Birthright (The New Doctor Who Adventures)

Rating:
Summary: Doctorless Who and the Really Big Bugs
Review: "Birthright" is an unusual little book. It checks in at a bantamweight 216 pages, made up of short chapters and choppy sentences. It was the first New Adventure to omit the Doctor entirely, apart from very brief passages at the beginning and end. The author was Nigel Robinson, former editor of the DW novelizations range, writing his second and final NA. It's part of a brief 2-book detour (not an arc), and yet drops lots of hints about the Doctor himself; introduces a potential recurring character; and shows the Doctor at his darkest and most manipulative. 9 years later, does "Birthright" still hold up?

I really enjoyed "Birthright" when it was published. I enjoyed the way that the Doctor's fingerprints were allowed to remain all over the action, even when he was offscreen. I enjoyed the new character Muldwych, who seems to have an intimate connection with the Doctor. He wears the same blue Roman ring favored by the first Doctor, and much of his dialogue is recycled from the TV episodes. I enjoyed the way the first 100 pages were anchored by new companion Benny, who in 1993 was still a novelty act.

This time around, however, I'm afraid that "Birthright"'s technical faults grabbed my attention more than the story. Benny, whose character was never really firmly defined from year to year, has some horrible moments in this story -- she aids in the theft of jewelry from the person of an unconscious assault victim, and is seen to exult at the death of a foe. While I still enjoyed the story's fast pacing, the writing style of a 216-page book feels more like an outline of a novel than a book in its own right. Passages which should convey tension or drama feel more like Post-It notes describing what the author intends to do. A room is described as "a massive chamber the size of a small church". I'm not sure how that works. Another character recognizes the "shape of a tall blue box" simply from seeing a square outline in the grass.

Other elements of the book -- the Doctor's offstage manipulations, the strange motivations of Muldwych -- were interesting, tantalizing hints in 1993, but have yellowed with disuse. Muldwych is basically a one-off character (he did have a cameo in "Happy Endings"), and it's a shame we never found out what Robinson intended for him.

"Birthright" remains an interesting time capsule into what "Doctor Who" looked like in print in 1993. Unfortunately, even though all the elements for success are there, it's something less than a complete story in its own right.

Rating:
Summary: Doctorless Who and the Really Big Bugs
Review: "Birthright" is an unusual little book. It checks in at a bantamweight 216 pages, made up of short chapters and choppy sentences. It was the first New Adventure to omit the Doctor entirely, apart from very brief passages at the beginning and end. The author was Nigel Robinson, former editor of the DW novelizations range, writing his second and final NA. It's part of a brief 2-book detour (not an arc), and yet drops lots of hints about the Doctor himself; introduces a potential recurring character; and shows the Doctor at his darkest and most manipulative. 9 years later, does "Birthright" still hold up?

I really enjoyed "Birthright" when it was published. I enjoyed the way that the Doctor's fingerprints were allowed to remain all over the action, even when he was offscreen. I enjoyed the new character Muldwych, who seems to have an intimate connection with the Doctor. He wears the same blue Roman ring favored by the first Doctor, and much of his dialogue is recycled from the TV episodes. I enjoyed the way the first 100 pages were anchored by new companion Benny, who in 1993 was still a novelty act.

This time around, however, I'm afraid that "Birthright"'s technical faults grabbed my attention more than the story. Benny, whose character was never really firmly defined from year to year, has some horrible moments in this story -- she aids in the theft of jewelry from the person of an unconscious assault victim, and is seen to exult at the death of a foe. While I still enjoyed the story's fast pacing, the writing style of a 216-page book feels more like an outline of a novel than a book in its own right. Passages which should convey tension or drama feel more like Post-It notes describing what the author intends to do. A room is described as "a massive chamber the size of a small church". I'm not sure how that works. Another character recognizes the "shape of a tall blue box" simply from seeing a square outline in the grass.

Other elements of the book -- the Doctor's offstage manipulations, the strange motivations of Muldwych -- were interesting, tantalizing hints in 1993, but have yellowed with disuse. Muldwych is basically a one-off character (he did have a cameo in "Happy Endings"), and it's a shame we never found out what Robinson intended for him.

"Birthright" remains an interesting time capsule into what "Doctor Who" looked like in print in 1993. Unfortunately, even though all the elements for success are there, it's something less than a complete story in its own right.

Rating:
Summary: Birthright, done right
Review: BIRTHRIGHT is so superior to Nigel Robinson's previous outing, TIMEWYRM: APOCALYPSE, that I found myself wondering if the little mistakes that cropped up were a deliberate attempt to reassure the reader that both books were written by the same author. There's very little padding, the plot actually does show up before page one hundred and fifty, and Robinson manages to weave, not one, but two interesting settings into the mix. The secondary characters are engaging, while the story plays to the strengths of both Benny and Ace. In short, it's not what I would describe as an utterly fantastic or mind-blowing book, but it's still about a hundred times better than APOCALYPSE.

The story is split into two main settings; Benny lands in early 20th Century London, while Ace is flung onto a desert planet in the distant future. (The Doctor has vanished, presumably gone to the same vacation spots that William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton frequented when their characters would disappear in the middle of a serial.) The Benny section is quite good. Ace's portion is satisfactory, but slightly lacking, and fortunately shorter. The two settings are effectively drawn, with special mention going to the London sections. It's not a hugely detailed depiction, but the author manages to do a lot of very impressive work with the few brushstrokes that he does create. The characters in that section aren't especially deep, but they work well in their simplicity. They're slightly underdeveloped characters that I would like to have seen more of, rather than merely faceless zeros whose deaths I eagerly anticipate. Credit to Robinson for making quite a bit out of fairly little; apparently years of editing the prose stylings of Terrance Dicks Novelisations-O-Matic paid off after all.

Unlike Robinson's previous effort, there is very little padding present here. The plot is fairly straightforward, but is never simplistic. The laws of storytelling aren't going to be irreversible altered because of this book, but as a fast and fun pulp paperback, it works. The double setting gives us a slightly larger scale to work with and that makes the story feel the tiniest bit larger than it really is. It's effective though and adds a nicely structured twist to the plot.

There were several minor details that let this book down slightly. A few awkwardly written sections of prose betray the fact that Robinson has done much more editing of other people's work than has actually written himself. The flaws are relatively insignificant, but can be distracting in places. A few sections are indeed written with a lot of flair, but there are one or two glaring portions that contain all the subtlety of the MAD DOGS AND ENGLISHMEN cover.

Despite this book feeling more mature than APOCALYPSE, it still reads as though it was aimed at a younger audience than most of the surrounding NAs. Prostitutes, grizzly murders, and seedy night-life are all present, yet much of the time they're written in as near to a PG-rated style as possible. This isn't a problem; indeed, I quite enjoyed this book, it just feels a little mixed up at times. Robinson's first book for the series was a mere 201 pages, and was hopelessly padded out to that length. This book's page-count isn't much longer, weighing in at just 216 pages, but manages not to waste a single one.

Rating:
Summary: Now Doctor Who Free!
Review: I've made the complaint before that many of the Virgin Who novels are lacking in the Doctor. "Birthright" most hold the record for the least amount of Doctor Who involvement; he doesn't show up until the very end! Okay, I know you have to read the novel "Iceberg" to find out why he's missing in this book, but that sounds like a cheat to me.

There's also the mystery of who the old man at the end of time is. I sure don't know, and it really bugs me! Ace is grumpy, Benny is groggy, and the whole thing is solved in a very off-hand manner.

Rating:
Summary: Where's the bug spray when you need it???
Review: The TARDIS has been split apart stranding Benny is early 20th Century London, Ace on a barren world in the distant future, and the Doctor gone. Whilst trying to work out has happen to the TARDIS (and the Doctor) Benny must deal with grisly murders that make the Jack the Rippers murders pale in comparison and Ace must lead a group of human guerillas against a race of alien, um, bugs.

What better way to flesh out character relationship than to thrust them into an adventure involving just the both of them, (Newer companion Benny and hardened war soldier Ace) without the focal point of the novel (The Doctor) to get in thier way. The most important part of this relationship is Benny seeing Ace's point of view regarding the Doctor's meddling and using her as a pawn in on of his games.

Benny's part throughout the novel is by far the better, with her off-the-cuff very likeable type of manner and the eerie 1909 setting of London streets , whereas Ace's character is still continuing the very unlikeable, bitter, untrusting person since she rejoined the team 3 stories ago.

Another good point is the introduction of the hermit, Muldwych, who seems to play another part of the Doctor's little known history. (Frustratingly, as in accordance to other novels that deal with the history of The Doctor, you're left in Wonderland Limbo again)

Most importantly, being a companion novel to ICEBERG (where you find out where the Doctor has been) doesn't mean you will have to read ICEBERG to enjoy and understand what goes on in BIRTHRIGHT. RECOMMENDED reading!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Where's the Doctor?
Review: While the Doctor is resting in his room, the TARDIS is blown apart and two halves of the ship arrive in two separate times and places: with Benny at the beginning of the 20th century, and with Ace in the 220th century. Without the Doctor, how will they reassemble the TARDIS?

This book is set concurrently with Iceberg, where the Doctor has an adventure without his companions. With two very strong character as Bernice and Ace, it is possible to write a novel without the series' lead character.

Nigel Robinson's second original Doctor Who novel is an improvement on his first (Timewyrm: Apocalypse), which seemed too bland for my tastes. By focussing in on the two companions, amongst the most popular in the series history, and having two interesting and strangely linked settings, he appears to have hit upon a combination that suits him.