Doctor Who Storybook 2008
Oct. 10th, 2007 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
purplecatIts sort of customary to start reviews of the Dr Who storybooks by mentioning the totally bonkers Dr Who annuals of the 1970s but I figure most people reading here either know all about them or aren't terribly interested. Suffice it to say the storybooks are their successors both in content and, in some cases, bonkersness although the storybooks are bonkers (when they are bonkers) in a canonical way while the 70s Who annuals were mostly just bonkers.
The storybooks are really pretty decent stocking filler material and the 2008 version is no exception. The 2008 cover is by Alister Pearson, a frequently maligned Who artist of whose work I'm rather fond. Maybe I'm shallow but I've nothing against photo-realistic painting done well. I wasn't so fond of the artwork by Andy Walker for two of the internal stories and, I would judge on style, the contents page in which the Doctor is quite clearly making the most of a dramatic escape in order to cop a feel of Martha's breasts - I mean I know the current Doctor is inclined to snog his companions at the slightest pretence but this seemed a little... off... to me. However I liked the other illustrations, particularly Ben Willisher's bold and colourful pages for Paul Magrs frankly rather disappointing zombie tale. Its a perfectly good story, its just the last Paul Magrs book I read had talking poodles as villains, the Doctor's life was complicated by Noel Coward and his time travelling pinking shears and contained a scene where Ray Harryhausen tortures George Lucas with animated plasticene gorgons. It's called Mad Dogs and Englishmen but I don't recommend it to anyone who likes Tolkein. Zombie Motel is distinctly pedestrian by comparison although I guess if the editors were worrying about all those reviews which would start "In the 1970s the Dr Who annuals..." they may have warned Magrs off any temptation to introduce talking poodles. Actually, Tom MacRae's Cats and Dogs features a talking poodle so it must have been Noel Coward they were worried about.
The 2006 storybook gave us the original Sally Sparrow short story - which was as good as Blink though very different in most ways beyond the central conceit. There isn't anything as good here. The Box under the Tree by Rob Shearman probably comes closest in terms of clever ideas but it can't quite explain how it all links up with Dr Who as we know it. The best story, I thought, was Kiss of Life by the, in my opinion, much under-rated Justin Richards, telling a clever crossover between Cinderella and The Little Mermaid in a Doctor Who context. The worst was The Iron Circle by Nicholas Briggs (who gets to be the voice of the Daleks these days though I first encountered him playing the Doctor in a series of rather good fan produced audio adventures many of which have now been rewritten beyond recognition into Big Finish audio plays) which, among other things, is anxious to suggest that the Isle of Wight is the sort of place where in-bred natives wonder around saying "are you local?" or, at the very least, that mainlanders are better of in Burton-upon-Trent. I did mention, didn't I, that the storybooks are continuing the tradition of bonkersness.
The storybooks are really pretty decent stocking filler material and the 2008 version is no exception. The 2008 cover is by Alister Pearson, a frequently maligned Who artist of whose work I'm rather fond. Maybe I'm shallow but I've nothing against photo-realistic painting done well. I wasn't so fond of the artwork by Andy Walker for two of the internal stories and, I would judge on style, the contents page in which the Doctor is quite clearly making the most of a dramatic escape in order to cop a feel of Martha's breasts - I mean I know the current Doctor is inclined to snog his companions at the slightest pretence but this seemed a little... off... to me. However I liked the other illustrations, particularly Ben Willisher's bold and colourful pages for Paul Magrs frankly rather disappointing zombie tale. Its a perfectly good story, its just the last Paul Magrs book I read had talking poodles as villains, the Doctor's life was complicated by Noel Coward and his time travelling pinking shears and contained a scene where Ray Harryhausen tortures George Lucas with animated plasticene gorgons. It's called Mad Dogs and Englishmen but I don't recommend it to anyone who likes Tolkein. Zombie Motel is distinctly pedestrian by comparison although I guess if the editors were worrying about all those reviews which would start "In the 1970s the Dr Who annuals..." they may have warned Magrs off any temptation to introduce talking poodles. Actually, Tom MacRae's Cats and Dogs features a talking poodle so it must have been Noel Coward they were worried about.
The 2006 storybook gave us the original Sally Sparrow short story - which was as good as Blink though very different in most ways beyond the central conceit. There isn't anything as good here. The Box under the Tree by Rob Shearman probably comes closest in terms of clever ideas but it can't quite explain how it all links up with Dr Who as we know it. The best story, I thought, was Kiss of Life by the, in my opinion, much under-rated Justin Richards, telling a clever crossover between Cinderella and The Little Mermaid in a Doctor Who context. The worst was The Iron Circle by Nicholas Briggs (who gets to be the voice of the Daleks these days though I first encountered him playing the Doctor in a series of rather good fan produced audio adventures many of which have now been rewritten beyond recognition into Big Finish audio plays) which, among other things, is anxious to suggest that the Isle of Wight is the sort of place where in-bred natives wonder around saying "are you local?" or, at the very least, that mainlanders are better of in Burton-upon-Trent. I did mention, didn't I, that the storybooks are continuing the tradition of bonkersness.
Re: Storybook
Date: 2007-10-12 08:51 am (UTC)The 1970s annuals are kind of special in a bizarre way but I'd hate to see the writing in these storybooks descend to the rather unadventurous, by the numbers writing I recall from a lot of the TV tie-in annuals I remember from my childhood (or don't remember the stories from, which is more damning in a way).
... and thanks for dropping by to write a comment, one of the reasons I write reviews is because I want to discuss the stories, the opportunity to discuss it with the author is an added bonus.
Re: Storybook
Date: 2007-10-12 11:44 pm (UTC)And I think you may be right about those problems at the heart of my story. The very first draft of it involved the Doctor and Martha getting trapped in a child's story, and only by tapping into his imagination (becoming Santa, or the shop assistant, in his memories) could they lead him to the TARDIS so he could rescue them. It was all quite nice and sweet, but (as happened in true crisis style with a few stories in this year's annual!) the BBC got concerned because it all seemed a bit too similar to the forthcoming episode in series three. (The irony being that Steven hadn't actually written Blink at that point - but it all seemed worryingly close to the bone of his proposal!) So to keep the story, I scuppered the entire second half, around from the time Harry gets into the TARDIS, and played up the ambiguity instead. I wonder now, from your comments, whether I'd really filled the hole that I'd created by removing that plot point after all...! Oh well. Never mind!
Thanks again for the constructive comments!