The second Doctor returns to Vortis with his companions Jamie and Victoria. But the Web Planet is not the world he knew, and the peaceful Menoptera are caught up in a bitter interplanetary war between opposing factions of an alien race.
Christopher Bulis is a writer best known for his work on various Doctor Who spin-offs. He is one of the most prolific authors to write for the various ranges of spin-offs from the BBC Television series Doctor Who, with twelve novels to his name, and between 1993 and 2000 he had at least one Doctor Who novel published every year.
Bulis' first published work was the New Adventure Shadowmind, published in 1993 by Virgin Publishing. This was the only novel Bulis wrote featuring the Seventh Doctor, and his next five books were all published under Virgin's Missing Adventures range: State of Change (1994), The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1995), The Eye of the Giant (1996), Twilight of the Gods (1996), and A Device of Death (1997).
When Virgin lost their licence to publish novels based on Doctor Who, Bulis repeated this pattern writing novels for the BBC - with one novel written for the current incumbent Doctor as part of BBC Books' Eighth Doctor Adventures range, and then all of his other novels published as part of the Past Doctor Adventures range. Bulis' novels for the BBC were The Ultimate Treasure (1997), Vanderdeken's Children (1998), City at World's End (1999), Imperial Moon (2000) and Palace of the Red Sun (2002).
Bulis also wrote the novel Tempest as part of Virgin's Bernice Summerfield range of novels, and also a short story for Big Finish Productions' Short Trips series.
Ahhh, the Menoptera! Returning to Vortis was a good idea, the problems and solutions are very classic Doctor Who and at times the Doc is perfectly in character, but this one has quite a few "what-the" moments. Not necessarily bad moments just out of place moments.
For example, I found the Doctor a lot more like Four (than Two) in his use of technobabble and application of technosolutions. He was still quite "in key" when he wasn't using the big words and it probably is a good idea to retrofit some of the technoconcepts that we didn't see until later episodes... so it was quite good, but it did feel odd.
Victoria gets a horribly old fashioned gig in this story, which is not unusual for episodes of the Second Doctor era but this book recognised that quite openly. I applaud the effort, but think that perhaps more could have been achieved by actually writing her a better part instead of complaining for lack thereof!
Jamie, well. He's Jamie. He's "Book-Jamie" for sure, which from my experience so far is more of a knuckle dragging brawler type than I can remember him being from his episodes.
I won't say much about the plot other than that I liked it. I read this one after finishing another Doctor Two novel called 'Combat Rock' and I think 'Twilight of the Gods' achieved some of what 'Combat Rock' had hoped to do without becoming as messy and without sacrificing the storyline.
Twilight of the Gods is part of the long out of print Virgin Books Publishing Missing Doctors Adventures which featured Doctors 1-6 from the British television series Doctor Who and were published alongside the New Adventures featuring the Seventh Doctor. I read an e-book version, which used the old, non-flowable .pdf format - which meant lots of re-sizing and zooming of pages, then re-setting the page size to "turn" to the next page. There also were a lot of typos. However, considering how long out of print the book is, and that the e-book was free, it's not fair to complain too much. This story featured the Second Doctor (as played by Patrick Troughton), Jaime McCrimmon - the Scottish Highlander, and Victoria Waterfield. The TARDIS doesn't exactly crash, but it has a rough landing on what soon turns out to be Vortis - the Web Planet, home of the Menoptera and the Zarbi, previously visited by the First Doctor (in the aired story, "The Web Planet"). It's hundred years since the Doctor's last visit, but the Menoptera need the Doctor's help again. The Rhumon Empire is in the midst of a Civil War between Royalists and Republicans - and both sides have landed on Vortis, given the planet their own name, and declared it claimed for their own side in the war. Both sides fight each other, fight the elements of the planet itself, and fight any Menoptera who get in the way. The Royalists take Menoptera as slaves - but the Republicans kidnap them as well. Lord Kai Shallvar leads the Royalists, he's served by his loyal servant, Cansonn, and annoyed by the High Priest Li Modeenus. Besides absolute loyalty to their King and the aristocracy - the Royalists are also expected to be blindly loyal to the religion of the One True God - the Sun God. Though Shallvar rules his men and women, Modeenus has power to manipulate Shallvar, because his represents the State Religion, and on the Royalist side of the War - no other beliefs are tolerated other than the State Religion. Modeenus even has a computer-like device to test one's belief. The Republicans believe that for all to be Equal, all must be the same. They have no religion - and punish any belief in the supernatural or superstition severely. On the planet, they are led by Captain-Commander Draga-three, who must obey the rules set by her political officer, Nevon-two. The Republicans do not even use family names, only numbers. They're basically a thinly-veiled analogy of Communists. The Doctor, Victoria, and Jaime, quickly get involved - being split up, reunited, and split-up again - thus allowing them and the readers to learn about and become involved with the three groups in conflict on the planet. However, just as the Doctor attempts to organize some sort of rapprochement between the groups - a new problem arises, an Old One - left over from the Animus that the First Doctor and his companions defeated. Before long, The Doctor, his companions, the Menoptrea, the Royalists and the Republicans are fighting together to defeat something that looks like it escaped from a HP Lovecraft novel. And they are losing. The Doctor comes up with a final desperate plan - to take one of the missles (bombs) offered by the Republicans and dematerialize with it abroad the TARDIS, rematerialize within the Old One's shields, drop the bomb out the TARDIS door, then dematerialize again. I won't spoil the ending - but it's a fine romp. I really did enjoy this novel - lots of political intrigue, the Doctor and Victoria and Jaime all teaching the Republicans and Royalists not merely that they are wrong, but that they should just leave the Monoptera alone, to run their planet as they see fit (a hint of anti-Colonialism there). By the end, everyone is working together in the short term, though the Royalist and Republicans agree to leave the planet alone. The Xeno-biology of the Menoptera is fascinating (yes, these are good aliens - as are the Rhumons, at heart). The title of the novel does, eventually, make sense - and is a whole third storyline that's too involved to discuss here (as well as spoiling the end.) The original characters were extremely well-drawn, and I liked the detail and background given to Jaime and Victoria. Recommended to Doctor Who fans, and general SF fans alike.
As I was preparing to read this for the second time in my life, I could not recall a single thing about this book. So when it appeared as the next in my Doctor Who reading challenge, I was going in with a clear mind. After reading it, it was not what I expected.
If you were told someone there was a sequel to The Web Planet they might think you are crazy. Looking at the original story, how can it be expanded. Some people forget there were additional stories set on Vortis or involving the Zarbi. This story continues with Vorits entering an inhabited solar system.
We have two races from the same planet fighting over Vortis to claim it in the name of their empire. We encounter the local natives, the Menoptra trying to either fight back or stay alive. A common enemy that is not known to all involved is planning something.
You could take any alien race and place it in this story. The concept of a "highly" advance race planning on "civilizing" the natives was used in The Mutants. This theme can be used any where, but seeing it used on a race we have encountered before does not make it too heavy handed.
This book also tries to explain questions, or nitpick issues, with The Web Planet. The other item that is hard to present sometimes is a truly alien world. Using a previous visited planet, allows you see a truly exotic world.
The last part is Victoria is fleshed out more and starting to sow the seeds of why she leaves in Fury from the Deep. In the end even with all these, it takes a regular plot, and it is helped to flesh it out.
I won't spoil it here, but the ending is not terrible, not expected, but one of those that makes you wonder could it have been done better. This book is more for the Doctor Who fan, then a non-fan.
I’m usually a Bulis defender but this was a bit dull. Then again, if you’re writing a sequel to The Web Planet, maybe dull is the most authentic vibe? 1.5.
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1165413.html[return][return]Twilight of the Gods seemed a bit clunky in places and seemed to take forever to read but is basically OK (which was essentially my assessment of Bulis' First Doctor novels too). I liked the battle of the two ideological human factions over the resources of Vortis (and note that several other reviewers are too young to realise that it's a reference to Cold War turf fights in Africa and Latin America). I think he also draws quite consciously from several elements of the 1996 Annual stories - the colonisers from offworld and movable planet Vortis in 'The Lair of Zarbi Supremo', and the huge intruders of 'The Lost Ones' (though Bulis' aliens are a lot bigger than the Atlanteans of 1966, and remind me a bit of some of Isaac Asimov's creations). It is also, I now realise, the adventure on Vortis referred to in The Dark Path. The characterisation of the Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria is pretty satisfactory, but the pace, as I said, is a bit slow.
A sequel and retcon to a Doctor Who story that needed neither. It is odd that one of my favorite Doctor Who novels, Sorcerer's Apprentice, and one of my least favorite should be by the same author.
This book is simply overwhelmed with characters and moves with a pace that makes molasses seem like light waves or possibly particles. There are constant jumps, say every five hundred words, between parties of aliens with names like Durtemastrus and Mdferthin which makes the novel very hard to follow at times, so maybe it is a good thing that the first three quarters has little plot. This is compounded by too little Doctor Who, Jamie and Victoria who rarely appear together when they do appear. And even when they do appear I could care less about them which is quite a trick as the Doctor Two and Jamie partnership is among my favorite in the series. Toward the end I was considering rooting for the vastly overpowered villain to obliterate everyone just to end the novel and its inhabitants which would have felt as villainous as throwing away a collection of paper dolls.
A major disappointment. Starts as a sequel to the wonderfully bizarre TV episode the 'Web Planet', then goes on to try and 'explain' that story by creating a group of less interesting aliens and spending too much of the book ignoring the cool aliens that were introduced in 'Web'.
Why visit a world of giant insects if you then spend all your time with a couple other, less interesting' alien races you created?
Basically the author pretty much announces that 'Web Planet' was silly and must be 'explained and fixed' and the only way to do that is to suck all the fun out of the story. Reads like a rejected 'Star Trek' script that the author then reworked and sold to Doctor Who. Or that the author already had a story and thought if he shoe horned in some old Who aliens it'd sell better.
Ugh. Some parts were okay but mostly there were too many characters, too many convoluted storylines and the Doctor and his companions were like secondary characters to original characters that were hard to care about. Glad it's over!
I thought I was in for a rough ride with this one. First off I have heard about this being one of the worst Doctor Who Missing Adventures, it placed 27th in the 1998 DWN poll, 29th in Shannon Sullivan's polling and is described in the Cloister Library as a "dull sequel". Also I am most certainly not a fan of the Web Planet so I assumed all the connections to it would just drag for me. So I am surprised to say I found the entire book a delight. The characterisation was spot on (even if I imagine on screen all these Menoptera speeches would have got irritating in their sing-song voices), the factions were actually quite fascinating and whilst it was slow I actually found it quite lovely to just wonder around this newly formed Vortis. It doesn't break the mould and some of it is a tad ridiculous (at one point The Doctor repeats a moment from Star Trek V with more verbosity) but it was a pleaseant surprise.
Christopher Bulis clearly has big hopes for this sequel to The Web Planet, one of Classic Who's most ambitious, if unsuccessful stories, but the execution of those big ideas more or less just takes form as a combination of three of four of Doctor Who's most tried and true story templates. A sequel to a preexisting story, a Civil War in which the Doctor must find a middle ground, a mad god scenario. These are all things fans have seen before, and I really don't know how much a casual reader is going to get out of the appearance of the Zarbi, the Animus, other imagery that readers unfamiliar with 60s Who are going to have zero understanding of. Even compared to other Missing Adventures, I think this is one strictly for the most dedicated of fans.
I went into this book with high hopes, since this author's other books in this series were properly crafted stories and this is a 2nd Doctor plus Jamie story (I love Jamie so much). Sadly, this story is more of a rehash of a past serial than an original story and it shows. There are some issues with pacing or maybe it's a fumble while trying to write a novel with a serialized story framework (this novel has so many cliffhangers between chapters), but it felt like the story took too long to start.
Fun read, it was cool to return to Vortis. I think some of the philosophical and political stuff ended up a bit clunky rather than insightful as the author probably intended. It's at worst patronizing and at best, uh... can I say patronizing again?
Anyway, I really did enjoy this read. I thought the characterizations were fun and accurate and that's a good part of what I look for in these novelizations.
A profoundly unmemorable exercise in writing the sequel to The Web Planet which absolutely nobody was hoping for. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/202...
Almost offensively tedious, full of ill-defined military characters who get little development and the minutiae of being a sequel for no great reason leaves a lot of the narrative being repetitive and obvious. The central characters aren’t too badly represented, at least.
December 2022 Not perfect, and I was less interested with the than earlier segments, but I did quite like those earlier segments! I thought especially that all the alien characters and cultures were pretty well realised, which goes a long way in getting me invested in a Doctor Who plot. I guess a minor quibble is I'd've maybe liked a bit more Victoria and a bit more fleshing out of the stuff that's there as buildup to Fury, but part of that's just because she's my favourite 2nd Doctor companion and I always want more of her!
September 2025 Realistically probably a low four in my ratings. Works for me significantly more than it doesn't, but the stuff that doesn't can be pretty egregious - I still get hung up on having the Doctor say that no form of communism can ever work because people aren't truly equal (???). The threeway battle is a nice variant on the usual Who colonialism allegory, though, and I appreciate the way Jamie and Victoria's backgrounds influence their developing responses to it. Plus, I'm not sure it gels that well thematically, but the twist that is honestly so wild that I respect it anyway.
This novel is a sequel to the TV story 'The Web Planet.' The story concerns Doctor 2's returning to Vortis, the web planet. It hangs together well. The companions were not pushed off into a meaningless subplot, but were instead active participants throughout the book. This makes a welcome change by Bulis, who all too often has little for the female companions to do except be stranded and wait to be rescued. The Menoptera are depicted as rather overbearingly noble. Also, there does not seem to be much plot. It's all rather like sight-seeing than story. What story there is involves another invader of Vortis, but one that is politically divided into what we can call Imperialists and Communists. This situation gives the reader some highly simplified political science to go with the story. There is also a strange bit involving Menopteran gods who turn out to be real, after a fashion.
This book is an excellent follow up to a rather mediocre TV Story. The writing more than makes up for the technical limitations of the time and reimagines the world of Vortis in loving detail.
The main stay characters are well realized and accurate to their TV depictions. The new characters are very entertaining as well, though i found it hard to keep in mind how alien they were, many, especially the invading soldiers and others of their race, are interchangeable with humans.
The political commentary in this story is well realized though a bit simplistic for a nearly 300 page book.
But overall it works well and is very entertaining.
It's too long & drawn out, plus it's afflicted by the obsession with alien-anthropology that blighted many of the "Doctor Who" New & Missing Adventures of the time. That said, it overcomes many of these problems with a solid combination of charm, interesting characters, some surprisingly well-written action scenes, and a neat allegorical use of the Royalist/Communist battles from early 20th century Russia. The 2nd Doctor & Jamie are well characterized, and any book that makes Victoria -- one of my least favourite companions -- palatable is more than welcome.
Missing Adventure (MA) with the second Doctor, Victoria, Jamie. I had mixed feelings: What's actually going on is interesting and original, but unfortunately the author chooses to unfold the story using the cliches of drama salted with the 'stupid bad guys' cliche.