Ru Emerson

This is a decent novelization if nothing spectacular. It takes on three episodes from the television series; "Arabesque," "Masques" and "The Watcher." I was anticipating that author Ru Emerson would link these three disparate stories better into one cohesive whole but this is never done. The episodes are also taken out of the order they appeared in the show, so Emerson plays pretty fast and loose with the chronological timeline of the series. As an uber-fan this irritated me a bit, but it's something easily overlooked.

The stories of the first two episodes are very straightforward adaptations, nothing spectacular or new is brought to them that wasn't apparent in their original televised forms. I've always found "Arabesque" to be a rather dull episode, but "Masques" is always enchanting.

It's in "The Watcher" that Emerson really hits her stride. She gives the character of The Watcher some added background and motivation that aren't included in the TV show. Novelizations can sometimes come across as very dry, but Emerson is able to insert her own authorial voice to the proceedings, especially when delving into thoughts of secondary characters.

Overall a worthy effort, but there's not much new here to recommend it besides the "Watcher" segment.… (more)