Christmas on a Rational Planet

My meandering, slow journey through The New Adventures that I happen to own continues with this, the first Doctor Who novel Lawrence Miles ever wrote. Later famous for his material on the War in Heaven and Faction Paradox that kicked off with Alien Bodies, this book contains many of the ideas that would be developed more fully in those books. As a result, to someone coming in the wrong way round, it feels as though it doesn't have a whole lot new to offer. Still, Lawrence Miles is Lawrence Miles, and I suspect few other people would pit the Doctor against irrationality from the Dawn of Time. (Though the point that belief in a rational world is itself irrational could be interesting, but it comes across as too heavy-handed here.) The show more regulars are more springboards for the plot (if there is one) than anything else, but Roz has some nice bits early on, and the resolution, with the cheesy false memory planted in Chris by the seventh Doctor (or the TARDIS?) is enjoyable. show less

This is the first Doctor Who novel by Lawrence Miles, who would later go on to be one of the leading writers of the Eighth Doctor Adventures, introduce the Faction Paradox, and co-wrote the history of Doctor Who series About Time. But in this first novel, Roz is trapped in a town in New York in 1799, Chris is trapped in the TARDIS with someone trying to kill him, and secret socities are worshipping Satan and the like. The book is interesting at parts, but also just weird in ways that makes it hard to follow.

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2265864.html

Miles' first novel, with all the elements that he would later use, but not yet in their mature form. The 1799 in America environment was interesting, but ran slightly off the rails at times, the Tardis/Gallifrey bits fairly incomprehensible, but at least Roz got some good sequences despite a generally dodgy line on gender and race.