Amazon.com (ISBN 0563405864, Paperback)

Seeing I is the second in the BBC range from coauthors Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum. The first 170 or so of the book's 279 pages drag interminably as Sam and the Doctor spend three years being unable to meet up due to the fact that the Doctor has been locked up in an inescapable prison for the crime of trying to locate his companion using somewhat unorthodox methods. Sam in the meantime becomes a quasi-ecoterrorist seeking to undermine the controlling techno-company on the planet. It's this same organization that holds the Doctor, and it isn't until Sam finds his details on a file pirated from the company that they get to finally meet, after almost three whole books spent apart.

It's not explained quite how Sam knows this is the Doctor (presumably there was a photo) since he was going under the name of Doctor Bowman, but within a few pages she manages to break into the prison and rescue him. Bang. All over in a flash.

Then the rest of the plot kicks in. The company has been using eye-implant technology, which the Doctor has realized is alien to this culture at this time. The trouble is traced to a Gallifreyan mind control device, which is supplying power to the company. Furthermore, this device has been "seeded" on the planet by an insectoid race of aliens called the I so that they may come along later and harvest whatever use the indigenous population have made of the technology.

Seeing I is a curious mixture of well-written character pieces and a paper-thin plot designed only to achieve the objective of forcing the characters to develop. The authors have decided to push against the general trend of the BBC's range and to present a work that only just manages to stand alone in its own right.

If you like talk, internal angst, and uncertainty as opposed to action, plot, and adventure, this novel is doubtless going to please you. For those who prefer a more traditional WHO yarn, you'd be better off starting elsewhere. --David J. Howe, Amazon.co.uk