Newsgroups: rec.arts.drwho
From: paige@csri.toronto.edu (The Woodsman)
Subject: Christmas DW Goodies
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Date: 5 Jan 93 23:38:14 GMT

   Well, Christmas has come and gone and we're all slowly regaining consciousness. Santa 
 dropped several assorted DW paraphenalia in my stocking, and I thought I'd briefly describe
 my thoughts about these trinkets, so as to possibly save (or cause you to spend!) money.

 (1) Love And War (New Adventures novel, by Paul Cornell): Good stuff. *Very* different from
     Revelation, his first NA work. This one's more of a typical adventure story. Quite easy
     to read. Once again, the focus seems to be on Ace (*groan*), and the Doctor seems to be
     more of a mysterious figure, looming in the background ("...like some great...looming
     thing!"). Even if you don't like this new characterization of the Doctor, the story's
     very well written, quite gruesome in places, and takes a place high up on my list of
     favourite NA books.

 (2) Tomb of the Cybermen (video): First time I've seen this in *years*. It's probably the
     best Troughton serial I've seen, except perhaps for Evil o' the Daleks. Holds up
     reasonably well against some of the more recent serials. The story's better, for one
     thing. The scene where the Cybermen start crawling out of their tombs is still
     impressive. Didn't like the Cyberleader's voice, though. Since YTV here in Canada don't
     plan on obtaining Tomb, I more-or-less had to purchase it. However, any true DW
     afficianado has got to get a copy (Honest!)

 (3) DW: The Monsters (hardcover, I forget the author's name): Anyway, this expensive
     sucker catalogues most of the monsters that the Doctor has dispatched/battled/offended
     over the years. Lots of fun colour paintings and photos and rather childish text
     accompany the art. The book *looks* great. The contents are only average. Get it for
     the artwork. 

 (4) DW Novelizations (in a feeble attempt to complete my collection): Fury from the Deep,
     The Twin Dilemma, and The Faceless Ones.

     Fury from the Deep is one mother of a "Target" novelization, 180 pages or so. It's
     only an average Troughton story, but the novel really fleshes out a lot of the scenes
     and Victor Pemberton (the author and original author of the serial) seems quite
     enthusiastic about his tale, so you can't help but enjoy it. This one was kind of
     hard to find.

     Twin Dilemma really sucks. I thought the serial was bad enough. Eric Saward tried his
     best, but he really had nothing to work with, and it shows. Just reading the novel
     was close to excruciating. Some of the additions Saward made (like the time lord who
     regenerated, eventually, into a blob) are so bizarre that you almost have to laugh.
     I doubt Saward took the story seriously when he novelized it. Avoid this one.

     The Faceless Ones, another Troughton story, is pretty good. Terrance Dicks, who
     usually can be counted on to provide a 110-page Xerox of a script, provides a
     decent rendering. Not as good as his Mind of Evil, but still better than some of
     the Baker stories he novelized in the late 70's. Since I've never seen the serial
     of this one, I can't judge how much Dicks added to the story, but I still enjoyed
     it quite a bit.

 Well, that's my DW loot. I'd appreciate comments on what other people thought of some
 of these things, especially the Monsters book (I haven't seen much discussion on the 
 net about it). Anyway, until the Doctor regenerates into a piece of celery.

				The Woodsman.

-- 

Rich Paige DCS/CSRI     paige@csri.toronto.edu             
Newsgroups: rec.arts.drwho