The English Way of Death

Warning: this review contains spoilers.

The Doctor has some seriously overdue library books to return, so he, Romana, and K9 are off to 1930s London to return them (“as I live mostly in the future, the fines would be simply shocking”). But of course there’s no such thing as a simple errand with the Doctor around. There are signs of time pollution in the city, increased seismic activity, and people walking around surrounded by a noxious green mist…

This was a really good story, structured exactly like a 4-part TV episode. Romana gets a good chunk of the action to herself, and a few other female characters have useful roles. The story itself contains lots of action and is told at a decent pace. I want to say it reminds me of show more something like City of Death, that sort of fun Fourth Doctor story, but I am not sure that’s correct. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this mightily. There is even a subtle nod to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, with the character of Percival Closed (this may be a spoiler, so I’ve tagged the review accordingly).

I would recommend this if you like stories about the Fourth Doctor, maybe something along the lines of City of Death. show less

Roberts knows how to write Doctor Who, but somehow this one failed to connect with me. The characterization and voices of the 4th Doctor, Romana, and K-9 are spot on, but I just didn’t care about any of the other characters. The plot revolving around deadly alien mists, zombies, and stranded time-travelers was a muddle. This History Collection series works best when the tales are linked to a specific historical event, which wasn’t the case here with the setting a pastiche of a 1930s style “society novel” which irritated rather than engaged me. A rare miss of a Doctor Who tale.

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2348592.html

It's a fairly standard story, with zombies and a disembodies evil mist, but gives some excellent lines to the Doctor, Romana and K9, as they romp around the English countryside of the 1930s saving the world again. What makes it of interest for New Who fans is that Gareth Roberts used the same time period for the Ten/Donna TV story The Unicorn and the Wasp - it doesn't lean too heavily on the earlier book, but the background is there if you care to look for it.

Doctor Who vs Alien Zombies in 1930s England.

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