Zamper

Surely the worst crime a Doctor Who story can commit is to be boring; a premise that allows for any time, place, or genre should never result in tedium. Alas, Zamper is one of the most boring New Adventures I've read, a mediocre runaround with a morally dubious climax. Gareth Roberts can do better.

Part of the Doctor Who "New Adventures" series from the 1990s. In this installment, the Doctor and friends find themselves on the planet Zamper, where fearsome warships are constructed for anyone who can pay. But the planet holds a mysterious secret, and, of course, our heroes arrive just as things are beginning to go wrong. It's a very traditional sort of Doctor Who story. It's easy to imagine it being filmed, scene for scene, as an episode of the TV series. Which is not necessarily a good thing; often a story that might make for a perfectly good TV script becomes tedious when forced into book form. In this case, I think it works reasonably well, though. I rather like the nasty, turtle-like aliens who play a large role in the book. show more They're the usual amusingly cheesy Doctor Who villains, but they do have a few interesting quirks, and they turn out not to be entirely black-and-white. (They're also not necessarily always as alien as they perhaps should be, but I'm willing to leave that aside.) There's some nice, somewhat sly humor, too, which I appreciated.

However, I have come to the conclusion that these books -- not just the New Adventures books, but all Who novels and possibly all TV tie-in novels -- really have to be much better than the average episode in order to be as entertaining. And this one is no exception. There are a number of characters who might be made memorable by a good performance, but who just lie flat on the printed page. Sadly, this includes the still-new-at-this-point companions, Forrester and Cwej. And the plot didn't exactly have me in excited agonies of suspense wondering how it was going to play out, either. So while it may be a pleasant enough read, in the end it's probably a forgettable one. show less

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The militant turtle-like Chelonians are a particularly entertaining creation of Gareth Roberts', here attempting to take over the planet Zamper, a building yard for warships with its own intriguing secrets of who is really in charge, and how. The story actually reminded me quite a lot of The Leisure Hive, and that in a very good way, though the settings are quite different. The Doctor and companions Benny, Chris and Roz get a little crowded out of the plot by the bullying Chelonians, but that's all right - the Tardis crew will be back in the next book.

Exactly what I come to the NAs for, but then again Gareth Roberts is always a straightforward, gleefully mordant and self-aware writer. (Even if, truthfully, this is not him at his peak.)