Doctor Who: Warchild

Doctor Who: Virgin New Adventures #47

by Andrew Cartmel

Creed is a secret agent working for the gove rnment, which is keeping secrets from him. The Doctor suspec ts the truth and moves to intervene. Warchild is the shatter ing conclusion to the dark trilogy which began with Warhead and continued in Warlock. '

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction

314 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1996

Reviews

[Mikey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Seeing as this is a follow up to Warlock, I’m gonna refer back to my review of that a bit here. Like Warlock, Warchild is... a lot. Except while Warlock actually has plenty of interesting ideas that maybe just don’t all quite gel, Warchild is just... a whole lot of nothing.

Once again, it follows on from the spirit of Warlock where it just feels like it should’ve been a totally original novel that just had the Who elements slapped into the mix later on. Except it’s even worse this time.
Roz gets centre stage (well, maybe like a third ways towards the centre) and even then she’s pretty ‘undercooked’ and just there to shoot things I guess. She gets a moment worthy of going on the front cover at least? Well, not really, but there’s not really much that leaps out as a cover-worthy moment so...
Meanwhile, Benny and the Doctor get about five minutes of hanging about the House on Allen Road doing stuff (seriously the very brief time we spend there throughout the 310 pages was easily the most interesting). And Chris barely even gets a mention - his presence during his ‘mission’ for the Doctor is just... meh.

And then there’s the returning characters. Justine’s basically transformed into a non-entity, and Creed is just... deep sigh... really not as interesting or engaging as I feel like Cartmel thinks he is. We spend about an entire page of Warlock being told in graphic detail how Creed makes himself something to eat. In Warchild, this is now mainly replaced by regular paragraphs of Creed being horny and leering over women. At one point, after we’re treated to an insight of how a certain way Justine walks is very attractive to Creed, we then get told that his teenage daughter seemingly has the same kind of walk? What even...? Yeah, let’s just leave that one alone I think.

Speaking of the kids, a large part of the story focuses on Justine and Creed’s son Ricky, and we’re treated to some Stephen King-lite high school supernatural shenanigans. There’s probably some good stuff in here but so much of it just gets so bogged down I’d be lying if I said anything leaped out to me there. There’s also the youngest kid Eve who... exists, I guess?

But yeah, this rounds out the fairly meh ‘War’ trilogy. (Also what happened to this being set in a kind of “near future” setting? This is meant to be like 15+ years after Warlock, I’m fairly sure, but it feels like it could’ve been set like a long time before the other two books even just going by like references to technology and whatever.)

Overall, while I’m a big fan of Cartmel’s contributions to TV Who, I can’t say the same for his prose.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a lot to dislike here.

[Kaoru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading up (not just) contemporary reviews of this book is a bit funny. When the New Who seasons did a "Doctor-lite" story, the results are often considered interesting to successful examples of how stretchable the show's formula is. But in the 90s, when the books took the approach of having the titular character in the back seat, it was a source of complaints.

"Warchild" dives deep into the psychology of its guest characters, a good chunk of them carrying over from Cartmel's previous NA outing, "Warlock", going to places with them that aren't comfortable and yet compelling to read about, so you don't really mind when you encounter another chapter that doesn't feature the Doctor, Benny, Chris, and Roz. Besides, the main characters are featured more prominently in the story than some reviews want to make you think. Also, the less the Doctor is taking center stage, the more powerful he appears to be, especially in this incarnation.

Some inevitable 90s edginess aside, I do kind of miss these types of stories, those books and audios from the time when the show wasn't on the air with new episodes. There was this blip in which the authors were pushing the boundaries of themes and structure, not just looking for what else a Doctor Who story could be, but also how far they could actually go with it. Naturally, Andrew Cartmel was one of those who took it furthest. If you look at his TV work on the show, especially the last two seasons, of course he would be.

[Danny Welch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andrew Cartmel's war trilogy started out as pretty strong in many fans' eyes, with Warlock being the popular of the three. The conclusion, unfortunately, is a mixed-bag; whether it works depends on the reader. It's only now I've finally reached the concluding novel of this trilogy and I can't wait to give it a go and to see what I think.

Terrible events are taking place in the west. London is under siege by a pack of bloodthirsty canines and the streets are littered with corpses of the deceased. The news hasn't spread like wildfire yet; the government has put a coverup in place, but how long can such a coverup last? Meanwhile, in America, Ricky lives an isolated life with an incredible ability he doesn't know to handle. Unfortunately for him, someone is on his trail and that someone knows who his real father is. Around the world, The Doctor and his friends are preparing for one last battle as a terrible vengeance that's been brewing for years finally reveals itself.

Andrew Cartmel has written an intense and mature novel that nicely wraps up the War Trilogy with a pretty bow, but that isn't to say there aren't any problems. The characters in this are well-written, the world-building and atmosphere executed throughout this trilogy is as wonderful as ever. But unfortunately, the story suffers from not only a rushed ending, but from the fact that a series of characters important to this trilogy don't show up nearly as often as they should. It's a shame because it's a well-written trilogy only to die with a whimper.

I liked what was in this novel, but it did occasionally get sidelined by the scenes featuring Creed. Some of his scenes should have been cut out and replaced with a few additional scenes at the ending to make it a much stronger finale. But I still enjoyed this finale and, despite my criticisms, it still left me satisfied.

Overall: It's a pretty good book, that's well written but unfortunately gets a little distracted in a few places. 8/10

[Xanxa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I should point out that this is book three of a trilogy and I haven't had the benefit of reading the first two books.

This is one of those wild surreal adventures where very little makes sense. (Maybe it would make more sense if I'd read the first two books). Most of the plot focuses on the guest characters and relatively little on the Doctor. His companions only have quite small roles too, mostly working for some sort of agency which deals with emergency situations.

The main character seems to be a teenage boy who can exert control over others, despite wanting to remain unnoticed. His power is coveted by the villain of the story, who stays undercover throughout most of the book, only revealing his true identity towards the end.

There's a side plot relating to a man in some sort of coma/suspended animation, whose brain has been transferred to a dog. (How this happened isn't mentioned. Presumably it happened in one of the earlier books in the trilogy). The Doctor manages to sort him out and get his brain back where it belongs. He still has some canine instincts, which provide humorous moments in the story.

Despite not knowing what went before, I enjoyed this book immensely. It was very well written and the guest characters were memorable. I hope I can track down the first two parts at some point. In which case, I'll update this review.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Andrew Cartmel -- script editor of "Doctor Who" during the 7th Doctor era -- is incredibly talented. All his books are extremely engaging, terrifying, and very well written. It's a shame they aren't really "Doctor Who" novels. They're all apocalyptic, near-future techno-thrillers, with only tenuous connections to "Doctor Who"...and this is very much evident with "Warchild". It's one hell of a violent, exciting roller coaster of destruction and violence. You'll eat up the prose. But (pause for BIG sigh) it would have been much more satisfying had it actually INVOLVED the Doctor and his companions in some substantial way, other than as silent observers or hijacked pseudo-prisoners. You'll have to make up your own mind about its place in the Whoniverse...but for what its worth, it would be easy to remove those elements and leave behind a solid stand-alone novel.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2185263.html[return][return]I kept feeling that I had forgotten important bits of continuity, and the plot seemed to be trying to merge high-school supernatural, spy stories and possessed-animal-horror without the same success that Buffy had; while from the Whovian end, the Doctor and companions didn't really have all that much to do with events. I did develop an interest in the emotional journeys of the main guest character and his son, but was generally a little disappointed.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book doesn't seem particularly interested in our main TARDIS crew (Benny seems to just disappear at the end for one?) which would be fine if it was a story where I felt the supporting cast were particularly strong. Unfortunately I couldn't care less about Creed's mid-life crisis affair, or the amount of focus it's given. That coupled with the extreme buying in to alpha male theory and the fact that this doesn't feel like it's building anything interesting or new on top of Cartmel's last two VNAs meant that I really didn't enjoy it at all.

[Justin K. Rivers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nuanced, suspensful, and deftly written. The pieces of the giant puzzle begun in Warhead and Warlock fit together in this, the third in Cartmel's War trilogy. Unusually satisfying for a TV tie in novel. The Doctor is largely a background character, but the lynchpin in an intricate web of plot.

[H · Rating 2 out of 5]

The TARDIS crew, undeniably at quite an important developmental stage, are hardly in this one. In itself, this isn't inherently an issue - I thought Warlock managed to balance the team and the primary cast well. The trouble is, like Warlock, I get the sense that Cartmel wants us to care about Creed. Whereas in Warlock, I felt a deep ambivalence, in Warchild, I felt a profound dislike for him. I simply didn't care about his midlife crisis, nor the affair to accompany it. Arguably, he seems like quite an unlikeable person all around. The book primarily focuses on Ricky, whom felt a little too clichéd as the 'outcast kid with superpowers' especially prominent in American school media, and so I felt little concern for him, either. Chris is barely in the novel, and when he is, is in a disguise. Benny quite literally vanishes from the plot for.... reasons? The Doctor and Benny have a brief plot thread, before losing it to the mighty tempest of the McIlveen plot. The book gives Roz a bit to do, which is nice, especially after Just War, but I can't help but feel like she lacked the development she gained there. In all, not a pleasant read, let alone a satisfying conclusion to a trilogy. I wouldn't really recommend this book to... anyone. And it spends far too long focusing on the dog crisis, which in itself isn't even part of the main villain plan! A frustrating read. 3/10.

[City Mist · Rating 3 out of 5]

As script editor for Doctor Who proper, Andrew Cartmel presided over one of the most beloved eras in the show's history, but I just can't get behind his New Adventures. They're too broad in scope, and the focus on America feels wrong.

[Arthur B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Must-read stuff, not because it's actually good, but because it's an absolutely hilarious trainwreck of 1990s tropes. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/202...

[Nicholas]

Cartmel weaves together all the threads from his War- trilogy into a satisfying conclusion...even if it didn't have enough of Benny for my taste.

[Kris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Whilst it has a good authorial voice it is essentially all chapter one and nothing ever gets going. Entertaining enough but no classic.

EDIT: On my second reading I found it significantly poorer. I found it dull, full of pseudo-science nonsense, barely has any of the main characters in it and a really poor conclusion to the trilogy.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid end to the WAR series that paints the Doctor in a somewhat scary light (for how he's willing to use people, then toss them aside). It's got a low action quotient, but great writing and great character that makes it a page turner.

[Adam Highway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marvellous rounding off of the arc although the change in Vincent takes me a little by surprise. It's very good, and very much how I like my 7th Doctor and companions; dark, devious and dangerous to know. Cartmel's 7th is fucking fantastic!

[Mae R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliantly written Roz was a rare, rare treat. Pity it couldn't last.