Doctor by Doctor (Sidestep 1)

Grandad, We Love You:

Peter Cushing, 1965-66

Yes, Peter Cushing is getting an entry. Of course he is. OK, his version of the character exists wholly outside the continuity of the show, but so what? Cushing played Dr Who in two movies which, for decades, were the only regularly repeated Doctor Who on TV. The regular airing of these two films made them some of the most seen Doctor Who of the twentieth century, far more familiar to casual viewers than the Hartnell serials they were based on. Dr Who and the Daleks and Daleks – Invasion Earth 2150 AD are the earliest clear Doctor Who memories I have (I do have some very vague memories of watching the McCoy stories on first broadcast). It was only years later, when I got into the series proper, that I learned that they were not ‘proper’ Doctor Who.

Both of the Aaru/Amicus Dalek movies are Technicolor remakes of black-and-white serials; tartrazine-infused explosions of sound and colour aimed at a broad cinema audience. The main story beats of The Daleks and The Dalek Invasion of Earth are kept, but the plots are necessarily streamlined to cut the serials down to fit ninety minute runtimes. Comedy is brought to the fore, taking much of the edge off the originals. It’s fair to say these movies don’t have a particularly high standing in fandom, but I enjoy them. They’re simple, straightforward sci-fi for kids. Dr Who and the Daleks is tremendous fun, from the Dayglo Thals to Daleks reimagined as supreme interior decorators (check out all those lava lamps!) Daleks – Invasion Earth tones down it down somewhat, and, although it’s generally regarded as the better film, I prefer the first. The second film is certainly technically superior, but it drags in the middle. It’s naturally speedier than the original serial, but that was intended to be watched over the course of six weeks.

WHO BOOK-QUEST #1: The Time Travellers by Simon Guerrier

Just about squeezing into January, here’s my first retro book review for Doctor Who’s anniversary year. I’m planning to read one book per Doctor as we go along, on the now well-established Doctor-a-month system. Some will be BBC Books, some will be by Virgin. Might even get a Telos novella in there. Some will be old favourites, others will be new to me – the only condition being that I won’t cover a book that I’ve written about before. We start with a first Doctor story – Simon Guerrier’s The Time Travellers.

Published in late 2005, this was the penultimate novel in BBC Books’ Past Doctors Adventures line. With the new TV series a runaway success, and ninth Doctor books reaching a younger demographic and selling in huge numbers, the earlier ranges that the BBC had published had fallen into decline. The Eighth Doctor Adventures had already ended back in June, with Lance Parkin’s The Gallifrey Chronicles, and the PDAs wouldn’t last much longer. However, while almost everyone’s attention was focussed on the new series and the upcoming adventures of the tenth Doctor, the PDA range quietly got on with producing some remarkable books.

Despite being Guerrier’s first novel, The Time Travellers is an assured, well-written work that perfectly captures the spirit of the era it recreates. It’s easy to see why he became such a regular writer for Big Finish, particularly for the Companion Chronicles releases featuring the first Doctor. In my head this is all in monochrome – always a sign of a successful depiction of the Hartnell years. It’s a spot-on depiction of the relationships between the four principle characters at that specific point in the series – the brief gap between Planet of Giants and The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Ian and Barbara are clearly on the cusp of romance here – something that was never explicit in the series but was unquestionably present by the time of The Romans, only a few serials later. Their developing feelings for each other both raise tensions between them and hold them together during the course of the book. Susan is clearly outgrowing here role in the series, which she had done virtually as soon as the first episode ended. The Doctor is a kinder, more moral figure than the one who began the series, but is still very much a difficult man with his own sense of superiority. His relationship with both Ian and Barbara develops further during the course of the novel, their mutual respect increasing in line with what we saw on screen, while the Doctor comes to the inescapable conclusion that he will soon have to part ways with Susan.

WHO REVIEW: A Big Hand for the Doctor by Eoin Colfer

So, the first of this latest range of cash-ins celebratory releases is now out. Each month, a noted author will release a story featuring one of the Doctor’s incarnations. One Doctor per month. £1.99 for an e-book, with a printed omnibus expected at the end of the year. Nice idea. However, A Big Hand for the Doctor is a big disappointment.

OK, I know I’m not the target audience for this. These books are clearly aimed at younger readers, and that’s all well and good. That’s who Doctor Who is for, after all. Colfer’s prose is functional but enjoyable, skipping along nicely. Having had a very busy day, I left this till this evening to read, so that I could spend some time on it. Had I known it would take me about ten minutes to read, I would have done it on my tea break. Even as a printed book, two quid would be asking a lot for something so brief. For a download, it’s pretty shocking. But the big the problem is, this just doesn’t read like the first Doctor to me.

Imagine an author was given a brief to write a first Doctor story. He’s never seen any of the classic series, but knows the modern version through and through. So he gets a basic description of the first Doctor’s characteristics, and works from that. This is exactly how the story reads. The story would work fine for the tenth or eleventh Doctor, or even the fourth, and they’d fit the style of the telling well. But this is a version of the first Doctor who acts exactly like his dashing successors, except that he’s a bit grumpier and worries about his granddaughter. It’s a generic modern Doctor with a couple of sixties Doctor Who trappings bolted on.

So, maybe I’m just grumpy like the first Doctor. You could call this a reimagining, I guess. If it were an adventure of a much younger first Doctor, maybe I could buy it. But this is supposedly the old geezer who appeared on TV from 1963 to 1966, and it doesn’t fit. It’s a shame, as there are some nice ideas here – some vague mentions of the Doctor’s family, and the revelation that he gets visions of his future selves. These are revisionist ideas that could be made into something. Instead, we get a very generic story that would work happily as a Doctor Who Adventures comic strip, and has none of the appeal of the version of the character it’s supposed to be celebrating. So what’s the point of it?

OMFG!

 Don't worry, I'm not trying to sound young (I'm childish, yes, but not young). I'm just celebrating the arrival of my set of new OMFG toys - that's Outlandish Mini-Figure Guys, you see.

OMFG are produced by October Toys. It's a crowd-funded project, with character designs chosen from a vast selection sent in by members of October Toys' forum.  Series One came out last year, and Series Two has just arrived - well, I got mine a bit later, what with shipping times from the States and all.

I love the ugly little sods. They're a nostalgia piece, made by and for fans of MUSCLE and Monster in My Pocket. I never collected MUSCLE, but I was an avid MIMP collector. Actually, who am I kidding - I still am an avid MIMP collector. In the absence of resurrecting that series for a third time, OMFG will do nicely.

Each series consists of five characters. S1 has the Crawdad Kid, King Castor, Multiskull, the Phantom Shithouse (!) and Stroll, while S2 features Grimm Gourd, Shirtle, Cuddlehard, Cry-Borg and the delightfully named Puke Knight. Originally I was going to keep them in their boxes, but I decided no, they're made to be displayed properly. Here's all ten, plus a ZOMBIE Ape (also from October Toys) for comparison:

My favourite from the first series was Multiskull, due to the impressive level of detail on the sculpt. Out of S2, I'm a little torn. They're all more imaginative than the S1 monsters. Puke Knight is actually two figs that fit together, which is a nice touch, and I like how Cuddlehard acts like the personification of the OMFG logo. However, I think it's the half-shakr, half-turtle Shirtle that is my overall fave. He's just so adorably stupid-looking.

Small quibble: I've got the standard flesh-coloured sets, which are the basic sets for those contributing to the crowd-fund campaign at a low level. It's a bit annoying that the S1 and S2 flesh colours aren't quite the same. OK, it's a petty, pedantic niggle, but we collectors are petty, pedantic people. I'm tempted to buy a set of the exclusive colours, but there are so many to choose from. This is a sure-fire way to waste money...

REVIEW: Faction Paradox: Burning with Optimism's Flames

EDITED BY JAY EALES FOR OBVERSE BOOKS

Stories within stories, histories overlaying histories… the Faction is back, and they’re around here somewhere…

A short introduction, for those who aren’t familiar with this range. Faction Paradox are a time-travelling fetish cult, originally from the Homeworld of the Great Houses (read - Time Lords), dedicated to the disruption of history for chaotic effect. Set against the backdrop of a vast War in Heaven, between the Great Houses and an unnamed Enemy, the stories of the Faction span time, space, fiction and reality. Obverse Books are the current licence holders, and Burning with Optimism’s Flames is their second major anthology release for the Faction.

As I’ve come to expect from Obverse, this is an excellent release, although I don’t think it’s quite up to the superlative standards of their first volume, A Romance in Twelve Parts. Nonetheless, there are some truly stunning pieces here, from the best upcoming fantasy writers. Although some stories explore similar themes, each of them involves different characters and settings, from ancient mythological history to a distant, posthuman future. Many are only tenuously linked to the Faction, others feature them directly. There’s a good mix of genres on offer, although most of the stories veer towards horror, a genre that suits Faction Paradox perfectly.

Both the opening and closing stories delve into history, as the Faction and their enemies look to manipulate events to suit their own aims. Both Elizabeth Evershed with ‘Raleigh Dreaming,’ and Philip Pursar-Hallard with ‘De Umbris Idearum,’ explore how one well-placed, remarkable individual can change the course of a civilisation’s development. Both works take a historical period and insert the anachronistic influence of the time-active powers. ‘Raleigh Dreaming’ sees the great explorer confronted by the fallibility of memory as he languishes in the Tower of London. It’s very different to Evershed’s previous story in Tales of the City, but exquisitely written.

Tales of the City was in fact edited by Philip Pursar-Hallard, who here explores a different facet to the Faction universe than his own creation, the City of the Saved. ‘De Umbris Idearum’ features the Remote, a media-dependent group that is essentially the offspring of Faction Paradox. PPH is a Christian, and when his work explores his faith the results are always fascinating. ‘De Umbris Idearum’ explores the life of one of history’s true visionaries, Giordano Bruno, and the history, and destiny, of the Catholic Church. With nested stories in the past, present and future, this closing story is one of the best in the book.

The book explores more than just European history, however. ‘La Santa Muerte’ links the eponymous Mexican death spirit to the Faction in a brief but effective tale of murder. ‘Dharmayuddha,’ by Aditya Bidikar, is a stunningly well-written piece that looks at Hindu myth through the prism of the War in Heaven, or at the War through Hindu myth. Complex, creative and illuminating, it’s a highlight of the collection.

Some authors opt for a contemporary setting to produce gripping horror stories. The truly talented Kelly Hale crafts a sexually charged story of manipulation in ‘Dos Hombres -  A Fable,’ which shares some elements with Juliet Kemp’s chilling ‘Squatter’s Rights.’ In fact, the latter story’s musings on memory tie it in nicely to the concepts explored in the opener, ‘Raleigh Dreaming,’ providing an element that helps hold the disparate collection together. ‘Office Politics’ by Alan Taylor is one of the creepiest things I’ve read in a long time, developing from the simple concept of a new boy coming into an established office team and ending as something quite disturbing. I’ll never be able to look at a Matryoska doll in the same way again. Any reader who enjoys tales with a touch of the horrific will relish these three stories.

James Worrad’s ‘The Strings’ starts slowly, but had me utterly gripped by the conclusion. Set in a distant future, ‘The Strings’ spans high fantasy and science fiction, on a world touched by godlike beings and subject to manipulation from all quarters. ‘All the Fun of the Fear’ is an overlong comedy story by Stephen Marley. A slice of far-fetched fiction in the style of Robert Rankin, it has some cute ideas but crucially isn’t very funny. It’s the collection’s only real miss for me. Marley’s author bio at the back is pretty good, though.

‘Wing Finger,’ a historical piece by Helen Angove, is a tale of European politicking, strange travelling companions and “Ptero-dactyles.” Written in a pastiche of the early 19^th century epistolary style, it’s hugely entertaining. ‘Remake/Remodel’ features an underused aspect of the Faction universe, Faction Hollywood. Jonathan Dennis provides a cutting satire of the movie industry, marketing and the return of the superhero, as Faction Hollywood takes one young hopeful, use him to further their aims and then spit him out.

‘… and from the Tower she did fall’  is the most explicitly Faction Paradox based story in the collection, set in their own realm of the Eleven Day Empire. Cate Gardner’s tale is slight but filled with some arresting imagery. ‘After the Velvet Eon,’ by Simon Bucher-Jones, is an opaque but poetically written fantasy, which sees a future legend become a battleground. Just gorgeous.

The penultimate story, ‘A Star’s View of Caroline,’ is a quietly ingenious piece by Sarah Hadley. In the aftermath of an extraterrestrial invasion (a very familiar one, at that, and rather appropriate in this anniversary year), a temporal catastrophe has left some unfortunate individuals in a state of trauma and possibly with visionary insights. It’s an exploration of the strangely misplaced hero worship of the damaged and disabled, a look at the hardships faced by the survivors of terrible events, and an intriguing look at the possible consequences of meddling with time. It’s also a sequel to an earlier story by Hadley, ‘Man of Smoke and Dust’ in 2001’s Doctor Who charity anthology Walking in Eternity. Caroline is a fascinating story in its own right, but having read the earlier story did add a little something.

Burning with Optimism’s Flames is a fine collection of tales with real scope and depth, held together by a mostly consistent tone. There’s a sense of paranoia to be gained from reading it, as the malign forces of the Faction universe each work at us and our history for their own ends. Unlike many shared universe collections, there’s both consistency and variety here, with characters and settings drawn from throughout history and imagination. One thing links all the stories: the inescapable sense that nobody’s safe.

Available as hardback and e-book