Reviews

Doctor Who: The Eight Doctors by Terrance Dicks

eleanorflovver's review

adventurous funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

well that was one of the worst written stories i have ever read and i was on fanfiction.net in 2016. i don't know if it got more tolerable towards the end of if my tolerance just increased. but jesus christ. first off, i feel like this didn't actually tell us anything about eight as a character: particularly in the early pages, the writing exemplified everything i hate about (some) doctor who fanfiction, what with the doctor just boggling out long word after long word and being disturbingly polite as some kind of stand in for an actual personality. then there's sam and the gang. first of all, what a fucking narc, made worse by the weird mary-sueification of the gang liking her? also terrance dicks my guy do you even know anything about drug culture in secondary schools? like. i am actually more inclined to believe the sci fi aspects of this over the truly bizarre antics of a county lines wannabe. however it was worth it to see the eighth doctor arrested for possession of crack cocaine. to be fair, some of the encounters with the old doctors did feel authentic (though this may have been because they were based mostly on real scenes), despite the pacing of them being absolutely atrocious, and there were some figments of good ideas, like one realising the flaws of his society and seven's terminal depression (though i suppose we have the vnas to thank for that one). also what's with the random misogyny?? terrance my guy put a lid on it xx overall a pretty bad novel in almost every sense, but at least we have crack and cum worm lore!!

cecesloth's review

1.0

Bland, sexist, fan-wanky drivel that does nothing to establish the Eighth Doctor as a character, instead acting as a sort of victory lap for Uncle Terry's previous work. Almost made me stop reading the EDA's before I'd properly started.

Absolute garbage

cicadacryptid's review

adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

The Eight Doctors could’ve been an incredible book. Unfortunately, Terrance Dicks was not able to find the right way to approach this book. Often times the Eighth Doctor gets completely sidelined in favour of the Doctor that he’s visiting. The idea of the Doctor looking to find older version of himself to regain his memories is great, the idea of certain adventures having a second Doctor running around in the background trying to find the Doctor is incredible, unfortunately sometimes this leads to very dull short stories, rather than gripping adventures. 

dylancaster's review

challenging slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.5

its challenging in the way that a solid 4/5 of it is a slog but it did give us the line "a word formed itself in his mind: amnesia" so

mnstrmisha's review

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

getting through this was a battle: the plot is childish and useless, the characters are bland, the dialogue is pathetic, and the writing is…… well it sure is written.

honestly tho i didn’t hate it as much as i thought i would, it definitely had it’s silly moments, but it was just that — short passing moments in otherwise 300 pages of absolute nothingness

hidekisohma's review

3.0

So i've been meaning to read this book for a while, as I do enjoy the 8th doctor but of course, since this book is out of print, it's not easy to get ahold of. But was it good? Um...meh?

The premise involves him visiting all 7 of his previous incarnations and without giving away spoilers i'll tell you how i felt about each.

1st: WAYYYYY too short. it was literally like 2 pages and that was it. this really disappointed me as hartnell is my favorite doctor.
2nd: this was all right. I don't like troughton but i don't feel like it overstayed its welcome too much. the story they chose to work off of wasn't fantastic, but it was okay.
3rd: this one was weird as the 8th doctor didn't get involved until a while of the way through the story and i almost forgot i was reading an 8th doctor book.
4th: This one was fine. it gave 8 something to actually do and he was pretty heavily involved in the story
5th: went on for too long and was a bit dull. then again, that kind of describes the 5th doctor in a nutshell.
6th: HOLY SWEET JESUS DID THEY DRAG THIS OUT. i don't know what was up with this, but the 6th doctor seriously took up like a HUGE chunk of the entire book. i was getting so disinterested and bored. they spend 2 pages on the 1st doctor and then like 50 on the 6th? the hell is that? the story wasn't even that interesting for it.
7th: once again way way WAYYYY too short. like 6 pages short. what they should have done was take away 20 of 6th's pages and give them to 7.

Overall, i liked the IDEA of what Dicks was trying to do here, but the execution just wasn't there. i actually quite enjoyed the beginning part he was interacting with some of the people in current time England, but this author obviously had favorite doctors and his bias showed REALLY badly. i give the book somewhere between a 3 and a 3.5. So, in essence since i can't give 1/2 stars on goodreads, it's a 3/5. Nice try, but he just couldn't stick the landing.

rebelbelle13's review

4.0

I can see why some folks don't like this, as the novel comes off as rather fanfic-y; like something you might read on the internet by a true fan. The Eight Doctors takes place almost immediately after the movie closes, as the book opens with The Doctor finishing the book he set down to read at the end of the TV movie. This aspect was wonderful- but the contrived reason as to what sets the novel off and running is not. The Doctor gets amnesia AGAIN (this seems to be a common theme for Doctor 8, and I'm pretty over it). Sam's introduction leaves a little to be desired, as it feels like an afternoon anti-drug special on a kid's station. (She's a vegetarian! And is against soda! And drugs! Really?) Those parts aside, this was a fun romp through The Doctor's previous incarnations, and fills in a few gaps in previous Doctor's stories. Dicks also manages to explain how The Master turned himself into a worm in the movie and survived his execution. The visits feel a little like victory laps, and it's easy to see which Doctors are the author's favorites, and which he doesn't like very much. While he spends an inordinate amount of time on Pertwee and Tom Baker's incarnations, he barely touches on Hartnell's and Troughton's, while calling McCoy's Doctor "homely" and saving all sorts of vitriol for Colin Baker's 6th Doctor (was that really necessary?) More of an impartial take would have been nice, considering all the incarnations are actually the same person.
This book also draws heavily on the events of previous episodes, and relies on the fact that you've seen the ones that the author is referencing. I've made a list of episodes followed by the corresponding Doctors that would be helpful to view before reading this book. Again, it's not necessary, but I believe you'll get so much more out of the novel if you do: An Unearthly Child (1st), The War Games (2nd), The Sea Devils (3rd), State of Decay (4th), The Five Doctors (5th), Terror of the Vervoids (6th), Planet of the Spiders (3rd) and Doctor Who the movie (7/8th).
I wouldn't recommend this novel to anyone who is new to the Whoniverse- but anyone who's seen a good bit of classic Who will enjoy the trip down memory lane, and the interactions between Doctor 8 and his previous incarnations. It's a fast read, and worth it if you're ready and willing to dive into the 8th Doctor novels.

decembera's review against another edition

challenging slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

Congratulations, you made poor Eight into an unlikeable, murderous caricature of himself. How did this get published at all, let alone as the first of the series?

jennasvape's review

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

kilcannon's review

1.0

This dreary, haphazard list of events featuring the Doctor was written with all the dramatic flair and attention to character that we saw in "Dimensions in Time."

But at least it has the Doctor walking around with a bag of crack. That's kind of hilarious.