Doctor Who: First Frontier

Doctor Who: Virgin New Adventures #30

by David A. McIntee

Ace raised her blaster. 'You've already killed me once, girl,' Kreer said. 'Didn't you learn anything from that?'

When Bernice asks to see the dawn of the space age, the Doctor takes the TARDIS to the United States of America in 1957 - and into the midst of distrust and paranoia. The Cold War is raging, bringing the world to the brink of atomic destruction.

But the threat facing America is far more deadly than Communist Russia. The militaristic Tzun Confederacy have made Earth their next target for conquest - and the aliens are already among us.

Two nuclear warheads have been stolen; there are traitors to the human species in the highest ranks of the army; and alien infiltrators have assumed human form. Only one person seems to know what’s going on: the army’s mysterious scientific advisor, the enigmatic Major Kreer.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction

294 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 1994

About the author

David A. McIntee was a British author who specialised in writing spin-offs and nonfiction commentaries for Doctor Who and other British and American science-fiction franchises.

Reviews

[James Bowman · Rating 2 out of 5]

A promising premise - the Doctor gets mixed up in UFO shenanigans in 1950s America - with an interesting alien foe. There's also a genuine surprise with one of the villains' identities (I knew thanks to spoilers, but I won't spoil readers of this review). However, the execution is disappointing - very slow-moving and almost dull in spots, with uneven use of the supporting cast, and some sections where the action is hard to follow. Perhaps this would have worked better on television, with the necessary streamlining... (B-)

[Scurra · Rating 3 out of 5]

David McIntee found a nice niche for his New Adventures - a solid historical setting which has room for the SF elements without you feeling that they are completely implausible.

Here he takes the 50s UFO scares in the US and parlays it into a proper alien invasion story. There is a genuinely excellent twist involving one of the major characters which is almost but not entirely a surprise - and it nicely deals with a long-standing loose end from the tv show.

Sadly, however, the story itself is rather routine and there are few surprises (but more than a few ridiculous "back-and-forth" sequences in which characters go somewhere, come back and go away again just to enable the plot to work. And there are times when you lose track of where things are happening when there are two separate army bases, with aliens apparently at both of them.

The aliens are quite nicely realised, with a plausible and unusual military culture, but again it gets confusing as to where the different aliens are and what their motivation is.

Not a great entry in the series, but definitely not a clunker either.

[Xanxa · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first started this, I thought it would be a standard alien invasion scenario of the kind I've read and seen on TV and in movies many times, ad nauseam. Although it has many elements of those standard invasion scenarios, the addition of a much-loved character and some interesting new guest characters lifted it above the mundane.

Among the standard fare of UFO enthusiasts, conspiracy theorists, hidebound military officers and worried citizens, we find the Doctor, Ace and Bernice.

I won't go into detail about the best element of the story, because of spoilers, but needless to say, it's well executed and it ties in nicely with the TV show.

[Christopher M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel works from the premise of trying to give an explanation for the raft of UFO sightings in 50s America, but doesn't come up with much more than well, it was all those UFOs. The alien baddies the Tzun are original with a well developed hierarchical society and mode of invasion, but the weird names are as hard to follow as the rapid back and forth between lots of military types in different bases. There's a surprise returning character who is used well, but their involvement here has been retconned by the subsequent TV revival and spin off media.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

I decided that I didn't have the patience for this one. It's not the setting, it's not the story. I suppose it was the writing.

[Adam Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was OK.

[Kaoru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Until two thirds of the pages into the book I thought that it wasn't much more than just a solid romp of a story. Not too great but not too bad either, and it passed the time rather well. Then there suddenly came this surprise reveal of the villain and I went "Oh!". I should have seen it coming if I had [i]really[/i] been paying attention to all the clues and hints throughout the story, but well, I wasn't. Since it was just such of a prime example of a cozy romp I didn't really expected anything of that sort to happen.

And well... in the end it still isn't much more of a romp, but hey, it's a romp with a major surprise twist. How about that?

Anyway, that cover really is a bit crap, isn't it? What the hell happened to the anatomy of poor Ace? Who let kind of thing pass and why didn't anybody notice it before sending it to the printer?

[Mikey · Rating 4 out of 5]

First Frontier is pretty good! It's a nice introduction to some new enemies - the Tzun - and a nice reappearance of an old one with the Master!

The setting and the characters are all pretty good throughout the majority of it, though after a certain point - when the Master regenerates - the pacing seems to kind of go a bit awry. The ending also ends up feeling kind of rushed and a bit of a technobabble asspull with some sonic screwdriver magic (or thereabouts) for good measure.

Still, this isn't enough to really make me mark it low - I think it's still definitely deserving of the rating I've given it, yep!

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1928098.html

Rather a good Seventh Doctor romp, with Benny and Ace involved with an attempted alien invasion coinciding with the start of the Space Race in late 1957. It felt from the start rather like The Claws of Axos, only done much better, a feeling intensified by a plot twist about halfway through; it also has the general frenetic pace of a televised New Who story, to the point that I could see it as the basis for a decent script. Good fun.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another of David Mcintee's entertaining Historical/ sci-fi stories. This time we are in america in the early fifties.
Nice use of history, good characterization of the three leads and a clever surprise reveal about one of the bad guys make up for the fact that the aliens are pretty uninteresting and generic. Might have worked better with an old Doctor Who alien.

[Luke Bannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun romp set in the era of Roswell. The Doctor, Benny and Age make for a likeable team and the return of an old foe was a welcome surprise.

[April Mccaffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

*this review contains spoilers *

Well I know some of the vnas are slow but wow I have finally ploughed through this one. Im glad I finally bit the bullet and bought a kindle as i think this will help me read all my Doctor who books like this one here.

Overall, a good historical doctor who story about the space race but it could have done with being a bit shorter and less descriptive. Also, way too many characters about and some that were either forgotten or hardly needed and this resulted Benny, Doctor and Ace being jumbled about.

I did like the reveal of the Master and how he survived after Survival! I thought that was well done and how he used the Tzuan for a new regeneration cycle as he was becoming cat like.

Over all, good story but could have cut a lot out and it would have still made sense. David certainly knows his stuff.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of those novels where I found the characters much more enjoyable than the story itself. It feels a bit tame these days, considering what's been done with the Master on the TV series over the last decade, but the top flight characterizations of the 7th Doctor, Ace & Benny keep you reading until the end

[Arthur B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly has some shortcomings, especially when it comes to the rather unfocused ending, but the idea of mashing up Doctor Who with UFO mythology in the 1950s is too fun to resist. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/202...

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5
Found a few bits hard to follow (although I think I managed to work it out by the end) but basically decent. Not one I was bowled over by but I enjoyed it.
And [redacted] did genuinely take me by surprise, I'll give the book that.

[City Mist · Rating 4 out of 5]

David A. McIntee does a better job of incorporating Doctor Who into the American UFO craze of the 1950s than Paul Cornell did in Dreamland 15 years later, but his writing suffers from a surplus of characters and technical detail.

[Arcturus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid book! Villain was a lot of fun, but the ending felt incredibly quick, and I'm used to quick endings for these books. Still all around fun though

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this one! It's probably my favorite Doctor Who book so far. The villain reveal was awesome and I loooooved the second half!

[Paul Flint · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book, set in 1950s America , with the focus being on the space age. The story revolves around UFOs, aliens which have taken over high ranking army roles etc. I found the characterizations of the Doctor and his companions on point, a fairly long NA novel, with more than one adversary ie Major Kreer. i found it a fascinating page turner and i would highly recommend it to all fans.

[John Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you want an entertaining Doctor Who story featuring the Master, maybe watch Time-Flight instead.

[The Bookseller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Going to be honest I can’t get on with David A. McIntee’s writing style. I don’t know what it was, but I really struggled. He also has a writing habit to give every character a name (Gary Russell did the same thing in Legacy) The problem with it is that you as the reader will do your best to remember every named character. This is because it should be an indication from the writer that these characters are important and will reappear later.

However, when every character is named (and I mean every character) from a one-off guard, motel clerk or even a passersby, it just becomes too much. You can’t possibly remember all those characters, it becomes overwhelming and so you stop trying. Then suddenly a character you didn’t bother to remember appears and turns out to be a major contributor to the plot.

Sadly I didn’t managed to finish this one.

[Michel Siskoid Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finally got up to the Master's return and regeneration in the New Adventures range of Doctor Who novels - First Frontier - and while I usually enjoy David McIntee's well-researched historicals, he leaves me wanting a little here. There's still research, mostly into the 1950s space race and communist paranoia-fueled B-movies, but there are just too many similar characters to keep track of. Military guys spread across three bases, plus an alien race split into three types, with secret identities besides, makes the supporting cast start to blur after a while. Still good fun, and the new Master (reputedly based on Basil Rathbone) is a welcome change from Ainley's panto villainy, but I guess I was expecting more. The Master could have regenerated 100 pages sooner, for example.

[Kris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even though I read this relatively recently I realised I had basically no memory of it. Even now I am struggling to recall it in immense detail. Mostly it is overstuffed with references and filled with run-arounds that go nowhere.
It improves in the final 1/3 when it is revealed to Major Kreer is The Master (for which McIntee would go on to write much better books) where there are some great interactions, if a fairly standard plot.
Unfortunately it continues to have the problems of McIntee's other early writings and is unfortunately near the bottom of the pack for the virgin books I have been reading so far.

[Don Incognito · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not one of the best titles in the old Doctor Who New Adventures series. The plot is actually quite good: an alien invasion in 1957 with a familiar villain and intricate maneuvering by characters who are not what they seem. The aliens and their technology are fairly interesting.

The problem is that the characterizations are horrible. The Seventh Doctor is characterized as the Third Doctor, the characterization of Benny is too generic to be recognizable, and the villain's personality doesn't match the version of him seen on television. Other New Adventures writers understood the Seventh Doctor and his companions better.

I was sorry I paid a little money for a copy of this book.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is what NA's were designed to be - TV show made bigger and better.

Perfect Who setting too, as the Doctor investigates the 1950s UFO/Roswell "sightings" to uncover a gen-u-ine alien invasion (natch)...with a twist or two!

The main twist, that's near-20 years old by this stage (Spoiler! the Master's back), I knew going in and so spent 2/3 of the book waiting for "the reveal", but it didn't really remove from the story any (in some ways it made it fun, spotting the hints and threads that I probably would have missed otherwise).

Good stuff.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 2 out of 5]

Paper-thin characters that are hard to distinguish and a rambling plot. It does have good elements like a well-detailed alien race and some pivotal post-series continuity, but that doesn't save a dull book.

[Nicholas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The glorious return of the Master (his first in the New Adventures) and a hell of a cover to boot. A good Ace subplot helps keep this book a page turner, as well as a great characterization by the Master. Although lacking in a really good final confrontation, its still a winner.

[David Layton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doctor Who and the flying saucers, with McIntee's personal addition to the Who bestiary, the Chinese-styled Tzun, and the Master up to his old tricks. The plot is full of action, but not of thought. There is nothing fancy, surrealistic, or philosophical here, just go go go action.

[Andy Stehr · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly good Doctor Who book. Good villians, a fine premise and a good supporting cast. i'm not really find of the American Southwest as a setting, nor the 50's really, but I'll take it.