Doctor Who: City of Death

Doctor Who by Douglas Adams #2

by James Goss

The Doctor takes Romana for a holiday in Paris – a city which, like a fine wine, has a bouquet all its own. Especially if you visit during one of the vintage years. But the TARDIS takes them to 1979, a table-wine year, a year whose vintage is soured by cracks – not in their wine glasses but in the very fabric of time itself.

Soon the Time Lords are embroiled in an audacious alien scheme which encompasses home-made time machines, the theft of the Mona Lisa, the resurrection of the much-feared Jagaroth race, and the beginning (and quite possibly the end) of all life on Earth.

Aided by British private detective Duggan, whose speciality is thumping people, the Doctor and Romana must thwart the machinations of the suave, mysterious Count Scarlioni – all twelve of him – if the human race has any chance of survival.

But then, the Doctor’s holidays tend to turn out a bit like this.

Featuring the Fourth Doctor as played by Tom Baker, City of Death is a novel by James Goss based on the 1979 Doctor Who story written by Douglas Adams under the pen-name David Agnew. City of Death is one of the best-loved serials in the show’s 50-year history and was watched by over 16 million viewers when first broadcast.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Time Travel, Humor, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fantasy

320 pages, Paperback

First published May 25, 2015

About the author

James Goss has written two Torchwood novels and a radio play, as well as a Being Human book. His Doctor Who audiobook Dead Air won Best Audiobook 2010. James also spent seven years working on the BBC's official Doctor Who website and co-wrote the website for Torchwood Series One. In 2007, he won the Best Adaptation category in the annual LA Weekly Theatre Awards for his version of Douglas Adams' novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.

Reviews

[Kevin Kuhn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A friend gave me this book, because he knew I was a fan of Douglas Adams and Doctor Who. Yeah, full disclosure, I’m a huge fan of Douglas Adams. This novel has a bit of history, it’s novelized by James Goss, based on a television script by Douglas Adams, which was originally commissioned and based on an original script by David Fischer. I learned in the Afternote, that David Fischer was unable to do a rewrite of his script as he was going through a divorce and Douglas Adams jumped in and knocked it out in a weekend – and wow. It’s one of the most watched Dr. Who episodes and on many critic’s all-time top five Dr. Who Episode lists.
I went into the book with some trepidation. How much Adams would come through, being someone else’s story and then rewritten by another author in novel form. So, first chapter, my impression is that it was dripping with Adams’ style and jocularity. I figured it would fade over time, but nope, never did. You see, what I love about Adams is not only his wit and humor, but his relentless clever observations on life, the universe, and everything (see what I did there?). I’ll never know exactly what parts was by Goss, or Fischer, or Adams, but in the end, it doesn’t matter, I’m still going to assume that all the best parts were Adams – sorry Mr. Goss and Mr. Fischer.

This story starts with the Doctor and his companion taking a holiday in France, and like a lost tourist finding their way though Paris, meanders its way into a story about the end of planet and an explanation of all of mankind’s progress and advancement. There is clearly a love of Paris and France that comes shining through, but Adams manages to disparage and insult the French in the nicest and most charming way. The story, of course, stays connected to the Dr. Who threads and themes, with wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey bits about aliens, time travel, and the sonic screwdriver. But what I really love about this book is the unrivaled Adam’s telltale dry, English-wit-filled observations. Some examples:

- The Renaissance was charming, what with that lazy smoky sunshine. But quite a lot of that smoke was caused by burning heretics, thinkers and the eccentrically dressed. Oh dear.
- You can be as rude as you like in Paris, so long as you don’t insult your waiter.
- There is a universal law that says that, the more you need a taxi, the less likely you are able to get one. This applies even more so in Paris.
- Paris can be exceedingly subtle. The texture of foie gras, the flavour of cheese, the exact point that a road ends and a café begins.
- The Venus de Milo flirts with an Egyptian scribe, and shipwrecked sailors call for help from the Emperor Napoleon. It is a firmly egalitarian court, presided over by a woman who wasn’t even French. That’s probably why she’s smiling.

If you don’t know Douglas Adams passed away much too soon back in May 2001, but it’s wonderful to see a bit of him in this fun, witty, Doctor Who classic.

[Alejandro · Rating 4 out of 5]

The epic adventure gets its novelization finally!


This is a novelization of the serial of the same title. Based on the original script by David Fisher & Douglas Adams.


WHO

The Doctor:

The Fourth Doctor

Companion:

Romana II

(and very brief appearance of K-9)


WHERE & WHEN

Paris, France. 1979.


WHAT

The Doctor and Romana II had just defeated the Daleks (Destiny of the Daleks) where Romana also regenerated in her second look, so after all that excitement, they decide to take some vacations…

…and what better place than Paris?

Of course, things involving The Doctor never would be as calm as being able of really enjoing free time and relaxation.

Scaroth is an alien on Earth looking for a way to avoid the extinction of the last of his race. He has a plan, but like with any other plan, he requires patience, vision, discipline, but most of all…

…he needs MONEY!!!

Soon enough, The Doctor and Romana II will meet Scaroth and they will be involved in the mother of heists/scams of all time!!!

What’s better to steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre?

Well, to steal it once but being able to sell it in the black market…

…seven times! And even better if the other copies can’t be proven as fakes.

Eat your heart out, Danny Ocean! Meet Scaroth’s Six!

And as if this drawing out concept wouldn’t be interesting enough…

…the very beginning of life on Earth is at risk! Literally!

--/--

This is one of the most popular serials of the classic era of Doctor Who never novelized before.

Also it’s one of the most watched TV episodes of Doctor Who in its original premiere in BBC (of course it helped that in the other British cannel was only static on!).

But never doubt the charm, humor and mindblowing concepts of this wonderful adventure, originally co-written by Douglas Adams, the same of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

I was surprised that this novelization wasn’t made by Gareth Roberts (who wrote the novelization of Shada (you can check it out my review about it)) and while James Goss made a really good job, I still think that Gareth Roberts could done that extra drop of brilliance to make this novel even better.

But don’t get me wrong. This book is indeed a great reading for any Doctor Who’s fan and also for any interested to read an engaging time-travelling tale.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christmas 2016 present, when else should one get a Doctor Who classic but with Christmas.

2021 I finally read the novel because there are so many books and so little time to read them, while these short novels should really be read in a single day. Or in my case are easy to transport while traveling from and to work. Which has the disadvantage that the more snobby people in the train tend to have an opinion which I rarely accept from people whose reading is limited to their social media on their mobile phones. Now if they were reading an e-reader that would be a whole different ballgame.

Anyhow the 4th Doctor and a certain timelady called Romana have landed in Paris 1979 and stumble on a plot to steal the Mona Lisa. And yet as always it is a ploy to save the world from an alien with the wrong idea. He gets stopped end of story.
Where it not for the great ridiculousness that belongs to a plot/script as written by Douglas Adams and is always best served by Tom Bakers Doctor.
As Adams is no longer around somebody else penned it based upon the first draft as penned by the writer. And he did a very decent job finally delivering this classic Doctor Who tale that is a hoot and a half and a pretty decent scifi story to begin with a really nice ending and some wicked touches.

As a book to read a pretty good and funny scifi story as the serial wicked fun with a brilliant cameo which will be enjoyed when seen.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

In his afternote to City of Death James Goss notes "There are about three people in the world who don't like City of Death and they're being hunted down."

I guess I'm one of those three people. And it's not that I hate City of Death per se. It's just that I don't necessarily love it as much as many of my fellow Doctor Who fans do.

Famously re-written by Douglas Adams over the course of a weekend, few scripts from the classic run are as eminently quotable nor do they deal with the implications of time travel in quite the same way that this one does. But does that make it a top ten classic? Not to this fan.

Arriving in Paris, the Doctor and Romana decide to take a holiday. But a series of cracks in time quickly put them into the orbit of the Count Scarlioni, who has set his sights on stealing the Mona Lisa. His motivation for stealing the painting is so he can sell it on the black market, making millions and financing his dangerous experiments in time travel.

Goss takes a page from Adams in not telling the same story precisely the same way for each adaptation. Combining the televised version with the shooting scripts and a few flourishes of his own (in the style of Adams, of course), Goss gives readers an opportunity to find new nuggets in City of Death. Goss even creates an interesting spin on the reveal the monster cliffhanger ending of episode one with the Count not realizing he's a splintered part of the Jaggeroth and being just as shocked as viewers are intended to be at the reveal that he's a green faced, bug-eyed monster. (Though this does create some questions when it comes to the motivation of stealing the Mona Lisa and other aspects of the story)

And while Goss certainly isn't quite in the same sphere as Adams, he does a serviceable job of channeling Adams for this adaptation. Short of Douglas writing the novel himself, this is probably as close as we're going to get. Goss takes time to add some depth to Karinksi, Duggan and even the art critic couple over the course of the story. But he also take a page from the Terrance Dicks school of Doctor Who novel writing and rarely abridges or joins scenes together from the televised version to the printed page.

His adaptation of City of Death is more along the later entries in the Target novel line as opposed to most of the fourth Doctor ones that feel like a straight adaptation of the shooting script with minimal descriptions thrown in for good measure. It makes this one of the better fourth Doctor novelizations in the long line of books. But as I said before, it's simply not one of my favorite stories and the adaptation doesn't enhance the reputation of the story any more (at least in my book). It also doesn't detract from it either.

[Penelope Irving · Rating 4 out of 5]

City of Death is possibly the greatest Doctor Who episode ever made. These things are subjective, of course, and in a 2009 readers’ poll of the 200 complete stories in existence at the time, it came eighth. But ahead of it were stories with very solid pretentions to genuine, serious sci-fi or literary merit, stories such as The Caves of Androzani, Blink and Human Nature.

City of Death, by contrast to these worthies, is a load of frothy nonsense. It makes no claims to profundity, on any level. The plot is centred around a neat timey-wimey concept, but bears up to no scrutiny. About the only visible thing the episode has going for it is the novelty of being filmed in location in Paris – the city of the frankly rubbish title – which was the first time in the show’s history that the production team ventured further than a quarry in Essex.

And yet, with a sparkling script by Douglas Adams – not credited on broadcast, for historical reasons – and spot-on performances by such guest stars as Julian Glover and Catherine Schell, and an amazing original soundtrack by in-house composer Dudley Simpson, City of Death achieved an alchemy of excellence that makes it one of the most truly beloved stories of its era. It was also held up as a model of what Doctor Who could be, when Russell T Davies was trying to convince the BBC to revive it. It has aged better than pretty much any other episode from the classic era.

Again for historical reasons, it was never novelised. At the time, Target Books issued novelisations of every broadcast episode, an essential service in the days before home video recorders. Because Douglas Adams had first right of refusal on his own script, and because (I’m assuming) the notoriously procrastinating author never got around to exercising that right, the story languished untouched by prose for over three decades.
Now, at last, City of Death has been novelised, by James Goss, who has made his writing career mostly around Doctor Who and its peripheral media. ‘Long-awaited’ barely covers it.

For what it’s worth, the plot centres around a high-class society art thief, Count Scarlioni, and his wife, hatching an elaborate plot to steal the Mona Lisa – while, in unknown to his wife, the Count attempts to build a time machine in the cellar of his Parisian chateau. It turns out, of course, that the Count is merely one fragment of an alien called Scaroth, who crashed his spaceship on primeval Earth and was, thanks to an accident with a warp field or something, splintered Clara-like across the centuries. Arriving in Paris for a holiday – like that ever works out in the Doctor Who universe – the Doctor and Romana find that the Count’s experiments are causing fluctuations in the local time stream. They team up with a punch-happy detective, Duggan, who is on the trail of a series of art thefts.

On the whole, Goss does a pretty good job in fleshing out the characters and their stories without collapsing the soufflé. I particularly enjoyed his depiction of Count Scarlioni’s emerging identity issues, and – as a point of detail – Kerensky’s experience of dying within the time bubble. I did feel at times that there were perhaps too many words, too much slightly unnecessary picking-apart of every line of dialogue, and certainly too much viewpoint-hopping within scenes. And I was never going to be entirely happy with his depiction of the Countess Scarlioni, since she is probably my favourite ever Doctor Who supporting character and no interpretation that another third party puts on her can match the one in my head. I was, I have to admit, disappointed that Goss doesn’t go near the one question that must burn in the brain of anyone who seriously thinks about the Count and Countess’s relationship – what about their sex life, eh? Scaroth is a one-eyed green spaghetti-skinned alien who gets by with a sophisticated face mask. Does he in fact wear a body suit, or… what? We do not get Goss’s thoughts on the matter, despite a fair bit of internal monologue from the Countess. Shame.

I’d definitely recommend this as a must-read for any Doctor Who enthusiast, and of course there are coy little bonus references for the attentive fan (for instance, the Doctor at one points wonders whether he will ever end up confused by the number of his wives). Whether or not it would make sense or mean much to anyone else, particularly someone who has never watched the original, I have absolutely no idea. Great fun for the initiated, at any rate.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been wanting to read this books for a while for several reasons. The first obviously is that it is a work by Douglas Adams, quite famously so since at the time Mr Adams was working on the show in an editorial capacity and well the rest is part of Doctor Who folklore.

The other reason is that this was a story from the golden age of classic Doctor Who stories and as such in those circles this is a famous and memorable story (sadly I was too young so missed the original airing)

So when I got my chance I jumped at it and I must admit I wasn't disappointed. This book was set during the Tom Baker Doctor, this was where I was introduced to it all. However back in those days (or was it just my age) the stories were a lot scarier and unpredictable making the old adage of watching the show from behind the sofa an actual reality for me.

Now this is not a requirement but I read the afterwards to the book first - I know not a good idea at times - but for me it really added to the story. It gave a little of the back ground to the creation of this adventure and insight in to the book. The fact that the book contains many "missing" scenes which where never shown and that some scenes have been expanded in the book. The fact that the book is based on the rehearsal scripts rather than what was aired to me makes for a far more involved story (although I am intrigued enough to want to hunt down the episode and watch them just to compare).

All of this gave me an unexpected insight in to the story which for me made the whole thing far more fun. I know there is such a huge range of Doctor Who books out there from the originals all the way to the brand new and each have their own special approach to this beloved universe. But for me this book epitomises the character of Doctor Who not only in the actor playing them at the time but also the whole character of the show.

[Sud666 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first Dr. Who book. I have never watched the TV show but was slightly familiar with the character and what he was about. Well I don't know if this book was typical of Dr. Who books but, if it is then I am all in.

The City of Death was a Douglas Adams written episode. That was a great selling point for me. Dr. Who and Romana decide they would like to holiday in Paris. So they travel back in time to 1979 Paris. However all is not well- time is fracturing in Paris. An alien entity called Scaroth, the last of the Jagaroth, has concocted a grandiose scheme to build a time machine so he can go back in time and change the events that led to the demise of his race. However, if this plan works it will destroy the Earth as we know it.

The Doctor, Romana and a British detective, the sublimely violent Duggan, band together to try to stop Scaroth and his alter ego- Count Scarlioni. That is all I shall say about the plot. So what makes this so good? It is damn funny! typical to most things touched by Douglas Adams there is a great deal of intelligent, tongue-in-cheek humor. From the conversations to the situations this story never failed to elicit a smile. Not only is the plot funny but it is good! It was fun and exciting.

The Dr. is a great character. I appreciate his rather casual attitude towards dangerous situations, though his sang froid is due to his tremendous ability. The Dr. is rarely caught flat footed. His tag-a-long Romana was a good character as well and I enjoyed her interplay with Duggan. As far as Duggan-he is one of my favorite characters! I also liked the homicidal German butler, and hinted to be former SS, Hermann. His polite, but gleeful, requests to kill different people was tremendously amusing. To be fair-I even liked the Countess. I tend to gravitate towards "evil" characters since they tend to have the most personality. But that's just me.

Would I recommend this? Yes. Unreservedly. Now as to the entire Dr. Who series? I haven't a clue. I might have liked this one due to Douglas Adam's creative ability, so I could not speak to the quality/humor/story of other Dr. Who stories. But if this is a good baseline, then I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a good story that is also funny. I will certainly look for more Dr. Who books.

[Bmj2k · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unreadable.

I tried. I really tried to read this. City of Death is my favorite Doctor Who story and I was looking forward to reading a novelization. Unfortunately James Goss decided that a novelization wasn't good enough. No, he had to do this as if Douglas Adams were writing a zany Hitchhikers romp. Nevermind that the story simply isn't that. So if you want to read a mediocre Douglas Adams imitation masquerading as City of Death, with forced silliness, characters, and events not present in the episode, go ahead. This is not City of Death as shown on TV, and likely not as Douglas Adams would have novelized it. It's a sad attempt to tread on Adams' name.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was thoroughly delightful. City of death is one of my favourite adventures and James Goss made an extra wonderful version of this. His descriptions of Romana, and the Doctor's impressions of Romana, were brilliant! There was wonderful additional character background. (Including the BEST explanation for a cameo ever!) The extended scene with Romana and Duggan in the cafe was magical. I very highly recommend this to other Tom Baker Doctor Who fans. And will have to get the audio version with Lalla Ward reading this. I think that will be spectacular too!

[Muratcan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Güzel komedili, zaman yolculuğu zamazingolu ve Fransız/İngiliz atışmalı (Paris'e gelen İngilizler) tam bir Doktor Who senaryosu. Douglas Adams'ın etkilerini görebilmek mümkün hakikaten. Doktor Who sevenler kaçırmasın.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you know me, you know I love me some Doctor Who, but aside from clips in the show or on YouTube, I’ve never watched one of the classic Who adventures. And so, I was recommended this book to start me off, and I loved it. Gorgeously written, witty, and full to the brim with fun characters and great moments, I didn’t want it to end. Looking forward to exploring more Classic Who through the world of books!

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A light-hearted romp, but the ending was a bit rushed. Also not quite sure if this is entirely Douglas Adams' work. A bit of a mish-mash, to be honest. Still though, it is Dr. Who ...

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whisked off on a vacation to Paris, Romana is unimpressed with human art, in spite of the Doctors best efforts at the Louvre. She is equally unimpressed when the Doctor manages to get them entangled in yet another caper. The world's trendiest art thief cum super villain has been experimenting with time machines in his basement and a master plan to steal the Mona Lisa. Now, Romana and the Doctor are lumped with a disgruntled and painfully human detective as the threads of the madman's scheme are pulled together across time and must save the Mona Lisa and the world.

Taken from the rehearsal scripts of a show that was not supposed to be written by Douglas Adams but was, in the end, written by Douglas Adams and then heavily rearranged for the final cut, this book still reads like a traditional free-wheeling Doctor Who romp. Tom Baker's scarfed wonder gallivants with Lalla Ward's youthful [at a paltry 125 years of age] Romana through the streets of 1980s Paris. There's silliness, excitement and danger. There's time travel and loosey-goosey, wibbly-wobbly Doctor Who science. There are thumbscrews!

In spite of the three authors listed [I really don't remember who did what aside from Douglas Adams wrote bits of the actual original script, whether or not it was all of what aired...I don't know, go read the little blurb about the story's history for yourself.] the story is cohesive and as smooth as time-travel can really manage to be. There are some side plots for people-spotters, and small vignettes to give you hints about the mysterious Count's background, and the party does get split, but it flows onward. It's a fun book, and, if you enjoy the Doctor Who books, there is no reason for you not to read it. If you're not indoctrinated into that particular verse, it could get a little rough.

[Tony Laplume · Rating 2 out of 5]

Something of a major historical tragedy, James Goss's City of Death is kind of what you'd expect a five-year-old to make of reproducing the Mona Lisa.

It maybe doesn't help that beloved as it may be to fans of Doctor Who, City represents a legacy of Douglas Adams that might simply be irreconcilable with the late writer's best-known work. Undoubtedly pursued because of the far greater success that was Gareth Roberts' Shada, City becomes a testament to the fact that lightning surely does not strike twice.

It's about as typical a Doctor story as you can get. That's what I derive from the first hundred, tedious, poorly written pages. It betrays none of the spark of Adams' best work, either in storytelling or the plain inability of Goss to betray even a simulacrum of what fans of Adams, and maybe not so much the Doctor, would have been expecting. To wit: no wit.

Goss clearly loves the Doctor. If he were a better writer, and not, to be clear, a hack (why employ a hack to adapt Adams???), he could easily have had it both ways. Again, see Roberts' work in Shada. Instead, we have someone plainly enamored with the Doctor wasting little time in trying to work out anything else.

So I quit reading, eventually, figuring I may return to it at a later time, when I perhaps care less about wanting to read something good. I have no idea what they were thinking.

[Cristina Nozzi · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book unfortunately I was disappointed. after reading the book Daglas Adams, SHADA, hoping that the latter would live up to that. in fact even if he can give good image of the doctor, the rest is forced, pretentious and difficult to move. the wealthy alien who collects itself what remains of a race of vicious aliens and warriors mercilessly, is flat, not riese communicate that thrill that such micaccia should give

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doctor Who: City of Death mixes humor, science fiction and time travel in a way that any reader will gladly hitch a ride with their imagination and enjoy. James Gross captured the Douglas Adams humor I’ve grown to love.

Read more of the review at http://www.ismellsheep.com/2015/10/bo...

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wibbley-wobbly, timey-wimey, etc.

[Daphne · Rating 5 out of 5]

My FAVORITE DW book I've read or listened to yet!

It was hilarious, well written, and the story line was awesome.

[Nicole (bookwyrm) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish Goodreads had half-star ratings, because this is actually a 3.5 star rating. (The reason I rounded up is because of Goss' skill in the actual writing of the text. Had there been typos or other errors I would have rounded down.)

This is not my favorite Doctor Who episode. Not by a LONG shot. The Fourth Doctor (who is featured in this book) is My Doctor, as Whovians reckon things, but this episode has never been a highlight for me. It seems that The Doctor isn't the star of this episode - and the star isn't even his companion, Romana. (Yes, I realize she's also a Time Lord. She's still his companion.) The star of this episode is Paris. And that's not what I enjoy most from Doctor Who episodes.

I have read (well, listened to) another of James Goss' Doctor Who stories, but this is the only one which was a TV episode first. I liked the other one a lot more, because I was able to enjoy it for itself and not with the episode constantly running in my head as background to the story. (Granted, I also liked it because it was narrated by David Tenant.) This one was well written, but had the same issues that the TV episode did. I don't read Doctor Who to read about Paris any more than I watch the show for that reason.

I did enjoy the additional background we see into the other characters, and the humor was lovely. My chief complaint is with the plot, and not the execution.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Synopsis)
.
The Doctor takes Romana for a holiday in Paris a city which, like a fine wine, has a bouquet all its own. Especially if you visit during one of the vintage years. But the TARDIS takes them to 1979, a table-wine year, a year whose vintage is soured by cracks not in their wine glasses but in the very fabric of time itself.
.
(Review)
.
Well firstly i want to start by saying that, "I enjoyed this book" and the reason im staying like that because there is a but coming, "But" I feel that this story works better as an episode, than in notarization format. That being said this is atill enjoyable and I got everything I wanted from a classic DW story, with my favourite classic Doctor companion duo, "Tom baker & Romarna" and a time hiest everything was there to just work, sadly for me i strugged during the beginning, I wasn't to interested in the villan, and there wasn't enough time with the Doctor, it wasn't till the end of the middle where i understood the story that i was experiencing and why the focus is mostly on the villan where i started to enjoy myself and get completely lost in this world, as i do with all DW media.

My only issue was the ending, it just felt rushed and anti climactic, and this is one of the reasons why i say it works better as an episode as visually you get to see the ending and it probably comes off better, but when written and read, it doesn't work as well. But apart from that overall a solid DW story, that any fan of the classic episodes will enjoy it.

4/5 Stars GoodReads ⭐⭐⭐⭐

95/100 GingerPoints 🔥 🔥

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fairly quick fun read. Took me a little bit to get into just because it jumps between a lot of characters in the first chapter. Once the story got going though I enjoyed it.

[Petr Bezděk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Skvělá kniha DW od Douglase Adamse, jak moc víc klasické to může jen být? No na začátek jsme v Paříži a opravdu si člověk přijde, že tam je!
Je to skvělá kniha a můžu vřele doporučit!

[Miles Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a classy, breezy novelisation for a corker of a story.

[Mick Travel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fun adventure with the Doctor mixed with Douglas Adams characterics types of discriptions and writing. I think this is something for fans of both.

Personally I love the dynamic between Romana and the Doctor.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2474240.html

Back in the days before video recorders, let alone DVDs, Doctor Who stories lived on after first broadcast only in the novelisations published by Target Books (and later by Virgin). In the fullness of time, almost every story ever shown appeared in print - many of them in novelisations by the indefatigable Terrance Dicks, whose lucid if workmanlike style informed the tastes of a generation of fans.

One of the few stories not to get that treatment was the 1979 Fourth Doctor story City of Death, which has a strong claim to being one of the best Who stories ever, written over a wet weekend by the then script editor Douglas Adams, certainly the most prominent SF writer to have held that position, from a story concept by David Fisher, one of the best Who writers of the late 1970s. It is now brought to the page by James Goss, who I personally rate as the best writer of Who prose and audios active at present. (He has, alas, no screenplay experience, so I don't expect him to be writing any TV episodes soon.)

Goss is not the first Who writer to try and channel Douglas Adams (unsuccessful: Eric Saward; successful: Gareth Roberts). But he takes it in a new direction, starting off by lulling the reader into a false sense of security with an Adams-esque first chapter, and then settling into adapting from both the script and the final broadcast version for the printed page. As he explains in an afterword, he picks and chooses between the alternatives. Shakespeare here sprained his hand playing croquet (Adams) rather than writing sonnets (Tom Baker's improvisation). The John Cleese and Eleanor Bron characters have been pursuing a desultory love affair around Paris for days. Most importantly, the Count doesn't actually realise his own identity until the end of the first episode, and this actually makes a lot of sense. (But he keeps the broadcast version of the story's funniest line, while explaining how it originated from the script.)

The target audience for this book will be people who already know the story, and I think that they will be satisfied. It's a different situation from Shada, the unfinished 1980 story by Adams whose novelisation by Gareth Roberts was published in 2012, in that there's no what-might-have-been mystery about City of Death - we've seen it and we know what happens. Goss preserves the spirit of Adams' script, and probably does a better job of putting it on the page than Adams would have done (he had a habit of revising his own past work without necessarily improving it).

Anyway, for those of us who treasure memories of a former monk from Liverpool courting an Ulster aristocrat by the Seine, this is simply indispensable. And for those who are fans of Douglas Adams, this is, in a way, his last book, reflecting back to the height of his powers. I won't claim that it's great literature; but I loved it.

[James F · Rating 4 out of 5]

City of Death was an episode of Doctor Who originally broadcast in 1979 (the fourth Doctor and second Romana -- the golden age of the original series). An afterword in this book gives some of the history of how it came to be written. The original story was written by David Fisher, who wrote many of the episodes at that time; because of an unexpected increase in budget, the producer decided to film it with much more on location filming in Paris, which required substantial changes in the story. As Fisher was no longer available at the time, the script editor -- none other than Douglas Adams, who the previous year had written a radio script called The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- took on the assignment of writing a new script. This novelization by James Goss, a well-known science fiction written who has also written books on Doctor Who and on Douglas Adams, follows Adams' script, with some changes/additions from the actual show (Tom Baker and Lala Ward were known for their ad libs) and from the original version by Fisher.

I had always considered Doctor Who -- and especially the Tom Baker years -- to have the same sort of humor and spirit as the Hitchhiker series, but I had never realized that Adams was actually connected with the show at that time. (He used the pseudonym David Agnew when he wrote this script.) Not having read anything by Goss, I worried that the novelization might be a disappointment, but it was very much in the Douglas Adams - Tom Baker style. First two paragraphs:

"It was Tuesday and life didn't happen. Wednesday would be quite a different matter.

"Scaroth, last of the Jagaroth, was in for a surprise. For one thing, he had no idea he was about to become the last of the Jagaroth."

The plot is the standard Doctor Who formula: Megalomaniac alien who wants to take over the universe is foiled by the Doctor and his companion. The fun is in the dialogue. The writing style in this book is more sophisticated than the usual novelizations of the original series, which were written in the seventies and eighties and still aimed at children, and more like the novels of the current series. A very enjoyable book.

[Bill W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful!

[Thomas Radigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A novelization of a Doctor Who episode can work very well with a bit of embellishment. Unfortunately the author quite overdid it in this volume.

The story followed the televised version, an exciting story about the last of a race of malevolent beings attempting to leave primitive Earth only for their spaceship to explode, its pilot splitting into a group of copies of himself scattered in various points in Earth's history. The pilot, Skaroth, tries to get himself back together by using his intellect to advance human knowledge so that Earth technology will have advanced enough by the time of his final copy so that he can invent a time machine to reunite himself. Meanwhile the Doctor and Romana come to 1979 Paris on vacation-and of course stumble into another adventure where they have to save Earth,

Some of the embellishment works well; Skaroth's wife marrying him because of her rebellious streak, and Herrmann having been a Wehrmacht guard for stolen art, as well as the scenes of our heroes enjoying Paris before they have to deal with Skaroth. But the story is slowed down with an overlong (and not entirely credible) romance between a dweeb and a French girlfriend, whose only presence in the televised story were briefly as art viewers looking at the TARDIS in a museum, Romana's magic ability to determine precise mathematic sizes and depths of various locations, and Skaroth's chateau having too many hidden antiquities, as well as an unseen large staff who willingly cover up his crimes. These rather spoil things for the rest of the book.

[❄ Pixelflocke ❄ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ich schwanke zwischen 3 und 4 Sternen. Auf der einen Seite: es ist Doctor Who!! Auf der anderen Seite.. es ist leider nicht besonders herausragend geschrieben.

Der Roman ist eine Nacherzählung einer Doctor Who Folge um den 4ten Doctor. Dieser möchte mit seiner Begleiterin Romana eigentlich nur mal ein bisschen Urlaub im Paris der 70er Jahre machen und stolpert *Überraschung* natürlich wieder direkt in das nächste Abenteuer. Diesmal geht es um den Raub der Mona Lisa, einen einsamen Außerirdischen und jede Menge Zeitreise-Action.

Das Original-Drehbuch stammte von Douglas Adams und James Goss hat das ganze nun als Roman zusammengeschustert. Leider merkt man das irgendwie auch, denn es gibt immer wieder Stilbrüche (Goss verwendet neben seiner eigenen Nacherzählung teilweise Original-Regieanweisungen von Adams sowie die genauen Dialoge aus der Folge improvisiert von den Schauspielern) und der Schreibstil wirkt dadurch sehr zerstückelt.

Die Geschichte selbst fand ich super. Die Handlung sowie das Setting und auch der neuste Gegenspieler gefielen mir echt gut. Leider fand ich aber alle Charaktere sehr blass. Klar, der Roman ist für Leser gedacht, die Doctor Who kennen. Aber dennoch.. der Doctor blieb seltsam langweilig, Romana und Duggan waren auch nicht besonders hervorstechend. Sehr schade, da doch gerade Doctor Who von seinen schrägen, eigenwilligen Protagonisten lebt.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

City of Death is a particularly beloved episode of Doctor Who for me, as anyone I've ever watched a heist movie with could probably tell. "Of course the best fictional use of the Mona Lisa Variant," I have said to many a friend, beginning a conversation no one wants to have. So I was primed to like this book, and I do. Goss does his best to channel Douglas Adams, who wrote the episode, when giving extra details about Paris, and he manages to be dryly humorous without drifting into nonsense. He also gets Romana right, which is important. As the only Time Lady to accompany the Doctor other than his granddaughter, Romana deserves far more attention than she gets.

I think this novel stands alone well enough that people only vaguely familiar with the series would enjoy it. The episode certainly does. If you are not familiar: there's a blue box and an alien named The Doctor uses it to travel through time and space. Go watch the episode, and, if you like, read this book. It's a fun story.