Superior Beings (Doctor Who)

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful new villains added to the Dr. Who stable!
Review: I really enjoyed this addition to the Doctor Who line. The fifth incarnation and Peri didn't have much time together in the tv series and I'm glad Nick Walters chose this pairing for his adventure. It reads very easily and I thought it was a lot of fun!

The baddies: The Valethske would have been a worthy addition to the television series. Imagine them attaining recurrent villain status in the show! Ruthless, without conscience, and not to mention constantly hungry! They're right up there with some of the classic Who villains.

I admit I got a little tired of them referring to humans as "prey" throughout the novel. But to be fair, is this any different than a Dalek screaming, "You will be ex-ter-mi-nated!" every five seconds? I don't think so. It's part of their character. It works.

The supporting cast: The treatment of the Eknuri, as characters, seemed a bit muddy. But then again, the story really wasn't about them, was it? We're also told of an "Encounter" Dr. Aline Vehlmann went through in her past, but that isn't really delved into with a lot of detail. Suffice it to say, she's now a xenophobe and feels that her destiny is elsewhere in the cosmos. Thawed out soldiers Capt. Melrose and Lt. Meharg are there to provide the bang-bang element needed to counteract the savagry of the Valethske.

I found this to be a fun outing for the Doctor and company. Fans of Peter Davison will enjoy this novel.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful new villains added to the Dr. Who stable!
Review: I really enjoyed this addition to the Doctor Who line. The fifth incarnation and Peri didn't have much time together in the tv series and I'm glad Nick Walters chose this pairing for his adventure. It reads very easily and I thought it was a lot of fun!

The baddies: The Valethske would have been a worthy addition to the television series. Imagine them attaining recurrent villain status in the show! Ruthless, without conscience, and not to mention constantly hungry! They're right up there with some of the classic Who villains.

I admit I got a little tired of them referring to humans as "prey" throughout the novel. But to be fair, is this any different than a Dalek screaming, "You will be ex-ter-mi-nated!" every five seconds? I don't think so. It's part of their character. It works.

The supporting cast: The treatment of the Eknuri, as characters, seemed a bit muddy. But then again, the story really wasn't about them, was it? We're also told of an "Encounter" Dr. Aline Vehlmann went through in her past, but that isn't really delved into with a lot of detail. Suffice it to say, she's now a xenophobe and feels that her destiny is elsewhere in the cosmos. Thawed out soldiers Capt. Melrose and Lt. Meharg are there to provide the bang-bang element needed to counteract the savagry of the Valethske.

I found this to be a fun outing for the Doctor and company. Fans of Peter Davison will enjoy this novel.

Rating:
Summary: A interesting book if you can get into it! OK Plot
Review: In this adeventure which takes place after "Planet of Fire", Peri and the Doctor land at a party. Both fall in love with different people. The party is attacked by human eating aliesn. They capture everyone but the Doctor and his love interest. The Doctor and his new girl friend travel in the Tardis to rescue Per and the others. The Doctor saves everyone, but they have time traveled several centuries into the future. The Doctor loses the Tardis on the alien ship. But the Doctor and his friends find a planet to land on they think is safe. The aliens find the remaing humans. But the aliens have bigger problems of their own(something which I wanted to see more addressed by the writer). Events get out of control from here and all hell breaks lose on the planet. The Doctor along with Peri's help and their remaining friends put everything back to where it should be.

I wish this book would of been a little longer as I wanted to more of the plant's world "gardeners" to be more than just a army . It would of been nice if these creatures could of spoken. I doubt the Doctor will ever visit this planet again, but again who knows with him and his TARDIS?

For me it is one of my favorite 5th Doctor books. The Doctor and Peri are just they were in the TV series. I thought I saw Peter Davison as the Doctor and Nicola Bryant as Peri as I read this adventure. It's worth a least checking out if you like the 5th Doctor, Peri or the series in general. There are some boring parts in the book,do'nt most books and movies have some boring parts anyway? But once you get into it, it goes by fast! If I was not behind in my readings of the 8th Doctor,I'd read it again !

Rating:
Summary: A interesting book if you can get into it! OK Plot
Review: In this adeventure which takes place after "Planet of Fire", Peri and the Doctor land at a party. Both fall in love with different people. The party is attacked by human eating aliesn. They capture everyone but the Doctor and his love interest. The Doctor and his new girl friend travel in the Tardis to rescue Per and the others. The Doctor saves everyone, but they have time traveled several centuries into the future. The Doctor loses the Tardis on the alien ship. But the Doctor and his friends find a planet to land on they think is safe. The aliens find the remaing humans. But the aliens have bigger problems of their own(something which I wanted to see more addressed by the writer). Events get out of control from here and all hell breaks lose on the planet. The Doctor along with Peri's help and their remaining friends put everything back to where it should be.

I wish this book would of been a little longer as I wanted to more of the plant's world "gardeners" to be more than just a army . It would of been nice if these creatures could of spoken. I doubt the Doctor will ever visit this planet again, but again who knows with him and his TARDIS?

For me it is one of my favorite 5th Doctor books. The Doctor and Peri are just they were in the TV series. I thought I saw Peter Davison as the Doctor and Nicola Bryant as Peri as I read this adventure. It's worth a least checking out if you like the 5th Doctor, Peri or the series in general. There are some boring parts in the book,do'nt most books and movies have some boring parts anyway? But once you get into it, it goes by fast! If I was not behind in my readings of the 8th Doctor,I'd read it again !

Rating:
Summary: A flawed third attempt
Review: Superior Beings could have been so good. It has an interesting "monster," nice interplay between the Doctor and Peri (a pairing that I'd like to see more of), and an interesting concept.

Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be much point to the whole thing. It's a very violent novel, but there doesn't seem to be much of a reason for that, other than to show bloody violence. The Velethske are an interesting race, but they deserved a better book. The "Superior Beings" of the title originally seems to be referring to the Eknuri, but then they turn out to be nothing much of interest. Then it turns out that it might be referring to something else (no spoilers), but that turns out to be anti-climactic.

The main story doesn't even seem to begin for at least 150 pages, if not longer. The prelude to this main story does nothing except establish how vicious the Velthske are. Humans and humanoids are nothing but prey to them. Fine, Nick, we got the point after the first 10 iterations of it. Could we move on now? Thank you.

I do have to say that the Doctor and Peri are characterized very well, though. I saw a review somewhere that said that anybody who has watched Caves of Androzani would not recognize these characters. I don't quite agree. Yes, Peri is a bit whiney, but she was in Planet of Fire, too. Even in Caves she was. Here, she does whine a little bit, but she's also strong, carrying on when a lot of weaker people would have just given up.

Peri's jealousy of Aline is well-portrayed. Here is a girl who has just joined up with the Doctor (you get the idea that this book takes place shortly after Planet of Fire), who's still new to this adventuring thing and has only the Doctor as a lifeline to any kind of normalcy. It's only natural that she would be jealous of Aline moving in on this. I found it completely understandable.

One other bad thing about this book, though, is the Doctor's almost complete ineffectiveness. He really doesn't have anything to do with the resolution. The only thing he does do is make sure that Peri stays alive (and he doesn't even do that, in the end...it's someone else). Why do the BBC books continually have a Doctor who doesn't do anything? Isn't he supposed to be the hero of the book?

I don't think you'll regret reading it, but only if you're a Fifth Doctor fan. Dominion, Walters' first novel, was decent. His second, Fall of Yquitane, was wonderful. And then there's this. Is there such a thing as Junior Jinx?

Rating:
Summary: A flawed third attempt
Review: Superior Beings could have been so good. It has an interesting "monster," nice interplay between the Doctor and Peri (a pairing that I'd like to see more of), and an interesting concept.

Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be much point to the whole thing. It's a very violent novel, but there doesn't seem to be much of a reason for that, other than to show bloody violence. The Velethske are an interesting race, but they deserved a better book. The "Superior Beings" of the title originally seems to be referring to the Eknuri, but then they turn out to be nothing much of interest. Then it turns out that it might be referring to something else (no spoilers), but that turns out to be anti-climactic.

The main story doesn't even seem to begin for at least 150 pages, if not longer. The prelude to this main story does nothing except establish how vicious the Velthske are. Humans and humanoids are nothing but prey to them. Fine, Nick, we got the point after the first 10 iterations of it. Could we move on now? Thank you.

I do have to say that the Doctor and Peri are characterized very well, though. I saw a review somewhere that said that anybody who has watched Caves of Androzani would not recognize these characters. I don't quite agree. Yes, Peri is a bit whiney, but she was in Planet of Fire, too. Even in Caves she was. Here, she does whine a little bit, but she's also strong, carrying on when a lot of weaker people would have just given up.

Peri's jealousy of Aline is well-portrayed. Here is a girl who has just joined up with the Doctor (you get the idea that this book takes place shortly after Planet of Fire), who's still new to this adventuring thing and has only the Doctor as a lifeline to any kind of normalcy. It's only natural that she would be jealous of Aline moving in on this. I found it completely understandable.

One other bad thing about this book, though, is the Doctor's almost complete ineffectiveness. He really doesn't have anything to do with the resolution. The only thing he does do is make sure that Peri stays alive (and he doesn't even do that, in the end...it's someone else). Why do the BBC books continually have a Doctor who doesn't do anything? Isn't he supposed to be the hero of the book?

I don't think you'll regret reading it, but only if you're a Fifth Doctor fan. Dominion, Walters' first novel, was decent. His second, Fall of Yquitane, was wonderful. And then there's this. Is there such a thing as Junior Jinx?

Rating:
Summary: A flawed third attempt
Review: Superior Beings could have been so good. It has an interesting "monster," nice interplay between the Doctor and Peri (a pairing that I'd like to see more of), and an interesting concept.

Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be much point to the whole thing. It's a very violent novel, but there doesn't seem to be much of a reason for that, other than to show bloody violence. The Velethske are an interesting race, but they deserved a better book. The "Superior Beings" of the title originally seems to be referring to the Eknuri, but then they turn out to be nothing much of interest. Then it turns out that it might be referring to something else (no spoilers), but that turns out to be anti-climactic.

The main story doesn't even seem to begin for at least 150 pages, if not longer. The prelude to this main story does nothing except establish how vicious the Velthske are. Humans and humanoids are nothing but prey to them. Fine, Nick, we got the point after the first 10 iterations of it. Could we move on now? Thank you.

I do have to say that the Doctor and Peri are characterized very well, though. I saw a review somewhere that said that anybody who has watched Caves of Androzani would not recognize these characters. I don't quite agree. Yes, Peri is a bit whiney, but she was in Planet of Fire, too. Even in Caves she was. Here, she does whine a little bit, but she's also strong, carrying on when a lot of weaker people would have just given up.

Peri's jealousy of Aline is well-portrayed. Here is a girl who has just joined up with the Doctor (you get the idea that this book takes place shortly after Planet of Fire), who's still new to this adventuring thing and has only the Doctor as a lifeline to any kind of normalcy. It's only natural that she would be jealous of Aline moving in on this. I found it completely understandable.

One other bad thing about this book, though, is the Doctor's almost complete ineffectiveness. He really doesn't have anything to do with the resolution. The only thing he does do is make sure that Peri stays alive (and he doesn't even do that, in the end...it's someone else). Why do the BBC books continually have a Doctor who doesn't do anything? Isn't he supposed to be the hero of the book?

I don't think you'll regret reading it, but only if you're a Fifth Doctor fan. Dominion, Walters' first novel, was decent. His second, Fall of Yquitane, was wonderful. And then there's this. Is there such a thing as Junior Jinx?

Rating:
Summary: Good concepts poorly assembled
Review: The Fifth Doctor and recently acquired companion Peri attend a party thrown by some Eknuri, members of an alien race who look human but are genetically enhanced beyond humanity. This party, though, is about to gatecrashed by the Valethske, a race of vulpine hunters. But even they are no threat compared to the past of xenologist Aline Vehlmann...

With his third Doctor Who novel, Nick Walters assembles a promising cast and some excellent concepts, but sadly fails to deliver what should have been a good book.

One of the principle problems is that he builds and builds and builds the story but, like many readers, I expect pay-offs along the way. While things happen that appear to be meant to be pay-offs, they don't feel that way to me.

I also found myself asking "so when does the main part of the story begin?", and when your doing that 100 pages into a 280 page novel you have to wonder.

Mr. Walters two previous novels, 'The Fall of Yquatine' and 'Coldheart', seemed better plotted and constructed than this, which is a bit sad as I think the ideas behind this novel were excellent.

In particular, I'd be happy to see the Valethske come back for a second appearance.

Rating:
Summary: Good concepts poorly assembled
Review: The Fifth Doctor and recently acquired companion Peri attend a party thrown by some Eknuri, members of an alien race who look human but are genetically enhanced beyond humanity. This party, though, is about to gatecrashed by the Valethske, a race of vulpine hunters. But even they are no threat compared to the past of xenologist Aline Vehlmann...

With his third Doctor Who novel, Nick Walters assembles a promising cast and some excellent concepts, but sadly fails to deliver what should have been a good book.

One of the principle problems is that he builds and builds and builds the story but, like many readers, I expect pay-offs along the way. While things happen that appear to be meant to be pay-offs, they don't feel that way to me.

I also found myself asking "so when does the main part of the story begin?", and when your doing that 100 pages into a 280 page novel you have to wonder.

Mr. Walters two previous novels, 'The Fall of Yquatine' and 'Coldheart', seemed better plotted and constructed than this, which is a bit sad as I think the ideas behind this novel were excellent.

In particular, I'd be happy to see the Valethske come back for a second appearance.