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A review by saroz162
Doctor Who: Silhouette by Justin Richards
2.0
I think by the time Doctor Who got past the 50th anniversary and to the Peter Capaldi era, the BBC were in a bit of a pickle. They had reinvented the Who book range for kids in 2005, but in 2014 the audience was increasingly veering older, with a lot more attraction for older fans who remembered the old days - and the much darker, more complex novels.
This is a book that is probably passingly successful in the 2005 framework but feels very wanting almost ten years later. The premise is intriguing, but it never gets beyond feeling like a TV episode on paper. At 11 or 12 years I would have really liked that, I think. As an adult in my 30s, it feels thin. It feels thin even as a kids' story.
When I was actually 11 and 12, Justin Richards was writing books for that more complex 1990s range. I liked them a lot - they were straightforward stories, probably with much of the same "TV on paper" qualities. The difference is I always remember Richards doing a great job of replicating the dialogue of the Doctor and other regulars. They sounded right. His Doctor in this book, on the other hand, is completely generic - doubtless a product of his only getting to read a script or script sections including the new Doctor, and without seeing Capaldi's performance. If I had to make a stab at it, he comes over like an intensely serious Tom Baker - or maybe a humorless Matt Smith. (And maybe one of those is what Richards went for.)
I can even understand the limits of writing for a brand new Doctor, but I'm utterly baffled at the inclusion of Vastra, Jenny, and Strax, all of whom Richards has written for before and all of whom appear prominently on the cover. Sadly, they are only really utilized as plot shortcuts. Vastra barely appears at all, and only Strax makes an impact because, yes, he's the one character blessed with unique and interesting speech patterns.
I wanted to like Silhouette, and there's probably an 11-year-old out there who finds it pretty ripping. That's good! I was disappointed because of the underutilized potential: in the ideas, in the characters, and in the writing. It all felt, to me, like a very tepid version of something that could have been much more fun.
This is a book that is probably passingly successful in the 2005 framework but feels very wanting almost ten years later. The premise is intriguing, but it never gets beyond feeling like a TV episode on paper. At 11 or 12 years I would have really liked that, I think. As an adult in my 30s, it feels thin. It feels thin even as a kids' story.
When I was actually 11 and 12, Justin Richards was writing books for that more complex 1990s range. I liked them a lot - they were straightforward stories, probably with much of the same "TV on paper" qualities. The difference is I always remember Richards doing a great job of replicating the dialogue of the Doctor and other regulars. They sounded right. His Doctor in this book, on the other hand, is completely generic - doubtless a product of his only getting to read a script or script sections including the new Doctor, and without seeing Capaldi's performance. If I had to make a stab at it, he comes over like an intensely serious Tom Baker - or maybe a humorless Matt Smith. (And maybe one of those is what Richards went for.)
I can even understand the limits of writing for a brand new Doctor, but I'm utterly baffled at the inclusion of Vastra, Jenny, and Strax, all of whom Richards has written for before and all of whom appear prominently on the cover. Sadly, they are only really utilized as plot shortcuts. Vastra barely appears at all, and only Strax makes an impact because, yes, he's the one character blessed with unique and interesting speech patterns.
I wanted to like Silhouette, and there's probably an 11-year-old out there who finds it pretty ripping. That's good! I was disappointed because of the underutilized potential: in the ideas, in the characters, and in the writing. It all felt, to me, like a very tepid version of something that could have been much more fun.