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Past Doctor Adventures #49
Doctor Who: Relative Dementias
‘Do Time Lords get Alzheimer’s disease?’ asked Ace. ‘Oh, we get far worse things than that, Ace. The dementias that plague us are much, much darker.’
Collecting his post in the London of 2012, the Doctor and Ace are called through time to south-east Scotland to help out an old friend -- an old friend who’s vanished. They find themselves at Graystairs, an Alzheimer’s treatment clinic and a place of healing, where the patients seem to be gaining a new lease of life. But whose life is it?
Why is the Doctor so reluctant to reveal what happened in the TARDIS before their arrival? Why are cats and dogs -- not to mention people -- disappearing? Who is the shadowy figure stalking the Doctor and Ace? And what is the secret of the mysterious Miss Chambers, whom no-one remembers meeting?
Soon, the Doctor and Ace find out the hard way that actions have consequences -- and that there’s more than one kind of dementia.
Collecting his post in the London of 2012, the Doctor and Ace are called through time to south-east Scotland to help out an old friend -- an old friend who’s vanished. They find themselves at Graystairs, an Alzheimer’s treatment clinic and a place of healing, where the patients seem to be gaining a new lease of life. But whose life is it?
Why is the Doctor so reluctant to reveal what happened in the TARDIS before their arrival? Why are cats and dogs -- not to mention people -- disappearing? Who is the shadowy figure stalking the Doctor and Ace? And what is the secret of the mysterious Miss Chambers, whom no-one remembers meeting?
Soon, the Doctor and Ace find out the hard way that actions have consequences -- and that there’s more than one kind of dementia.
277 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
3 people are currently reading
256 people want to read
About the author
Mark Michalowski
29 books16 followersMark Michalowski (born 1963 in Chesterfield) is the editor of Shout!, "Yorkshire's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender paper", as well as being an author best known for his work writing spin-offs based on the BBC Television series Doctor Who. He currently lives and works in Leeds.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
September 8, 2021
One of my favourite Seventh Doctor PDA’s, it probably helps that it’s one of the few novels that’s set in between televised episodes - with the events happening during early Season 26.
The Doctor and Ace investigate a strange secluded Alzheimer's clinic in Scotland, where patients seem to be gaining memories of events that they couldn’t possibly know.
It’s a fun enjoyable story that gives a younger Ace some great character moments.
A welcomed addition to this era of the show.
The Doctor and Ace investigate a strange secluded Alzheimer's clinic in Scotland, where patients seem to be gaining memories of events that they couldn’t possibly know.
It’s a fun enjoyable story that gives a younger Ace some great character moments.
A welcomed addition to this era of the show.
September 25, 2016
Oh, hey, a Doctor Who book featuring the Seventh Doctor where he MOSTLY acts like the Seventh Doctor! I get so frustrated with the New Adventure books and their insistence on taking away his memory/mojo all the damn time in order to be "fresh" and/or "exciting." In this book, that happens, but for just a couple of chapters.
Overall I found this very fun, though Act II is a bit of a slog with not much happening, it feels like. But we get some great bits that feel right at home with this era of the show, and a good peek into Ace's mind without having to get all mawkishly navel-gazey like the NA stuff seems to love (I honestly do like a lot of the NA stuff, it just feels like, at times, they're trying SO HARD to prove they're cool they feel like 1990's Marilyn Manson).
A decently good reveal behind the mystery of the events going on throughout the book, too. Nothing too complex, and nothing too straightforward, either. Just pretty solid overall, if a bit padded.
Overall I found this very fun, though Act II is a bit of a slog with not much happening, it feels like. But we get some great bits that feel right at home with this era of the show, and a good peek into Ace's mind without having to get all mawkishly navel-gazey like the NA stuff seems to love (I honestly do like a lot of the NA stuff, it just feels like, at times, they're trying SO HARD to prove they're cool they feel like 1990's Marilyn Manson).
A decently good reveal behind the mystery of the events going on throughout the book, too. Nothing too complex, and nothing too straightforward, either. Just pretty solid overall, if a bit padded.
June 28, 2021
My first Seventh Doctor PDA and what a great read!
I’m a huge fan of the Seventh Doctor VNA’s even if they are pretty inconsistent and this was my first taste of the Seventh Doctor in PDA form and it did not disappoint.
Season 26 is one of my favourite seasons of the show and it’s great that we have a PDA set early on in that season with a young Ace. This is a really good book for all Ace fans I would say.
I thought the whole plot was really intriguing throughout and I found myself really liking the supporting characters and found the villains to be pretty good as well. Some really good ideas in the book and I could easily imagine this being a story that could work in tv form.
Overall a fantastic story and one that I’d recommend to any Seventh Doctor fan.
I’m a huge fan of the Seventh Doctor VNA’s even if they are pretty inconsistent and this was my first taste of the Seventh Doctor in PDA form and it did not disappoint.
Season 26 is one of my favourite seasons of the show and it’s great that we have a PDA set early on in that season with a young Ace. This is a really good book for all Ace fans I would say.
I thought the whole plot was really intriguing throughout and I found myself really liking the supporting characters and found the villains to be pretty good as well. Some really good ideas in the book and I could easily imagine this being a story that could work in tv form.
Overall a fantastic story and one that I’d recommend to any Seventh Doctor fan.
September 10, 2016
A beautifully told tale that captures the 7th Doctor's era with great deftness & sensitivity. It combines all the charm of the TV adventures with the moodiness & complexity of the best "New Adventures" novels, and even offers up a moment of shocking comeuppance for the chess-playing McCoy incarnation of the Doctor. A satisfying debut novel from Mark Michalowski.
March 27, 2020
If you like Season 26, you will like this book.
A great little 7th Doctor story that slides perfectly into that era.
Reccomended if you're a seventh doctor fan, and of the story "Ghost Light".
A great little 7th Doctor story that slides perfectly into that era.
Reccomended if you're a seventh doctor fan, and of the story "Ghost Light".
January 11, 2023
Relative Dementias is an odd title. It’s clearly a take on Relative Dimensions as in Time and Relative Dimension in Space, and with a title like that for Mark Michalowski’s Doctor Who novel debut is an interestingly reflective one. It takes unseen elements from the Doctor’s time at UNIT, a Dr. Joyce Brunner and her son Matthew are our most well rounded secondary characters, the former investigating an Alzheimer’s care facility in the year 2012 while the later has gone AWOL from UNIT and undergoing his own turmoil and loss in sense of identity. This is especially in regards to UNIT, its purpose as a whole, and the role the Doctor in general has played in the affairs of Earth. While the reflection is on the Third Doctor’s actions, this is a novel set with the Seventh Doctor and Ace travelling with each other, though not a continuation of the BBC Books Tucker/Perry Seventh Doctor post-Survival sequence of Illegal Alien, Matrix, Storm Harvest, Prime Time, Heritage, and Loving the Alien. This placement also means that Michalowski is writing for a Seventh Doctor and Ace that are in the middle of their development so the reflective nature of the story looks on where they have come from while also noting where they might be going. The reflective nature of the novel is perhaps where the story really ends up shining, the first half is quite slow and contemplative, with the mystery of where Joyce has disappeared to being the main thrust for the Doctor and Ace.
Michalowski uses setting perhaps to be one of the more interesting aspects of the novel. The Doctor and Ace first appear to be going to Earth in the then near future of 2012, mainly to show Ace the sites of her future. Michalowski while vague, uses these scenes to bring down the classic mid-20th century view of the early 21st century as fantastic and almost whimsical with its visions of flying cars. This future really only looks like the 1980s with some different cars. There is this relatively minor character here of Countess Gallowglass, a woman who runs a way station for lost aliens and to whom the Doctor has sent at least some of his mail in the past. Her only purpose is to give the Doctor the letter that becomes the inciting incident of the novel, but there is something utterly wonderful about this woman that she kind of worms her way into the reader’s mind. It feels like a reflection of the off-kilter nature of the rest of the novel. Off-kilter may not be the best description for what Michalowski does to reflect on Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in general, but there is a wonderful style of prose used so the reader can understand the trauma that those with dementia undergo at the center of the novel while also not forgetting the difficulties associated with those patients leave behind. Graystairs, the main setting for the first half of the novel, is a memory care facility where you can tell that at least some of the patients are being abused, though subtly as to not arouse suspicion. The abuse is psychological and extends to the families of the patients who have to chalk it up to the issues of living with dementia. The melancholic tone is first planted in the mind of the reader due to the cover and made explicit by the prose and examination of the characters, especially Joyce and Matthe. This becomes an issue when the second half of the novel devolves back into a standard Doctor Who story and it leaves me wanting more in a bad way. While it is where much of Matthew’s plot takes focus and center stage the standard evil alien plot just falls flat for me and holds the book back.
Overall, Relative Dementias is a novel of two halves. The first is an incredible reflection on losing one’s sense of identity and being lost in a healthcare or military system while examining the relationship of the Doctor and Ace before the rest of the expanded universe evolved it to a conclusion. The second is a standard Doctor Who story that lets down the fact the first half is doing something different and innovative. It’s still a great book overall despite lost potential as there are pieces of the second half that forward the ideas of the first. 8/10.
Michalowski uses setting perhaps to be one of the more interesting aspects of the novel. The Doctor and Ace first appear to be going to Earth in the then near future of 2012, mainly to show Ace the sites of her future. Michalowski while vague, uses these scenes to bring down the classic mid-20th century view of the early 21st century as fantastic and almost whimsical with its visions of flying cars. This future really only looks like the 1980s with some different cars. There is this relatively minor character here of Countess Gallowglass, a woman who runs a way station for lost aliens and to whom the Doctor has sent at least some of his mail in the past. Her only purpose is to give the Doctor the letter that becomes the inciting incident of the novel, but there is something utterly wonderful about this woman that she kind of worms her way into the reader’s mind. It feels like a reflection of the off-kilter nature of the rest of the novel. Off-kilter may not be the best description for what Michalowski does to reflect on Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in general, but there is a wonderful style of prose used so the reader can understand the trauma that those with dementia undergo at the center of the novel while also not forgetting the difficulties associated with those patients leave behind. Graystairs, the main setting for the first half of the novel, is a memory care facility where you can tell that at least some of the patients are being abused, though subtly as to not arouse suspicion. The abuse is psychological and extends to the families of the patients who have to chalk it up to the issues of living with dementia. The melancholic tone is first planted in the mind of the reader due to the cover and made explicit by the prose and examination of the characters, especially Joyce and Matthe. This becomes an issue when the second half of the novel devolves back into a standard Doctor Who story and it leaves me wanting more in a bad way. While it is where much of Matthew’s plot takes focus and center stage the standard evil alien plot just falls flat for me and holds the book back.
Overall, Relative Dementias is a novel of two halves. The first is an incredible reflection on losing one’s sense of identity and being lost in a healthcare or military system while examining the relationship of the Doctor and Ace before the rest of the expanded universe evolved it to a conclusion. The second is a standard Doctor Who story that lets down the fact the first half is doing something different and innovative. It’s still a great book overall despite lost potential as there are pieces of the second half that forward the ideas of the first. 8/10.
July 18, 2016
I have read this one before, but, for once, on re-reading it I found I couldn't remember anything about it!
That is more down to my state of mind at the time, I suspect, than any fault on the part of Mark Michalowski in his first novel. The fact that Michalowski has subsequently become something of a leading light in Doctor Who fiction can be traced back to this novel - a strong idea, with a well-plotted story which makes full use of structure to persuade readers to keep reading past the end of each chapter!
My only slight criticism is what, in this Steven Moffatt-led era, we now refer to as "timey-wimey" elements. It may have been a good idea at the time, but on balance I think the book may work better without it. That, incidentally, is the reason I've given this three stars rather than the four the rest of the book so thoroughly deserves.
That, and the fact that Michalowski has built on this strong starting point with each work he's given us.
That is more down to my state of mind at the time, I suspect, than any fault on the part of Mark Michalowski in his first novel. The fact that Michalowski has subsequently become something of a leading light in Doctor Who fiction can be traced back to this novel - a strong idea, with a well-plotted story which makes full use of structure to persuade readers to keep reading past the end of each chapter!
My only slight criticism is what, in this Steven Moffatt-led era, we now refer to as "timey-wimey" elements. It may have been a good idea at the time, but on balance I think the book may work better without it. That, incidentally, is the reason I've given this three stars rather than the four the rest of the book so thoroughly deserves.
That, and the fact that Michalowski has built on this strong starting point with each work he's given us.
October 24, 2024
Season 26 is one of my favourite seasons on the show and it was great to have a book set early on during that time with a young Ace. This book also examines the relationship of the Doctor and Ace before the rest of the expanded universe evolved it to a conclusion. 'Relative Dementias' touches on personal issues, apart from the Science fiction world. The novels early focus is Alzheimer's disease. The books main secondary character Joyce Brunner is introduced as an old friend having family issues of her own - involving not just her aging mum but her rebellious UNIT soldier son.
Dementia isn't a subject brought up in a lot of popular media. Needless to say, it's a tragic disease, and just like stories involving other conditions, very real problems that need a lot of care and respect when approaching, it means Mark Michalowski really had his work cut out for him. And he succeeded. There have been many fascinating things with Doctor Who, where the author has twisted something familiar to give it a haunting air. Graystairs, an old peoples home for Alzheimer's patients is one of these places. Michalowski grew up in one of these places and "writing what you know" is taken on board extremely well. The home is full of horrors without the other worldly connection, and this kind of realism is where the book is at its best. The story approaches the subject of dementia in a very respectful, very realistic way. There are some fantastically detailed and affecting scenes with a number of patients suffering with the condition.
Aside from the dementia itself, this is a really good book.
The characters are spot on renditions of their TV versions. Every line of dialogue sounded in my head like McCoy and Aldred and every action they took was in keeping with their respective personas of opportune manipulator and impulsive do-gooder.
This is the seventh Doctor with all his responsibilities and complexities, but also a sense of mischief. He's a man of multitudes, with charm and gentleness that I feel some authors forget about. Like I mentioned we thankfully didn't get this problem here.
Ace is naive to the Doctor's ways; the Doctor is manipulative and cunning. Michalowski captures this well, showing the Doctor in control, Ace rebelling against him and trying to go out on her own. The interactions between them, even when not direct, is a really high point of this novel.
I honestly think this Doctor & companion get the best material.
As always when it comes to UNIT, the dating of this story is a bit problematic with regard to the UNIT years on TV. This book is set in 1982, and yet Michalowski keeps stating that Joyce last worked with the third Doctor months ago. Even if you believe the stories were set on the transmission dates, Sarah Jane came from the 1980s in 'The Pyramids' of Mars', Joyce can't have worked with the third Doctor for several years. Apart from this, there's an interesting UNIT revelation, however, as the lower ranking troops have no great love for the Doctor and hold him responsible for their comrades deaths.
It's a book that begins nicely & ends nicely. Other than the dating mishap with UNIT, the novels only sin is there's too much running around. A chase through the Alzheimer's home, a dash through the woods. You get the idea. Other than that, the whole plot was really intriguing throughout, and I found myself really liking the supporting characters as well. It's a fun, enjoyable story that gives a younger Ace some great character moments. It even offers us a moment of shocking comeuppance for the chess-playing 7th Doctor. The whole conversation in the pub is really funny. There are some really intriguing ideas in this book, I can easily see this being a story that could work on the TV. There's also actual attention to detail in time travel that is surprisingly rare in Classic Who. It's nothing too complex, and nothing too straightforward either.
It's a welcomed addition to this era of the show.
Dementia isn't a subject brought up in a lot of popular media. Needless to say, it's a tragic disease, and just like stories involving other conditions, very real problems that need a lot of care and respect when approaching, it means Mark Michalowski really had his work cut out for him. And he succeeded. There have been many fascinating things with Doctor Who, where the author has twisted something familiar to give it a haunting air. Graystairs, an old peoples home for Alzheimer's patients is one of these places. Michalowski grew up in one of these places and "writing what you know" is taken on board extremely well. The home is full of horrors without the other worldly connection, and this kind of realism is where the book is at its best. The story approaches the subject of dementia in a very respectful, very realistic way. There are some fantastically detailed and affecting scenes with a number of patients suffering with the condition.
Aside from the dementia itself, this is a really good book.
The characters are spot on renditions of their TV versions. Every line of dialogue sounded in my head like McCoy and Aldred and every action they took was in keeping with their respective personas of opportune manipulator and impulsive do-gooder.
This is the seventh Doctor with all his responsibilities and complexities, but also a sense of mischief. He's a man of multitudes, with charm and gentleness that I feel some authors forget about. Like I mentioned we thankfully didn't get this problem here.
Ace is naive to the Doctor's ways; the Doctor is manipulative and cunning. Michalowski captures this well, showing the Doctor in control, Ace rebelling against him and trying to go out on her own. The interactions between them, even when not direct, is a really high point of this novel.
I honestly think this Doctor & companion get the best material.
As always when it comes to UNIT, the dating of this story is a bit problematic with regard to the UNIT years on TV. This book is set in 1982, and yet Michalowski keeps stating that Joyce last worked with the third Doctor months ago. Even if you believe the stories were set on the transmission dates, Sarah Jane came from the 1980s in 'The Pyramids' of Mars', Joyce can't have worked with the third Doctor for several years. Apart from this, there's an interesting UNIT revelation, however, as the lower ranking troops have no great love for the Doctor and hold him responsible for their comrades deaths.
It's a book that begins nicely & ends nicely. Other than the dating mishap with UNIT, the novels only sin is there's too much running around. A chase through the Alzheimer's home, a dash through the woods. You get the idea. Other than that, the whole plot was really intriguing throughout, and I found myself really liking the supporting characters as well. It's a fun, enjoyable story that gives a younger Ace some great character moments. It even offers us a moment of shocking comeuppance for the chess-playing 7th Doctor. The whole conversation in the pub is really funny. There are some really intriguing ideas in this book, I can easily see this being a story that could work on the TV. There's also actual attention to detail in time travel that is surprisingly rare in Classic Who. It's nothing too complex, and nothing too straightforward either.
It's a welcomed addition to this era of the show.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 2, 2020
A Past Doctor Adventure featuring the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and his companion Ace.
Receiving a call for help from an old friend at UNIT, the Doctor and Ace travel to a remote Alzheimer's clinic in 1980s Scotland. It soon becomes clear that not only is something strange going on at the Graystairs clinic, but that the Doctor's friend has disappeared whilst investigating.
The Seventh Doctor and Ace are one of my all-time favourite Doctor/Companion pairings (in part because I had/have a huge crush on Sophie Aldred) and here, in his very first novel, Michalowski captures those characters absolutely perfectly. Every line of dialogue sounded in my head like McCoy and Aldred and every action they took was in keeping with their respective personas of benevolent manipulator and impulsive do-gooder.
Unfortunately, just about everything else falls short of the mark. The core mystery felt very generic and the truth behind it was so predictable that I pretty much saw how it would unfold immediately. Similarly the mystery of Stacy Chambers that the clinic residents overhear talk of is so blindingly obvious that you've probably guessed it from this one sentence, but somehow the brilliant schemer that is the Seventh Doctor totally misses it.
I've seen this story praised for its 'timey-wimey' stuff and, to be fair, at the time it was written Doctor Who as a whole hadn't actually done all that much with cleverly-plotted overlapping time-travel shenanigans. Unfortunately for any Who fans reading the book now, the show itself has since often done that sort of thing (mostly thanks to writing by Steven Moffat) and done it much better. This means that the way time travel is used here is set up as a clever plot twist, but once again just feels obvious.
This isn't a book made up of bad elements, but what it has is a mix of things that are so obvious and almost cliched that the whole becomes thoroughly unengaging.
* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.com/ *
Receiving a call for help from an old friend at UNIT, the Doctor and Ace travel to a remote Alzheimer's clinic in 1980s Scotland. It soon becomes clear that not only is something strange going on at the Graystairs clinic, but that the Doctor's friend has disappeared whilst investigating.
The Seventh Doctor and Ace are one of my all-time favourite Doctor/Companion pairings (in part because I had/have a huge crush on Sophie Aldred) and here, in his very first novel, Michalowski captures those characters absolutely perfectly. Every line of dialogue sounded in my head like McCoy and Aldred and every action they took was in keeping with their respective personas of benevolent manipulator and impulsive do-gooder.
Unfortunately, just about everything else falls short of the mark. The core mystery felt very generic and the truth behind it was so predictable that I pretty much saw how it would unfold immediately. Similarly the mystery of Stacy Chambers that the clinic residents overhear talk of is so blindingly obvious that you've probably guessed it from this one sentence, but somehow the brilliant schemer that is the Seventh Doctor totally misses it.
I've seen this story praised for its 'timey-wimey' stuff and, to be fair, at the time it was written Doctor Who as a whole hadn't actually done all that much with cleverly-plotted overlapping time-travel shenanigans. Unfortunately for any Who fans reading the book now, the show itself has since often done that sort of thing (mostly thanks to writing by Steven Moffat) and done it much better. This means that the way time travel is used here is set up as a clever plot twist, but once again just feels obvious.
This isn't a book made up of bad elements, but what it has is a mix of things that are so obvious and almost cliched that the whole becomes thoroughly unengaging.
* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.com/ *
November 23, 2021
This novel reads like a piece of fan fiction. The writer has pulled out a few formula plot bits typical of Doctor Who and added some timey-wimey to make it seem clever. The plot involves Doctor 7 and Ace going to retrieve some of The Doctor's mail on Earth. He gets a card from a UNIT scientific advisor who seems to be a replacement Liz Shaw about some strange goings on at an Alzheimer's clinic in Scotland. So, they head to Dumfries, where indeed strange things are happening at Graystairs. The plot then proceeds through Ace getting chased in a spaceship, getting chased on an island, and getting chased in the forest. After all this running around, she and the reader are little wiser about what is going on than they were before all the running around happened. We also get over-emotional Ace, who is alternately petulant and mad at The Doctor, then his most loyal supporter. Ace is not the only character who goes through these oppositional mood swings that happen when the plot seems to be slowing down, thus giving it an artificial kick start. Additionally, there is one heck of a lot of sneaking in and out of Graystairs, the most unguarded base for alien incursion there has ever been. Really, the book seems to have been written on the A.E. van Vogt plan of jamming in some plot twist every 2000 words and never mind if the twist makes little sense. And, to top it all off, we get a whole new set of UNIT characters with no mention of any of the old ones. But these UNIT characters are soppy and emotional, which is what Michalowski seems to think is needed for "realism." Therefore, the reader is awarded with a long diatribe against The Doctor along the old saw that whenever he shows up, people die, so therefore it must all be his fault. It is sort of like blaming the ambulance crew, because after all when they show up people often die. It amazes me that so few can see how ridiculous this blame The Doctor thinking really is. So, ultimately, the novel is just not competently written.
January 23, 2016
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2590470.html
2002 novel, set immediately after Battlefield, involving alien invasions, UNIT and an old people's home. There is a decently complex alien behind it all, and a nifty bit of timey-wimey manoeuvring at the end, but I felt it was fairly average. The Seventh Doctor / Ace relationship is nicely reset to the Season 25 status, this after years of development through the Virgin New Adventures. It was Michalowski's first novel - I've enjoyed his later work more.
2002 novel, set immediately after Battlefield, involving alien invasions, UNIT and an old people's home. There is a decently complex alien behind it all, and a nifty bit of timey-wimey manoeuvring at the end, but I felt it was fairly average. The Seventh Doctor / Ace relationship is nicely reset to the Season 25 status, this after years of development through the Virgin New Adventures. It was Michalowski's first novel - I've enjoyed his later work more.
August 2, 2008
A lot of good bits add up to an unsatisfying whole.
The mystery at the nursing home was clever, the characterization of the Seventh Doctor and Ace was strong and the 'wibbily-wobbily, timey-whimey' bits were well handled.
At the same time I wasn't 'wowed' by the book.
The bad guys were a bit weak and some of the background bits dealing with UNIT came across as overly cynical and dark. More of the 'it's only realistic if we show people and groups as flawed' school of writing.
The mystery at the nursing home was clever, the characterization of the Seventh Doctor and Ace was strong and the 'wibbily-wobbily, timey-whimey' bits were well handled.
At the same time I wasn't 'wowed' by the book.
The bad guys were a bit weak and some of the background bits dealing with UNIT came across as overly cynical and dark. More of the 'it's only realistic if we show people and groups as flawed' school of writing.
April 30, 2014
The Doctor apart from being a powerful time traveling, face changing hero, is also an interstellar detective.
There is always a problem, inevitably a dead body or two, lots of action and some sort of twist.
This is Aces story and what a story, she truly messes with time and plays The Doctors game superbly.
There is always a problem, inevitably a dead body or two, lots of action and some sort of twist.
This is Aces story and what a story, she truly messes with time and plays The Doctors game superbly.
February 8, 2011
Past Doctor Adventure (PDA) with the seventh Doctor and Ace. Written like a TV episode. Excellent characterisation of the Doctor and Ace. An excellent construct, but I enjoyed the book less and less as I went thanks to the arbitrary usage of the Plot Device family.
March 10, 2010
An excellent Who story, and excellent novel, and a sad look at the mental demise cause by dementia. Moving.
August 3, 2011
So many Doctor Who books (and I have all the new ones)....a written review is unnecessary for them all.
September 27, 2012
Strong characterization of the main players, a neat plot, lots of good secondary characters, and an actual attention to time travel that's surprisingly rare in classic Doctor Who.
July 26, 2021
A lot of twists and turns in this book, but I enjoyed it nonetheless
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews