David Ralph Martin (1935–2007)

A quick cheap paperback written to cash in on two unique mid-1980s American phenomena -- the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books, and "Doctor Who". This confirms my view that Americans simply don't 'get' Doctor Who!

"Search" is authored (in the loosest sense of the word) by David Martin, who wrote several Doctor Who TV adventures in the '70s.

It also makes no sense. From Los Angeles in the year 2056 (why?), to a space lab called "FERN" (indeed), to the return of villains from two different show more Martin-penned Doctor Who serials (all the better with which to lure first-time readers, no doubt), "Search" is a boring and confusing muddle.

The Doctor is hardly to be seen, there's hardly any decision-making to be had, and the story only has one successful conclusion.

Basically, as both a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, and as a Doctor Who story, "Search for the Doctor" fails gloriously. It's easy to see why they didn't print too many more of these. And why copies are so hard to find. show less

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The last is the most political of the books: K9 is called in to assist the capitalist, colonialist leadership of the heavily polluted planet Tellus (or, as we call it, Earth) to track down a missing colony. "'It's not there,' snarled the president. 'It should be there and it's gone. The whole planet, gone. We own that planet, we've invested billions in it, and we need its raw materials to fuel our power plants and supply our factories. Tellac Inc show more wants it back. Apart from that they tell me it's playing havoc with navigation ... 0h, and there are a dozen families missing too. Miners, it says here. You better get it back!'" K9 gets caught in a timewarp and finds the missing planet and miners, who are constructing a new Eden with animals from all periods of geological history which they survey by balloon. Votri, the miners' leader, begs K9 to keep his secret; and K9 does so, in defiance of his orders, reporting back to Gallifrey only that the planet has "disappeared from the universe as we know it". show less

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Probably the most interesting from the continuity point of view of the six books, this time "you" are a telepathic refugee from Earth, stranded in a camp on Gallifrey, rescued by the Doctor, and sucked into a struggle with the evil Maker who wants to, guess what, destroy Gallifrey and take over the universe. It's not exactly Gallifrey as we know it, though in fact it's not all that far off the Time War Gallifrey which we have seen recently. There are show more some silly die rolls and anagram quizzes, but in general the plot is pretty linear, and when Martin lets his hair down there's some writing that approaches being decent. show less

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Another day, another crisis: K9 is sent to investigate vast explosions in the Zeta Cancri system (also referred to Zeta Four Sector) where it is feared that if the stars collide the whole galactic neighbourhood will be devastated. (I checked, and ζ Cancri is indeed a well-known and complex multiple star system, though of course any the consequences of two of the stars colliding would be neither as immediate or as widely devastating as the book would show more have it.) Here for the first time we see the Time Lords who give K9 his orders, and they are indeed a rum bunch, though reminiscent of the Time Lord Council we were to encounter shortly in The Tides of Time.

The plot is a bit unfocussed: K9 finds a vast prison ship and an attractive young prisoner called Dea; he frees her, and she explains that they are witnessing the last stages of a war between the Telians and Megallans; K9 and Dea then watch as the two sides' leaders mutually destroy each other. K9, having not actually done anything to resolve the crisis, then stays behind to help Dea care for the remaining victims, explaining to the Time Lords on his return that he was aiming to improve his "understanding of the humanoid race", though with negative results. It's an interesting counterpart to the previous book in that K9 appears to feel that his lack of emotions is a potential disability after all. show less