Deleted
Deleted Member
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2019 22:41:56 GMT
It's actually pretty true to how the Targets themselves were written back in their heyday. Terrance Dicks was very frank about death. He didn't tend to shy away from it too much and trusted his audience understood the weight of it. Some went a bit further than others, though. Ian Marter's adaptation of The Reign of Terror, for instance, has this for a scene that originally takes place off-screen on television: Twentieth-century media for kids was very strict about any mention of sexuality, but violence, even threats of violence, were depicted rather explicitly. Particularly in comparison to modern children's programming. It was an era where a villain could set a trap for the heroes by bombing a mine shaft to trap two young boys at the bottom. That's "Cry Wolf", a Thunderbirds episode. No gore, but a pretty shocking subject matter for adults. Books allowed for that, helped to softly contextualise it through the narrator, and enabled whatever a child's imagination could throw into the mix as well. I could remember being my own censor and I went waaaay beyond what they were able to do for The Seeds of Doom when Chase went into the composter. Yes, we have discussed this before... I also discussed this with my sister concerning my niece and nephew. Back in the day, we were allowed to watch, read and listen to things that would be waaaaay out of line today. For example, we were allowed to watch James Bond movies even in late kindergarten. I know as a kid, I would have been shocked by the Doctor‘s summary execution at the end of the War Games. In this story collection, they are certainly not shying away from death and gruesomeness. Not sure many „modern“ educators and helicopter parents would approve. This is not Paw Patrol. Oh, you're right, we have too... It's funny the double standard that exists as soon as you start teaching kids classical literature. Our teachers were wonderfully subversive, we were being taught Nineteen Eighty Four and Romeo and Juliet at the same time that we were being told that Predator was too violent for us. So, torturing a man by attaching rats to his face and having us reenact a double suicide was fine(?) by the Department of Education, but a jungle firefight was considered inappropriate. I get wanting to protect kids from being disturbed, but after a certain point, the rules start to look deeply arbitrary.
|
|
|
Post by tuigirl on Nov 3, 2019 22:58:37 GMT
Yes, we have discussed this before... I also discussed this with my sister concerning my niece and nephew. Back in the day, we were allowed to watch, read and listen to things that would be waaaaay out of line today. For example, we were allowed to watch James Bond movies even in late kindergarten. I know as a kid, I would have been shocked by the Doctor‘s summary execution at the end of the War Games. In this story collection, they are certainly not shying away from death and gruesomeness. Not sure many „modern“ educators and helicopter parents would approve. This is not Paw Patrol. Oh, you're right, we have too... It's funny the double standard that exists as soon as you start teaching kids classical literature. Our teachers were wonderfully subversive, we were being taught Nineteen Eighty Four and Romeo and Juliet at the same time that we were being told that Predator was too violent for us. So, torturing a man by attaching rats to his face and having us reenact a double suicide was fine(?) by the Department of Education, but a jungle firefight was considered inappropriate. I get wanting to protect kids from being disturbed, but after a certain point, the rules start to look deeply arbitrary. Yes, exactly. As soon as it is considered art or religion, all ties are cut lose. I remember in kindergarten we kids had to draw the passion of Christ ( I am Bavarian and we are a Catholic state and religion is taught regularly in school). I was commended very much for my drawings. I remember enjoying doing them because I loved to add all the extra blood and gore. So, yes indeed, back at the tender age of 5 I had the greatest pleasure drawing pictures of some poor men being tortured to death in the most gruesome way and being actively encouraged by the adults. And at home we were sent to sleep with lovely stories about child abuse and cannibalism also known as Grimms fairy tales. And then they say kids get their violent tendencies from TV and Computer games.... However, I am not sure the violent biblical stories are part of the pre- school curriculum today as they have been back in my day. I think modern parents would have to say some words about that. At least my niece and nephew never showed me any concerning drawings. So you are totally right. Arbitrary is the word.
|
|
|
Post by shallacatop on Nov 6, 2019 16:06:16 GMT
Starting to get stuck into this now. Reading the stories in a random order.
I thought the Thirteenth Doctor story was good fun. Joy Wilkinson nails the characters, as she does in The Witchfinders, of which the short story leads directly on from. It's a story that wouldn't be out of place as a short epilogue if The Witchfinders was novelised. The pairing of the Doctor & Graham is brilliant. As much as I like Ryan & Yaz, I would happily take a series of just Whittaker & Walsh. One slight gripe I had was the regular references to Sheffield. It might be because I come from there, but they read as references that were there to really cement the TARDIS team used. They had a prime opportunity to relate the shopping mall directly to Meadowhall, for example, but instead it read as generic and interchangeable.
The Second Doctor story was an appropriate farewell to Terrance Dicks, harking back to the early days of his involvement in Doctor Who and exploring the Season 6b gap that Terrance put into action. I haven't really got a great deal more to say except I enjoyed it!
|
|
|
Post by newt5996 on Nov 6, 2019 23:49:35 GMT
Still annoyed that my copy of this hasn't arrived! I really want to review it before Series 12 is broadcast.
|
|
|
Post by shallacatop on Nov 7, 2019 22:10:15 GMT
The Turning of the Tide is a complete mess. I found it hard to believe it was written by the usually brilliant Jenny Colgan. I love her Doctor Who stuff, particularly her prose and world building.
It just didn’t know what it wanted to be. Controversial and character driven one moment, then absurd and attempting to be funny the next. It’s not a good attempt at being a genre mashup, it flip flops so much it’s like having whiplash. I couldn’t really tell you what the story was about, as it just didn’t really come to life in my mind; I really struggled picturing what was happening.
I’m actually gobsmacked that this was approved. Not just with how poorly it reads, but a couple of the choices made and how unexplored they are.
|
|
|
Post by tuigirl on Nov 7, 2019 22:18:34 GMT
The Turning of the Tide is a complete mess. I found it hard to believe it was written by the usually brilliant Jenny Colgan. I love her Doctor Who stuff, particularly her prose and world building. It just didn’t know what it wanted to be. Controversial and character driven one moment, then absurd and attempting to be funny the next. It’s not a good attempt at being a genre mashup, it flip flops so much it’s like having whiplash. I couldn’t really tell you what the story was about, as it just didn’t really come to life in my mind; I really struggled picturing what was happening. I’m actually gobsmacked that this was approved. Not just with how poorly it reads, but a couple of the choices made and how unexplored they are. My thoughts exactly. I could ask what they were thinking, however, looking at this story, not sure if much thinking went on at all. And this is me saying this, as not a fan of Rose and the boyfriend clone. Imagine how this is going down with the shippers. No wonder the book gets downvoted because of this story, which is really sad.
|
|
|
Post by tuigirl on Nov 10, 2019 15:16:42 GMT
Finished a couple of more stories. The 4th Doctor story was alright, although nothing special. "Citation needed" was an interesting experimental stream of consciousness story, however, for me, it did not really come together very well. Might need a re-read. I was however very pleasantly surprised by Matthew Waterhouse's story. After he made such a fuss about it at the convention, I was not sure what to expect. But that was a really nice little story. Well done. It could also make a great Companion Chronicle for Big Finish! Just one question, for you other readers: {Spoiler} Who exactly is that other Time Lord Nyssa and Adric meet? He is another renegade and has a stolen TARDIS... and has met the Doctor out of order. My first thought was the Monk, but he is definitely not a villain. But there certainly was some sort of history between him and the Doctor...
|
|
|
Post by tuigirl on Nov 14, 2019 10:28:21 GMT
I liked Colin’s story. I like his language, he has a huge vocabulary and is not afraid to use it. Cute little tale. He even gets to name check Charley Pollard.
|
|
|
Post by nucleusofswarm on Nov 22, 2019 21:52:25 GMT
|
|
|
Post by tuigirl on Dec 15, 2019 14:15:53 GMT
Finished the Target storybook! In the end, there were more worthwhile and entertaining stories in there than disappointing ones, so I would call this a success. As for the individual stories. Since it is kind of hard to review there short stories without spoilers, there are some very mild potential spoilers below. So read at your own discretion. {Spoiler} The Slyther of Shoreditch- this is a fun little comedy adventure where the Doctor teams up with another Time Lord to defeat a monster created by the Daleks. Fun and entertaining with some nice fore-shadowing of the Time War. Since this happens during Remembrance of the Daleks, this makes a lot of sense. So in a way, the Doctor really started the Time War.
We can't stop what's coming- not sure if the first person narrators for this story were the best choice. This is a quite dark and foreboding adventure featuring the Eighth Doctor and Fitz and Trix. It surely would not be out of place in Big Finish's line of darker Eighth Doctor stories. I am not the biggest fan of Fitz, neither from his audio appearance nor from the couple of books I have read that feature him. I just do not like his attitude and personality at all. However, having him as one of the first-person narrators was not as grating as I feared. This again fore-shadows the Time War and one has to wonder if the weapon that is developed in this story has the Daleks or the Time Lords as evil overlords behind it... from what we have learned about the machinations of the Time Lords, it could be either...
Decoy- Fun adventure featuring the War Doctor. He gets to be very clever and we even get a cameo of Rassilon and the two of them play a little game of cross and double-crossing each other. I am still waiting for a real showdown between the Doctor and Rassilon, however. This was basically just the warm-up.
Pain Management- A fun story featuring Missy. This is pretty much a missing tale from the Missy Chronicles, along the same lines and with the same humour. It is very well written and constructed and Missy gets to be her usual brilliant self. She even dresses for the occasion. What makes this especially interesting is that it is not entirely clear throughout the story if Missy acts out of good or evil intentions. Probably both.
|
|
|
Post by BHTvsTFC on Dec 15, 2019 14:55:25 GMT
I loved Matthew's story - he knows the art of short story telling - the Sugar collection is proof of that (and no, I'm not Matthew in disguise!). It was the first one I dipped into and possibly the one that really gives away the divergent nature of this story book. Citation Needed was interesting, if a wasted slot for Eleven, but again the point of the book was to diverge! Terrance bows out pleasantly with Save Yourself; a collection of his finest creations. The Clean Air act is penned by the wonderful Matthew Sweet - I wish he'd contribute more to the DW canon - the green stories of the Pertwee era so far in advance of Greta Thunberg I wonder if her parents were alive when they aired! And no one took any notice.
I still have a few to do and am ploughing through slowly. With so many Doctors now a Short Story collection or era anthology release can be quite daunting all at once. I still need to finish Destiny of the Doctors sometime!!
|
|
|
Post by tuigirl on Dec 15, 2019 14:59:48 GMT
I loved Matthew's story - he knows the art of short story telling - the Sugar collection is proof of that (and no, I'm not Matthew in disguise!). It was the first one I dipped into and possibly the one that really gives away the divergent nature of this story book. Citation Needed was interesting, if a wasted slot for Eleven, but again the point of the book was to diverge! Terrance bows out pleasantly with Save Yourself; a collection of his finest creations. The Clean Air act is penned by the wonderful Matthew Sweet - I wish he'd contribute more to the DW canon - the green stories of the Pertwee era so far in advance of Greta Thunberg I wonder if her parents were alive when they aired! And no one took any notice. I still have a few to do and am ploughing through slowly. With so many Doctors now a Short Story collection or era anthology release can be quite daunting all at once. I still need to finish Destiny of the Doctors sometime!! I think Matthew's story is among the best, if not THE best, story of the book.
There are quite a few good stories in there. I think it is sad this book got down-voted so much on review sites just because of the one story that disappointed and offended people the most.
The other stories did not deserve that.
|
|
|
Post by coffeeaddict on Dec 23, 2019 18:15:46 GMT
Finally had a chance to read this one - some very well written stories in this one. Still, it is such a shame that this was the last piece by Terrance (that we know of) for Doctor Who. Like so much of his writing, not only was it fantastic, but it left me wanting more.
|
|
|
Post by BHTvsTFC on Dec 29, 2019 23:52:51 GMT
Just read the Eighth Doctor story - wow, first time exposure to Trix; not that it tells me much about her.
And Colin's Sixie story was definitely interesting. Who wouldn't want a cup or two of Earl Grey tea and intelligent conversation now and again?
|
|
|
Post by BHTvsTFC on Dec 30, 2019 12:20:21 GMT
The 'Ninth Doctor' story is a sweet one too. It's interesting that for an era I didn't take too on screen, how well it comes off in print. I'm probably not the first to say Clive was an interesting character and could have been so much more.
|
|
lidar2
Castellan
You know, now that you mention it, I actually do rather like Attack of the Cybermen ...
Likes: 5,788
|
Post by lidar2 on Jan 2, 2020 16:31:19 GMT
Started with Uncle Terrance's story. Enjoyed it immensely.
One thing I did wonder - we know Gareth Roberts's story was dropped quite late on for reasons that I shan't dwell on in this thread - but given the one story per Doctor structure, does that mean one of the stories is a last minute replacement for the dropped story? And if so, does anyone know which one? Just asking out of interest ...
|
|