Doctor Who: Human Nature
Story: The Doctor makes a mysterious decision to obtain a telepathic pod from an omnivorous, occasionally cannibalistic, shapeshifting race of aliens known as the Aubertides. He stores his own knowledge and personality in the pod – as well as detailed genetic information – and turns himself, both physically and psychologically, into John Smith, history teacher, a perfectly ordinary human (with odd gaps in his memory) teaching at a boys’ school in 1914. Bernice is left to fend for herself as the Doctor pursues whatever mystery has compelled him to undergo such a drastic change. In the process of discovering what it means to be human, the former Time Lord falls in love with a local woman who is attracted to his simplicity and gentle nature – but when the Aubertides storm the countryside, discovering that they have done business with a Time Lord and trying to track down his regenerative DNA to save their dying race, “Doctor John Smith” must risk everything and everyone to protect his fellow humans.
Review: Probably the best original novel ever to hit the shelves with the Doctor Who logo on its cover, this extremely atypical book is either loved or hated, depending on which segment of fandom you ask.
Doctor Who: Sanctuary
Story: The Doctor and Bernice are forced to abandon the TARDIS, which is caught in some form of temporal rift, and take refuge in the Jade Pagoda (the “lifeboat” of the TARDIS, as it were. What I don’t understand is why this pagoda thingie mimics the Police Box shape the TARDIS is stuck in?! As if the Time Lords designed it to look like a Buddhist temple with a green flashing light on top! Somebody explain it to me!). This lifeboat takes them to the closest habitable M-Class planet, which just by chance, is Earth. Not only that, but to add to the fun, it dumps them in 11th century Europe! I doesn’t take long after their arrival for the gimmick to be engaged – The Doctor and Bernice become seperated.
The Doctor, who impersonates a high-ranking royal observer, becomes embroiled in court intrigue while in the company of the bad guys of the story, while Bernice ends up in the fortress of the good guys, one of whom is actually named Guy. They call this hilltop fortress (or Sanctuary, as it were) “The Roc.” With the Templars and the Inquisition roaming the countryside, all trying to “convert” heritics to the side of the true God by killing them, these non-believers need a place to hide out. So here they find shelter, food, and no diety-discrimination at this Sanctuary. At The Roc, they know their role, and are kept safe from the bad guys, no questions asked. These bad guys want to lay the smackdown on The Roc, so they can get their hands on some odd religious artifact that will guarantee that head-bad guy can rise to the office of Pope.
Review: Does it get any better than that?! The first 1/4 of this book is slow, and I began to wonder if anything was going to happen. But once the Doctor & co. arrive, business picks up considerably. It was kind of odd reading a Doctor Who story with no aliens or sci-fi aspects, but I really got into it. At some points I could actually smell what The Roc was cookin’!
Doctor Who: Infinite Requiem
Story: There is a war raging over the planet Gadrell Major between Humans and the Phracton Swarm. But there is another enemy on this world which is more dangerous than both sides put together…
There is a pregnant woman on Earth in the year 1997. But the child she carries is not quite human. It is a creature who has the power to destroy the entire world…
Pridka Dream Centre, a space station in the distant future built to treat and hone all manner of Psychic dysfunction. Unannounced, they have just received a visitor with a particular disorder untreatable at this facility…
What is the common thread that weaves these three, seemingly separate storylines into one?
Review: So, let me start by saying that this is not a great book. I kind of had to force my way through it. The story begins on the war raged planet where these Phracton blokes are hell-bent on aquiring the rights to this world at any cost. The Humans who didn’t get away on the escape ships have ended up being frightened scavengers. One of these sad foragers has found a woman buried under a pile of rubble. But, this is no ordinary woman. This is a powerful Sensopath! A creature of incredible mental ability, able to channel the mental powers of herself and others to be used for Evil! We shall call her Shanstra. What could be the motives behind her hidden rage? Well, I had to wait until the last few chapters to get this explained to me.
Doctor Who: Set Piece
Story: Somebody has been punching holes in the time-space vortex, and it is through these holes that aliens are abducting humans. But for what reason? The Doctor hears tales of these kidnappings, and brings Ace along to find out why it is happening, where they are being taken, and who is responsible for doing it. The Doctor leaves Bernice behind to rescue them, in case something goes wrong, but what could possibly go wrong? Well, Ace and the Doctor go on a trip in a hyperspace liner, and sure enough, mid-trip, the bad guys show up and board the vessel. We see the crew and passengers, including our two intrepid heroes, captured by man-sized metal ants, and taken to some sort of processing plant. There they are put into cryogenic freeze, where they await some sinister form of knowledge-sucking, intelligence-draining, experimentations! The Doctor is repeatedly made the subject of these tests, yet he regularly escapes and confounds his captors, causing much bother in the meantime.
Review: So, these three storylines run separately for most of the book, and I was quite pleased with how it turned out. And I’m not saying this just because it is Ace’s swansong – she was one of the good parts! Her character ran its course quite suitably, and she leaves with no hard feelings for the Doctor, or her experiences. I do realise that is is not actually Ace I dislike, it is just the way she has been portrayed. I mean, Sophie Aldred was a pretty bad actress (don’t argue, just get your tapes out and review them, you’ll see…), so trying to make something on paper, out of what can only be described as crappy performances, is quite a feat. I won’t miss her at all, as I find Bernice to be a much more realistic person. (Who in the world goes around calling themselves “Ace”? It is quite sad, really…)
Doctor Who: Warlock
Story: “Warlock”, to put it plainly, is a book about drugs, and the people who use them in the search for some form of enlightenment. The main drug used in theis novel is aptly named, “Warlock.” Its properties are quite complex, it enhances and intensifies the mindset of the user. It can take you within yourself, feeding your present emotional state. If you are filled with self-doubt, you become a snivelling groveller. If you are confident, it gives you a sense of power over it, and others. Now, as with most narcotics, the trouble comes when too much is used, causing your mind to wander, literally. As in, leave your body and move about. The Doctor, who has been resting up on Earth for about a year, ever since that last weak adventure in the inside-out planet (see “Parasite”), has taken interest in the strange aspects of this new drug. He plays a very minor role here, acting as the chess player again – moving his pieces around the board of human experience. Bernice is sent to infiltrate the workings of the “International Drug Enforcement Agency” (I.D.E.A), who are also showing an unusual amount of interest in this drug. And Ace is captured by a group of scientists running a drug experimentation lab, where they test drugs on animals for the pharmaceutical companies. These so-called “scientists” feed her a dose of Warlock 100 times greater than any street-level user could find or afford. This, of course, causes her mind to go walkabout, ending up in the body of a cat. A very unusual effect of a very unusual drug indeed…
Review: Now let me say this – there are quite a few disturbing parts to this book. The detailed and clinical descriptions of animal experimentation for one. Don’t get me wrong, I am no prude, but this was pretty graphic. As a cat lover, it ain’t that great to read about cats being tortured just because somebody is in a bad mood. And then the sex – well, not really sex, but various sexually themed accounts. You know, a breast here, a nipple there, some heavy breathing, and a painful abortion thrown in for good effect. It’s all go in “Warlock”.
Doctor Who: Parasite
Story: So this inside out planet, which is also shaped like a snail shell, is known as “the Artifact.” It is of great interest to many people, and there are always groups coming and going, studying, and otherwise theorizing on its origins. But, you see, all is not as it may seem inside this “Artifact,” as usual. One expedition living inside this planet has been killed, and another, arriving by spaceship, is sabotaged by – you guessed it – Unknown Forces! (There seem to be quite a few unknown forces in the Universe; please e-mail me if you come across any.) And so, just when all the weirdness begins, along comes the Doctor and company. Before any of them can tell what is going on, the TARDIS disappears (again!). Now we all know what is going to happen next: the separation. Yes, the Doctor goes off on his own to find the TARDIS, then gets this overwhelming feeling that he is being hunted. Bernice, who floats off by herself, befriends a once-human blob called Midnight that is confused about where he came from. And Ace…well, she seems to act more like the Doctor in this story. She uses reasoning instead of guns!
Review: Sadly, the true secret of this inside out planet is rather trite. I was hoping it wouldn’t turn out to be what I thought it would be, but I won’t say more to prevent me from getting egg all over my face…ahem. I suppose if you like long-winded descriptions of fantastical environments, and overused formulaic SF concepts, you’ll love “Parasite”. If you like Doctor Who, you’ll read this book anyway just to preserve continuity, and get you to the next book. Only a 5/10 by my scale, but don’t just listen to me – read it for yourself.
Doctor Who: Falls The Shadow
Story: In a house called Shadowfell, Mysterious Forces abound. These forces cause the TARDIS to be redirected to the cellar of this old house, and relieve the machine of its power. So, our three heroes are forced to explore their surroundings, using that old fashioned plot expander: to seperate the three characters to allow more hjinks to prevail! Bernice is the first person to run into someone – a deranged lunatic locked in a basement room. He proceeds to give her quite a scare, as well as confusing her thoroughly. The Doctor and Ace, realising that Bernice is missing, decide to search for her by going upstairs, thus increasing the running-into-weirdoes factor to 10. The Doctor runs into a dottery old gardener, who has a green thumb for meat-eating orchids. And Ace of course runs headlong into trouble, fists a-swinging, meeting up with a man wearing a strange wooden mask. (Now if that isn’t creepy…)
Review: Just when you think all has gone awry, the author twists and turns you through the ever-changing rooms of the house, tormenting residents and readers alike. Also, the continued use of a dead companion in the furthering of the story is both unusual, and well done…Bernice is quite good in this role. Death becomes her! (Oh, how I wish it was Ace that died…)
Doctor Who: No Future
Story: The Doctor, Benny and Ace, having survived a series of narrow escapes in incidents where time and history have changed around them, go under deep cover in 1976 London. The burgeoning punk rock movement, just as in the history that the Doctor and his companions remember, is spawning a movement toward anarchy. But unlike the time travelers’ memories, this time the push toward anarchy is all too real – a terrorist organization known as Black Star firebombs Big Ben, and Queen Elizabeth II narrowly escapes assassiantion. In the midst of all this, Benny has become the lead singer of a punk band called Plasticine, the Doctor broods over his inability to understand the changes in the timeline, let alone restore things to normal, and Ace seems to take anarchy to heart, routinely interfering in both the Doctor’s and Benny’s activities. Even U.N.I.T. has been somehow changed, and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart has the Doctor locked up in a cell. And in the background, another time traveler waits and schemes, planning to use a horrifyingly dangerous creature to further corrupt time and conquer Earth. He is a fellow Time Lord who is beating the Doctor at his own manipulative game.
Review: Though author Paul Cornell has decried “No Future” as his least favorite of his Doctor Who New Adventures, I have always found it very enjoyable, and for the record, I’d certainly place it at least a notch above “Oh No It Isn’t!” and possibly even “Happy Endings”, two of Cornell’s other books.
Doctor Who: Love and War
Story: The Doctor, having suddenly taken Ace to a funeral for one of her Perivale friends, takes her to the planet Heaven to recuperate as he goes on an abrupt quest to retrieve the Papers of Felsecar. Ace encounters a band of gypsy-like Travelers, some of whom hide extremely dark secrets; she begins to fall in love with Jan, their ringleader. During a group linkup to a virtual reality ‘puterspace mechanism, Christopher, the most mysterious of the Travelers, is apparently killed as his comrades see their first glimpse of an enemy who is closer than they think. The Doctor, growing increasingly aware of a grave threat to Heaven and everyone on it, meets archaeologist Bernice Summerfield, who currently holds the Papers of Felsecar. In the crucible of the growing danger is Ace, confused by her love for Jan and her intense loyalty to the Doctor, and determined to bring the two together. But by the time the Hoothi – an enormous, self-contained necrosphere consciousness who reanimate and absorb the dead – are finished with Heaven, Ace will have lost both Jan and the Doctor.
Review: Though I’m inclined to nominate Paul Cornell’s later novel Human Nature as the best of the Doctor Who novels, “Love And War” is a very close runner-up and was, in my opinion, the book which redefined and redirected the entire New Adventures series. Cornell proved that it was possible to tell a mature and intense story against the backdrop of Doctor Who’s sometimes whimsical and more science-fantasy-oriented millieu. The author excels at spinning a very dark horror story, capable of scaring the pants off of nearly anyone, while still ensuring that the characters at the heart of the story are recognizable as the Doctor and Ace as portrayed by Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred.
Doctor Who: Timewyrm: Revelation
Story: The Doctor and Ace brace themselves for their final confrontation with the time-manipulating Timewyrm, with whom they’ve done battle from the dawn of man to World War II and beyond. But the Timewyrm sets a subtle trap for them as its final gambit, luring them out onto the surface of the moon sans protective gear. Ace is left on the brink of death, forced to relive repeated encounters with Chad Boyle, a schoolyard bully who once tried to kill her as a show of playground superiority. The Timewyrm then hold the Doctor’s tormented companion hostage to ensure his cooperation – but she hasn’t anticipated that the Time Lord would receive help from a handful of strangers, including an out-of-place couple, a bewildered vicar, and a psychic entity living within the structure of a country church.
Review: For years, I kept away from any mention of “Timewyrm: Revelation”. The book simply did not appear on the bookshelves near my home in 1992, and I never got to find out how the Timewyrm cycle which kick-started the New Adventures novels came to an end. Not until ten years later.
Why so gung-ho about this one book, when I long ago sold or gave away much of the rest of my New Adventures books? For one thing, it’s by Paul Cornell, my favorite Doctor Who author, and not only that, but it’s his first Who novel and forms the first of a loosely-connected series of four such books. And by God, I stayed right away from the spoilers for ten years until I got to read it myself.
Doctor Who: Timewyrm: Exodus
Story: The Doctor and Ace, still following the temporal trail of the Timewyrm, track it down to World War II-era London, but somehow the timeline has been significantly altered – Britain has been overrun by Hitler and the Nazi regime, and the Doctor and Ace find themselves trying to ply both the Britischer Freikorps (a cell of resistance fighters) and the local Nazis, led by the fanatical Lieutenant Hemmings, for information on what has happened. To Ace’s horror, the Doctor tries to infiltrate the Nazi ranks, endearing himself to none other than Adolf Hitler…only to discover that the Furher has the Timewyrm on his side.
Review: Good old Terrance Dicks. Nobody can lay out a good old-fashioned Doctor Who storyline like this man can, and perhaps he should’ve been given the opportunity to launch the New Adventures. “Timewyrm: Exodus” is ultimately the strongest of the foor-book cycle that led off the series, and shows that Dicks, a traditionalist though he may be, understood the demands that the new novels be more complex than the average Target novelization. (In case you’ve never touched a Who book in your life, Dicks wrote something like 80% of those novelizations, so if anyone knew what the parameters were, it’d be him.
Doctor Who: Timewyrm: Genesys
Story: The TARDIS brings the Doctor and Ace to ancient Mesopotamia, a critical juncture in human evolution which demands strict non-intervention. But Ace is appalled at how women are treated in this place and time, and worse yet, the Doctor receives a recorded message from his fourth self warning about an ancient menace capable of ravaging the web of time from its beginning to its end. On Gallifrey, they had a name for this menace – the Timewyrm. And to the Doctor’s horror, it has arrived on Earth and is already influencing events.
Review: Who would have guessed that great things would have come of this first book? It’s almost hard to imagine that a series of novels with the depth and complexity of the New Adventures began with this novel, which barely fit the range’s early tagline of “stories too broad and too deep for the small screen.”
For what it’s worth, John Peel does a decent job of picking up from where Survival left off (though that’s almost been made obsolete by the flood of BBC past Doctors novels and audio plays that also happen in an unspecified post-Survival timeline). But there’s something pedestrian about Peel’s writing style that always kept me from really sinking my teeth into this book.
R.E.M.: The Rolling Stone Files
Story: This compendium collects every item that appeared in Rolling Stone magazine concerning R.E.M. from 1981 to shortly after the release of Monster in 1995. Album reviews, cover stories, interview features, Random Note mentions and year-end Best Of lists are included, along with a new introduction by writer Anthony DeCurtis.
Review: I checked this book out of the New York Public Library shortly after reading of Bill Berry’s retirement; with the sense that an era was ending, I wanted to try and vicariously experience its beginning. There are a number of fine books on the band on the market, but all of those have the advantage of hindsight to lend perspective and structure to their narrative. The advantage of this book – which most of those other works cite as an enormously helpful reference – is that the story is being written as it happens; neither the band nor the writers know where things are going, so there’s an immediacy and occasional unintended irony as the band’s stature and career evolve. The album reviews and feature stories, by a variety of writers, all have an impressive level of depth, thoughtfulness and clarity – you can see why the band developed a rapport with the magazine, and how that pays off in the quality of the magazine’s coverage.
It Crawled from the South: An R.E.M. Companion
Story: In a thematically organized set of lists and essays, the author provides historical information and analysis of R.E.M.’s career from its members early musical activities through the band’s 1995 world tour.
Review: Last updated in early 1996, “It Crawled from the South” suffers somewhat from unfortunate timing. It is by now several years out of date, and it just narrowly misses the natural close point of Bill Berry’s retirement. As a result, certain comments come off as dated, such as the author’s speculation that Peter Buck’s decision to move from Athens to Seattle in 1992 might ultimately sink the band. But the book is a storehouse of trivia and information about not only the band but those people and places that intersected with R.E.M.’s path over the years. One chapter discusses collaborators and contemporaries, another maps out the clubs and hangouts where the band played its first shows. There are comprehensive lists of the band’s songs, both released and unreleased, along with the occasional pointer to well-known bootleg collections. Many television and promotional appearances are listed, and Gray tracks the development of the band’s video aesthetic from the grainy low-fi oddities like “Radio Free Europe,” “Driver 8” and “Fall on Me” to the high production values of “Losing My Religion,” “Everybody Hurts,” and the glitzy rock star clips from Monster.
R.E.M. Inside Out
Story: Journalist Craig Rosen collects anecdotes and information about every song on R.E.M.’s albums from 1981 through 1996. Rosen draws on his own interviews with the band plus many of the articles and books on the band in print at the time to talk about production techniques, instrument lineups, lyrical inspiration and other tidbits. Heavily illustrated.
Review: There are a number of good books about R.E.M., so at first glance it might seem like this relatively short, photo-laden book is superfluous. But its subtitle suggests the niche that Rosen has managed to find and fill quite well. Every song gets at least a few lines of discussion, and many get considerably more. Some of the detail is probably best suited to the hardcore R.E.M. trivia fan who’s interested in things like the source of the siren wail on “Leave,” or why Buck plays drums on the 11th untitled song from Green. On the other hand, someone not fully immersed in the band’s lore might appreciate this quick history that focuses primarily on the band’s recording career (as opposed to live performances, work with other artists, personal biographical information, or political activism, to name a few topics covered in detail elsewhere).
Remarks Remade: The Story of R.E.M.
Story: In a revised and expanded edition of this band-authorized biography, music writer Tony Fletcher recounts how Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe made their way to Athens, Georgia in the late seventies and formed a band to play at a friend’s birthday party. Eventually adopting the name R.E.M., the band became leaders in the college/alternative rock movement of the 80s and broke through to enormous worldwide success in the 90s. Fletcher tracks their story through Berry’s departure in 1997 and Buck’s acquittal in a British air rage trial 22 years to the day after their first performance.
Review: Fletcher does a great job of collecting details of the band’s recording, touring and other activities and forming them into a coherent narrative that spans more than two decades. I personally enjoyed the earliest chapters the most, because Fletcher is so effective at bringing those days to life. He quotes Peter Buck as saying “I just figured that you’d meet the right people, then you’d get in a band, then you’d make the good music, and people would come and see it.” Buck makes it sound ludicrously easy, and yet that’s what R.E.M. made happen, thanks to talent, a lot of work, and a fair amount of being in the right place at the right time. I can only imagine what it was like to live that lightning-in-a-bottle experience, but simply reading about it in “Remarks Remade” is exciting in itself.
Honor Among Enemies
Story: As the war between the Star Kingdom of Manticore and the People’s Republic of Haven grows in intensity, both sides’ attention turns to the space between the Silesian Confederacy and the Anderman Empire, where neutral shipping lanes have become ripe for raiders and pirates, costing both Manticore and Haven dearly. Honor Harrington is called up for duty aboard a Manticoran ship once again, an order she has the option to refuse but can’t bring herself to turn down. But her return to Manticoran uniform is anything but glamorous – she’ll be commanding a squadron of “helpless” merchant freighters retrofitted into warships – and her reinstatement has been engineered by old enemies bent on seeing her forced into a no-win situation. And if that’s not bad enough, then there are the forces at work against her within her own ship…
Review: If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the course of slowly plowing through
the Honor Harrington series, it’s this: just about any ship and crew to whom we’re introduced outside of the first four chapters of any given book will not be returning to the shipyards intact by the last chapter. It’s the Honorverse’s equivalent of redshirts, dished up – and done away with – a couple thousand at a time. David Weber always walks a fine line here, making sure we know that Manticore’s most capable captain always has her eyes – and her conscience – trained on the body count. Though in “Honor Among Enemies,” Weber makes sure that the bad guys are so bad that no one’s really sorry to see them go.
Looks Like Another Brown Trouser Job
Story: In a series of recordings culled from his series of one-man lectures in the 1980s, Monty Python star Graham Chapman talks about life before, during, and after his years with the seminal British TV comedy troupe, including a painful stint with the Dangerous Sports Club, an extreme sports outfit (before that term was even invented) that brought bungee-jumping into the public eye (and certainly right into Chapman’s). Chapman also discusses his battles with alcoholism, his close friendship with The Who drummer Keith Moon, and the inevitable censorship battles that have followed his brand of outrageously silly humor.
Review: I was surprised to see this CD appear so long after Chapman’s death (in 1989, just one day short of Monty Python’s 20th anniversary) – one would have thought that interest had long since waned, and it almost begs one to ask “Why now?” The answer is simply because the man’s humor is still relevant – and still quite silly, thank you. For those of us who didn’t get to take in Chapman’s college lecture tour in the ’80s, this is the next best thing. (There’s also a DVD available, of which more in a moment.) Those accustomed to Chapman’s outrageously iconic Python characters may be surprised to find that the man himself, while still quite silly, can be surprisingly circumspect.
The Short Victorious War
Story: Having recovered from the serious injures she sustained in the battle to protect Grayson, Captain Honor Harrington is assigned to her new command – the battlecruiser Nike, fresh out of Manticore’s shipyards and ready to take its place at the head of the fleet. Nike’s shakedown cruise is a little bumpy, however, delaying the ship’s participation in fleet wargames near the remote Hancock Station outpost – and giving Honor time to become friendly with Captain Paul Tankersley, overseeing Nike’s repairs at Hancock. But the wargames are in danger of becoming the real thing as the signs begin to point toward a sudden escalation in aggressive territorial moves from Manticore’s enemy, the People’s Republic of Haven. Eager to quell civil unrest within its own empire, the Havenite military plans a bold strategy to start a war with Manticore – intending all along to make it look like Manticore is the attacker.
Review: Whereas the first two books in the Honor Harrington series are more or less self-contained, with the universe’s backstory and a few tendrils connecting them, “The Short Victorious War” is clearly setting us up for big stuff down the road, while also giving the reader more than enough action to stay awake for. But this book shakes things up where storytelling in the Honorverse is concerned in other ways.
You’re Him, Aren’t You?
Story: Actor Paul Darrow, best known to SF fans for his four-year stint as the amoral Kerr Avon from the BBC’s Blake”s 7, discusses his childhood, his early decision to become an actor, how his stage name came about (he reasons that “Paul Birkby” isn’t a name that would’ve kept him working), the many twists and turns of his career both before and after Blake’s 7, and of course, knowing who’s likely to be reading, spends quite a bit of time on his most famous role, deconstructing the character and even offering an episode-by-episode breakdown of his own analysis of the stories and his memories of making them.
Review: If there’s anything I’ve gleaned from listening to and watching some fairly recent interviews with Paul Darrow, it is that this guy who is remembered as one of British television’s quintessential badasses of the 1970s and 80s is, naturally, a soft-spoken gentleman with both a great deal of pride in his career, and a great sense of self-effacing humor. These traits are even more to the fore when Darrow puts his own story on paper. He comes across as one of the most pragmatic of actors – he freely admits that he’s taken some roles to set his bank overdraft right (!), and has put everything on hold for other roles (including Avon). Amusingly enough, much of “You’re Him, Aren’t You?” is a glorious exercise in name-dropping, with Darrow telling stories of his experiences with such luminaries as John Hurt, Ian McShane, Patrick McGoohan, and every Doctor Who except William Hartnell and Christopher Eccleston. Darrow admits that he wouldn’t mind piloting the TARDIS himself (Russell T. Davies, please take note, as I’d love to see Paul in a guest-starring role on the new show), and even has a fairly reasonable theory about the longevity of Doctor Who vs. Blake’s seemingly frozen-in-amber-and-never-to-be-continued state.
The Actor Speaks: Paul Darrow
Story: Best known as the gravelly voice, stony face and acid wit of unscrupulous genius Kerr Avon from the cult favorite BBC SF series Blake’s 7, Paul Darrow talks about his career – both Blake-centric and otherwise – as well as reaching the age of 60, playing the role of Elvis Presley on stage, and performs several short dramatic scenes written especially for this presentation.
Review: Though it might seem, on the surface, to be a slightly silly idea to combine listener-submitted Q&A sessions with dramatic readings, this fourth entry in MJTV Productions’ The Actor Speaks CD series really, upon further reflection, gives you what you’d get from a really good convention appearance – except you can have that experience in your headphones rather than in a crowded convention center. As usual, Darrow is engaging and gracious when faced with the usual barrage of Blake’s 7-related questions, even though some of them have been asked before. (To give credit to the show’s producer and presenter, Mark Thompson, there did at least seem to be enough foresight to realize that the fans who would be this product’s target audience would be well-acquainted with the most frequently asked questions, so the Q&A material tends to venture further afield, or at least presents familiar questions with a twist.) As usual, Darrow demonstrates that he’s put an awful lot of thought into what made Avon tick – and what could continue to make him tick in any continuations of the story.
Powers: Roleplay
Story: A group of college students impersonate Powers in a live action role playing game, breaking the laws that prohibit non-Powers from wearing costumes. When several of them are murdered, Walker and Pilgrim get the case. The trail leads to a long inactive former associate of suspected criminal Johnny Stompinato. The detectives’ efforts to enlist Stompinato’s cooperation go seriously awry, threatening the investigation and Pilgrim’s career.
Review: The second Powers collection is an interesting follow-up to Who Killed Retro Girl? The aftereffects of that story still clearly linger over the entire city, and the roleplaying imitators open up an interesting perspective on how regular humans make sense of a world with superhuman beings floating around. One of my favorite exchanges in the series actually covers that topic and takes place in this story, as Walker and Pilgrim banter about the nature of time and subjective sensory perception. But Bendis makes it a lot more entertaining than that last sentence might suggest.
Feel This Audiobook
Story: Comedians Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo dispense relationship advice both plentiful and disturbing, using the rather unfortunate model of their own failed celebrity romance as the basis of their words of wisdom. Stiller later goes off on tangents involving new-age affirmations and an attempt to discover himself on a cross-country trip. Garofalo takes well-earned potshots at the Hollywood concept of what makes people attractive.
Review: Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo’s vocalization of their own Feel This Book self-help spoof does a rare thing – it exceeds the potential and enjoyment of the original medium when performed vocally.
Powers: Who Killed Retro Girl?
Story: Homicide detective Christian Walker specializes in cases involving the superpowered individuals that operate in the city. His new partner, Deena Pilgrim, is eager to work with Walker – and just as eager to learn what secrets he may be hiding. As the two get to know each other, they must solve the murder of one of the city’s most popular heroes amidst growing media scrutiny and take care of a child Walker rescued from a hostage situation.
Review: This is a book that clicks on all cylinders, with excellent dialogue, evocative art and crisp plotting. The story opens with homicide Detective Christian Walker being called into a hostage negotiation – the guy holding the hostage has powers, and he asked for Walker specifically. The pacing and dialogue in this opening scene are excellent. The build-up of tension is great, Walker really shines as a tough cop who can nonetheless empathize with a guy who’s so at the end of his rope that he’s ready to do something desperate and foolish, and the little asides between the cops have a world-weary wit about them.