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Eighth Doctor Adventures #34
Doctor Who: The Space Age
It is England, Earth, in the year 2019. The Doctor, Fitz, and Compassion land on a bleak plain, near a derelict city where mods and rockers are converging to fight out their differences. While the Doctor is taken prisoner by the rockers, Fitz is whisked away by the mods. In the midst of the gang wars, can the Doctor find out what transported the mods and rockers to the derelict city and why?
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 1, 2000
2 people are currently reading
270 people want to read
About the author
Steve Lyons
186 books104 followersSteve Lyons is a science fiction writer, best known for writing television tie-ins of Doctor Who for BBC Books, and previously, Virgin. The earliest of these was Conundrum in 1994, and his most recent was 2005's The Stealers of Dreams. He has also written material for Star Trek tie-ins, as well as original work.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 6, 2022
The Mods and Rockers are synonymous with my home town of Brighton, so the idea of the two youthful cultures of the early 60's being placed in an city reminiscent of how futuristic world were predicted to look like around this time is such a cool premise.
The simple plot as the tension rises between the two groups does seem somewhat weak compared to some of the recent titles in the range, but it still made for a fun runaround.
Especially as both The Doctor and Fitz were well characterised.
The simple plot as the tension rises between the two groups does seem somewhat weak compared to some of the recent titles in the range, but it still made for a fun runaround.
Especially as both The Doctor and Fitz were well characterised.
May 29, 2020
The majority opinion regarding this novel is that it's rather dire...and it's one I don't agree with. I will say that it's certainly unlike any other "Doctor Who" novel written by Steve Lyons; it's positively right out of left-field, considering his more usual epic/historical/portentous approach. That said, I loved the bonkers idea at the heart of it, and it's one of the few Compassion-as-a-TARDIS books from the 8th Doctor line that I actually (and heartily) enjoyed. So received opinion and I part company here...and I'm content.
January 25, 2025
I knew that any novel after Coldheart would be a let-down, but I didn't realize how far the story quality would actually fall. The Space Age starts out boring and stays that way for the entire span of its blissfully short 240 pages. The narrative begins (as it always seems to) in the 1960's in the UK. A group of teens are taken by an alien race to live in a different time and on a different planet and they separate into two distinct groups who fight each other for a span of 20 years. The two groups don't have any distinct reason of fighting each other, only that's what they've always done. The majority of the characters the reader meets are in their 40's, but they certainly don't act like it. Even though there have been fatalities on both sides, no one has attempted a reconciliation. There are no children except for the one that was initially brought and one child who was born after arriving. (This by itself is unbelievable. You're telling me that over 100 young people were scooped up and deposited in this place and there haven't been any children born?) It's entirely possible that there have been families and children born, but the author doesn't describe any of that.
Are there doctors? Does the Brain take care of medical needs? If so, how? Why are there so many available buildings and yet the mods and rockers live in bunkers underground? Why have the people stagnated and not learned anything? Why have they not matured emotionally past their late teens? How are Vince and Deborah such awful parents who don't care about their child? Why did it take Sandra 20 years to tell Rick the truth? There are just so many questions that the author doesn't answer, either through ignoring the problem or saying "yup, that's just how it is". It's beyond frustrating.
Compassion is ignored for a good half of the book, and then stuck in a corner until the very end of the story. Fitz is juggled between the camps, beaten up a few times, and eventually makes his way back to the Doctor. The Doctor attempts to reconcile the two groups, to no avail of course, and then works to liaise between the alien race and the humans, with marginal success (one of the few reasons why this book isn't 1 star, frankly).
The other reason is this story is easy to read. You might start wool gathering and need to bring your brain back to the narrative, but it's not a chore to understand, and it's on the shorter side. It's fine, but forgettable, and a far cry from its predecessor, unfortunately.
Are there doctors? Does the Brain take care of medical needs? If so, how? Why are there so many available buildings and yet the mods and rockers live in bunkers underground? Why have the people stagnated and not learned anything? Why have they not matured emotionally past their late teens? How are Vince and Deborah such awful parents who don't care about their child? Why did it take Sandra 20 years to tell Rick the truth? There are just so many questions that the author doesn't answer, either through ignoring the problem or saying "yup, that's just how it is". It's beyond frustrating.
Compassion is ignored for a good half of the book, and then stuck in a corner until the very end of the story. Fitz is juggled between the camps, beaten up a few times, and eventually makes his way back to the Doctor. The Doctor attempts to reconcile the two groups, to no avail of course, and then works to liaise between the alien race and the humans, with marginal success (one of the few reasons why this book isn't 1 star, frankly).
The other reason is this story is easy to read. You might start wool gathering and need to bring your brain back to the narrative, but it's not a chore to understand, and it's on the shorter side. It's fine, but forgettable, and a far cry from its predecessor, unfortunately.
August 11, 2025
The Doctor, Fitz and Compassion land on a planet where the main population are warring mods and rockers from the 50s.
Whilst inherently wacky, this idea never really develops, nor digs into what mods vs rockers was even about. The characters are all very thin and there isn’t much plot, with the main thrust being to stop the fighting and halt the approaching death of the city. There are long stretches that just seem to go through the motions, escaping and being recaptured and so forth.
It’s a functional book with a few bright spots, particularly Gillian (a sort of pseudo-companion for the Doctor) but with nowhere much to go. The supposed story arc — the team being on the run from Time Lords — might as well not be there either. An unusual misfire from Steve Lyons.
Whilst inherently wacky, this idea never really develops, nor digs into what mods vs rockers was even about. The characters are all very thin and there isn’t much plot, with the main thrust being to stop the fighting and halt the approaching death of the city. There are long stretches that just seem to go through the motions, escaping and being recaptured and so forth.
It’s a functional book with a few bright spots, particularly Gillian (a sort of pseudo-companion for the Doctor) but with nowhere much to go. The supposed story arc — the team being on the run from Time Lords — might as well not be there either. An unusual misfire from Steve Lyons.
March 29, 2021
It is an odd day when a review of a book by Steve Lyons turns out to not be up to almost the gold standard of Doctor Who. His novels up to this point have essentially all been highlights for the Virgin New Adventures, Virgin Missing Adventures, and Past Doctor Adventures, but his debut for the Eighth Doctor Adventures is one which falls into several pitfalls of the range thus far making a story that doesn’t actually add up to anything substantial. The Space Age has a fairly intriguing premise, though it is nothing unusual when it comes to a Doctor Who premise, seeing on the surface an alternate history of Earth where technology has taken on that future aesthetic of the 1950s and 1960s ruled in a sealed city. Lyons uses misdirect with an extended prologue setting up power couple Alec Redshaw and Sandra McBride, a couple of teenagers who are deeply in love in the year 1965. Only the prologue indulges in that saccharine style of romance which sets up the book excellently, with Lyons really selling this whole star-crossed lovers angle going out to somehow change history. Their jaded selves as essentially puppet rulers of this city and this city’s gangs also fill the role. The Mods and the Rockers are clearly influenced by the subcultures of the 1960s with some flair, but the actual characters in the gangs are fairly bland and really don’t get a lot of focus or sense. While The Space Age has numerous problems, the worldbuilding clearly isn’t one as Lyons excels at filling this faux future city with such atmosphere and intrigue that it almost single handedly saves a lot of the book from the numerous flaws that it has.
Compassion stands out as the biggest problem here, Steve Lyons like Trevor Baxendale before him, just doesn’t know what to do with her. Gail Simone names the trope of killing off a woman simply to advance the plot of the male characters around that woman fridging or putting the woman in the refrigerator after a character in Green Lantern, and that’s essentially what happens here with Compassion. She isn’t dead, but she starts the book, already landed in the city, deactivated and unable to move or even speak. This is how she remains for most of the novel which is simply not a good move: the Eighth Doctor Adventures have setup Compassion as the focus of the arc, so giving her a full book where she barely features is simply a problem. At least Coldheart featured her as a character where she got to interact, here she simply does nothing. Fitz is served at least a little better in that Lyons characterizes him, but Fitz kind of fills a role that could have been filled here by literally any other companion. There’s a little fun here with Fitz enjoying himself in this future which is essentially modeled itself after the media he would have consumed in his own time, making it an interesting little idea. He also gets stabbed which feels like a kick of adrenaline in a book that limps through an already short runtime. The Doctor is actually characterized really well, as he plays throughout quite a lot of the city with a flair for the dramatic. When it’s eventually revealed that an evil computer is behind everything Lyons starts to go down the tribute to The Green Death route, but then lampshades that fact as it’s clearly a story that he’s enjoying writing. Lyons’ writing style is at least an easy read, but it really doesn’t feel like something which ends up creating a book that could have been great.
Overall, despite it’s genuinely evocative title, The Space Age doesn’t ever amount to anything of note. This feels like it could have been released literally at any point as filler which feels like an attempt to avoid the harsh reality of the Compassion arc (especially The Shadows of Avalon and The Fall of Yquatine) by playing into problematic tropes and genuinely just leaving the reader with a genuine bland taste in the mouth. It could have been a much more interesting book if perhaps it was released before The Shadows of Avalon, but it does not do enough to actually bring things together for a good experience. 5/10.
Compassion stands out as the biggest problem here, Steve Lyons like Trevor Baxendale before him, just doesn’t know what to do with her. Gail Simone names the trope of killing off a woman simply to advance the plot of the male characters around that woman fridging or putting the woman in the refrigerator after a character in Green Lantern, and that’s essentially what happens here with Compassion. She isn’t dead, but she starts the book, already landed in the city, deactivated and unable to move or even speak. This is how she remains for most of the novel which is simply not a good move: the Eighth Doctor Adventures have setup Compassion as the focus of the arc, so giving her a full book where she barely features is simply a problem. At least Coldheart featured her as a character where she got to interact, here she simply does nothing. Fitz is served at least a little better in that Lyons characterizes him, but Fitz kind of fills a role that could have been filled here by literally any other companion. There’s a little fun here with Fitz enjoying himself in this future which is essentially modeled itself after the media he would have consumed in his own time, making it an interesting little idea. He also gets stabbed which feels like a kick of adrenaline in a book that limps through an already short runtime. The Doctor is actually characterized really well, as he plays throughout quite a lot of the city with a flair for the dramatic. When it’s eventually revealed that an evil computer is behind everything Lyons starts to go down the tribute to The Green Death route, but then lampshades that fact as it’s clearly a story that he’s enjoying writing. Lyons’ writing style is at least an easy read, but it really doesn’t feel like something which ends up creating a book that could have been great.
Overall, despite it’s genuinely evocative title, The Space Age doesn’t ever amount to anything of note. This feels like it could have been released literally at any point as filler which feels like an attempt to avoid the harsh reality of the Compassion arc (especially The Shadows of Avalon and The Fall of Yquatine) by playing into problematic tropes and genuinely just leaving the reader with a genuine bland taste in the mouth. It could have been a much more interesting book if perhaps it was released before The Shadows of Avalon, but it does not do enough to actually bring things together for a good experience. 5/10.
March 16, 2025
This book took me nearly 2 weeks to finish. Considering it's only 237 pages, that's not a good thing.
This one, while not as rage inducing as Coldheart, it's just....it's not very good. This one is just plain dull. Essentially it's about two groups of greaser gangs, the mods and the rockers who hate each other because.....they're different gangs. they're in the future in a weird pocket dimension and the doc and company have to stop them from killing each other as the world deteriorates around them.
The biggest issue with this one is that it's DULL. Everyone hates each other for absolutely no reason and 95% of the people are just awful, yet interchangeable people you care nothing about. I think that's the problem with this one. The author thinks you're going to care about any of these random extras from this book, and sadly, you really really don't.
There's scenes in this book where it's obvious you're supposed to either care about something or a reveal happens that i guess you're supposed to be shocked at, but i honestly just...i didn't care. It's to the point where i am actually having trouble writing this review just because i didn't give a crap.
Fitz is useless throughout the entire thing just getting kidnapped, escaping, then getting kidnapped over and over, Compassion's not even IN this one for about half of it, and the doc is trying to talk to the brick wall that is these people who hate each other for absolutely no reason.
The only positive thing i can say about this book is that it reads well. it's not confusing and i understood exactly what was going on. that's really about it. there's also a single character, Gillian, kind of a psuedo-companion for Doc and she was more interesting than every other person in this book combined. There's a woman, Sandra, who i THINK you're supposed to care about, but i really REALLY didn't even remotely care about her.
I think this is around the time when the authors realized that making Compassion into a TARDIS was a REALLY bad idea. nobody had any idea what to do with her, so they kind of just sidelined her. It was almost like they had the idea and thought it was cool, but had ZERO followup on this. This hurt the story as having regular Compassion would have been much better and having her as a TARDIS just ruins the chance for her to develop and be more involved in stories since 90% of things can be fixed in 10 seconds since she's...you know, an indestructible TARDIS. terrible choice to do this. i don't know whose fault that decision was, but i hope they feel bad about it.
Overall, having Eight involved in a story with two greaser gangs in the future is stupid, especially when the entire problem in the story could be fixed in ten seconds if both leaders weren't idiots for absolutely no reason.
Didn't hate this one, but it was just DULL and i didn't care about 95% of the characters in this one.
Big fat meh. 2.25 out of 5 rounded down to a 2.
This one, while not as rage inducing as Coldheart, it's just....it's not very good. This one is just plain dull. Essentially it's about two groups of greaser gangs, the mods and the rockers who hate each other because.....they're different gangs. they're in the future in a weird pocket dimension and the doc and company have to stop them from killing each other as the world deteriorates around them.
The biggest issue with this one is that it's DULL. Everyone hates each other for absolutely no reason and 95% of the people are just awful, yet interchangeable people you care nothing about. I think that's the problem with this one. The author thinks you're going to care about any of these random extras from this book, and sadly, you really really don't.
There's scenes in this book where it's obvious you're supposed to either care about something or a reveal happens that i guess you're supposed to be shocked at, but i honestly just...i didn't care. It's to the point where i am actually having trouble writing this review just because i didn't give a crap.
Fitz is useless throughout the entire thing just getting kidnapped, escaping, then getting kidnapped over and over, Compassion's not even IN this one for about half of it, and the doc is trying to talk to the brick wall that is these people who hate each other for absolutely no reason.
The only positive thing i can say about this book is that it reads well. it's not confusing and i understood exactly what was going on. that's really about it. there's also a single character, Gillian, kind of a psuedo-companion for Doc and she was more interesting than every other person in this book combined. There's a woman, Sandra, who i THINK you're supposed to care about, but i really REALLY didn't even remotely care about her.
I think this is around the time when the authors realized that making Compassion into a TARDIS was a REALLY bad idea. nobody had any idea what to do with her, so they kind of just sidelined her. It was almost like they had the idea and thought it was cool, but had ZERO followup on this. This hurt the story as having regular Compassion would have been much better and having her as a TARDIS just ruins the chance for her to develop and be more involved in stories since 90% of things can be fixed in 10 seconds since she's...you know, an indestructible TARDIS. terrible choice to do this. i don't know whose fault that decision was, but i hope they feel bad about it.
Overall, having Eight involved in a story with two greaser gangs in the future is stupid, especially when the entire problem in the story could be fixed in ten seconds if both leaders weren't idiots for absolutely no reason.
Didn't hate this one, but it was just DULL and i didn't care about 95% of the characters in this one.
Big fat meh. 2.25 out of 5 rounded down to a 2.
October 20, 2025
As far as 8th Doctor novels go, Steve Lyons' The Space Age would sit somewhere in the middle of a "season". It's a meat and potatoes story with an intriguing premise, some action, and the Doctor playing peacemaker to factions at war. The twist is that the Rockers and the Mods are alien abductees from the 1960s fighting in an alien city based on the futurism of time, complete with robots, elevated roadways, and food pills. So if it's the future, why did the gangs bring their old beefs with them? It's kind of like the Jets and the Sharks knifing each other in a Jetsons episode. Fan wisdom has this as being boring, but I don't think it is. I kind of wish Lyons had done more with the "rock'n'roll" element, and writers don't know what to do with Compassion now that she's a TARDIS, so she just stares into space (and time, I guess) most of the time. The Space Age is practically a two-hander between the Doctor and Fitz, and the guest stars have a lot to do. It might pale compared to the books right before and right after it, but it's still quite readable.
October 3, 2017
Interesting setup! Quite different from the books both before and after, and I enjoyed the mystery. Though if they were trying to get across how MADDENING!! the utter inability of either side to consider cooperating with each other was, they certainly succeeded. I could easily believe that this society had evolved from teenagers' identity groups, but you'd think maybe more that a couple of people would have matured beyond that a bit in 20-odd years. I liked the main female character and was glad she got a good ending and that the novel was generally sympathetic to her.
February 9, 2022
Again not a bad book.
July 9, 2011
The Doctor, Fitz and Compassion arrive on a planet near a city that suspiciously looks like something that someone in the 60's would picture a futuristic city. They stumble upon a "gang" war that they must fix in order to survive
I didnt mind this one too much, Fitz was Fitz, whom I dont mind. He is what I actually picture a companion to act, kinda reminds me of Rory, but without a love interest to override his self preservation skills. Compassion was largely absent here. Seems that they were setting her up for the finale of the latest series within the series.
The Doctor was pretty well written. The last couple of Doctor Who books have been pretty good with his characterization.
While this book is part of a mini series within the eighth doctor books its not bad.
I didnt mind this one too much, Fitz was Fitz, whom I dont mind. He is what I actually picture a companion to act, kinda reminds me of Rory, but without a love interest to override his self preservation skills. Compassion was largely absent here. Seems that they were setting her up for the finale of the latest series within the series.
The Doctor was pretty well written. The last couple of Doctor Who books have been pretty good with his characterization.
While this book is part of a mini series within the eighth doctor books its not bad.
April 8, 2009
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1987116.html[return][return]An Eighth Doctor Adventure that I felt might have worked better as a TV episode; in a dying city on a desolated planet, two gangs of mods and rockers, kidnapped from 1965 England many years before, are preparing for the final conflict, when the Doctor, Fitz and Compassion arrive and expose the computer and alien intelligences behind it all. OK but not all that much there compared with some of the other books in this range.
February 9, 2013
After some of the others I've read, this novel was rather disappointing. It's basically and literally "gang wars in space," between two 1980s factions, mods and rockers. I'm not interested in gangs normally, and setting this petty rivalry in space didn't make it any more interesting. In fact, the Doctor and Fritz spent most of the time pointing out exactly how petty it was.
I didn't really care about the characters either, and the prose was dry. Compassion--my favorite EDA charrie so far--didn't have much of a role either, so overall, I'd rate this as one to skip.
I didn't really care about the characters either, and the prose was dry. Compassion--my favorite EDA charrie so far--didn't have much of a role either, so overall, I'd rate this as one to skip.
February 13, 2016
Doctor Who in near deserted Jetsons style city on a barren world, the only inhabitants two small groups of Mods and Rockers from 60's Earth. How where they brought here, and why?
Steve Lyons is a master at blending the fantastic and the tragic and while Compassion is mostly passive following her 'change', the Doctor and Fitz really bring the adventure as tensions builds to all out war between the gangs, great stuff!
Steve Lyons is a master at blending the fantastic and the tragic and while Compassion is mostly passive following her 'change', the Doctor and Fitz really bring the adventure as tensions builds to all out war between the gangs, great stuff!
November 11, 2011
Mods and Rockers in outerspace. An interesting take on a traditional style Doctor Who story. The Doctor is becoming more reckless and his companions start to worry about him.
January 22, 2013
Absolutely dreadful. If I wanted stories about petty gang issues I'd watch TV.
Don't bother reading this one.
Don't bother reading this one.
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