers for the new series he is a fanboy extraordinaire through and through. Even if you haven't read the book's introduction, where he rhapsodizes about his new Zygon and his three different Jon Pertwee action figures, you just need to watch any one of his Doctor Who Confidentials to realize how much he knows about Doctor Who and how much he loves it. He fits into that rare category that David Tennant and Russell T. Davies occupied on Confidential, where he can just talk for hours on the subject but yet make it interesting. It didn't surprise me in the least when two of the three of these men left Doctor Who that Confidential wasn't able to endure. They were that show. In fact, Mark Gatiss can easily be credited with helping Doctor Who survive during its extended hiatus, during which time he wrote many Doctor Who books, Last of the Gaderene being one of them.

Though all these foreknowledge just made me leery that the book might not live up to the hype that I had created in my own mind. I mean, sure, Gatiss is a successful writer outside the sphere of Doctor Who, quite awhile before I even knew who he was I had picked up his first Lucifer Box book, The Vesuvius Club, based on a blurb on the cover by Stephen Fry, and I wasn't disappointed. In fact his fun camp series fits very well within the same genre as Doctor Who. But the fact has to be pointed out that while a gifted writer, he does have a tendency to stick to a proscribed series of tropes. Gatiss has a predilection for a period atmosphere, usually Victorian or WWII, and a desire to bring in the military... of course, the more I think about this, The 3rd Doctor being The Doctor of his formative years, perhaps these themes are actually a result of Doctor Who! The Doctor being stranded on earth in the 20th Century and having to work with UNIT... yes... this might explain a lot. But it also means that when asked to write a book for said Doctor, well, he didn't disappoint.

If you've picked up this book, you are obviously a Doctor Who fan. I can't really see anyone picking this book up on a whim, though I bet it would still work, but don't take my word for it. There is a chance though that you might not be too familiar with this Doctor. What Gatiss has done is given us a little glimpse, a vignette, of The Third to ease us into the story. While Last of the Gaderene takes place while The Doctor is still working with UNIT, he is no longer technically stranded on earth anymore. In a little side jaunt celebrating his freedom we get some classic Jon Pertwee moments as he races through a jungle in his puffy shirt and tight slacks, white hair haloing his head. A karate chop here and there, celebrating the "action Doctor" that he is with his cape flying behind him. In just this short little chapter you see not only his mannerisms and sartorial choices, but with his willingness to sacrifice himself for someone he barely knows, you see that compassion that is a hallmark of The Doctor. You can also feel the glee that Gatiss had in writing this camp Doctor in all his glory. A true passion for your subject can really go a long way to make the reader love the story as well.

But what made me fall for the book was it's pure Britishness. The real star of this book is the village of Culverton and it's beautiful English way of life that is shattered. The fact that the vicar and The Doctor show the most amount of concern for a tire track tearing up the edge of the village green just makes me giggle with glee, much the way I do for all of Hot Fuzz, which has a similar MO. What appeals to this yank about British television and literature is this quaint idealized way of country life. The village fetes and tombolas. The village green and the local pub. A place that is timeless whenever the story takes place. Yet it's the stories that take it one step further, the ones, like Midsomer Murders, that show us the evil that lurks beneath the surface. They break the sanctity of this idealized life. The calm that is broken with an alien invasion force in full black-shirt regalia. Yes please! I feel it in my bones that this level of campy satire with the dandy of a Third Doctor was perfectly realized with this book and is the first book in this select series which I would heartily recommend, despite the fact that oddly, yet again, we have a "legion" mind meld, telepathic thing going on, which I guess must be the theme... we'll have to see if Tom Baker stumbles onto it next...

[Scott Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last of the Gadarene, first published in 2000 and reissued in 2013 as part of the 50th Anniversary Collection, is clearly Mark Gatiss' homage to the Doctor Who of his childhood. The adventure depicted in the book could very well be a lost TV story complete with all the Pertwee-era tropes: a quaint English village beset by alien invaders; the Doctor, Jo and the full UNIT crew; a government minister, a vicar, and even a quasi village idiot; a very large monster; and, of course, a late appearance by the Doctor's nemesis. Gatiss barely takes advantage of the written format to offer anything a TV serial could not achieve, though the early '70s BBC production crew might have struggled to do this story justice. Still, this was not his aim and he writes well enough to make it a pleasure to read.

[Gareth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Gatiss goes for the nostalgia in this very accurate and quite fun Third Doctor and UNIT story, about a town slowly being taken over by strange people in sunglasses.

The prose is lovely and there are some creepy moments. The story though might be better suited to the length of a Target novelisation, and the inclusion of a fan favourite baddie near the end feels gratuitous.

It’s somewhat thin but it will likely scratch an itch for big fans of the UNIT Family.

[Ace · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Doctor Who and the Last of the Gaderene" is a Doctor Who prose book featuring the Third Doctor and his companion/"assistant", Jo Grant. The word "prose" may be new to you, so allow me to explain briefly; Doctor Who has a very unique view of canon, in that time travel can change the outcome of certain events that aren't "time locked", and that the Doctor can travel to other worlds in his TARDIS, as well. This means that each specific line of Doctor Who media has its own canon; the Doctor Who show its own, the Big Finish Audio Adventures their own, the comic books their own, and so on and so forth. Prose is a Doctor Who book that is NOT based on an episode of the show, like the Target books were. Generally, prose stories are conflicting in their opinions on the Whoniverse; there may be one where a certain character's wife dies in a tragic accident, but another by a different author where she dies of old age. It's important to remember while reading this book (Though not as important while reading others), that it IS prose, not a real episode. This could save you hide during many-a Whovian arguments you may encounter.

Now that I've finished my explanation, on to the story! This book is about a race of aliens trying to save themselves, as their planet is being destroyed; a very common Doctor Who premise, as this is how the Doctor first met the Cybermen, for example. These aliens, called the "Gaderene", can "possess" people to some degree, by entering their bodies through their mouths, and sitting in their stomachs. The Doctor, Jo, and the Brigadier must find out why this small town of Culverton is having such big issues; and they of course, find that aliens are to blame. The book revolves around their discovery of the issue and the details surrounding it, however, the book takes a lot of time out to follow one-off characters around, who have lots to do with this invasion and Culverton. I personally thought a bit less time could've been spent on them, but it didn't ruin the book for me.

The book itself isn't necessarily a long read, but not a short one, either; expect it to take you a few days, at the least. The vocabulary is a tad difficult if you're not British, as many words they use are not familiar to the Americans, and you'll see this very soon into beginning your journey through this novel. I'd suggest to use the Cambridge British Dictionary online to find the British definitions of these words, as many are also false positives (Meaning that they hold different significance in American English than British.)

All in all, I'd most DEFINITELY suggest this book to anyone who likes Sci-Fi, or is a Whovian. I don't want to ruin the story, but there are some WONDERFUL moments regarding the Master in this book, and I quite enjoyed them. They show him in a light the show doesn't typically cover, albeit this light is short-lived and rare. But it's worth reading it even for those moments.

If you want any proof that this book stands out among Doctor Who books, realise that the BBC chose it to be in the 11-book collection called "11 Doctors, 11 Stories" (To my recollection- the name may be a tad off.) This was chosen as THE Third Doctor story, and within good reason!

[Stacie (MagicOfBooks) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will also do a video review here at my channel: http://www.youtube.com/magicofbooks

"Last of the Gaderene" by Mark Gatiss features the Third Doctor and his companions Jo Grant and Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. Black-shirted troops appear mysteriously in the town of Culverton, taking over the aerodrome. Strange things are happening to the villagers, and the Doctor figures out that these mysterious figures are set out to colonize the Earth, with the help from a familiar someone from the Doctor's past.

I did enjoy this installment to the 50th anniversary collection. I think it was the easiest one to comprehend after the first two adventures. But not much happened. The book seriously had some great potential. You know how there is a beginning, middle, and end to a story? Well...this book had a beginning for 200 pages, and then an ending with the last 100. Where was the middle? For 200 pages it felt like the book was still trying to introduce the story and more characters (seriously, there's tons of characters in this story who are all hard to keep straight, and who all have their own individual stories within the frame of the novel). Character after character is introduced, and each time we see how the Gaderene (the aliens who are taking over the town of Culverton) are possessing the townspeople one by one. I don't think the novel needed to show 10+ people getting possessed by the weird bug-parasite-creatures. Maybe showing three people, but after a while, the process got repetitive. Outside of this, the novel was great. It was incredibly well written, very detailed, descriptive, and the dialogue and characters were fantastic. Like I said, the majority of the novel felt like one big setup and then you're just dropped right in the very end of the story without their being an inbetween to the story.

As for the Doctor himself...these books are so strange. It's called "Doctor Who," so you expect to see the title character, right? In this installment, the Doctor isn't as present as I thought he would be. A lot of the focus is on various townspeople, Jo Grant, or even on some of the Gaderene. The Doctor is almost like a secondary character in some ways. The Doctor at least participates heavily in the action and is the one who figures things out and sets up the final plans on how to destroy the Gaderene. So he's much more active than the Doctor back in "Ten Little Aliens." The Doctor isn't really put to use until the final conflict. He was still very fun to read and I think his personality as the third Doctor really came through. Plus there's the addition of the Master to the story, which really amps up the Doctors character. I was so surprised to see the Master! It was interesting to see how his character fit into the overall story and what his purposes were in helping the Gaderene.

Overall, I did enjoy this book. I liked this one over "Ten Little Aliens" and "Dreams of Empire" I think. Some of the issues I had could have easily been fixed.

[Jacob Licklider · Rating 4 out of 5]

In his introduction to the 2013 edition of Last of the Gaderene author Mark Gatiss spends some time on the Target novels and what they meant to him. He spent several days as a child when sick reading through his Jon Pertwee novelizations including Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks. It is these periods of his life which largely inspired the writing of Last of the Gaderene and as such much of its style and plot harkens back to those small novelizations, just in the format of a full-length Doctor Who novel. And as stated above, it was one of the Past Doctor Adventures given a reprint in 2013 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. Of these books, I have already written reviews for Dreams of Empire and Players, but it is Last of the Gaderene which best represents the style of the Doctor’s era it was used to represent. Gatiss’ prose is simple: actions are performed succinctly moving the plot along quickly in the book’s 300 page count and sentences are short, flowing rapidly through the chapters. There are several nods to the Target novelization range such as one chapter being aptly titled ‘Escape to Danger’ and several textual callbacks are included as well, namechecking Metabelis Three, the fact that the Doctor has recently had his TARDIS restored, and that the Doctor is now free to travel as a Time Lord. While other Doctor Who novels try to push the envelope in storytelling, Last of the Gaderene is content to tell a traditional Third Doctor and UNIT story, trapping itself firmly in the era and striving to be a novelization of an unseen adventure. This is not a bad thing, by any means, but it is something that a potential reader should be aware of if they were to pick this book up.

The plot invokes several previous UNIT stories, most obviously The Daemons and The Green Death, by sending the Doctor, Jo, and UNIT to the village of Culverton where an old friend of the Brigadier’s has called for help and Legion International has taken up the space of an RAF aerodrome in the city. People are disappearing and reappearing as if they never left, and of course everything is really a front for an alien invasion orchestrated by the Master. The Gaderene are a parasitic species which take over the minds of their hosts as embryos, leaving them as happy husks of themselves which is where Mark Gatiss uses his style to inject some pulpy horror into the novel. Their plan is a simple “invade the Earth so they can survive” affair, and the Doctor, as he would, wishes to help them, but as they are only interested in taking over from humanity, there is nothing else he can do. The Master’s involvement, post-Frontier in Space, is largely confined to the final third of the novel which helps to evoke the atmosphere of a Season 10 story (apparently Gatiss took some inspiration from the unmade The Final Game for this book) where an ill advised alliance does not end well for the Master. Where the Master’s character is lacking here, however, is that the interactions with the Doctor, which is what made the Delgado incarnation especially brilliant, are lacking with really only one final confrontation at the end. That confrontation is fine and good, the Doctor and the Master being characterized well, and the final line of the book summarizing their relationship really well as just old friends from school, but it does leave the reader really wanting more from Gatiss and the book itself.

The actual villain of the book when the Master isn’t there (so the first two-thirds) is the aptly named Bliss, whom Gatiss characterizes as a woman stuck in this haze. Bliss is essentially a human agent who has been taken over first by the Gaderene who can’t really keep her story straight and is teetering on the edge of a fit of laughter. It’s one of two places where the Gaderene parasites are really characterized well and the horror implicit in the parasite is actually there. The other place is the moments where a woman’s husband is taken over and she goes nearly catatonic as her world has been raptured. The Doctor’s first meeting with Bliss is excellent as UNIT watches on and Bliss is caught in a lie about geography which reveals much more about what Legion International is doing. The Gaderene themselves pull from Stoker’s The Lair of the White Worm for their form and the only living adult lives in the marsh, attacking people and Jo Grant, who is just as spunky and proactive as ever in this novel. It becomes the standard Doctor Who monster in these scenes, think like the Primords from Inferno.

While Jo Grant is excellent here, reflecting on how her relationship with the Doctor has changed now that The Three Doctors has happened and some foreshadowing of her departure in The Green Death is included, the rest of the UNIT family doesn’t fair as well. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is fine, but is relegated to the role of standard UNIT commander and without the performance from Nicholas Courtney, he feels more like a character for the Doctor and Jo to simply explain things to. Sergeant Benton and Mike Yates are both served even less well, being pushed to the background where they really don’t get a lot of characterization. This is at least in keeping with Season 10 and the style of story that Letts and Dicks were telling at that point, though is disappointing when compared to the other books to feature UNIT in much more depth. The supporting cast are also stock characters from stories like The Daemons and The Green Death with a priest, the evil corporate overlord, the dottering old woman who helps everyone out, and several children. Because of this they are all more memorable than they have any real right to be.

Overall, Last of the Gaderene reads like a love letter to Mark Gatiss’ childhood reading Target novels, and as that is what the book was meant to do it is a success. The book falls slightly by not doing much outside of providing a standard Season 10 Doctor Who story, making it fall below some other Third Doctor novels which are just leaps and bounds better. It still makes an enjoyable read and is worth a look, but you shouldn’t go in expecting something absolutely groundbreaking and brilliant. 8/10.

[Adam James · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think it's safe to assume that the BBC chose this particular Third Doctor story to re-publish for the 50th Anniversary Collection because it's written by Mark Gatiss. Few Doctor Who authors have had the same kind of success as Mark Gatiss, thus, it makes sense that a little name recognition might sell a few more books.
Which is a shame, because Last of the Gaderene is a dud.
Not a terrible dud, mind you. Just a run-of-the-mill, mediocre, meh kind of dud.

I'm still not entirely clear what The Master is doing in this story. But, to be fair, as Mark Gatiss is obviously perusing 1970's Doctor Who tropes, most Master stories don't make a hell of a lot of sense.

Plus, could Gatiss have developed the Gaderene more significantly?
They need a new home.
That's it.
We know the life story of 17 random characters, but all we know about the Gaderene is they're spider crabs from space who want to colonize Earth. Like the Zygons, or the Ice Warriors, or the Silurians, or every other Who villain.

So yeah - a somewhat fun read. But I'd like to think there are wayyyy better Third Doctor stories to adapt. Maybe in another 50 years...

[Sara Habein · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Well, if I'm honest, it might be between 3 and 4 stars, but I'm a hopeless Who apologist, so I'm rounding up.)

This Third Doctor story, despite its problems (so many, many adverbs and characters' POV), feels very much in the spirit of Jon Pertwee’s time on the show. It’s interesting to see Mark Gatiss at an earlier writing stage, and it’s to our viewing benefit that he’s progressed so well. I still recommend Last of The Gaderene to fans of the show, and I’m hoping to further expand my knowledge of the Doctor’s literary universe.

Catch my full review over at Glorified Love Letters.

[Miki · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Doctor, Jo, the Brigadier and UNIT go to the rescue of a friend of the Brigadier's and the other people in the same small village from a mysterious legion, suspiciously and increasingly more and more similar to an army bent on keeping secret all of their operations in the aerodrome they took base in. As villagers start acting weird and disappearing, the Doctor and his friends find out a much bigger danger, coming from very far away with the help of an old enemy of the Doctor's, is threatening the whole humanity.
This book wasn't particularly fascinating for me, most of the plot as well as the side characters seemed clichéd... Though at the very end tge suspence does grow.

[Bee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, I gave this a 4 star because overall, it was a pretty good story. The setting, action, story and resolution is VERY Third Doctor… The Third Doctor himself though, kind of slips in and out of his persona a little which is pretty disappointing as Mark Gatiss claims that Jon Pertwee was HIS Doctor (he's MY Doctor too!). Despite the wobbly wobbly nature of the Third Doctor's character being in question, everything and everyone else in the book is on form and the general plot is interesting. I can't imagine how they would have made this into an episode for the Third Doctor though, but it did fit him very well.
On a side note, I swear Mark Gatiss has a thing for Spitfires….

[Favian · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is an extra oomph when the story is told with the location and time on present-day Earth because the author is given the additional challenge of incorporating alien life forms in an otherwise normal setting. The Gaderene were vile creatures (described comprehensively) that needed a new home at the expense of human beings. The Third Doctor lived up to his billing. It was accurate on Gatiss' part to include UNIT. However, the Doctor's scene with Rujjis and General Gogon were extraneous and the main plot would still have worked had those particular chapters been omitted.

[Elisabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Gatiss isn't the greatest writer in the world; I had to struggle over some clunky sentence construction and weird paragraph formatting issues to get to the story inside. The story, however, proves worth it. Monsters invade an idyllic small town, a la classic Who; the Brig and the Doctor respond each in their own way, Jo makes important discoveries while getting into trouble, a surprise guest puts in an appearance, and local heroes save the day. Good fun, great classic Who, and an excellent choice for inclusion in the 50th anniversary series.

[Jack Iles · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was by far the creepiest story I have read this year... The imagery that Mark Gatiss conjures is, frankly, horrific. Scaly, segmented worms with hundreds of mandibles latching onto people's faces, feeding off innocent village folk like parasites are but a few examples of the terror contained within these pages. Oh God do not give this to a child. They will never touch a book again... or seafood.

[Jeffrey Henning · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite Doctors has to save the world, yet again! This was a great story of how aliens invade - more like the old stuff though, like body snatchers and puppet masters. This story had great amounts of horror, adventure, UNIT, and the best part - the Doctor! It even had the master, though to me it seems like he was thrown in there at the end, in order to make the plot work, which is the only reason I'm giving this a four, instead of a five.

[Joni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Gatiss and his Spitfires again. Will he never learn?
Good, though. Plot kept together nicely, an able cast of supporting characters, and Three is his badass self.