Having already tackled Gareth Roberts' The Romance of Crime and The English Way of Death prior to reading his adaptation of Shada it was only fair that afterwards I should see out Doctor Who's 17th season fully and take on Jonathan Morris' PDA Festval of Death and the final Virgin MA The Well-Mannered War (also by the aforementioned Mr Roberts).
Various online chronological lists suggested I shouldn't read these two books in publishing order - so I didn't! They're not linked at all, but there is a logic to reading them this way round.
Festival of Death I found a curious read. A lot of the time I was thinking it's the kind of book I'd probably enjoy more the second time round, once I'm more relaxed with where it's going and what it's trying to do. I've enjoyed a lot of what Morris has produced over the years - The Tomorrow Windows is one of my favourite EDAs and Flip-Flop one of the best and most intelligent Big Finish audios, for example. But I couldn't quite find the 'joy' in Festival of Death, though - and that's what tends to mark out the Season 17 stories from the Season 18 ones. It's there on the surface, but I wasn't 'feeling' it underneath - like the author was ticking boxes. The story is a clever use of time travel (timey-wimey etc) and pre-destination, but I felt Morris was focussing too much on his convoluted story and this got in the way of character development and narrative progression (or even regression). There were some sly digs at the era, such as the Doctor effectively trying to 'direct' a scene at one point and K9 blasting a bit of structure that had obviously been recently re-plastered so you could still see the join. I couldn't tell if the author was being 'fond' here or critical. There are also occasional Douglas Adams-esque lines or moments but these tend to stand out unnecessarily and it puts me in mind of what an Adams script might have ended up like if Chris Bidmead had script edited it - intelligent sci-fi with occasional flashes of wit but overall too caught up with itself to relax.
In contrast The Well-Mannered War was a wonderful read. By his third Season 17 outing Gareth Roberts was very comfortable and confident with the characters and what he was doing. Like most of Season 17 on TV it is deceptive in its apparent simplicity, with much going on underneath. It trips along at a fast yet easy pace, with plenty for the Doctor to do and plenty for Romana and K9 to be doing elsewhere. Menlove Stokes, returning from The Romance of Crime, manages to avoid being too annoying - just - and the whole premise is wonderfully worked out with a gorgeous twist that makes the reader question their own basic assumptions about all Doctor Who stories. The final section is very dramatic, with a much darker tone, and as always with Roberts' writing you can picture it perfectly within the production constraints and the performances of the time. It was a great way for Virgin to finish off their 'Missing Adventures' range - in much the same way as BBC Books did with the EDAs in 2005. I don't want to say too much as I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it yet, plus I've already gushed about how good a writer Gareth Roberts is elsewhere! I will mention, though, that the thought of Romana in the Third Doctor's costume may set some pulses racing (like when she wears the Fourth Doctor's current costume in Destiny of The Daleks, hubba hubba) but surely it would have dwarfed her? Or maybe that's the appeal - a saggy frilly shirt and an inverness cape you could use as a tent?!
Bye bye Fourth Doctor, Romana & K9 in book form. Thanks for the fun times.
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