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Eighth Doctor Adventures #35
Doctor Who: The Banquo Legacy
Banquo Manor — scene of a gruesome murder a hundred years ago. Now history is about to repeat itself.
1898 — the age of advancement, of electricity, of technology. Scientist Richard Harries is preparing to push the boundaries of science still further, into a new area: the science of the mind.
Pieced together at last from the accounts of solicitor John Hopkinson and Inspector Ian Stratford of Scotland Yard, the full story of Banquo Manor can now be told.
Or can it? Even Hopkinson and Stratford don't know the truth about the mysterious Doctor Friedlander and his associate Herr Kreiner — noted forensic scientists from Germany who have come to witness the experiment.
And for the Doctor, time is literally running out. He knows that Compassion is dying. He's aware that he has lost his own ability to regenerate. He's worried by Fitz's fake German accent. And he's desperate to uncover the Time Lord agent who has him trapped.
1898 — the age of advancement, of electricity, of technology. Scientist Richard Harries is preparing to push the boundaries of science still further, into a new area: the science of the mind.
Pieced together at last from the accounts of solicitor John Hopkinson and Inspector Ian Stratford of Scotland Yard, the full story of Banquo Manor can now be told.
Or can it? Even Hopkinson and Stratford don't know the truth about the mysterious Doctor Friedlander and his associate Herr Kreiner — noted forensic scientists from Germany who have come to witness the experiment.
And for the Doctor, time is literally running out. He knows that Compassion is dying. He's aware that he has lost his own ability to regenerate. He's worried by Fitz's fake German accent. And he's desperate to uncover the Time Lord agent who has him trapped.
276 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 5, 2001
1 person is currently reading
308 people want to read
About the author
Andy Lane
89 books338 followersSee also works published as Andrew Lane
During 2009, Macmillan Books announced that Lane would be writing a series of books focusing on the early life of Sherlock Holmes. The series was developed in conjunction with the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Lane had already shown an extensive knowledge of the Holmes character and continuity in his Virgin Books novel All-Consuming Fire in which he created The Library of St. John the Beheaded as a meeting place for the worlds of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who.
The first book in the 'Young Sherlock Holmes' series – Death Cloud – was published in the United Kingdom in June 2010 (February 2011 in the United States), with the second – Red Leech – published in the United Kingdom in November of that year (with a United States publication date under the title Rebel Fire of February 2012). The third book – Black Ice – was published in June 2011 in the UK while the fourth book – Fire Storm – was published originally in hardback in October 2011 with a paperback publication in March 2012. The fifth book, Snake Bite was published in hardback in October 2012 and the sixth book, Knife Edge was published in September 2013. Death Cloud was short-listed for both the 2010 North East Book Award. (coming second by three votes) and the 2011 Southampton's Favourite Book Award. Black Ice won the 2012 Centurion Book Award.
Early in 2012, Macmillan Children's Books announced that they would be publishing a new series by Lane, beginning in 2013. The Lost World books will follow disabled 15-year-old Calum Challenger, who is co-ordinating a search from his London bedroom to find creatures considered so rare that many do not believe they exist. Calum's intention is to use the creatures' DNA to help protect the species, but also to search for a cure for his own paralysis. His team comprises a computer hacker, a free runner, an ex-marine and a pathological liar.
During 2009, Macmillan Books announced that Lane would be writing a series of books focusing on the early life of Sherlock Holmes. The series was developed in conjunction with the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Lane had already shown an extensive knowledge of the Holmes character and continuity in his Virgin Books novel All-Consuming Fire in which he created The Library of St. John the Beheaded as a meeting place for the worlds of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who.
The first book in the 'Young Sherlock Holmes' series – Death Cloud – was published in the United Kingdom in June 2010 (February 2011 in the United States), with the second – Red Leech – published in the United Kingdom in November of that year (with a United States publication date under the title Rebel Fire of February 2012). The third book – Black Ice – was published in June 2011 in the UK while the fourth book – Fire Storm – was published originally in hardback in October 2011 with a paperback publication in March 2012. The fifth book, Snake Bite was published in hardback in October 2012 and the sixth book, Knife Edge was published in September 2013. Death Cloud was short-listed for both the 2010 North East Book Award. (coming second by three votes) and the 2011 Southampton's Favourite Book Award. Black Ice won the 2012 Centurion Book Award.
Early in 2012, Macmillan Children's Books announced that they would be publishing a new series by Lane, beginning in 2013. The Lost World books will follow disabled 15-year-old Calum Challenger, who is co-ordinating a search from his London bedroom to find creatures considered so rare that many do not believe they exist. Calum's intention is to use the creatures' DNA to help protect the species, but also to search for a cure for his own paralysis. His team comprises a computer hacker, a free runner, an ex-marine and a pathological liar.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 2, 2022
I love some gothic Victorian horror and the Eighth Doctor's personality fits do perfectly with these types of stories.
A creepy Manor house is the stage for scientist Richard Harris experiments which nicely link up with the Compassion story arc over the last few books.
The narrative is told though the accounts of Solicitor John Hopkinson and Inspector Ian Stratford which made it feel so different to many Doctor Who stories - it took some getting use to, but of course very inkeeping with other novels written around the time that this was set.
A creepy Manor house is the stage for scientist Richard Harris experiments which nicely link up with the Compassion story arc over the last few books.
The narrative is told though the accounts of Solicitor John Hopkinson and Inspector Ian Stratford which made it feel so different to many Doctor Who stories - it took some getting use to, but of course very inkeeping with other novels written around the time that this was set.
April 14, 2021
The issue with the run of Eighth Doctor Adventures post-The Shadows of Avalon and before The Ancestor Cell involves an inability to understand how to utilize Compassion in her nature as a human TARDIS. Coldheart and The Space Age are the most egregious in sidelining her, both giving her absolutely nothing and The Fall of Yquatine putting her through an assault storyline without ever actually resolving what it means. Her penultimate appearance in the range is The Banquo Legacy a book by future range editor Justin Richards and Virgin New Adventures veteran Andy Lane which could only be accurately described as an unconventional gothic horror mystery adventure. The format of the novel is told through two separate accounts of supporting characters, “The Record of Inspector Ian Stratford” and “The Account of John Hopkinson”, meaning that the Doctor, Fitz, and Compassion are all sidelined for the first third of the book, not appearing outside of the prologue for sixty pages. This device allows Lane and Richards to give the reader a good idea of the situation at Banquo Manor, its inhabitants, and the murder investigation already going on. The Banquo Legacy primarily concerns a series of macabre experiments in group learning and telepathy in mice. This becomes a gruesome thriller as the head scientist, Richard Harries, is murdered and eventually rises from the grave. The evocative image of the rat in the skull is really where the murder finds its ending, and is a great representation of what the book is trying to do. It essentially represents the characters as lab rats with a looming specter of death hanging over them.
Ian Stratford arrives at Banquo Manor looking into a missing persons case, something that Scotland Yard has a vested interest in as the experiments have been causing quite a stir. Stratford’s narration reads almost like a Sherlock Holmes short story, and feels like this is the half of the story contributed by Andy Lane, as he wrote All-Consuming Fire in a similar vein and Young Sherlock Holmes books. Stratford is the one who actually brings the Doctor and company into the plot and serves as an outsider looking in, a character whose own peaceful outlook in the village surrounding Banquo Manor is crashed down around him while discovering the experiment and the murders. This is contrasted with the naïve John Hopkinson, who feels more like the primary narrator as he seems to be someone affected by the experiment, although he is certain he hadn’t been to Banquo Manor before his arrival. He acts cold and clinical and is there in the capacity as a lawyer and is already coming because of a suicide of a mutual friend. This becomes especially apparent when the Doctor is murdered a little after the halfway point of the novel and there is a wonder if this is actually going to be an end. It’s this middle of the book where the story falls at least a little flat, not moving quickly as the switches between the two narrators become rapid, chapters taking up less than a page and the pace not actually increasing with the changes in chapters. The mystery eventually deepens when the plot involving a Time Lord Agent plays into the conclusion, but until then there is a long stretch where things just fall flat.
There is this mistrust and naivety with the rest of the characters as the narrators’ own observations of the Doctor, Fitz, and Compassion (or the woman Compassion has overtaken in this story) makes the reader unsure of exactly if this trio can actually be the TARDIS team as we know them. Seeing the Doctor, Fitz, and Compassion from an outsider’s perspective is something that makes this book unique. Fitz especially is affected as being someone who on the surface seems incredibly shallow, being unable to keep up his cover story of being German with the Doctor as his boss and not really doing anything to solve the murders. While this is something that wouldn’t work if every story featuring Fitz, but because it is a one-off here it really works well. Compassion on the other hand is partially sidelined in the prologue, which made my heart drop as it seemed Richards and Lane were going down the route of Coldheart and The Space Age, but putting her in the body with a supporting character actually makes her appearance great. This is one where seeing her coldness form the outside is interesting as the emotional nature of the woman she is inhabiting sometimes bleeds through. There’s also some genuine compassion in Compassion here with the ending of the book for her in particular being dark and harrowing.
Overall, The Banquo Legacy does a lot of things correctly, setting up the end of an arc incredibly well, but falling flat in a few places as its own story, especially in the second act where things don’t take any time to move along. The Doctor’s fake out death is also something that doesn’t work being seen from the outside, especially as the range wasn’t ever going to end with this book. It’s a good read, but one that needs at least a little patience. 7/10.
Ian Stratford arrives at Banquo Manor looking into a missing persons case, something that Scotland Yard has a vested interest in as the experiments have been causing quite a stir. Stratford’s narration reads almost like a Sherlock Holmes short story, and feels like this is the half of the story contributed by Andy Lane, as he wrote All-Consuming Fire in a similar vein and Young Sherlock Holmes books. Stratford is the one who actually brings the Doctor and company into the plot and serves as an outsider looking in, a character whose own peaceful outlook in the village surrounding Banquo Manor is crashed down around him while discovering the experiment and the murders. This is contrasted with the naïve John Hopkinson, who feels more like the primary narrator as he seems to be someone affected by the experiment, although he is certain he hadn’t been to Banquo Manor before his arrival. He acts cold and clinical and is there in the capacity as a lawyer and is already coming because of a suicide of a mutual friend. This becomes especially apparent when the Doctor is murdered a little after the halfway point of the novel and there is a wonder if this is actually going to be an end. It’s this middle of the book where the story falls at least a little flat, not moving quickly as the switches between the two narrators become rapid, chapters taking up less than a page and the pace not actually increasing with the changes in chapters. The mystery eventually deepens when the plot involving a Time Lord Agent plays into the conclusion, but until then there is a long stretch where things just fall flat.
There is this mistrust and naivety with the rest of the characters as the narrators’ own observations of the Doctor, Fitz, and Compassion (or the woman Compassion has overtaken in this story) makes the reader unsure of exactly if this trio can actually be the TARDIS team as we know them. Seeing the Doctor, Fitz, and Compassion from an outsider’s perspective is something that makes this book unique. Fitz especially is affected as being someone who on the surface seems incredibly shallow, being unable to keep up his cover story of being German with the Doctor as his boss and not really doing anything to solve the murders. While this is something that wouldn’t work if every story featuring Fitz, but because it is a one-off here it really works well. Compassion on the other hand is partially sidelined in the prologue, which made my heart drop as it seemed Richards and Lane were going down the route of Coldheart and The Space Age, but putting her in the body with a supporting character actually makes her appearance great. This is one where seeing her coldness form the outside is interesting as the emotional nature of the woman she is inhabiting sometimes bleeds through. There’s also some genuine compassion in Compassion here with the ending of the book for her in particular being dark and harrowing.
Overall, The Banquo Legacy does a lot of things correctly, setting up the end of an arc incredibly well, but falling flat in a few places as its own story, especially in the second act where things don’t take any time to move along. The Doctor’s fake out death is also something that doesn’t work being seen from the outside, especially as the range wasn’t ever going to end with this book. It’s a good read, but one that needs at least a little patience. 7/10.
August 20, 2025
Murder, mad science and zombies feature in this spirited epistolary, co-written by Lane and Richards years earlier and retrofitted for Doctor Who when another book fell through. It’s an old fashioned bit of Gothic fun that sometimes makes good use of its narrative gimmick.
That said, the joins are sometimes apparent, particularly with Compassion being forced rather unconvincingly into a minor role; also the epistolary isn’t perfect, with both narrators sounding roughly the same.
It’s mostly memorable for reheating the “run away from the Time Lords” plot arc that previous EDAs had been avoiding. Otherwise, it’s a romp.
That said, the joins are sometimes apparent, particularly with Compassion being forced rather unconvincingly into a minor role; also the epistolary isn’t perfect, with both narrators sounding roughly the same.
It’s mostly memorable for reheating the “run away from the Time Lords” plot arc that previous EDAs had been avoiding. Otherwise, it’s a romp.
April 28, 2025
Man, I certainly am tired of saying "well that was a book" for these 8th doctor novels. But, once again, i have to say, this was a book. not a great one, not a bad one, but a book.
It's becoming more and more apparent with every single one of these i read that once the writers changed Compassion into a TARDIS they had absolutely no idea what to do with her. Like to them the IDEA of making her a TARDIS was so cool, that they had no future story ideas after the fact. So she's either out of commission, somewhere else, or just effectively in the closet like she's Kamelion or something. I actually LIKED Compassion before this. She was a nice change of pace from the lovestruck Sam, but MAN.. once she became a TARDIS, it's like... they had no idea what to do and she lost all of her character and it went to crap. I'm SAD that i want to Compassion leave. And i really DON'T. i want to see TARDIS compassion leave. i want the ORIGINAL Compassion back. but i know that's not going to happen, so i guess i'll just take her leaving instead.
That being said, this story was...fine. it's told in a very odd method. Basically there's two guys, an inspector and some other guy in an 1800's manor in England checking out a death of some guy. The doc and Fitz show up along with Comp who's pretending to be someone else and they then proceed to talk about it for 1/2 the book. then the "exciting" stuff happens about 2/3 of the way through the book. the...'monster of the week' stuff if you will. The framing device is very odd in this method. One chapter is guy talking from his POV, then the inspector, then the guy again. Lather, rinse repeat.
Now i say "The guy" a lot here because honestly, one of the biggest flaws of this book is that all the characters are SO interchangeable, SO forgettable, that i'm sitting here like "the hell is that again?" It got to a point where someone had died, and later in the book that character shows up and i thought she was one of the people who died, but she wasn't and i just apparently read the name wrong. Everyone is that interchangeable.
I understand who the inspector is and why he's there, but actually, i couldn't tell you why the other one of the storytellers is there. i have no idea who he is or the relationship to anyone.
The 'twist' is....fine? for the monster of the week that it is, but the biggest issue is that you just don't care about any of these people. you're like "oh no! not THAT guy. he was my favorite random british person!" and from what i gather on other reviews, i'm not the only one who feels this.
The book's gross at times, but it's not THAT bad. like, Trevor Baxendale is still the king of gross body horror for no reason.
Fitz is funny a few times as per usual (i wish he used the fake german accent longer) but overall useless, the doctor isn't IN about 1/3 of the book (to the shock of no one) and the doc and crew felt more like side characters in their own story. if this wasn't a doctor who story the story would have been better but because they pass it off as a Who it just makes it worse.
All in all, not bad. not great, but not bad.
the pure definition of a 3 out of 5.
Okay. just one more compassion book to go. just one more.
3 out of 5.
It's becoming more and more apparent with every single one of these i read that once the writers changed Compassion into a TARDIS they had absolutely no idea what to do with her. Like to them the IDEA of making her a TARDIS was so cool, that they had no future story ideas after the fact. So she's either out of commission, somewhere else, or just effectively in the closet like she's Kamelion or something. I actually LIKED Compassion before this. She was a nice change of pace from the lovestruck Sam, but MAN.. once she became a TARDIS, it's like... they had no idea what to do and she lost all of her character and it went to crap. I'm SAD that i want to Compassion leave. And i really DON'T. i want to see TARDIS compassion leave. i want the ORIGINAL Compassion back. but i know that's not going to happen, so i guess i'll just take her leaving instead.
That being said, this story was...fine. it's told in a very odd method. Basically there's two guys, an inspector and some other guy in an 1800's manor in England checking out a death of some guy. The doc and Fitz show up along with Comp who's pretending to be someone else and they then proceed to talk about it for 1/2 the book. then the "exciting" stuff happens about 2/3 of the way through the book. the...'monster of the week' stuff if you will. The framing device is very odd in this method. One chapter is guy talking from his POV, then the inspector, then the guy again. Lather, rinse repeat.
Now i say "The guy" a lot here because honestly, one of the biggest flaws of this book is that all the characters are SO interchangeable, SO forgettable, that i'm sitting here like "the hell is that again?" It got to a point where someone had died, and later in the book that character shows up and i thought she was one of the people who died, but she wasn't and i just apparently read the name wrong. Everyone is that interchangeable.
I understand who the inspector is and why he's there, but actually, i couldn't tell you why the other one of the storytellers is there. i have no idea who he is or the relationship to anyone.
The 'twist' is....fine? for the monster of the week that it is, but the biggest issue is that you just don't care about any of these people. you're like "oh no! not THAT guy. he was my favorite random british person!" and from what i gather on other reviews, i'm not the only one who feels this.
The book's gross at times, but it's not THAT bad. like, Trevor Baxendale is still the king of gross body horror for no reason.
Fitz is funny a few times as per usual (i wish he used the fake german accent longer) but overall useless, the doctor isn't IN about 1/3 of the book (to the shock of no one) and the doc and crew felt more like side characters in their own story. if this wasn't a doctor who story the story would have been better but because they pass it off as a Who it just makes it worse.
All in all, not bad. not great, but not bad.
the pure definition of a 3 out of 5.
Okay. just one more compassion book to go. just one more.
3 out of 5.
March 17, 2025
Banquo is a huge step up from the previous installment in the EDAs (not hard to do) but it still has a few issues the reader needs to work through. It starts out well enough- a grisly murder, a mysterious visit to an older woman, and then the stage is set for the main piece, a closed circle Victorian murder mystery in an old, secluded mansion. Sounds decent enough, but the story is told from the perspectives of two men (one is an inspector, the other is a friend) who both have their hearts set on one woman who is currently engaged to another man at the onset, and they both have similar backstories and know the same information. Consequently, their voices sound exactly the same, and I had to, at times, go back to the head of the chapter to determine who was speaking. The other crime this book commits is that it doesn't get interesting or engaging until 100 pages from the end. Until then, it's a muddled slog. The Doctor isn't in the book for nearly half, and Compassion doesn't do hardly anything at all. Fitz is left to dangle on his own.
It's also got a lot of body horror, so be prepared before diving into this one. I don't want to give away the twist, but suffice it to say it's rather disturbing. If you're into that kind of thing, it might bump the story up a star for you. If you're not, you might deduct a star.
At the end of the day, the story idea was a good one, the last 100 pages were easily in the 4.5 star category, but the first two thirds dragged the narrative down, didn't give the reader enough crumbs to put the pieces together, and the similar voices made it confusing for no reason. I've settled on 3.5 rounded down to 3 this time.
It's also got a lot of body horror, so be prepared before diving into this one. I don't want to give away the twist, but suffice it to say it's rather disturbing. If you're into that kind of thing, it might bump the story up a star for you. If you're not, you might deduct a star.
At the end of the day, the story idea was a good one, the last 100 pages were easily in the 4.5 star category, but the first two thirds dragged the narrative down, didn't give the reader enough crumbs to put the pieces together, and the similar voices made it confusing for no reason. I've settled on 3.5 rounded down to 3 this time.
October 29, 2025
From the lore about The Banquo Legacy, Andy Lane and Justin Richards must have hacked this Eighth Doctor novel more quickly than usual because it replaced another that was on the schedule. It doesn't feel like a rush job. In fact, it's one of the better EDAs I've read. Set at the end of the 19th Century, it uses the twin accounts of a lawyer and a police detective to create a great Gothic atmosphere - Gothic bordering on Lovecraft - a mix of murder mystery and unholy science experiments. Doctor Who has a long tradition of spooky manors which this taps into, though had it been made for television, we might consider some episodes Doctor-Lite, and arch our eyebrows at the momentary recasting of Compassion (shades of The Mind Robber). But the narrators/leads are up to the challenge of keeping our attention when the Doctor isn't present, largely due to their great prose (and apparently eidetic memories). A more omniscient narrator could have explained things better, of course, especially the nature of Banquo Manor, if it indeed had an intrinsically strange nature, but the genre being emulated requires things to remain mysterious, and so we'll happily allow it.
November 5, 2017
Starts out as a cool idea - an Agatha Christie-like chamber drama with murders and accidents and suspicious Butlers and changes of heart, but with The Eighth Doctor - but quickly becomes a laborious plod, due to the repetition in the changing narrative of the two protagonists (who have a completely incidental past connection) and the inherent dullness of most of what they relate, and the ridiculous level of complication added to the story by the authors' apparent reluctance to help the reader with Eight's continuity of story. We have a companion that no one who has not listened to the Audio dramas will not recognize, and a character who is not quite human who is equally confusing until explained. Add that to a secret Time Lord, incestuous relationships and robo-rats, and this was not fun, and did not deliver on the promise it implied.
October 3, 2017
Starts what I think of as the zombie run of books in this series. Plenty of ick. Liked Simpson and how the Gallifrey arc plot advanced incrementally. Liked the Doctor's disguise (Fitz! you are bad at accents! at least you've mostly stopped telling wild tales to all and sundry, lol) and that the narrators were two of the characters-of-the-week. Didn't like the back and forth between them over the girl, but there's a line somewhere in her POV where someone calls them "your lover and your husband" so I'm just going to headcanon that they worked out some kind of poly threeway deal.
But ugh. Zombies.
But ugh. Zombies.
November 24, 2018
Odd, strange, dark, irritating, impenetrable...I honestly don't know what to make of this. It didn't feel very much like "Doctor Who"...more like some kind of gothic 19th century nightmare with the 8th Doctor shoved in as an afterthought. For a book that lead into the conclusion of the first phase of the Paul McGann print era, this isn't exactly what I was expecting.
January 26, 2021
Really enjoyed this 8th Doctor adventure. There's obviously some continuing undercurrent going on which I didn't understand at all (so not completely a stand-alone novel) but enjoyed the story and the way the narrative switched between the two human protagonists.
December 7, 2023
‘Doctor Who’ with not so much of the Doctor. A nice Victorian horror/whodunnit, but with an overcrowded cast which makes it all a bit overwhelming at times. It wasn’t until the end of the book that I started to tell them apart. Nonetheless enjoyable.
May 14, 2024
Doctor Who does an Agatha Christie-esque country house murder mystery. Even better, it's an Outsider POV story. It's delightfully fun to see two locals' perspectives on the Doctor, Compassion, and Fitz, even/especially as they never really know quite what is going on.
September 13, 2011
The Doctor, Compassion and Fitz are caught is a Time Lord trap on Earth in the late 1800's. The Time Lords want Compassion for there own uses and finally have tracked them down and the Doctor and company have stumbled upon a murder which very quickly gets out of hand
Again. Another Doctor Who adventure missing the Eighth Doctor. Arrggg. I read these because I want to enjoy the Doctor escaping various predicaments but that didnt happen. Oh he was in the book but missing for most of the book.
With that said, I did enjoy the style of the book. We see the whole thing through the eyes of a cop and the eyes of a lawyer the cop is investigating. I really enjoyed the back and forth. Unfortunately it had no place here.
Again. Another Doctor Who adventure missing the Eighth Doctor. Arrggg. I read these because I want to enjoy the Doctor escaping various predicaments but that didnt happen. Oh he was in the book but missing for most of the book.
With that said, I did enjoy the style of the book. We see the whole thing through the eyes of a cop and the eyes of a lawyer the cop is investigating. I really enjoyed the back and forth. Unfortunately it had no place here.
September 8, 2013
I ended up skipping this one by accident during my first trip through the series, but I'm not too upset that I did.
The action finally picks up about 100 pages in, so I kind of skimmed until then. The Doctor, Fitz, and Compassion are mere background elements in a classic 'who-done-it' tale told by two whitenesses that I never really cared for.
plot development SPOILERS so that you can skip it:
*************************************************************
the time lords discover the code for the randomizer in Compassion. (Which sets up the next book.)
It doesn't even happen until the epilogue either.
*************************************************************
If you love the Doctor, skip this one.
The action finally picks up about 100 pages in, so I kind of skimmed until then. The Doctor, Fitz, and Compassion are mere background elements in a classic 'who-done-it' tale told by two whitenesses that I never really cared for.
plot development SPOILERS so that you can skip it:
*************************************************************
the time lords discover the code for the randomizer in Compassion. (Which sets up the next book.)
It doesn't even happen until the epilogue either.
*************************************************************
If you love the Doctor, skip this one.
April 8, 2009
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2003026.html[return][return]The authors of this Eighth Doctor novel, when on form, are among the best writers of the Who range. Unfortunately I was underwhelmed by this joint exercise of their talents, in which they attempt to jointly channel Agatha Christie, Mary Shelley, Marc Platt and a little H.P. Lovecraft, and the result doesn't quite take off. Having two viewpoint characters who don't quite know who the Doctor, Fitz and Compassion are is rather brave, but unfortunately I found them a bit interchangeable and at times implausible.
September 3, 2015
A gothic horror that is genuinely creepy. The Doctor, Fitz and Compassion land at a Victorian manor house where a mad scientist is conducting experiments. There's murder, intrigue and lots of plot twists. This starts slow but does become a page turner. It is written in the form of diaries and statements from members of the household. I really, really enjoyed it. It would have made a great tv series.
February 8, 2013
Written as a series of reports by an inspector and any ordinary gentleman, this novel is difficult to follow in places. Compassion, Eight and Fitz have only minor roles in this adventure, and the third-person narration adds unnecessary distance from the main characters.
March 2, 2010
One of the very best. Two great writers - and Doctor Who in a country house. Perfection.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews