Winner Takes All

Third in the New Who novel line. Now this was a definite improvement over the previous title in the series. It's a revisit of the Last Starfighter scenario, but with some nasty twists, and not just the one you find in Ender's Game. Rose and Nine drop in to the Powell Estate to visit Jackie, and find that there's a new video game being promoted by people in porcupine costumes, using scratchcards given away with any purchase at local stores, no matter how small. Mickey is one of the people who's won a console, and as he explains, the console has only one game, but it's still good value, because it's so realistic, and complex enough to be a little different every time you play. Of course the Doctor can't resist showing off and beating show more Mickey's score, doing so thoroughly that he becomes number one on the aliens' list of useful humans to acquire.

The plot's interesting and the characterisations for Nine and Rose are good. But where the story really shines for me is in one of the one-off characters. Robert is a young teenager, complete with young teenage boy anxieties and fantasies, and his interior monologue is wince-inducingly realistic. He's someone a lot of fans will be able to identify with.

Enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours. This one I'll probably re-read. show less

This is another novel, extending the adventures of the Doctor and Rose, in a series of books commissioned by the BBC. In this novel the Doctor (Christopher Eclestone) and Rose (Billie Piper) return home at Rose's request and find that everyone is obsessed with a new video game. This seems innocent, but as per every Doctor Who adventure, things are not as they seem.

Firstly I want to talk about the plot. This was a great idea for a plotline, the idea of a computer game (something we are so easily addicted to), actually being a way to recruit soldiers from another planet or species to fight a war against your enemies for you. Although this is an outlandish idea, you could see how we as a society could easily fall into this trap, and end up show more fighting someone else's war.

The plot was fast paced, keeping the excitement and the tension up, really adding to the story. The dualplot, with Mickey fighting his own battle at home, and the Doctor fighting on another planet, added to this, and meant that you were always wanting to finish the book to see how both storylines would weave together, and tie up the loose ends. I also liked the addition of Robert's character, and the little Harry Potterish fantasy he had in his head.

The two main characters are the Doctor and Rose. I feel that the author really captured the essence of these characters and the relationsip they had with each other. The Doctor was his usual witty and sarcastic self, having some greatlines when he was talking to Mickey too. I was reading all his lines in Christopher Eclestone's voice, which added to the reality of his character. I felt that Rose was just as rounded a character as the Doctor was. She was just as strong and fierce as she was played in the tv series, also with a touch of softness and her friendliness. The Doctor and Rose's relationship was actually developed in this novel, you could see how much they like each other, but also how much they rely on each other and need each other. This showed a sense of vulnerability to the seemingly invincible Doctor, when Rose is taken, his emotions spill over in his urgency to get her back.

Overall this is a great Doctor Who novel, with a really unique and intriguing idea for a plot which is delivered in a short, fast paced novel. I would recommend this novel if you are a fan of Doctor Who, but even if you aren't, it's still an enjoyable read. show less

If you're in your forties, this book will probably feel a lot to you like the plot of The Last Starfighter. Desperate to gain an upper hand on the Mantodeans, the Quevvils, who look like giant porcupines have distributed a video game, promising humans vacations and fabulous prizes if they play it. In this case, the old adage applies, if it looks to good to be true then it is. The Quevils are looking for a human smart and skilled enough to enter the Mantodeans area and deliver a disrupter. What these players don't realise is that the game is real and each time they die in the game, a real human dies. When the Doctor and Rose pop by to visit Jackie, Mickey challenges the Doctor to a game and being much smarter than the average human, the show more Doctor gets further in the game than anyone has before, thus drawing that attention of the Quevvils. The excited Quevvils capture Rose and the Doctor caught up in their quest to finally win the war, not realising that this time they've caught their undoing.

Rayner did a really good job of nailing the characters perfectly. Every page I read, I could visualize the ninth Doctor, Rose, Jackie and Mickey perfectly. I do however wish I have been given a better sense in the timeline of where this story takes place. My best guess is that it happens sometime between World War Three and Boomtown, simply based on the Doctor's relationship with Mickey. For the Doctor's plan to be successful, he absolutely has to count on Mickey not only doing his bit but being intelligent enough to pull it off and yet it's clear that he doesn't have any respect for him yet.

At this point, Mickey and Rose have clearly ended their semi romantic relationship but that doesn't mean that Mickey is above being jealous. This is something Rose is acutely aware of - so much so then when she has to choose whose bonds to release first, Rose unties Mickey before the Doctor, sensing that had she approached the Doctor first that it would upset Mickey. This is far more progress than Rose ever made in the show in terms of Mickey because there never really seemed to be a time when she ever considered his feelings, particularly if the Doctor was involved. It was nice to see for a change, even if it was out of character for Rose.

I found it ridiculous that given the Doctor's abhorrence of guns that he would play Death to The Mantodeans in the first place. The Doctor comments that there's a big difference between guns in a game and guns in real life but I don't believe for one moment that the ninth Doctor would have made this distinction, even if it meant showing Mickey up. More than any other Doctor, the ninth is the PTSD Doctor and I believe that he would have been too haunted by the war and the destruction of Gallifrey to see this as a harmless game. He does however go off on the stupidity of humans for believing that they could get something for nothing, which is characteristic of the ninth Doctor.

Winner Takes All provides one of the few examples in which Doctor placed in a situatioin where he didn't have many options. Yes, he manged to work his way around the Quevvils but not without having to control Rose as a player in the game for a time. He is adamant that no one would should be treated like this and felt strongly that this would change the nature of his relationship with Rose. In these moments, the softer side of the Doctor is revealed and as a reader, I got a real sense of the Doctor's pain. When he threatened the Quevvils if any harm came to Rose, it showed the darkness that lives inside of him if pushed too far.

Read More show less

Rose and Nine visit her mum and Mickey and discover that London has been swept with a hot new video game craze. In the game, the player is fighting on behalf of a porcupine-like species called the Quevvils against a praying mantis—like species called the Mantodeans. But this game doesn’t seem right. The game was launched with a scratch card contest that also offered prizes of vacations. People have won vacations, but they haven’t come back…

This was a really good story. In my experience, Rayner caught the tone and personalities of the main characters well, and the story was sufficiently compelling to keep me reading on. It didn’t hurt that the alien species were easy to imagine! And it is always nice to have more adventures show more involving Nine. show less

Quick, fun, entertaining.
I love 9 and Rose, and it was great to see Mickey again too.
The story was very engaging and it was great to both see Rose help and be helpless and see the Doctor have a hard time.
Only negative was that in the end you don't get to know the why of the war. And I was kinda hoping in the end the Quevvils would finally enter the center of the Mantodean stronghold and find a huge salt sculpture to steal and go home licking it all the way

Rose and the Doctor return to earth and find that a new scratch game lets people win gaming consoles, where they are tasked with taking over an alien world, and other people are winning trips from which they don't return - but how are the two connected? Really good installment in a sometimes shaky series. The Doctor is fairly true to himself, Rose is less annoying than usual, and Mickey Smith gets a chance to shine, which is nice. The stakes are extremely high and the repercussions for all characters are serious, which makes for a very engaging story, obviously, but we are still in the proper Whoniverse since the "baddies" are aliens who look like giant porcupines and praying mantises and our main characters make it out a bit battered show more and bruised, but alive and in high spirits. The audiobook reader takes a little getting used to as she plays one of the characters in the TV series (Rose's mum), but she does a really good job once you forget who she "is." show less

Doctor Who is one of my favorite TV Shows (mainly since the 2005 reboot), but you have to wait so long between series to get some new shows. Luckily there is also a series of (children's/young adult) books that each read like an episode. I have quite a collection, so sometimes when I need my fix, I have an episode in book form.
In this edition, with the ninth Doctor (Eccleston) and Rose, we follow Rose and the Doctor back to earth after Rose's mom has no time to talk on the phone with Rose (so unlike her). They soon hear about a sort of lottery with scratch cards people get after buying something in town. They can win a holiday or a game console. The game is a mixture of puzzles and a first person shooter where the main character needs show more to break into an alien stronghold and kill aliens. However, Rose and the Doctor soon figure out that the contest is a lot more real than everybody thinks, and they need to race to save the poor innocent humans caught up in the plot.
The book was a fun Doctor Who episode, not connected to any big story line. If you need your Doctor Who fix, this is another good book to read. Four out of five stars. show less