Wonderland

Well, I thought I'd read every kind of Doctor Who story there was to be had, but it occurred to me partway through Wonderland that, as natural as it might seem, I've never read one concerned with the late '60s hippie scene. Mark Chadbourn's short novella is set in 1967, just before the Summer of Love, in the heart of the happening: Haight-Ashbury, California. The completely appropriate team of the second Doctor, Ben, and Polly show up, but the focus of the story is firmly on the first-person protagonist, Summer. I was actually pretty impressed with Chadbourn's ability in terms of setting the scene and providing a convincing characterization of his young, female lead. I can't comment on whether his depiction of the Haight-Ashbury scene show more is accurate, but he certainly makes it vividly come alive, without a lot of the lazy shorthand you might expect. I also appreciated his take on the TARDIS crew, who feel both completely in keeping with the era and totally alien to the environment Chadbourn describes. His take on the second Doctor - quiet, a bit overly-formal, slightly distracted and operating very much in the background - is especially unexpected but, I think, an entirely legitimate approach. My one caveat - and the reason I feel my rating might be slightly generous - is that by sticking with his narrator, Chadbourn completely avoids the natural climax of his story. Something happens; something the Doctor and his friends do goes right. We're never told what that is, and it feels like a bit of a cheat, somehow. (Chadbourn almost makes up for it with a lovely coda.) That said, I was impressed enough with this little book that I'd like to check out one of the author's standalone novels. show less

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The last of the run of Doctor Who novels set between The Power of the Daleks and The Highlanders takes the Doctor, Ben and Polly to San Francisco in 1967, where a flower child called Summer tells the story of an alien power trying to take over the world through bad acid. The first-person perspective is quite rare in Who books, but done well here, though the story has few surprises.