Oh No It Isn't!

Paul Cornell is not only one of my favorite Doctor Who authors, he's one of my favorite authors period... so it's always disappointing when he turns out a dud. Oh No It Isn't! isn't bad, but it never really comes to life, either. The premise-- Bernice stuck in a land of pantomime-- feels like an act of desperation: "People are always saying Doctor Who is panto, so I'll give them some real panto!" That said, I really like the Big Finish audio drama based on this novel; I suppose that when you're making a lot of jokes about a performance medium, another performance medium is a far better vehicle for them. (Also, the audio drama has the added benefit of Nicholas Courtney.) The novel also suffers from a lot of dull material about Bernice's show more fellow academics, and some really lumpy exposition at the beginning, all of which is excised from the audio. However, the joke about "bigger on the inside" made me totally crack up. show less

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/oh-no-it-isnt-by-paul-cornell-and-jacqueline-ray...

The first of the Bernice Summerfield spinoff novels, adapted to become the first Big Finish audio. Bernice, settling into her new job as a professor of archæology, finds herself sucked into a world where she and her colleagues are transformed into pantomime characters, and facing down the alien Grel. (Facts! Good facts!) It’s actually rather well done – the concept risks being either too twee or too clever for its own good, but Paul Cornell bends the rules of narrative here just enough to get away with it.