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Post by shallacatop on Jul 17, 2022 13:38:42 GMT
Really enjoyed The Fires of Pompeii. I love the televised episode, but it’s essentially a string of thinly written sequences that’s really remembered for its final 10 minutes. With the novel, James Moran manages to expand on everything, giving depth to the guest cast, connecting all the different elements and driving the dilemma as the heart of the story. It’s still as breezy as it is on screen, but with that little bit of oomph.
Donna is written perfectly here. It’s really easy to forget that this is a companion that could’ve easily gone by the wayside. She gets just five episodes without another companion and two of those are purposely written to split her up from the Doctor for the bulk of the runtime. And yet she’s one of the best, which is a testament to Catherine Tate’s performance and how the character leaps from the page thanks to her portrayal.
It’s got the little bits of continuity that hark to the past and also bring stuff together with hindsight, such as Peter Capaldi’s eventual casting as the Doctor and the parallel with the Doctor’s dilemma in The Day of the Doctor, whilst being careful to not be on the nose or explicit.
Roll on The Eaters of Light!
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Post by shallacatop on Jul 21, 2022 8:02:11 GMT
The Zygon Invasion / Inversion could be pretty special based on the coverage of the story in The Fact of Fiction in the latest DWM. Lots of cut content and scope for expanded scenes. I adore the story anyway, but I think the Target novelisation could become the definitive version.
Incidentally, based on how Big Finish now approach the Lost Stories, we could get an alternative The Zygon Invasion in many years to come, using Peter Harness’ first draft, titled Truth or Consequences
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Post by masterdoctor on Jul 21, 2022 8:16:54 GMT
The Zygon Invasion / Inversion could be pretty special based on the coverage of the story in The Fact of Fiction in the latest DWM. Lots of cut content and scope for expanded scenes. I adore the story anyway, but I think the Target novelisation could become the definitive version. Incidentally, based on how Big Finish now approach the Lost Stories, we could get an alternative The Zygon Invasion in many years to come, using Peter Harness’ first draft, titled Truth or Consequences If a Capaldi list story is ever done, I would hope to see Harness’ pitch of How the Monk Got His Habit!
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Post by shallacatop on Jul 28, 2022 8:21:26 GMT
I really didn't get on with The Eaters of Light at all, unfortunately. I think part of it is that the style of prose just isn't my cup of tea, but I think the main issue is just how the story is structured. It's a lovely little tale on telly, but there's nothing much to it and it's all very convenient. It doesn't translate well into prose and despite it being quite slight, with 170 pages and quite a large font, it does drag on. The modern day prologue and epilogue is removed, as is the Missy stuff; understandable, but it just reduces what there is to work with even more. We do get new material in the form of backgrounds to a couple of the supporting characters, but it's not really that interesting to me and is also sort of thrown into the middle of the novel as part of some strange three book structure.
I expected this one to be a bit of a struggle anyway just due to how the story is on screen, but I think it's just not for me more than anything inherently wrong with it.
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Post by sherlock on Sept 11, 2022 8:30:20 GMT
The Fires of Pompeii is quite a brisk read. It’s very much the original story, not much in way of re-interpretation or new expansion, but it does take the time to flesh out details of the family and Lucius. There’s a also a flurry of new Doctor/Donna interactions, some of which do seem overdone at times (the Sherlock Holmes bit goes on about half a page longer than it needed to).
Also the title of Chapter III did make me laugh.
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Post by sherlock on Oct 22, 2022 8:38:32 GMT
I quite liked The Eaters of Light. It’s a nice little expansion on a small scale tale and I think communicates better what Munro was going for.
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