Month: June 2018
evening glow 🌞
Eleventh book of the year. Another in my continuing series of ‘reading Doctor Who stories I know nothing about’ and this one was a treat! I knew nothing at all about The Savages, other then Steven leaving rather abruptly at the end. Going blind into this story I wasn’t sure what to expect at all, I had no idea of when or where the story was set and so the excitement of an opener where they’ve met such an advanced civilisation, and where the people know about the Doctor in advance was a great start! The Savages feels like a classic Doctor Who tale, with its subversion of the tribes contained within, particularly in this era of stories about Thals and Drahvins, and at various points I think it’s obvious where the story is going but it’s still thoroughly entertaining to let it pan out. After the energy transfer, I particularly enjoyed another character becoming the Doctor for a period, I can’t help but wonder (pure speculation) so near to the end of Bill Hartnell’s run that they were playing with some options before they came up with regeneration. I really enjoyed The Savages, way more then I thought I would, a perfect example of reading a Target novel before seeing the episode and loving my own interpretation of the visuals and characters, but I’ve left myself with not wanting to see the episode (if it’s ever found) because it’s quite wonderful in my mind. 📚
sunset through shades 🌅
Tenth book of the year. After I enjoyed reading The Highlanders so much I wanted to read more missing stories, particularly ones I’m not too familiar with. For me, the joy of Target novels is the additions to stories and visualising them how you imagine them. Usually if it’s a story I know from television, I’ll elaborate on the visuals of the sets and location to look even better in my head. However reading a story like The Massacre, having hardly any reference points, meant that I truly imagined the First Doctor and Steven roaming the streets and underground passageways of 16th Century Paris. As another pure historical story The Massacre makes for a very interesting Doctor Who read, highlighting a very real part of French history and putting the Doctor amongst it all with the added fun (but awful person) that is the Abbot of Amboise, a doppelgänger for the Doctor. The prospect of seeing William Hartnell’s performance as both makes me want to see the story even more, but do I really want to see a studio bound Paris after the impressive visuals instilled in my head? My only gripe was that I was left disappointed at the end that we didn’t have reference to the original TV ending, originally Steven walks out on the Doctor and he’s left to have a moment reflecting on his own. A speech now made famous in An Adventure in Space and Time. But hey, I went and had a listen to it afterwards! And rather classically, even at the ripe old age of 28 I finished this story feeling more informed and educated about this awful period of history, so I went and had a read about it all afterwards. Thanks Doctor Who! 📚
lukespillane 