Doctor Who: Wooden Heart

Doctor Who: New Series Adventures #15

by Martin Day

The Castor, a vast starship, seemingly deserted and spinning slowly in the void of deep space. Martha and the Doctor explore the drifting tomb, and discover that they may not be alone after all... Who survived the disaster that overcame the rest of the crew? What continues to power the vessel? And why has a stretch of wooded countryside suddenly appeared in the middle of the craft? As the Doctor and Martha journey through the forest, they find a mysterious, fogbound village - a village traumatised by missing children and tales of its own destruction...

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Audiobook, Time Travel, Adventure

256 pages, Hardcover

First published April 19, 2007

About the author

Martin Day is a screenwriter and novelist best known for his work on various spin-offs related to the BBC Television series Doctor Who, and many episodes of the daytime soaps Doctors and Family Affairs.

Day's first published fiction was the novel The Menagerie in 1995, published by Virgin Publishing as part of their Doctor Who Missing Adventures series. Following the withdrawal of Virgin's licence to produce Doctor Who novels, Day moved to BBC Books, who published the novel The Devil Goblins from Neptune in 1997. The novel (co-written with Keith Topping) was the first of BBC Books' Past Doctor Adventures series, and was quickly followed by The Hollow Men in 1998 - again written with Topping. 1998 also saw the publication of Another Girl, Another Planet by Virgin Publishing. Co-written with Steve Bowkett (under the pseudonym Len Beech), this was one of the first books in Virgin's line of Bernice Summerfield novels.

Following these novels, Day returned to solo writing, and to the Past Doctor Adventures range in 2001 with the novel Bunker Soldiers. This was followed in 2004 by the novel The Sleep of Reason, one of the final Eighth Doctor Adventures to be published and perhaps his most popular novel. Between 2000 and 2001 Day wrote nine episodes for Five's Family Affairs, and in 2005 he started writing for BBC One's Doctors. In 2008 he was lead writer on Crisis Control, a new series for CBBC; Day storylined all thirteen episodes.

As well as writing fiction, Day has also written several unofficial guide books to television series such as The X Files, Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Avengers. These were published by Virgin, and co-written with Keith Topping and (with the exception of Shut It!, a guide to The Sweeney and The Professionals) Paul Cornell. Cornell, Day and Topping also wrote the extremely popular Doctor Who Discontinuity Guide, published by Virgin in 1995 as a light-hearted guide to the mistakes and incongruities of the television series. The first book written by Cornell, Day and Topping was Classic British TV, which was released by Guinness Publishing in 1993 and 1996.

In recent years Day has continued his work on Doctor Who, with the play No Man's Land for Big Finish Productions' audio adventures range, the bestselling novel Wooden Heart for the BBC's range of New Series Adventures, and comic strips for Doctor Who Adventures. The Jade Pyramid, an original Doctor Who audiobook for the eleventh Doctor,and a novelisation of an episode of Merlin,are both due for release in 2010.

Reviews

[Jim C · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that is based on the television series. It features the Tenth Doctor and Martha. In this one, they land on a deserted prison ship but soon find out there is more to it than that.

I was immediately sucked into this book as the deserted ship's setting came off as a space horror genre story and I was all in. Then, the book took a left turn and delved into a "village in a forest" that evoked more of a fantasy vibe as we have monsters and the children disappearing. This part really didn't do it for me as I was teased with the opening genre. I will admit the explanation at the end works and did save the book in my opinion. I actually loved the finale and the message. What happens when a sentient being is bombarded with evil and is concepts like love and bravery enough to over come it? As for the portrayal of the main characters I though The Doctor was fine. Martha never really stood out. I did like the minor characters even though some of them fell into a common trope.

This book was a decent read. It is set up as a mystery and for me, the mystery didn't totally grab me. The payoff did. It is one of those books that you have to stick with until the very end to get a satisfying result. The journey to get there is a little rough though.

[TheGeekProblem · Rating 2 out of 5]

Changing my rating from 3 to 2 stars because when I tried to explain what the book was about I had to google it because I couldn't remember it.

[Kati · Rating 2 out of 5]

It started well: an abandoned ship, the question of what happened to its crew... aaaaaaaaaand then it went downhill again and it turned into yet another Earth-like-forest-with-villagers-and-missing-children-blah-blah-blah adventure. Nothing new, nothing original, nothing remotely engaging. Is there no Steven Moffat-like writer among the DW book authors? Someone who can write a really suspenseful bottle-story?

[Emilija · Rating 3 out of 5]

2025 52 Book Challenge - 35) Written In Third Person

This was a pretty decent Doctor Who novel. A forest in the middle of a ship sounded rather similar to one of the Matt Smith era episodes, and I really liked that, so I was predispositioned to like this, but it was quite atmospheric with the children in the village going missing and I was really excited.

The story itself was decent enough, though it does sort of stall out and drag for a little while in the middle, so you're just left not really caring what happens until the plot finally explains itself. All in all, it was a fairly standard Doctor Who novel.

[Ajay Rajendran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first Doctor Who book I've read and it was about what I expected - as a book, it's not very good. The writing is very simple so basically anyone over the age of 8-10 could probably read this. As far as the "episode" went, the Doctor was like the Doctor for the most part. There were certain lines I could imagine David Tennant saying. Martha was Martha, yet she wasn't. Personally, I've never liked Martha to begin with, she's easily my least favorite companion so as far as her character's concerned, I can't really think of much that defines her as a person. In this book, she could've been anyone, really. She did companion-type things that all the companions do (listen to the Doctor, then stop listening to the Doctor in order to do something she thinks is right, etc.), but there was never any moment when I thought, "Oh yes, that was a very Martha Jones moment." Maybe it's because I'm not a huge Martha fan, but I'm not sure.

As far as the story goes, at first I really was intrigued both by the ship & the forest. By the end, however, I was both a little bored and confused. I'm not sure if it's the writer's fault for just not explaining well what happened or if the story itself just wasn't very good, but while I did get the gist of what was going on by the time I reached the very end, for the last 70-50 pages, I spent a lot of time thinking, "What is going on? How does this all tie in?"

Overall, it's not terrible, it was still a fun read and if I'd given myself enough time, I probably could've finished this within a few hours.

[Lauren Stoolfire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Francine Jones can do a very good impression of her daughter!

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Doctor and Martha arrive on the abandoned Castor, exploring the ship they soon discover a populated village and forest.

A really intriguing well written mystery.

[Mauoijenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this one.
It was written very well.
This has to be my favorite Doctor Who novel, yet.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story features Doctor #10 along with Martha Jones. It starts off interestingly enough on a gigantic ship, wanders a bit into virtual reality and into what seems like some Russian folk tale, then ties everything smoothly together at the end. There would have had to be a bit more plot to make a satisfying television episode, and Martha's character doesn't seem to ring completely true all the time, but it's a pretty good and well-told tale.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was just okay for me.

[Shelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the end, I just missed Martha too much! I had to finish it. If only this had been a proper Martha book - I was convinced through many sections that it was originally writte as Rose. I know it was approved as Rose/Ten, so, yeah, probably got written at the start that way, too. Even when she wasn't very Rose-like, she still wasn't Martha-like, either. Disappointing. (Especially since the Doctor was so overtly complimenting her/grateful for her being there/happy with her. Given the finale, that was kind of really OUCH.)

But Ten was pretty clearly Ten in most cases. He had a lot of interaction with a 12 year old girl name Jude, who was marvelous alone and fantastic with him. She was, actually, rather Martha-like. Their scenes made the book.

The plot started out great, got wobbly in the middle, and then came back in a decent resolution. Really, not bad. If only Martha was more Martha.

Can't wait for the next set in September - Forever Autumn looks really great. And by then, the writers will have produced these specifically for Martha and Ten.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just recently finished this book and was not very impressed with it. The writing was not very memorable. It was written in a very bland language that I often find myself glossing over rather than reading every word and savoring it.

The characters were for the most part two-dimensional. The characters do develop through out the book but not too much. You would only learn a thing or two about them - even for the main characters, the Doctor and Martha - nothing more. Disappointingly, Martha was hardly useful in the story. She appeared as wooden as her acting was in the television series.

Also disappointing was how non-descriptive and generic the villain appeared in the story.

What annoys me about most of the New Series books is the inclusion of a child character, becoming a second-rate one-off companion and this book is no different. Take a look at "Prisoner of the Daleks" and you'd see that it's much better without having a child character being a "companion" -- though it does, albeit briefly, feature a child character.

Average book at its best.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, this one was really cool, for all it's a Doctor Who book. What can I say? I'm on a kick. The Doctor and Martha find an space ship full of dead bodies that has, against all reason, an entire old-world village in the heart of it. But now the children of the village are vanishing one after another and the Doctor and Martha are slowly realizing that they're not alone on the ship after all. I was wary reading a Martha book (didn't really get into the last one I tried) but this was pretty fun.

[Alesia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Village is scary! Would've made a great episode to watch.

[Gypsy Madden · Rating 4 out of 5]

While there wasn’t anything that I really latched onto about this book to scream to everyone how fantastic it was, it certainly doesn’t rank in among the dry, boring, tedious Who book adventures I’ve read either. So, it’s at that fine middle line of it was a fun adventure with a good, creepy atmosphere, and some rather bland, forgettable monsters (though the mist children were wonderfully chilling and I loved the scene on the lake). The story itself did feel long at points (Most of those points were the dialogue between characters and I think that was because quite a few of the characters were cliché and one-dimensional -Saul, Petr, petr’s wife, Saul’s wife was practically a walk-on role, so the romantic triangle felt tired and stale). Notably, I did like the character of Jude. People often forget that Doctor Who was a kids show originally, so it’s nice to see a starring child character introduced every once in a while. The story itself reminded me of the older Who episodes, lots of haunted metal corridors and rather rubbery monsters.

[Justin Partridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

“And what lesson do we learn from all of this? Not to go exploring when you find yourself in a forest in deep space?”

“Oh, yeah, THAT,” said the Doctor with a grin. “And…” He risked a final glance over his shoulder. “To be capable of love, nine times out of ten…someone needs to love us first.”

A pretty solid Tenth Doctor and Martha adventure! I think these 2000s novels recreate the feeling of the episodes the best. There is a TARDIS Team, a weird thing, investigating and chases ensue. I am down with that.

Especially since like the Past Doctor Adventures are super ambitious, the Eighth Doctors too. The less said about the Virgin books the better. But these are just meat and potatoes DW. I’ll always appreciate that. And I think I’ll always have a fondness for this range, even if they are kinda basic at times.

[Michael Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this! As with the best 'Doctor Who' novels, I could really hear the actors' voices in the characters' dialogue. The adventure was fast-paced. The twists were unpredictable. The plot was complicated, in an engaging way. And there was even some great social commentary on what it means to be human and what free will means in the realities of good and evil. In that way, the novel stands with the best of the show's episodes too - it was exciting, fun, funny at parts, and had something to say about the deeper truths and questions of life. I had a lot of fun with this one and will happily read it again when I'm in the mood to travel with the Doctor and Martha.

[Garrett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creepy and fun, and Martha's written exceptionally well in this one. The "secondary" characters, if anything, steal the spotlight from the Doctor and Martha, and that's refreshing and welcome, as long as the story is good. The denouement, such as it is, comes maybe a little too late to have a lot of heft, and the inevitable scale balancing seems a little out of proportion to the build-up that preceded it. Overall, though, a diverting read.

[Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was a thoroughly enjoyable read. This book constantly keeps you on your toes, giving you questions upon questions before finally revealing all the answers in a great final chapter. It’s mystery surrounding the “evil” of the episode and the deviation from the overused Doctor versus Villain-type story was greatly appreciated. It’s clearly been well-thought out and planned meticulously and I enjoyed the book very much.

[Itami · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great DW novel! Loved it! Looooved it! It's not free from "plotholes" (e.g. why did the parents let their children sleep alone in their rooms instead of guarding them?!) but all in all I liked the atmosphere, I liked the mystery, I liked the characters, and I liked that I never felt bored while reading!
(However I want to add that I'm not a native speaker and this book was much more difficult to read for me than other DW novels)

[Taaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beginning and ending were good, but I really struggled in the middle and almost gave up, because it seemed like nothing at all was happening. And not only no action. I'm alright with no action at all. But also no fun, close to no introspection into our beloved protagonists and not even something sociological. Like... When nothing happens, but you're in a society you don't know... At least spend some time observing!

[Adi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved the way the mysteries and tension kept growing up until the very last pages of the book. The ending seemed a little rushed once the mystery had been solved, but the plot kept me intrigued the whole way through. The Doctor and Martha were both very in character through their dialogue and actions, and the side characters were well-written, too. I absolutely adored the moral questions towards the end of the book, as well as the resolution and the fleshed out, creative settings.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

The opening had me instantly hooked, with a sinister abandoned spaceship reminiscient of Alien's Nostromo. Then the books goes in a completely different direction, which definitely threw me. After getting used to it I was sort of able to enjoy it. I had a pretty good idea what the explanation would be, but was hoping for something else. Definitely more sci-fantasy than sci-fi, with a very nebulous and dubious solution at the end.

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

The doctor and Martha arrive on a dead ship that is barely working. But what killed the inhabitants and why is there a whole other world connected to it. They go into this other world which it seems the kids are disappearing. This one was part sci-fi and part fantasy. The ending is interesting. You can read these books out of order and it is fine.

[Andy Stehr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Usually I think the stuff that happens in a Doctor Who novel is stuff that could never happen on an episode, yet this book I felt like I could picture everything in it. I bet I get confused in the not too distant future about whether this was an episode or not. Really enjoyed it. Ripped through it quite quickly for me.

[Joanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bit of a weird and convoluted story that didn't really grip me and I found it dragging at times, with no clear explanation for everything at the end. The characters were okay but the story just fell a bit flat for me.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

漂流する巨大な宇宙船を探索することにしたマーサとドクター。しかし生命反応はゼロ。乗組員達は遠い昔に全滅していた。この船に何が起こったのかを調べるためにデータにアクセスしたドクターは自分達以外に船内に生命反応があることに気がつく。生命反応のある地点を目指して再び船を探索すると船の構造から監獄施設であることに気がつく。しかし、次に扉を開けた瞬間、マーサとドクターは森の中に立っており、化け物に襲われる。

マーサとドクターがさ迷い込んだ村は現実に存在するのかコンピューターが作り出したバーチャルリアリティーなのか。
うーん、まぁ、、面白くなかったわけでもないけれど、、、といった感じ。

[Nathan Pilgrim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun story, looks like a long episode, maybe a two parter.
It's been a while since I enjoyed something Doctor Who, and it made me nostalgic about how good it was. Especially with the feelgood ending.

[Night · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book on eBay without reading a single plot summary, and it left me pleasantly surprised. I judged a book by hits' cover essentially. David Tennant's version of the Doctor and Martha. If you like Doctor Who chances are you will find some enjoyment in this book.