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Eighth Doctor Adventures #46

Doctor Who: The Year of Intelligent Tigers

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The Doctor has been staying on the planet Hitchemus for the past few months where he has been learning to play the violin from gifted young composer Karl Hassan. Hitchemus is a planet with two distinctive features -- the humans who live there have a formidable reputation for composing, playing and appreciating a wide range of music -- while its tiger population is showing unusual signs of intelligence.Although Anji is greatly unnerved by the sight of a tiger taking a book out of a library, no one is prepared for the day when the tigers take over the planet. Their demands are unusual though -- they want to be taught to play instruments as well as the humans, and to this end kidnap all of the planet's most eminent musicians.

Why are these tigers so intellectually advanced, and can the population of Hitchemus resolve their conflict to avoid civil war? The Doctor sympathises with the tigers and humans alike, but needs to help both parties to resolve their differences before they both begin to see him as a traitor...

288 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 4, 2001

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365 people want to read

About the author

Kate Orman

65 books41 followers
Kate Orman studied biology at Sydney University and worked in science before becoming a professional author. Orman is known for her sci-fi work, and especially her frequent collaborations in the "Doctor Who" universe. For Virgin Publishing and BBC, she wrote more than a dozen full-length novels, as well as numerous short stories and non-fiction pieces related to "Doctor Who". She was the only woman and only Australian to write for the initial range of novels, the Virgin New Adventures.

As of 2022, Orman lives in Sydney and is married to fellow author Jonathan Blum.

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5 stars
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80 (30%)
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59 (22%)
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22 (8%)
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
Profile Image for Daniel Kukwa.
4,744 reviews123 followers
October 7, 2015
This is easily Kate Orman's finest "Doctor Who" novel. A story of powerful emotions, and the supreme effort necessary for two incredibly different & diametrically opposing groups to co-exist. The 8th Doctor has never been this gorgeously characterized outside of Orman & Blum's previous masterpiece, "Seeing I" -- he is, in every way, a heroic force of nature. This novel will literally sweep you along, with the power of a hurricane-force wind.
Profile Image for Trin.
2,313 reviews681 followers
August 16, 2024
This is Eight at his most Time Lord Victorious. It's a good look on him.

No one writes him quite like Kate Orman: beautiful and tragic, and very, very alien. There's great Fitz stuff in here too -- the song he wrote for the Doctor makes a perfect reappearance -- as well as the continued arc of Anji's distrust, which is interesting and earned.

A few bits of this verge on the overly cutesy at times -- I hate "Bewilderness" and made a face every time the term appeared -- but the visceral (yet never gratuitous) violence and the deft character work brought it back. The Doctor finds a boyfriend, but can't keep him; the Doctor can't be a human and can't be a tiger, but only ever himself. It's good.

4.5 rounded up.
Profile Image for Rem.
13 reviews7 followers
February 22, 2017
This book is enchanting and delightful, and I'm glad to have picked it as my first of the Eighth Doctor Adventures. I loved the characterizations, the plot, the structure of the story, how it's moulded after a piece of music, all of it. The one-off, original character companions surprised me with how engaging and utterly relatable they are: Dr Besma Grieve and Karl Sadeghi especially. I would instantly recommend Orman's novel to anyone looking to branch out into the EDAs; even with no familiarity with the Eighth Doctor, Fitz or Anji, this story is a great first foray into this particular fold of the Extended Doctor Who Universe!
Profile Image for Evie .
53 reviews2 followers
January 23, 2025
kate orman’s additions to this series have always been something to look forward to, and this book was no different - I’m very sad this is her last. the good news though is I think this is also her best - her writing is pretty exquisite, better than it has ever been, the structure and narrative rather expertly put together and as always, the characterisation is superb. orman always has interesting things to say about the doctor and explores him with a depth that few authors do, but I think this book might be the most compelling exploration yet. I love how she is able to accentuate both the light and the dark shades of his personality, side by side, until the very end. and she really takes him everywhere here - from the heights of the romantic and completely joyful to the truly slightly terrifyingly dark and damning - references in other reviews of the tenth’s doctor’s time lord victorious era is certainly an apt comparison.

anji’s mistrust of the doctor is also excellently written here too, and perhaps, satisfyingly resolved. fitz takes a slight step back, (although his contributions are, as always, a lot of fun), probably most likely due to the introduction and through line of karl. to be fair, writing two homoerotic dynamics with the doctor would be a challenge, so I understand orman’s decision to focus on karl, the boyfriend he never could have kept.

this is easily one of the best of the whole series, and has the rare quality of rising above the series it’s a part of, as just a genuinely well written book.
Profile Image for James Allen.
59 reviews1 follower
September 8, 2025
This was my first foray into The Eighth Doctor Adventures series of novels by BBC Books, written during the Wilderness Years of Doctor Who (the time between the Classic show ending and the Modern show starting). The 8th Doctor has more recently become my 2nd favourite incarnation of The Doctor, thanks to the output by Big Finish and their audio dramas.

This era of DW stories has always somewhat intrigued me since I properly looked into them a few years ago, and I've already bought two of them, Father Time and Camera Obscura. However, I didn't really feel that they would be great starting points, so I instead looked to another novel and found The Year of Intelligent Tigers which seemed a better gateway into these novels as it's a much more standard Doctor Who affair than the other two novels I own, which are more rooted into the overarching plot of these novels and should become greater versed in this depiction of the 8th Doctor, as well as his companions.

I actually found the 8th Doctor here to be quite like his audio counterpart. I could really see him across this entire novel, which was a nice surprise as I did think it would be difficult for me to see the 8th Doctor as who I know the 8th Doctor to be, isn't around yet, and all there is to characterise him is the TV movie and previous novels.

The Doctor travels with two companions in this novel, who are practically exclusive to this range of novels: Fitz Kreiner and Anji Kupari (Fitz does appear in an 8th Doctor short story I have listened to, but it's not a full story like these novels). I quite like this pair of companions; they had a lot to do throughout, and were well introduced to me through their actions. I particularly liked how this story has Fitz and Anji question The Doctor's motivations as well as his identity and morals.

I'd say this novel is possibly the most powerful showing of The Doctor as an Alien. I think everyone forgets at times that The Doctor is not human, is not like us. Readers, listeners, viewers, friends and enemies alike. This novel tackles that idea head-on, and it is spectacular. I sensed that here, the Doctor is looking for someplace to belong. Either with the Humans or the Tigers, but he is neither. All he can do to fit into either camp is for nought.

Another thing I loved in this novel was its descriptions of music. The world of Hitchemus is one dominated by music. Humans have mastery over the art of instruments, and the Tigers have heard it. I don't think music is something I've seen tackled in a Doctor Who story, certainly never to this extent before. The entire novel is split into sections as if it were a song in its own right, beginning with the first verse, then the first chorus and so on. I liked the idea of this; however, it didn't really add anything to the narrative. The first chorus section wasn't like a chorus, and the bridge wasn't really a bridge. It was a fun choice though, I respected it.

One of the many musicians in this story is the composer Karl Sadeghi. He plays a rather pivotal role to the Doctor, as Karl is his linchpin to the human race. Their bond was something I really liked here, and it was interesting to see the Doctor find something special in Karl. It's never explicitly said, but it's fairly obvious that their relationship skirts the line of a romance. This leads to some rather shocking events later in the novel, where the Doctor struggles to find his place in this world and has to admit to himself that he's the alien here. Not the human colonists or the intelligent tigers. It's a really great examination of the Doctor across this novel.

Speaking of the tigers. I loved their civilisation. Their intelligence is bi-generational, so there'll be a generation of intelligent tigers that are unable to teach their own offspring how to operate their machinery and carry on their civilisation. Then that generation will have their own children, but they will be intelligent, but no one will be around to teach them how to utilise their intelligence. I think this is quite an ingenious idea, but it's also rather sad, as these intelligent tigers can never really relate to their own children, as they will live totally different lives. In the novel, some tigers (who are actually scaled reptiles that just so happen to look and act like our tigers of earth) refuse to have children because they worry they will grow up to resent their children for not being intelligent.

This generational gap also makes for the civilisation to be in a constant state of repetition. When we come across them here, the tigers discover their intelligence and work to craft a civilisation. Those tigers die out, and the civilisation crumbles, whilst their children are your standard wild animals, then the next generation comes along and rebuilds the ruins of that very same civilisation. Then the humans arrive. My favourite part of this was the "Stela" of the Tigers. This was a sort of library/interactive museum built by their forefathers to teach the intelligent generations how to operate things like the weather control for the planet. All around this, Stela were locked doors that would open once the tigers accomplished something, like a reward. The Doctor offers to open one of the doors during the novel, and the idea of an entire species gaining something new to further their race's understanding of the world was electrifying to me. It was far and away the utter highlight of the novel for me.

I will say none of this novel outstays its welcome. I feel it absolutely could've, but it's all paced very well. I wasn't expecting to like this as much as I did, and I'm glad I decided to begin these novels with such an interesting story.
Profile Image for Andrew.
932 reviews14 followers
June 19, 2016
hmmmm..yeah not bad very slow moving really as the Doctor kind of strides through as a negotiator between a race of talking tigers and humans but this book has fun elements and comes into itself as it draws to a close.
Characterisation was good and as a eighth Doctor novel it does a decent job of filling in that time when the character was away from our T.V. screens showing the possibilities of McGanns tenure.
Profile Image for Jean.
35 reviews
January 9, 2016
Tigers

This was wonderful to read. It really was intense. Like Star trek Urhuas song, both deal with cats. I would recommend this book to read. It's worth the $9.99.
Profile Image for Jacob Licklider.
319 reviews6 followers
August 12, 2022
Sometimes you want to see a character get very angry. Anger in a protagonist is something often either muted or exaggerated for the purposes of angst, but The Year of Intelligent Tigers is a book that slowly builds up the anger of the main character while all his friends slowly betray him, and two societies cast him off. This is Kate Orman’s final contribution to the Eighth Doctor Adventures and penultimate Doctor Who novel as it is, though she would contribute some short stories to Big Finish and was recently announced to be writing the fourth in their series of Audio Novels, and like all of Orman’s work at its core there is a deconstruction. This deconstruction is of who the Eighth Doctor is as a character, what his goals are, and what the effect of the near constant amnesia has had on him. Orman writes the Eighth Doctor with a real sense that he doesn’t quite know or understand who his friends are. He is travelling with Fitz, but does he really know this version of Fitz? Anji is also a relative newcomer, and their previous adventures have been so full of death and destruction that the anger is already there. The TARDIS team’s arrival on Hitchemus has served as a vacation, the first fifty pages or so are written in such a lyrical style of the Doctor, Fitz, and Anji having their first real chance of character growth and development. This is the first time that it seems they are actual friends and travelling companions without the added angst of Anji grieving or Fitz being afraid of not being the real Fitz. This makes a nice change and the human colony on Hitchemus, one of artists and musicians with some scientists but mostly those set apart from traditional capitalistic human society. The only form of life on Hitchemus is a species of tigers who have been lazing around and whom one scientist is convinced are more intelligent than they are letting on.

The Doctor is playing first violin in a concerto and the novel itself is structured like a symphonic composition. The music subplot is something that permeates the novel which is integral to how the Doctor is portrayed, every time he attempts to play his solo in the concerto it only grows and grows, becoming more and more unruly and impossible to contain, reflecting the nature of the Doctor himself. The conductor and composer, Karl, still wants to keep the Doctor in the part but he becomes more and more unmanageable. It is at this point when the tigers reveal their intelligence and take over the city, keeping anyone not a musician or music instructor trapped in their home, literal and figurative storms are brewing and the Doctor is cast out from the rest of the humans. The bulk of the novel deals with the descent of the humans against the Doctor’s endless and romantic optimism that the humans and tigers could possibly live together.

Fitz takes a background role, having traveled with the Doctor for so long he understands that the Doctor wants to save everybody, wants to see the humans and the tigers living together even when both humans and tigers are at each other’s throats. Even the tigers, who have cyclical evolutionary development of intelligence to stupidity back to intelligence, eventually want to see the Doctor dead because he wants everyone to live. Anji, being still the newcomer to the TARDIS only having three proper adventures under her belt, becomes a leader in the anti-tiger resistance, something she takes up because she is scared. Orman is brilliant in foreshadowing this early on with Anji being the most distrustful of the tigers even before they show their intelligence, worried about people letting them into their homes and places of business to do whatever they please. And then once everything comes to a head we get to the ending where Kate Orman ties everything together. The Doctor fails. He intentionally leaves the situation with only a few short years for the humans and the tigers to learn how to work together or their small little island will end.

The Year of Intelligent Tigers is not just a book about tigers, it’s a book about music, losing one’s faith, gaining confidence for a cause, and most importantly about humanity. Nobody in it is wholly good, or wholly bad, they are just people trying to live their lives and survive, that survival instinct leading to the fear that brings people down. Even after ten previous novels Kate Orman still finds ways to surprise you and keep you wholly engaged with lyricism and beauty on every page. 10/10.
Profile Image for Emily.
470 reviews11 followers
October 24, 2019
I am at a point in my life where if I am not enjoying a book, I give up. I got half way through this book and had to give up. I wanted to like it, but it just didn't happen. I couldn't warm to any of the characters. They were too clinical, not necessarily unemotional, but the emotions seemed distant, scientific, not human and real. It was like the author was observing events from a distance but didn't want to get too involved for fear of influencing the outcome. The author also tried to introduce principles and ideas but they seemed second hand, almost a veneer with nothing of substance beneath.

I thought a lot about this because I wanted to like this book. The writing is more grown up compared to some Doctor Who books. The I have a soft spot for the eighth doctor. We like tigers in our household. So when I found myself struggling, I tried to understand why. I wish it had been better.
Profile Image for Angela.
2,595 reviews71 followers
August 20, 2018
The Doctor and friends land on a musical colony for a little holiday. They are all enjoying themselves when the tigers start acting intelligently. Violence and war swiftly follow.

This is a novel full of character depth, there are no bad guys just those trying to survive. It's nice to see the TARDIS crew having some downtime for a change. The story is very readable and you want to know what happens next. Another great read from the brilliant writer Kate Orman.
Profile Image for Arthur Chappell.
Author 25 books45 followers
July 13, 2020
Great premise, tigers taking musicians hostage for lessons but much is left unexplained such as why and how the weather controlling tech was created, and who the guy is in the flashbacks to a 29th century Buddhist retreat. It may be Karl, but how did he get to the tiger planet? We are never told.
5 reviews
March 9, 2022
This book is one of the earliest moments of the Time Lord Victorious
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Ronnie Linbu.
13 reviews1 follower
March 9, 2022
The origin of the Time Lord Victorious
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Joe Ford.
57 reviews1 follower
December 9, 2024
Beautiful prose, hang time for the regulars, great characterisation of everybody, and a dramatic situation that is really simple but effective. I love this.
Profile Image for Numa Parrott.
494 reviews19 followers
March 19, 2024
Well it's super cheesy, but good anyway. Lost one star for uninventive 'talking animal' aliens and another for boring music theory references that I didn't get at all.

That being said, the story was well-paced and took a good look at the Doctor's motives for what he does. We even get a few cool flashbacks to his time on earth in the 20th century.

Fitz was comedy relief, which is an insult to his character at this point. Anji was a jerk. I like that her character journey IS going, but I don't like where it's going.

WHYYY DID MY FAVORITE LOCAL CHARACTER HAVE TO DIE? I nearly cried.

It's interesting that the whole situation never gets fully resolved. I suppose it's good for the Doctor not to fix everything every time.

If you love the Doctor, read it!
Profile Image for Nicholas Whyte.
5,343 reviews209 followers
Read
April 8, 2009
http://nhw.livejournal.com/993775.html[return][return]I enjoyed it. The amnesiac Eighth Doctor, with companions Fitz and Anji (who I previously encountered a few books later), is on an artistically inclined colony world where the indigenous large tiger-like fauna turn out to be more intelligent than their human neighbours had thought. Multiple narrative points of view, both human and tiger, vividly and credibly portrayed background scenery, and a very Doctor Who-ish, humanistic resolution to the conflict between the two races. Will look out for more by this author.
Profile Image for F.R..
Author 37 books221 followers
October 14, 2016
Doctor Who does lend itself very nicely to magic realism. Particularly the book version of the Eighth incarnation, who is conceived as a Byronic romantic figure – although far nicer and less tragic. As such this tale of a planet of super intelligent tigers who love music should be the perfect mix of fantasy, science fiction, whimsy and limitless imagination. Except what appears on the page is pretty much dramatically inert. It drifts along languidly, just thinking that its premise alone will carry the reader to the end, completely forgetting that the reader generally likes a gripping story too. I wanted to be thrilled by this novel, but largely I was bored.
Profile Image for Sarah.
291 reviews24 followers
April 21, 2015
Almost a dnf - eventually I managed to skim through the second half. Just couldn't get into it - none of the characters were particularly interesting, nor was the plot. I hadn't realised there were so many stories about the eigth doctor; this was the first time I'd encountered these companions, but I've read other Doctor Who books with unfamiliar companions and still enjoyed those.
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