purplecat: The Eighth Doctor. (Who:Eight)

Cover of the Past Doctor Adventure Eye of Heaven by Jim Mortimore.  The fourth Doctor's face in a red swirl.  An image of an Easter Island statue to the right.

I've always struggled a bit with Jim Mortimore's work. I recall this being more accessible than many, with a lower body count and a nice Leela point-of-view. Online reviews tell me that, even so, the narrative is out-of-sequence which I hadn't recalled so it's probably not _that_ accessible.
purplecat: The Second Doctor holding his diary (Who:Books)

Cover image from the Doctor Who New Adventure So Vile a Sin.  It shows two young black women in flowing garments and cloaks.  One is holding a flag and staring into the distance.  A landscape of strange glowing structures and a low moon in the sky is behind them.


To this day I can't decide whether or not I believe that Ben Aaronovitch lost his manuscript for So Vile a Sin in a hard drive crash, or whether that was just an excuse for the fact he hadn't actually written it. In either case, when it finally appeared written by Kate Orman, it was a bit of a let down (I felt). It's big event was already spoiled because we had read the books that came after and to be honest, didn't feel entirely earned.
purplecat: Silhouetted of a Dalek (Who:Dalek)

Book cover for Prisoner of The Daleks by Trevor Baxendale.  White Background.  Half a red Dalek filling height of cover on the left.
I really liked the design of this short run of Monster-themed book reprints. I don't recall much of the story mind, but that seems to be increasingly the case these days.
purplecat: The Second Doctor holding his diary (Who:Books)



One of the advantages, as a child, of a birthday in late November was that one tended to get hot-of-the-presses anniversary stuff for Doctor Who as gifts. I recall the excitement of receiving this book. It wasn't the first book about the history of Doctor Who, but it certainly one of the earlier examples of a genre of books that there are now a lot of. Its high production values, with a hard cover, plenty of photos (some of which were in colour!) made it really special.

Of course, today, it seems fairly simplistic, but its probably hard to over-estimate how influential it was to how a lot of people my age understand the history of the show.
purplecat: Drawing of the Seventh Doctor (Who:Seven)

Doctor Who Time Lord Create your own Adventures in Time and Space cover.  The Doctor leans over a diorama of himself and Ace and picks up a Cyberman.


I ran adventures with this Doctor Who Game once or twice. It worked well with Who fans who were interested in the genre and not that interested in mechanics. It worked less well with role-players who quickly saw which characters were over-powered and then exploited them.

I have the FASA game, though I've never really investigated it properly and I now have the Cubicle 7 game as well. I really should get my act together and run something for one of them.
purplecat: The Ninth Doctor with decorative effect with the number 9 (Who:Nine)

The cover to Damaged Goods by Russell T. Davies.  Tentacles erupting from a corpse rising from the ground.

I have not commented on the news that RTD is to return to Doctor Who. Mostly because I'm still all a bit turned around and, if not lacking in time exactly, somewhat lacking in motivation and energy. Still I do have an opinion, which is mild trepidation. I wasn't grabbed by his vision for the show back in 2005 and definitely preferred Moffat's run as show runner (which isn't to ignore how wildly popular his version of the show was, and how much it did to shape and secure the show's future). Obviously RTD has done exciting things since, but I have a vague sense that comebacks are tricky things and often of dubious success. On the other hand, he does know how to adapt to time and circumstance. His one foray into the novels during the wilderness years (cover above) was very much of their time and style and, while one can draw links between it and 2005 Doctor Who (mostly that it's set on a council estate) he created something very different for the family audience. Perhaps he will do something exciting and different again for the modern TV landscape.
purplecat: Drawing of the Seventh Doctor (Who:Seven)

Cover for Time Wyrm: Genesys by John Peel.  A scene of a very female rather robotic blue person in a skimpy dress and ornate necklace against a gold temple entrance into which sneaks a scantily clad warrior.  Sylvester McCoy's face hovers somewhat incongruously top left.


The cover for the first Virgin New Adventure. I read this when it came out and haven't read it since. I recall very little about what I thought on that first read, which is probably informative. I get the impression from views I've heard expressed since that it hasn't necessarily aged well, embodies the fair criticism of the New Adventures that they often interpreted "more adult" as meaning "more sex and nudity", and that the "more sex and nudity" mostly manifests as a slightly creepy attitude towards Ace and other young female characters.
purplecat: The Eighth Doctor. (Who:Eight)

Book Cover for the BBC book Seeing I.  Close up of an eye.  The pupil is a red sun/planet surrounded by yellowfins.  The face is blue and green.


The Fiction Paradox podcast reviewed Seeing I recently and mostly reluctantly enjoyed it more than they felt it deserved. I remember it more clearly than many of the BBC books which I think argues it was definitely better than average.

Profile

purplecat: Hand Drawn picture of a Toy Cat (Default)
purplecat

May 2025

S M T W T F S
    1 2 3
4 56789 10
111213 141516 17
18192021222324
25 262728293031

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags