The Spaceship Graveyard

Doctor Who: Decide Your Destiny #1

by Colin Brake

Join the Doctor and Martha on their travels through time and space and influence the story with your decisions. Choose a direction and let the adventures begin..."Spaceship Graveyard", one of four exciting new "Decide Your Destiny Doctor Who" books. When the Tardis engines fail, you find yourselves on a planet littered with abandoned spaceships. But where are the crews? And why has the Tardis crashed there, too? Explore the spaceship graveyard to find out...

Genres: Doctor Who, Fantasy, Time Travel, Science Fiction, Childrens, Fiction, Aliens

99 pages, Paperback

First published July 5, 2007

About the author

Colin Brake is an English television writer and script editor best known for his work for the BBC on programs such as Bugs and EastEnders. He has also written spin-offs from the BBC series Doctor Who. He currently lives and works in Leicester.

Brake began working on EastEnders in 1985 as a writer and script editor, being partly responsible for the introduction of the soap's first Asian characters Saeed and Naima Jeffery. From there, he went on to work as "script executive" on the popular Saturday night action adventure program Bugs, before moving to Channel 5 in 1997 to be "script associate" on their evening soap Family Affairs.

In the early 2000s, Brake wrote episodes of the daytime soaps Doctors and the revival of Crossroads.

Away from television, Brake had his first Doctor Who related writing published as part of Virgin Publishing's Decalog short story collection in 1996. He then had his first novel Escape Velocity published by BBC Books in February 2001 as part of their Eighth Doctor Adventures range based on the television series Doctor Who. At the time, Brake was quoted as saying how appropriate it was that he was now writing for Doctor Who, as he was briefly considered as Eric Saward's replacement as script editor on the show - a job that eventually went to Andrew Cartmel instead.

Brake followed Escape Velocity with the Past Doctor Adventure The Colony of Lies in July 2003, and then with the audio adventure Three's a Crowd from Big Finish Productions in 2005. His Tenth Doctor Adventure The Price of Paradise was released in September 2006. He has also written an audio for their Bernice Summerfield range, and a short story for their Short Trips range.

Reviews

[Christy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a gimmick purchase. I love Doctor Who and I have extremely fond memories of Choose Your Own Adventure books from my childhood. I was interested to see the two things combined. Unfortunately, it was kind of a disappointment. This is a fun group activity for nerdy Doctor Who fans (in this case, it served as entertainment for part of a road trip), but it's not as fun as either of its two components (Doctor Who and CYOA books). This is in part because the choices are not so much choices of actions for the protagonist (e.g., If you take the path to the left, turn to page 65; if you go back the way you came, turn to page 101) as they are narrative decisions (e.g., if Martha goes first, turn to page whatever; if the Doctor goes first, turn to page some-other-number), which takes away a good portion of the reader's sense of agency and control over the story. This approach also leads to some choices that aren't really choices but simply directions to turn to one page or the other depending on whether you chose alien or human, for instance, at some earlier point. Furthermore, it seems that there's no choice that leads to your death (or anyone else's, for that matter). One of the exciting things about the Choose Your Own Adventure books was that you could actually choose wrong and die. If that's removed, then this is just an inconvenient way to read a not-terribly-exciting short story.

On the other hand, there were weird aliens and Space Cops in this book, which was fun.

I plan to read at least one more of these to see if they're all this disappointing or if it's just the first one (maybe they get better!), but I don't have high hopes.

[Gary Vassallo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun little read. Not too bad not too great. Best suited to younger Doctor Who fans.

[A Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

only took me two attempts to get to page 69 *and* it ended on it as well

[Brooklyn Tayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

That was exceptionally confusing. Full review to come.

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I am rating this based on the joy it produce --- my little one, who reads by himself now, has begun watching Doctor Who. And he is in LOVE. We have begun reading some of the books TOGETHER (he normally won't sit with me and read --- although we do listen to audiobooks together). So - all these Doctor Who books are getting five stars because they are producing so much joy.

[Cal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved CYOA stories as a kid, and this is especially good. It is a bit simplistic, and I as an adult wouldn't read it again. Just gave to my 10-y-o nice to read to her lil bro.
What makes this different is that some choices carry right the way through

[milica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think I'm a little too old for this.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read for young Whovians or anyone that has wanted to write themselves into a story as a companion of the Doctor.

[jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

these were like playing a video game except weird

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

lame

[Kathaleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the better choose-your-own-adventure books i have read. plenty of choices.

[Chloe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved this book series as a kid, this one isn't my favourite but is still okay and fun to read.

[Seb Hasi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do love the decide your destiny books as it’s such a fun silly concept, but obviously you barely get a story out of it. Tardis drawn to power drain, find alien, sort it out. That’s all the plot really is so as much as it is fun being the companion and making decisions, you can hardly award the story much. I mean the New Series Adventures are kids books but still manage to be really engaging and fun, but at about 90 pages long, with barely 100 words a page you can hardly expect to get much out of this one. Playing the game definitely gives merit here, but if the book at least had a bit more to it, then you’d properly get to enjoy the adventure of being the companion.

[Bobby Corry · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not like this book. It is definitely a child book.

Many years ago (at least 20) I read a Doctor Who book that was written in this "you decide your destiny" format. It was great. So when I saw there were newer books written in this format I bought everyone I could get my hands on. What a waste of money.

In the old book us realize how hard the life of the Doctor is since when you make a wrong decision you die. You the need to go bak a step or several steps to live through to the end of the book. You really felt the pressure of getting through the adventure alive.

This book is nothing like that. It a very short book and whatever choice you make you will easily get through to a happy ending.I read through the story several time using different choices and the choices made no major difference in the final outcome. Basically making the right choices makes this book a short read and making the wrong choices makes the book a slightly longer read.

I will read all the books of this series since I have them but I wish I didn't buy them

[Roopa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book was a fun throwback to the time when books requiring reader participation in determining their course were all the rage. However, unlike Goosebumps' books of this type, where you actually picked your action ("If you go left, turn to page 51. If right, page 96.") and the story developed accordingly, in this book it's not so much your action you're deciding on as external events, which makes the "decide your destiny" angle seem forced.("If the person who came up to you is an alien, turn to page 76. If it is a human, turn to page 21.") Conclusion: fun idea, but not well-executed.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Combining Choose Your Own Adventure with Doctor Who? Too good to be true. This time, I traveled with 10 and Martha (who happens to be my favorite 10 companion so hoorah) and we saved lots of people and yup. My only complaint is I wish the choices were more geared toward what would I do in this situation rather than choose the plot. Like, "Do you follow the Doctor or do you hit the button" something like that instead of "if you see a planet outside the window go here or if you see a spaceship go here." But onto future adventures!

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

My husband and I are big Dr Who fans, and we have a large selection of dvds and books. I've been steadily working my way through them, and on the whole really enjoying them. This one isn't a bad story as such, and the characterisation is okay [not totally 10, but not bad].
The only problem is a personal one. I think I'm too old for 'decide your destiny' stories. I just can't be bothered to keep track of which alternatives I've followed through.
I'm not going to rush to read the others in the set. I'd much rather read straightforward stories.

[Amy McLean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too bad for a younger reader as it provides an element of involvement. The actual story itself average, with a few references to previous Doctor Who creatures fans will recognise. Not the greatest characterisation though - some of the Doctor's actions in particularly were, I felt, untrue to the on-screen portrayal of the character (which, in this case, was the Tenth Doctor), so it makes it a little uncomfortable to read.

[Gary Pryke · Rating 2 out of 5]

The big problem with this book is that it doesn't really work as a "Choose your own adventure" style book because rather than the choices being ones that your character is making, they are mostly choices about what happens in the story. ie If everyone turns into sprouts (go to 7), if they just mope about in front of your (go to 78)

[the above is definitely not an option in the story, by the way]

[Max R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very clever book and very organised, I liked mixing it up as it a book where you choose what page to go to!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Daisy Battersby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11325100

[Librarian Jessie (BibliophileRoses) · Rating 2 out of 5]

i loved it... Twist and turns... <3

[Tawanism · Rating 3 out of 5]

Final destiny: "You, Martha and the doctor make your way back to the TARDIS, which is now restored to full health. This adventure in time and space is over, but where will the TARDIS take you next?"

[Vesna · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not what I expected, but I liked it anyway. The only thing I didn't like is that it is very short.

[Seth Mottram · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was quite fun

[Lilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much of an exciting story but kids will enjoy it

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

An impulse buy while in the UK. Fun, for a ten-minute read.

[Luingalad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read it a few times choosing different paths and enjoyed not knowing what will happened by choosing what will happend.