Newsgroup: it.comp.console.playstation
Titolo: The Blue Angel

Right, I'm sick of seeing threads mention this book, only
to find no discussion of it therein.
Who else has read it?  Let's hear some opinions.
I'll include some
SPOILER SPACE...
I think many of my gripes with this book have to do with
its placement.  After Interference, I really would've appreciated
a more *coherent* story.  I'm still reeling a bit from Interference.
I still don't like Iris Wildthyme.  She's somewhat more tolerable
in Blue Angel, but it's still pretty obvious that Magrs is writing
Iris Wildthyme adventures in which the Doctor appears, rather than
vice versa.  It doesn't help that we've seen entirely too many
renegade/wandering Time Lords lately; where once the Time Lords were
legendary and known mostly by reputation, these days everyone seems
to think nothing of knowing ten or fifteen of them.  Revelations at
the end of Blue Angel suggest that Iris might be something more than
we'd suspected (the Doctor's Obverse analog, perhaps?), but still...
I know I'm not the only person who'd like to see Magrs prove himself
by writing a DW novel *without* Iris in it.
As for the Federation types...while someone was bound to tie the
(in all but name) Star Trek universe into DW eventually, Magrs seems
to have done it rather childishly.  And was it really necessary?  As
characters, they're interesting, but the persistent shots taken at
Star Trek via their actions make it difficult to see them as real
characters.
What *really* annoyed me was Magrs heavy-handed thoughts on the
canon debate.  It sounds like Magrs wrote whole segments of Blue
Angel while reading the Allen Roaders' criticism of Scarlet Empress
last year.
Still...in spite of these annoyances, I found myself involved in the
story.  I wish Compassion had had more to do, but otherwise, at the
end, I liked the *story* -- if not really the book -- in spite of myself.
Right, flame away.
george
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 end, I liked the *story* -- if not really the book -- in spite of myself.
Oddly, although I agree with most of what you say, my attitude is the
exact reverse: I hated the story (angel boy, elephant king, invasion of
the glass wotnots, all that hinted-at intervention in the Doctor's own
history bumph) but really quite enjoyed the book. Iris continues to be
enjoyable as soon as you realise this isn't a Doctor Who book but a sort
of meta-Who, and the individual scenes roll along with the usual casual
disregard for logic, motivation or sense. I'm not at all sure what the
/story/ was supposed to be, to be honest - certainly I couldn't provide
you with any sort of potted summary - but as a book, a piece of (at the
very least) Who-related entertainment, it worked for me.
Just.
Love and hugs,
Matt
xx
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very least) Who-related entertainment, it worked for me.
I think I enjoyed the story in a particulate way, with bits
and pieces of it appealing to me outside their context.  In spite of
being completely ludicrous, the glass men ultimately became rather
interesting, if only because of the unexpectedly strong character development
given to Marn, and I found myself liking them, as well as the other races
Magrs created for his Obverse.  If Iris is actually *from* the Obverse, then
her (previously presumed fictional) parallel adventures are easier to
reconcile --
before, I'd found them rather annoying, for no readily explicable reason.
Still, I'd like to the outline that inspired Steve Cole to commission this
book.  So often, it seems like Magrs hits on an idea, is developing it and
then
a friend comes round, or the phone rings, and when he gets back to writing
he's
forgotten about the idea and it simply gets dropped...
Let's hope The Taking of Planet 5 is a little more straightforward.
george
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particular - makes no sense except as a comment on all the others.
Something that goes for 'Unnatural History' too. Why is it that the writers 
who are most insistant about cannonicity not mattering are the most reliant 
upon it?
David Forbes
sits in front of a set tuned to SCANALYZER orbiting
on triptine saying over and over, 'Christ what an
imagination I've got!'
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