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saroz162's review against another edition
3.0
I'm of two minds about this one. The "farewells" theme is kept relatively well, with only one or two stories sort of leaving you hanging on that point. Many of the stories are quite serious, which suits me fine, but honestly it's the comedy tales that are the most successful here.
"The Mother Road" is one of those theme-stretching stories, but it's a very enjoyable opening story, finding the original TARDIS crew traveling Route 66 and Ian ordering a "shake as thick as my arm" at a drive-in. At the opposite end of the book, Paul Magrs' "The Wickerwork Man" is a really funny spoof on the famous horror film, with the eighth Doctor battling possessed garden furniture. The best story of the bunch is "Life After Queth," which finds the fifth Doctor, Tegan, and the Gravis - yes, the Gravis! - assisting some little creatures who are just a bit confused about whether their planet is going belly-up or not. That one starts out extremely funny and gets a bit more grounded by the end...a real corker of a story.
Otherwise, things are a little flat: "Utopia" is a dire, New Adventures-style vignette, while "Father Figure" and "The Velvet Dark" are good ideas poorly realized. The best of the really serious tales is "Into the Silent Land," in which the fourth Doctor faces his mortality; the storyline is fine, the characterization good, and there are some great scenes, but sometimes the prose is just plain clunky. So...some good, some not so good. A nice collection to borrow.
One final thought, though: why are all the stories in strict chronological Doctor order, save the last one? I rather like a bit of a random order; it keeps things fresh and exciting!
"The Mother Road" is one of those theme-stretching stories, but it's a very enjoyable opening story, finding the original TARDIS crew traveling Route 66 and Ian ordering a "shake as thick as my arm" at a drive-in. At the opposite end of the book, Paul Magrs' "The Wickerwork Man" is a really funny spoof on the famous horror film, with the eighth Doctor battling possessed garden furniture. The best story of the bunch is "Life After Queth," which finds the fifth Doctor, Tegan, and the Gravis - yes, the Gravis! - assisting some little creatures who are just a bit confused about whether their planet is going belly-up or not. That one starts out extremely funny and gets a bit more grounded by the end...a real corker of a story.
Otherwise, things are a little flat: "Utopia" is a dire, New Adventures-style vignette, while "Father Figure" and "The Velvet Dark" are good ideas poorly realized. The best of the really serious tales is "Into the Silent Land," in which the fourth Doctor faces his mortality; the storyline is fine, the characterization good, and there are some great scenes, but sometimes the prose is just plain clunky. So...some good, some not so good. A nice collection to borrow.
One final thought, though: why are all the stories in strict chronological Doctor order, save the last one? I rather like a bit of a random order; it keeps things fresh and exciting!
nwhyte's review
3.0
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2660590.html
Didn;t grab me as strongly as some of the previous volumes in this series, with some stories (like Marc Platt's) trying too hard and others not trying at all. I did particularly like the very first story, "Best Seller" by Ian Mond and Danny Oz, which has the Eighth Doctor and Chaley pollard encountering a evil book in Australia, and a long satire on reality TV, "Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life" by Anthony Keetch which has the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa faced with a cult sf show on contemporary Earth. I note also a story set in 14th-century Ireland, "Screamager" by Jacqueline Rayner, which brings the Second Doctor and Victoria into contact with the Black Death and is nice enough from the character point of view but not hugely historically satisfactory.
Didn;t grab me as strongly as some of the previous volumes in this series, with some stories (like Marc Platt's) trying too hard and others not trying at all. I did particularly like the very first story, "Best Seller" by Ian Mond and Danny Oz, which has the Eighth Doctor and Chaley pollard encountering a evil book in Australia, and a long satire on reality TV, "Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life" by Anthony Keetch which has the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa faced with a cult sf show on contemporary Earth. I note also a story set in 14th-century Ireland, "Screamager" by Jacqueline Rayner, which brings the Second Doctor and Victoria into contact with the Black Death and is nice enough from the character point of view but not hugely historically satisfactory.
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