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Jun. 23rd, 2020 09:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eve11I read some Doctor Who books with Twelve and Bill:
There were 3 in the series: Plague City, Diamond Dogs, and The Shining Man.
I read Plague City first, which is hands down the best of the three. It has Twelve, Bill and Nardole, and the author really got the voices and characterizations and motivations down for the three of them. The Doctor and Bill and Nardole end up in Edinburgh in 1645 in the midst of the black death plague... except the plague victims come back as ghosts and don't realize they've died. And there's a mysterious Night Doctor who visits the victims before they die, and there are a few mysteries wrapped up in this. I thought Twelve's characterization came across effortlessly--from his snarking with Bill and Nardole to his "number one rule" about not saving anyone from the plague with magic pills that well--what's a rule if not to be broken? All three of them really came across as themselves without short-cuts that authors sometimes tend to take (see the next two stories). I also appreciated that the OCs had some depth to them beyond just eg, the "stock bad guy"; they actually had motivations and I even cared about some of them. The writing was pretty sharp for the most part, and did a good job of showing and not telling (and got some very creepy vibes in as well). I would have loved to have seen this as an episode, especially the climax which was just ridiculous and epic in only the way that Twelve can be... and then also timey wimey and twisty as well. Just a great period-piece-with-monsters story. Minor foibles might be the dialogue is very brogue-y but probably not enough to be truly accurate, and also everyone in the town has to get some kind of reaction in to Bill's skin color, where I'd think that even in 1645 there were probably black people living in Edinburgh? But those were minor.
I read The Shining Man next. This one had just Twelve and Bill (no Nardole), investigating supernatural sightings and disappearances in modern day Manchester area. This one was okay, but the whole set-up to me was too much in the realm of fantasy without the veneer of either science or aliens that typically comes in Doctor Who stories. Don't get me wrong, a veneer is all you need, but in this case the mystery was tied more just to some kind of fanciful not-even-technobabble presumption that lets us know that the land of the Fae is real, and to me it wasn't really a good payoff. It started off spooky, but instead of staying spooky it just got outrageous. The original characters were all right, though at least one fell a bit more into "stock bad guy" land. Charlotte the vlogger, and PC Schofield were the most interesting but neither had much to do. Twelve's characterization was a bit lazy too. Like okay, I get it, he called humans "pudding brains" in the show but that in no way became any kind of catch-phrase. And for Twelve there was a bit too much name dropping, and a little too much conceit in call-outs to fandom from the author (there is a line about a friend of his who lives in a double-decker bus, and also Twelve incredulous that a vlogger would put him "online" because the people online debating him have nothing better to do than come up with 'dating controversies'.) And I can't remember Bill having much to do either except get scared. I was disappointed in it overall.
Last one was Diamond Dogs, which is kind of a stock base-under-seige story, but it was really clunky. First off, at no point did the Doctor even get to mention David Bowie let alone get a riff off on the guitar. Second, the main OC POV is a character named Laura Palmer and no editor told this author to go back and change that even though I'm pretty sure Twin Peaks aired in Britain and is at least somewhere in the collective unconscious. Third, the world building was a crap-ton of exposition for exposition sake, and it seemed like the author wanted it to be hard sci-fi but just didn't bother much with research. It takes place on a diamond mine on Saturn, and I think it tried to throw too much bad science at the reader. (Like, okay, toward the inner depths of Saturn, its pressure and heat will be supremely unpleasant, but Saturn's gravity up in the rings or on it's "surface" is only about the same as Earth's, because it's not very dense.) Fourth, the Doctor goes to the Diamond mine on Saturn to filch a diamond from the stores there for no good reason, which just seems wildly out of character for him, along with what he does next no matter how clever it ends up. Plus there was just way too much name dropping and lazy writing for Twelve. Fifth, the stock bad guys were really, really one dimensional to the point that it was kind of insulting. Sixth, the writer managed to use the word "vast" five times in the space of 3 pages, to the extent that I wanted to send him my "list of words not to use or overuse" that I've built up over the years fic-writing (hint, "vast" is one of them). And oh yeah, more "aliens in weird spacesuits" and just a lot of suspension of disbelief in how the people on the station would react to Bill and the Doctor. The mechanics, motivations and writing was just way too lazy for me to really care about what was happening. There were a few good scenes but for the most part it was a big hot mess.
So, IMO, if you want an officially sanctioned new adventure for Twelve, Bill and Nardole, pick up Plague City. The others you could try if you really want a fix, but could probably find better fanfiction for cheaper. (might I point you to Cooling their Heels by moon_custafer instead)
There were 3 in the series: Plague City, Diamond Dogs, and The Shining Man.
I read Plague City first, which is hands down the best of the three. It has Twelve, Bill and Nardole, and the author really got the voices and characterizations and motivations down for the three of them. The Doctor and Bill and Nardole end up in Edinburgh in 1645 in the midst of the black death plague... except the plague victims come back as ghosts and don't realize they've died. And there's a mysterious Night Doctor who visits the victims before they die, and there are a few mysteries wrapped up in this. I thought Twelve's characterization came across effortlessly--from his snarking with Bill and Nardole to his "number one rule" about not saving anyone from the plague with magic pills that well--what's a rule if not to be broken? All three of them really came across as themselves without short-cuts that authors sometimes tend to take (see the next two stories). I also appreciated that the OCs had some depth to them beyond just eg, the "stock bad guy"; they actually had motivations and I even cared about some of them. The writing was pretty sharp for the most part, and did a good job of showing and not telling (and got some very creepy vibes in as well). I would have loved to have seen this as an episode, especially the climax which was just ridiculous and epic in only the way that Twelve can be... and then also timey wimey and twisty as well. Just a great period-piece-with-monsters story. Minor foibles might be the dialogue is very brogue-y but probably not enough to be truly accurate, and also everyone in the town has to get some kind of reaction in to Bill's skin color, where I'd think that even in 1645 there were probably black people living in Edinburgh? But those were minor.
I read The Shining Man next. This one had just Twelve and Bill (no Nardole), investigating supernatural sightings and disappearances in modern day Manchester area. This one was okay, but the whole set-up to me was too much in the realm of fantasy without the veneer of either science or aliens that typically comes in Doctor Who stories. Don't get me wrong, a veneer is all you need, but in this case the mystery was tied more just to some kind of fanciful not-even-technobabble presumption that lets us know that the land of the Fae is real, and to me it wasn't really a good payoff. It started off spooky, but instead of staying spooky it just got outrageous. The original characters were all right, though at least one fell a bit more into "stock bad guy" land. Charlotte the vlogger, and PC Schofield were the most interesting but neither had much to do. Twelve's characterization was a bit lazy too. Like okay, I get it, he called humans "pudding brains" in the show but that in no way became any kind of catch-phrase. And for Twelve there was a bit too much name dropping, and a little too much conceit in call-outs to fandom from the author (there is a line about a friend of his who lives in a double-decker bus, and also Twelve incredulous that a vlogger would put him "online" because the people online debating him have nothing better to do than come up with 'dating controversies'.) And I can't remember Bill having much to do either except get scared. I was disappointed in it overall.
Last one was Diamond Dogs, which is kind of a stock base-under-seige story, but it was really clunky. First off, at no point did the Doctor even get to mention David Bowie let alone get a riff off on the guitar. Second, the main OC POV is a character named Laura Palmer and no editor told this author to go back and change that even though I'm pretty sure Twin Peaks aired in Britain and is at least somewhere in the collective unconscious. Third, the world building was a crap-ton of exposition for exposition sake, and it seemed like the author wanted it to be hard sci-fi but just didn't bother much with research. It takes place on a diamond mine on Saturn, and I think it tried to throw too much bad science at the reader. (Like, okay, toward the inner depths of Saturn, its pressure and heat will be supremely unpleasant, but Saturn's gravity up in the rings or on it's "surface" is only about the same as Earth's, because it's not very dense.) Fourth, the Doctor goes to the Diamond mine on Saturn to filch a diamond from the stores there for no good reason, which just seems wildly out of character for him, along with what he does next no matter how clever it ends up. Plus there was just way too much name dropping and lazy writing for Twelve. Fifth, the stock bad guys were really, really one dimensional to the point that it was kind of insulting. Sixth, the writer managed to use the word "vast" five times in the space of 3 pages, to the extent that I wanted to send him my "list of words not to use or overuse" that I've built up over the years fic-writing (hint, "vast" is one of them). And oh yeah, more "aliens in weird spacesuits" and just a lot of suspension of disbelief in how the people on the station would react to Bill and the Doctor. The mechanics, motivations and writing was just way too lazy for me to really care about what was happening. There were a few good scenes but for the most part it was a big hot mess.
So, IMO, if you want an officially sanctioned new adventure for Twelve, Bill and Nardole, pick up Plague City. The others you could try if you really want a fix, but could probably find better fanfiction for cheaper. (might I point you to Cooling their Heels by moon_custafer instead)
