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nwhyte's review
http://nhw.livejournal.com/1081346.html#cutid2[return][return]After enjoying most of Marc Platt's other work, including his novelisation of Battlefield, I was looking forward to reading this. I'm afraid I was disappointed. Once again, I realise just how vital the direction and acting of the TV version can be; and the intensely visual and subtle original just loses most of its vitality and mystery on the printed page. In particular, we lose the striking visual appearance of Nimrod the Neanderthal and of Light himself, who comes across as just some random and rather dull megalomaniac with super powers.[return][return]Scrapes through the Bechdel test: in most of the Ace/Gwendolen scenes they are talking about Josias and/or the Doctor, and the one exception is when they fight, and are then interrupted by Control. A fight is barely a conversation, but I suppose it will have to do. (Mrs/Lady Pritchard appears to communicate with the maidservants by telepathy.)
camryndaytona's review
3.0
This was one of the weirdest Doctor Who books ever, also very hard to follow at times. However it still holds the feel and charm of the Classic Series and was a wonderful read.
The POV was constantly changing, but I enjoyed that. It allowed me to get inside the characters head in a way you can't when it's on screen. The peeks inside Ace and the Doctor's heads were my favorite, their thoughts on each other are often very sweet and family like. Perhaps my favorite line was a scene where Ace was thinking about the Doctor and thought, “The Doctor was the first person for a long time who had even bothered to accept her for what she was: a delinquent.”
The Doctor and Ace enjoy some playful bickering not shown on screen, such as this line, after Ace is told to find something Victorian to wear.
“And Alice?’ he called after them.
‘I’m not wearing a bustle!’ came the retort.
‘At least try for a bit of parlour-cred!”
Also captured much better than in the series is Ace's internal struggle. She's very afraid of being back in Perivale and especially at Gabriel Chase, and isn't sure if she can still trust the Doctor. When she finally confronts him after learning she's in Gabriel Chase she runs away from him, “She hadn’t realized she could hate the Doctor so much. He tried to take her arm, but she pulled clear." After quite a while, she finally seems to forgive him, and even confesses to him what happened in the house when she went there in the 80s, and the Doctor is shows an amazing amount of comfort to her.
“No, Control! Don’t do it! That’s what I did in 1983! Please! Don’t do it again!’
The Doctor caught her in his arms. This was not what he had rehearsed in his head. ‘Ace. You didn’t tell me.’
‘You’re not my probation officer! You don’t have to know everything!’
Oh, how he sometimes wished that was true. ‘Ace.’ He cradled her gently." ...... “She buried her head in the Doctor’s embrace.” ...... “The Doctor gently rocked Ace and hushed her tears. ‘It’s all right, Ace'.”
The Doctor himself is captured through the text as the wonderful scheming manipulator he is, while maintaining the part of him that honestly cares deeply for Ace. He continually thinks about her, and before she discovers where they are, a few comments he made caused me to think he may feel a little guilt at bringing her there. After he harasses her to tell him about the house, “In at the deep end again, he thought guiltily, but the flood of complaints and abuse never came. When he looked, Ace was already fast asleep in her chair. ‘Poor Ace,’ he said aloud, and he tucked her discarded dinner-jacket around her.”
The POV was constantly changing, but I enjoyed that. It allowed me to get inside the characters head in a way you can't when it's on screen. The peeks inside Ace and the Doctor's heads were my favorite, their thoughts on each other are often very sweet and family like. Perhaps my favorite line was a scene where Ace was thinking about the Doctor and thought, “The Doctor was the first person for a long time who had even bothered to accept her for what she was: a delinquent.”
The Doctor and Ace enjoy some playful bickering not shown on screen, such as this line, after Ace is told to find something Victorian to wear.
“And Alice?’ he called after them.
‘I’m not wearing a bustle!’ came the retort.
‘At least try for a bit of parlour-cred!”
Also captured much better than in the series is Ace's internal struggle. She's very afraid of being back in Perivale and especially at Gabriel Chase, and isn't sure if she can still trust the Doctor. When she finally confronts him after learning she's in Gabriel Chase she runs away from him, “She hadn’t realized she could hate the Doctor so much. He tried to take her arm, but she pulled clear." After quite a while, she finally seems to forgive him, and even confesses to him what happened in the house when she went there in the 80s, and the Doctor is shows an amazing amount of comfort to her.
“No, Control! Don’t do it! That’s what I did in 1983! Please! Don’t do it again!’
The Doctor caught her in his arms. This was not what he had rehearsed in his head. ‘Ace. You didn’t tell me.’
‘You’re not my probation officer! You don’t have to know everything!’
Oh, how he sometimes wished that was true. ‘Ace.’ He cradled her gently." ...... “She buried her head in the Doctor’s embrace.” ...... “The Doctor gently rocked Ace and hushed her tears. ‘It’s all right, Ace'.”
The Doctor himself is captured through the text as the wonderful scheming manipulator he is, while maintaining the part of him that honestly cares deeply for Ace. He continually thinks about her, and before she discovers where they are, a few comments he made caused me to think he may feel a little guilt at bringing her there. After he harasses her to tell him about the house, “In at the deep end again, he thought guiltily, but the flood of complaints and abuse never came. When he looked, Ace was already fast asleep in her chair. ‘Poor Ace,’ he said aloud, and he tucked her discarded dinner-jacket around her.”
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