Goth Opera

This is a sort-of sequel to Terrance Dicks's Blood Harvest, the most recent New Adventure I read, so I interrupted my readthrough of those novels to pick it up. Paul Cornell does much better with the basic ingredients of vampires, Time Lord cults, Romana, and so on than Dicks did, though I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Cornell is a thoughtful writer with a knack for characterization, and that serves him well in the Missing Adventures; you can hear Peter Davision saying the lines, and his Nyssa is pretty good, and his Tegan excellent.

This book is less thematically complicated than Cornell's NA work, but it makes for an enjoyable-- well, romp isn't exactly the word for a book where a stadium full of people is massacred, but maybe show more you get what I mean. It's a sold sort of Buffyesque modern vampire adventure with some inventive ideas. I like the hints about Time Lord history, and the explanation for vampires, faith, and garlic in a Doctor Who context. The idea of vampire/Time Lord hybrids marching on the universe is a great Doctor Who idea, and there's even foreshadowing of the Last Great Time War. I've never been terribly into the Missing Adventures (or BBC Books's Past Doctor Adventures), but this is an above average example of the form.

The Sabalom Glitz cameo is pretty random. And I say this as a devoted fan of the character. Cornell writes a delightful second Romana, though. show less

The timing for this read follows my having seen Peter Davidson, Janet Fielding, and Sarah Sutton live at ReGeneration Who Con (3/2018). It couldn't have been a better pick - as the novel features these three actor's characters in a story that breaks the bounds of the show limitations in dramatic and fulfilling ways on all fronts. Tegan and Nyssa are fully-realized characters, and The Doctor is well characterized for his fifth incarnation (although, this may be one of the more generic points - his companions were much more character-driven). Some truly messed-up and surprising elements, baby vampires forcefully following a primal nature, the interconnectivity of Gallifreyan origins with those of their vampire rivals (under-utilized in show more the series... but it's also easy to see how show-runners would want to carefully steer away from vampire trendiness and preconceptions). I also very much liked the awkward shoe-horning in of Romana's role (this is apparently a companion book to another story one need not have read - the VNA, Blood Harvest). I'm interested in the Doctor's Theta (Sigma) designation, and in the stories of his earliest compatriots. Ruath features prominently.
These characters are my old friends. That's just how it goes. They're part of my DNA, and that's probably not going to change. I'm thankful for the amazing fans that keep them alive and well - the largest of whom are the authors, range editors. These books are timeless. show less

http://nhw.livejournal.com/654897.html

This was the first of the Missing Adventures of Doctor Who, published 1994 at (I suppose) the same time as Terrance Dicks' Blood Harvest. It features the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan, shortly after the death of Adric, and another brief appearance from Romana, and (of course) vampires; setting is between Manchester in England, Tasmania, and bits of Gallifrey. Paul Cornell's vampires seem much more familiar, much more like Buffy's than did those in the Terrance Dicks stories; I wondered for a brief moment if Joss Whedon might have read this, but then realised that of course he and Paul were both born in the mid-1960s and educated in southern England, so will have read the same vampire books, and seen show more the same vampire movies, as me, whereas Terrance Dicks is thirty years older.

All good stuff. Paul brings religion and a dodgy evangelist into the novel without sermonising; Tegan's Balkan roots are explored (there are a couple of Balkan references which I found of interest). Tegan must be much easier to write than Nyssa, which might explain what happens to the latter during the course of the book. I was left largely satisfied, though feeling that the conclusion was perhaps a little implausible. (But then, it may not be completely fair to demand total plausibility in a book featuring vampires and Doctor Who.) show less

The fifth Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa encounter vampires in Manchester, with the vampire plot following on from Blood Harvest.