Rating: 
Summary: A Doctorless Who
Review: The Face of the Enemy was David A. McIntee's first novel for the BBC Doctor Who range. Strangely enough, it barely features the Doctor. Set on Earth between the TV stories "Curse of Peladon" and "The Sea Devils", "Face of the Enemy" focuses on UNIT, the military taskforce from the Pertwee era that dealt with alien invaders. The Brigadier, Sargeant Benton, Mike Yates, along with some familiar faces come together to solve a baffling mystery that seems to revolve around their old foe, the Master. As it's set in the Pertwee era, there is a slight James Bond feel to the story. There are informants, helicopters, guns, and of course, a beautiful spy. It's action infused with the English countryside and the plodding familiar ways of UNIT. Fans of this era of Who should be satisfied with this novel. For me, though, it doesn't work as well as I thought it would. The absence of the Doctor is felt, things seem a little flat without his eccentric presence. For the first two thirds of the book, it kind of drags, and it was kind of hard to tell what was going on. However, the pieces do fit together toward the end, and the last few chapters are quite good. Nearly all the plot elements are cannibalized from the resolutions other Doctor Who stories, and if you weren't a hardcore fan (like we obviously all are), you'd probably find it hard to see the relevance of them all. As it is, I found it a bit annoying. For characters, McIntee plays it safe, potraying the familiar characters as we know them, reacting to situations the way we would mostly expect them to. Occaisonally he adds an insightful paragraph into their lives, though nothing too controversial, and mostly welcome additions to Doctor Who lore. The potrayal of the Master is worth a mention, there are moments where is he truly sinister and manipulative. It's an all right read, though it helps if you enjoy references to past stories, and happen to be a fan of UNIT. There are better books featuring UNIT, and better books by David A. McIntee (check out First Frontier, for instance), so maybe it might be worth getting those first.
Rating:
Summary: A Doctorless Who
Review: The Face of the Enemy was David A. McIntee's first novel for the BBC Doctor Who range. Strangely enough, it barely features the Doctor. Set on Earth between the TV stories "Curse of Peladon" and "The Sea Devils", "Face of the Enemy" focuses on UNIT, the military taskforce from the Pertwee era that dealt with alien invaders. The Brigadier, Sargeant Benton, Mike Yates, along with some familiar faces come together to solve a baffling mystery that seems to revolve around their old foe, the Master. As it's set in the Pertwee era, there is a slight James Bond feel to the story. There are informants, helicopters, guns, and of course, a beautiful spy. It's action infused with the English countryside and the plodding familiar ways of UNIT. Fans of this era of Who should be satisfied with this novel. For me, though, it doesn't work as well as I thought it would. The absence of the Doctor is felt, things seem a little flat without his eccentric presence. For the first two thirds of the book, it kind of drags, and it was kind of hard to tell what was going on. However, the pieces do fit together toward the end, and the last few chapters are quite good. Nearly all the plot elements are cannibalized from the resolutions other Doctor Who stories, and if you weren't a hardcore fan (like we obviously all are), you'd probably find it hard to see the relevance of them all. As it is, I found it a bit annoying. For characters, McIntee plays it safe, potraying the familiar characters as we know them, reacting to situations the way we would mostly expect them to. Occaisonally he adds an insightful paragraph into their lives, though nothing too controversial, and mostly welcome additions to Doctor Who lore. The potrayal of the Master is worth a mention, there are moments where is he truly sinister and manipulative. It's an all right read, though it helps if you enjoy references to past stories, and happen to be a fan of UNIT. There are better books featuring UNIT, and better books by David A. McIntee (check out First Frontier, for instance), so maybe it might be worth getting those first.
Rating: 
Summary: A Masterful novel
Review: This story is set at the time the Doctor and Jo were away from Earth, visiting the planet Peladon ('The Curse of Peladon'), and looks at exactly how UNIT deals with a problem when the Doctor is away. That problem is the Master... David McIntee has previously looked at the Master's past in his novel 'The Dark Path'. Some elements from that novel carry through to this, and on their way collect a variety of other elements from the Doctor's past. Faced with the problem of the Master's escape from imprisonment, the Brigadier seeks the assistance of a rising star of the scientific community: Ian Chesterton, formerly a companion of the Doctor (in his first incarnation), and Chesterton's wife, Barbara, is also drawn into the affair. But it is not just the Master at work here, and the Brigadier and the Chestertons are faced with the dilemma of which is the greater evil: the Master or (can't be revealed here!)... There have been very few attempts to spin the supporting cast of Doctor Who off into their own stories - probably the best known is the pilot episode of 'K9 and Company', featuring K9 and (arguably) the Doctor's best ever companion, Sarah Jane Smith. A few other book also exist: Harry Sullivan and Turlough each have one; Ace and Benny had a largely Doctorless outing in 'Birthright' - and the aforementioned Professor Summerfield features in books and audios in her own right; the Brigadier, Sarah and Victoria all feature prominently in 'Downtime' (based on a fan-produced direct-to-video release of the same name); and Liz Shaw starred in a 4 volume fan-produced direct-to-video series called PROBE. With the very rich background that Doctor Who provides, it is a great pity there isn't more books like this. And make no mistake, this is worth a read.
Rating: 
Summary: Classic Who! A must read.
Review: This story is why Dr. Who is great SF. The plot is very exciting and original, furthermore, some old faces grace the pages of this well written roller coaster of a tale.
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