David Bishop (1) (1966–)

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-domino-effect-by-david-bishop/

I’m not wild in general about the sequence of Eighth Doctor books that I am currently reading, but this one hit the spot for me. The Doctor, Fitz and Anji land in Edinburgh in 2003, but in a timeline where computers were never invented and Britain is ruled by a fascist, racist regime. Inevitably they are accused of terrorism, fall in with the real terrorists, and then end up in the Tower of London trying to unravel the show more sleeve of history without setting off a domino effect of time destruction. There’s some graphic violence, and some very twisty plot twists at the end (and inevitably Sabbath turns up, does nothing very much and then leaves again), but I liked it more than some of these. show less

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2277968.html

Past Doctor Adventure taking Three and Sarah Jane back to December 1952 where smog, East End gangsters and aliens form a deadly brew. I thought it was pretty poor. The East End gangsters talk like college students. The portrayal on the Church is anachronistic and unrealistic. There are some good desriptive moments and some elements of pathos, but it's really not great.

In particular, the aliens' evil plan is uncomfortably close to the Holocaust. As show more has been discussed at length by people better qualified than me, this is one of those topics that Who can never really do. Doctor Who, however seriously we may sometimes take it, is fundamentally entertainment; the Holocaust is not. The book has a gross error of taste and judgement at its core.

(I have enjoyed Bishop's later work - particularly the second series of Sarah Jane Smith audios - but this is a wobbly start to say the least.) show less

Content warning for suicide and murder (rather gruesome murder by Doctor Who standards)

London, December 1952. Tommy Ramsey has just served a six-month prison sentence and is looking forward to retaking control of his East End gang. But his group of racketeers, bookies and gangsters are no match for the alien threat that looms over London, weaponizing smog for its own ends… The Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith will have to help him out.

This was surprisingly grim and violent for a Doctor show more Who novel. Even for a novel about gangsters, I found some of the death scenes deeply disturbing. The atmosphere was grey and menacing, much like the smog choking London. This smog is an actual historical event: the Great Smog of 1952. I liked the use of this event to create a vivid Doctor Who story, and the use of a time not too far away from Sarah’s own illustrates just how much change can happen in only 20 years. show less

This is a rather unique Doctor Who spin off novel ostensibly about a plot to change history by preventing the assassination of JFK, though the great bulk of it follows the efforts of an investigative journalist James Stevens in the early 1970s to look into the events that the reader knows as the plots of the early Jon Pertwee TV stories set on Earth, from Spearhead from Space until Day of the Daleks. For the Doctor Who geek this continuity-heavy read is great fun, though Stevens gets the show more wrong end of the stick rather spectacularly. The William Hartnell Doctor's companion Dodo Chaplet features in the story in a rather unique and slightly odd way, though I thought it worked well for her character. Enjoyable. show less