Rating: 
Summary: Miles takes the Doctor away from us?
Review: It seems that no Doctor Who book has caused as much divide as Lawrence Miles' epic two-parter, INTERFERENCE, and I have to say that having finally read it I can see why. Whilst I believe Miles to be a talented writer (ALIEN BODIES remains my favourite novel of the Eighth Doctor series), his much publicised smugness that what he's doing is pushing the limits of what Doctor Who is really about, is all too evident. His interview in Doctor Who Magazine smacked of an egotisitical writer who cares little for what he's doing with the series as long as he's breaking as many rules as possible, seemingly for the sake of it. INTERFERENCE has this in abundance, and whilst the powerful scenes of the Doctor being tortured almost to death are certainly well constructed, is it really what we want to see in Doctor Who? The Faction Paradox are quite honestly becoming a bore. I mean, an alien race that delight in changing history is going to mean that what's happened say two books ago, might not mean anything once the faction have got involved. As for the inclusion of Pertwee's lovable third doctor, well I really did pity the poor fellow (although at least Miles has the sense to make the violent surroundings a bit of a culture shock to the Third Doctor). Well written in parts, plainly annoyingly smug in others, INTERFERENCE keeps you reading, but at the end had me rather worried about the way the series might go. Too clever by far Lawrence!
Rating: 
Summary: This is not yor father's Doctor Who story.
Review: It's very interesting that Doctor Who has gone on for 36 years without exploring the ramifications of messing around with the Doctor's past. The introduction of Faction Paradox, a thoroughly amoral group dedicated to undermining the Time Lords and their "renegades," breathes an air of menace into this story that has been lacking for some time. We finally have a protagonist who is both more powerful than the Doctor _and_ intelligent and ruthless enough to succeed in their schemes. Other standouts in the novel include the best of use of Sarah Jane and K9 in a long time, the first wholly sympathetic and understandable version of Sam Jones, and the misadventures Fitz goes through (believe me, you won't believe it until you read it). Best of all, the events in this story set off a chain of subplots which will presumably roll through the series. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: "This is not right"
Review: Lawrence Miles who the hell do you think you are? I was really looking forward to reading Books one and Two of "Interference". The thought of the Third Doctor meeting the Eighth seemed like a great concept. I also found that the writers way of using a transcript format for the the parts of the book that were suppose to represent a television broadcast was very clever. Also using Sarah Jane in the present and in her past with the Third Doctor was very good. Unfortunatly, the ending is terrible. I did not like at all how Lawrence Miles completely raped the Third Doctor's regeneration. Get this folks, now we are lead to believe he does not die from exposure to the caves on Metebelis Three, but of a gunshot wound. I have always loved Pertwee's farewell episode "Planet of the Spiders", obviously Mr. Miles did not and thought he could do it better. Sorry, but no dice. I probably ruined the ending for people who haven't read the book yet, but I still strongly recommend buying it. For the most part it is a very good read. I also strongly recommend to fans who feel the same way I do to write BBC Books and demand they change this obvious blasphemy emmidiatly.
Rating: 
Summary: This Biodata and Faction Paradox agenda is crummy Dr.Who
Review: Nobody who was EVER a fan of the television series of Dr. Who would want to hear this non-canon book which is a personal agenda on the part of the author to re-invent the series. Leave alternate realities and paradoxes to William Gibson, Philip K. Dick, Andrew Niccol and the filmakers who gave us "The Matrix". The entire dynamic of Dr. Who is that it's central character is able to change his entire mind and body and that he can alreadt travel anywhere in time or space. So do we really need all this heavy handed and high tech nonsense about Dark Sam and Biodata extracts and CIA turned Celestis and Faction Paradox? No. The novel drolls on and on and has Sarah Jane involved for no reason except fans like her. Well, then why not KEEP her the WAY they liked her? Nobody REALLY needs to hear about new or missing adventures of the Professor and Alfie or Colin Baker's uncle or any of this. The best Dr. Who doesn't challenge the core of what makes the series great. Read and watch the Dr. Who that celebrates the best of the show. INTERFERENCE boldly "interferes" with mainstream Dr. Who in a blatant attempt to deconstruct it. Buy ALL the books in the series EXCEPT this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Sci Fi Two Parter Destroys Interity Of Famous Series
Review: The book alienates all fans of the BBC TV series of the samename DOCTOR WHO. True Doctor Who fans will feel betrayed by the authorand sickened as two books destroy almost thirty years of established Doctor Who. Miles has claimed that the "IM Foreman" material needed to be dealt with. Why? It was a throw away detail on a gate in the pilot episode four decades ago. So why revisit it? Miles goes so far as to make IM Foreman a Gallifreyan priest whose regenerations have all come together and formed a carnival. Why is it that the same fans who found the nineteen eighties episodes too derivative, self obsessed with continuity and riddled with pompous self glorifying writing become writers who even more obsessively reinvent the series and declare only their own writing to be the new and end all canon? In these books, the Third Doctor's death is changed as he is now killed violently in a hail of bullets which goes against the very sensibility of the show and would give Mary Whitehouse great ammunition. Also, the new take on his death makes the fan favorite video/episode PLANET OF THE SPIDERS a non-occurence. This author exercises a personal revisionist agenda to recreate Doctor Who in whatever way suits him. He is more the meglomanic than Davros, Morbius, Scaroth and etc. Small irrelevant details best left unnoticed don't need to be dredged into the open and scrutinized and analyzed and completely revised by some post modern author with delusions of importance attempting to squeeze every drop of blood out of other peoples' stories. Do any of us need yet another take on Gallifrey? Someone at the BBC gave Miles the permission to write Doctor Who even though he doesn't even get what it's about. It's about a guy who left. We don't need to know why he left of have every irrelevant detail outlined for us. It's a moot point. Nobody cares, Mr. Miles. And why must we always have the Doctor beaten, shot, bloodied and suffering in these books? Remember when Doctor Who could make political statements and utilize scientific ideas and yet still be fun? Fun. That's what Doctor Who was as a show. But it seems pretty apparent it was a show Lawrence Miles must never have seen...
Rating:
Summary: Miles is a hack writer
Review: The idea of boldly changing continuity doesn't bother me, provided it is written well. Interference is a gigantic mess. The novel starts off strong, but quickly loses steam as each character becomes a mouthpiece for Miles' political and sociological pontifications. With his experimental style, Miles clealy thinks he is Doctor Who's version of James Joyce. Unfortunately, he does not have the talent to pull it off. A great disappointment. I'm sure there are some wonderful Doctor Who books out there, but I seem to keep reading the wrong ones.
Rating:
Summary: Review of Interference I and II
Review: The Interference saga stars the third doctor, the eighth doctor, Sarah Jane Smith, Fitz, K9 III, the final appearance of Sam Jones, and the debut of new companion Compassion. The Doctor is recalled to Earth by UNISYC, along with Sam and Fitz, in regards to an alien culture, known only as the Remote, illegally selling torture devices at the yearly weapons convention called COPEX which is in Britain. The Doctor, upon investigating, is abducted by Saudi militants and imprisoned and tortured until he is accidentally rescued by Sarah Jane when she pilots the TARDIS with the aid of one of the Remote. The Doctor soon discovers that the Remote are a culture that runs its life by tv signals and media images and they abduct Sam in order to learn basic human concepts such as principles so to successfully utilize the Cold, a black oil substance, to bring out of exile one of their gods. Fitz is abducted by the Faction Paradox when he is infected with the Cold and eventually becomes one of them when he discovers that the Doctor will not rescue him and that he can not survive on his own in the past. The third Doctor arrives on the planet Dust along with Sarah Jane. This takes place when Sarah first started to travel with the Doctor in 1979. The Doctor discovers that Dust is the culmination of humanity's legacy and that it hides what once a thriving human colony. The Doctor is shot my the town's marshal, Magdelana, and this causes him to regenerate into his fourth persona (tom baker). This severely alters his timeline and aids the Faction into making him one of them. Miles could have shortened this 600 page epic by at least 200 pages. Miles has such irrelevent chapters such as Sam pretending to meet her friends while she is under control of the Cold. The chapters where Fitz is forced to become a member of Faction Paradox could have been compressed and not haphazardly spread as they were. Miles descriptions of characters and places was very good but his writing style could easily turn off the reader. Several chapters are nothing but narration while others read like a playwright's script. Interference does set the stage for the if and when the Doctor succumbs to the machinations of the Faction in the near future.
Rating:
Summary: Review of Interference I and II
Review: The Interference saga stars the third doctor, the eighth doctor, Sarah Jane Smith, Fitz, K9 III, the final appearance of Sam Jones, and the debut of new companion Compassion. The Doctor is recalled to Earth by UNISYC, along with Sam and Fitz, in regards to an alien culture, known only as the Remote, illegally selling torture devices at the yearly weapons convention called COPEX which is in Britain. The Doctor, upon investigating, is abducted by Saudi militants and imprisoned and tortured until he is accidentally rescued by Sarah Jane when she pilots the TARDIS with the aid of one of the Remote. The Doctor soon discovers that the Remote are a culture that runs its life by tv signals and media images and they abduct Sam in order to learn basic human concepts such as principles so to successfully utilize the Cold, a black oil substance, to bring out of exile one of their gods. Fitz is abducted by the Faction Paradox when he is infected with the Cold and eventually becomes one of them when he discovers that the Doctor will not rescue him and that he can not survive on his own in the past. The third Doctor arrives on the planet Dust along with Sarah Jane. This takes place when Sarah first started to travel with the Doctor in 1979. The Doctor discovers that Dust is the culmination of humanity's legacy and that it hides what once a thriving human colony. The Doctor is shot my the town's marshal, Magdelana, and this causes him to regenerate into his fourth persona (tom baker). This severely alters his timeline and aids the Faction into making him one of them. Miles could have shortened this 600 page epic by at least 200 pages. Miles has such irrelevent chapters such as Sam pretending to meet her friends while she is under control of the Cold. The chapters where Fitz is forced to become a member of Faction Paradox could have been compressed and not haphazardly spread as they were. Miles descriptions of characters and places was very good but his writing style could easily turn off the reader. Several chapters are nothing but narration while others read like a playwright's script. Interference does set the stage for the if and when the Doctor succumbs to the machinations of the Faction in the near future.
Rating:
Summary: Revisionist Pulp Destroys Integrity Of Famous Series
Review: This story encompasses two books. The first ends with the Eighth Doctor sleeping with the famale version of I.M.Foreman, an old Gallifreyan priest whose 13 incarnations make up a carnival posing as the famous junkyard. Confused? Read the second book appropriately titled HOUR OF THE GEEK. After the many interesting twists to develope Sam, she now leaves the TARDIS to live with an old version of Sarah Jane Smith so they can chum around and drink Bacardi. Confused again? This is a revisionist mess with a bunch of overly complex Faction Paradox nonsense about changing Biodata and timestreams. The most ludicrous and unforgivable part? The ending in which the third Doctor dies from gunfire, elliminating the entire episode of PLANET OF THE SPIDERS, one of many of our all time faves. As the Doctor regenerates in this Factional Paradoxical fashion, his cells are affected so that the 4th to 7th Doctors will still have the same timelines but that the 8th Doctor will belong to the Faction Paradox. Confused still or just mad? I have bought and read every single new adventure in the range and, thanks to this book, I'm stopping. Stick to the older Doctor novels as they are released. Avoid both Interference books and any spin offs. This revisionist pulp has all but destroyed the integrity of the famous series.
Rating:
Summary: muddy and confusing
Review: well maybe not confusing. but it was certainly too long, and you just kinda waited and waited to get to the good parts. but hey, this guy is more of an arc-itect than a writer.
|
