Books and Magazines – Page 3 – The Bad Wilf Network

Book review-Rose Target novelisation

Recently published are five new Target novels that include four adaptations of Doctor Who stories from the post-2005 era. These stories comprise Rose by Russell T Davies, Day of the Doctor by Steven Moffat, The Christmas Invasion by Jenny Colgan, and Twice Upon a Time by Paul Cornell. Additionally, a Target version of City of Death by James Goss is also available.

Doctor Who: Rose is a novel adaptation of the iconic first episode of the show’s revival in 2005. This book marks the first time that Russell T Davies has adapted his own work into a novel, making it a highly anticipated release for fans of the show. As an avid fan of the show myself, I can say that this novel did not disappoint.

Russell T Davies brings his trademark playfulness and wit to the novel, adding new colour and several new laughs to the story. The novel captures the excitement and energy of the original episode, transporting the reader back to the first time the Ninth Doctor takes hold of Rose’s hand and utters the immortal phrase – ‘Run!’

One of the highlights is the expanded backstory of Wilson, a character who was briefly mentioned in the original episode but never seen. The prologue of the novel provides insight into Wilson’s life and his involvement with the lottery pool, adding a new layer of depth to the plot. Davies expertly weaves in these new details, creating a more fully realised world that adds to the overall richness of the story. By expanding on the peripheral characters, Davies has created a novel that feels even more fleshed out than the original episode. Fans of Doctor Who are sure to appreciate these new details and the way they enhance the story as a whole.

The novel also includes several cameos that nod to the future of the show, post-Rose and even up to the present day. Davies also addresses Steven Moffat’s Pandorica and Crack in Time story arc, which explains the frequent Earth invasions in RTD’s era and why no one remembers them.

While there are a couple of areas where the added details don’t quite ring true, the novel is still a thrilling read that delivers on all fronts. The climax builds to an epic battle that could not have been achieved on a BBC TV budget, and the humour is firing on all cylinders.

Overall, Doctor Who: Rose is a delightful novel that will transport fans of the show back to the excitement of the first episode of the revival. Russell T Davies has once again proven himself to be a master storyteller, and fans of Doctor Who are sure to enjoy this adaptation. Highly recommended.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review-Ninth Doctor #1

Following last year’s successful five-part mini-series. Titan Comics and writer Cavan Scott have brought back the ninth Doctor for an ongoing series.

Eccleston’s Doctor is easily the most tragic incarnation in Doctor Who’s history. War-torn and holding the belief that he wiped out his entire species, he finds comfort and solace in the friendship with an Earth-woman, Rose Tyler and, another mysterious time traveller named Captain Jack Harkness. I’ve always felt there’s a romantic aspect to Eccleston’s portrayal, as he was “one and done”.

The story takes place sometime after Jack joined the team.

After escaping a giant worm, the TARDIS trio soon picks up a transmission from a past version of Captain Jack-sent before he had his memories erased. They then land on a planet where the Doctor is hailed as a celebrity, on this planet he is the star of a show called ‘Doctor Who’ (No, really) as soon as the trio step out the TARDIS, the Doctor is mobbed by people wanting selfies-much like Eccleston would have been at a Doctor Who convention in 2005.

“Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor” #1 could easily fit in the 2005 series. The story is fast-paced, adrenaline-fueled and filled with humour. It’s as if Cavan Scott spent an entire week watching and re-watching series 1. He gets the characterisation of 9, Rose, and Jack down so well. You’ll wish even more, that Eccleston had done another series.

This is essential reading for fans of the ninth Doctor.

Ninth Doctor #1 is out tomorrow, from Titan comics.

<br />

Review-Rivers of London: Night Witch

Drawn from Ben Aaronovitch’s novel Rivers of London, this serialised comic is co-written by Andrew Cartmel, who was Aaronovitch’s script editor on the Doctor Who television series.

Chapter one, page one we’re sat in a van with a trio conversing urgently in Russian. Balaclavas are pulled on, shotguns grabbed and then it’s out into a London morning for a meeting with The Night Witch.

Issue 1 is rich in the back story, much of it set in Russia. Politics and power, money and migrants and military women practising the Old Religion.

Varvara Sidorovna is doing time at HM Prison Holloway but her army past is causing trouble in her London present. This hasn’t escaped the attention of police constable Peter Grant, who spots the mysterious Faceless Man behind recent events just as the Russians have turned their attention to him as well.

Artist Lee Sullivan is also no stranger to the Doctor Who franchise. Here he shows his talent for pushing a lot of character out of the faces in his panels without resorting to outlandish facial features. He’s got a good exchange going with his colourist, Luis Guerrero; a reflective laptop screen and the ‘golden hour’ before dusk come to mind particularly.

During one flashback, an actual Russian stock certificate fills the page behind the panels, bringing a sense of high-def to the necessarily bold shapes of comic art. The technique was a good choice here; the last time I was so delighted by it was long ago in an adaptation of The Vampire Lestat.

The trickiest part of the read was that the visual focus of issue 1 is relatively even; main story and back story are interlaced but the transitions between the two aren’t very marked.

As a newcomer to The Rivers of London, I found the story stood alone quite well but after some research, it seems like this chapter puts PC Grant – the main character – into the background somewhat. Perhaps this is because it’s not the first tale from the novel and it’s only the first bit of the serial.

Night Witch issue 1 is a cracking bit of urban fantasy overall. The pace is good and the international angle contributes to a freshness that no modern tale of London can do without.

Review-Doctor Who: The Churchill Years

Reprising his performances during Matt Smith’s era of Doctor Who, Ian McNiece is back as Winston Churchill. Big Finish’s new box set departs from their well-honed format of unmediated aural adventures, with McNiece narrating as well as performing in each episode. The narration does cover a few bits that I felt it shouldn’t, notably an action sequence in the first story and the introduction of a famous historical figure in the third. I mention this to balance what I think has been a refreshing experience and a success overall.

Churchill’s narration includes recounting the words and actions of the first three new series Doctors. This has the brilliant effect of bringing the Christopher Eccleston Doctor to Big Finish, complete with the Ninth Doctor signature tune. The Doctor changes, the title music changes. Across the stories, one can spot the different speech patterns of each Doctor, even as related (and occasionally imitated) by McNiece.

There’s still plenty of full-cast audio action aboard, moved along nicely by the ‘companions’ of Churchill. As his new secretary, Hetty Warner (Emily Atack) leads many scenes apart from Winston and works well with both her employer and The Doctor. Kazran Sardick (Danny Horn) returns from Dr Who’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ and provides a good contrast to the 20th century way in which Churchill reacts to being dropped into Roman Britain. In the final piece, another supporting artist from a Matt Smith Christmas special returns, Holly Earl As Lily Arwell. She looks after Winston at a particularly action-packed point in his twilight years.

The first story is the most conventional, with an alien object dropped into wartime Britain. The second shatters that mould as we find Churchill’s Black Dog – his controversial mental issues – woven into the story. In the third, Winston lives amid the subjects of his own history books and the statesman’s fascination for butterflies is rolled rather surprisingly into the fourth adventure. Additionally, there’s a nice bit of Nick Briggs’ Dalek voice work in this set.

Doctor Who: The Churchill Years brought a delightful, fictionalised Sir Winston into my home over a couple of winter evenings. So pleasant was it that I might just sit down with Churchill’s own writing for just a bit more time with this true-life legend from long ago.

Big Finish review-Torchwood:Uncanny valley

The tale of artificial intelligence has long been a fixture of science fiction, but in this new production, the subject matter is handled with remarkable maturity. The adventure begins with Jack unexpectedly arriving at the secluded home of Neil Redmond, a reclusive billionaire and entrepreneur-celebrity. Suspicious of Jack’s motives, Redmond initially distrusts him until the Captain drops some impossible knowledge. The two men then recount the events that brought them both to the remote Welsh castle.

Redmond had been left wheelchair-bound following a horrific car crash, but a mysterious woman persuaded him to purchase a company that specialises in “living dolls”. As a result, he was gifted an avatar of himself, which he named NJ and would often appear at press conferences in his stead.

Writer David Llewellyn’s deft touch is on full display in this thought-provoking instalment of Torchwood. The story is both mature and insightful, with adult themes that are not gratuitous. But perhaps the standout element of the production is John Barrowman’s performance as Captain Jack Harkness. He slips back into the RAF greatcoat with ease, embodying the charismatic and enigmatic character he knows so well. Barrowman’s portrayal is as captivating as ever, making this production a must-listen for any Torchwood fan.

As a longtime fan of Torchwood, I’ve enjoyed each of the audios in this range for different reasons. If you’re new to the Big Finish audios, I highly recommend giving this one a listen – it’s quintessential Torchwood at its best.

Review-Back to the future issue #1

We’re now in a position where all the films in the franchise take place entirely in the past. The last instalment came out in 1989, yet fans have constantly demanded more. Luckily for us, Bob Gale and IDW have teamed up to give us a four-issue mini-series set in the world of Hill Valley.

Bob Gale has been very outspoken about not returning to the franchise, as he explains in a note at the end of issue #1, he felt that anything more would just be repetitious, so he decided that the only way to expand on the universe would be to not focus on time travel. Instead, he opted to reveal more about the characters we fell in love with, all those years ago.

The Back to the Future comic is essentially the Untold Tales that fill in the narrative gaps from the films. The stories are set before and/or during the trilogy.

Issue #1 takes place after Marty leaves 1885, but before Doc takes his family to see him. Whilst building his time travel train, Doc explains to Clara and the kids, how he and Marty first met.

Doc and Marty first met, in 1982-three years prior to the events in the first film.
The issue is a lot of fun, as it riffs on the familiar tropes we saw throughout the trilogy. Writer John Barber is clearly a fan. Brent Schoonover’s pencilling is very cartoonish and basic, but it all works so well.

Review-The Troop by Noel Clarke

In The Troop a team with super powers rises from a nightmare parade of violence, with memorable action sequences and flashes of sexual activity along the way.

Author Noel Clarke was part of the the main cast of Doctor Who’s 2005 return to television. Since then he’s written an episode of Torchwood and a couple of independent films, all of which show his knack for dark material. He told the Hollywood Reporter that he wanted to push boundaries with this comic. Where he does that is in his depiction of real life abusive human behaviour, which exists in the backgrounds that these super-humans come from. The Troop are not so much a fearless team of super heroes as a damaged pile of kids united by a shady character who comes off as a bit of a creep.

We’re in an early period for digital comics as they differentiate themselves from the heavy lines and solid fills of the past. In this book, artist Joseph Cassara paints with loads of photographic colour and texture. In one panel he simulates shallow depth-of-field, where the background has those discs you get from expensive cameras when points of light in the background are blurred.

It can be a little noisy but structure does win out over chaos, particularly in the action sequences. Movement in illustration is tied to the way shapes strike across the page and Cassara works this well. In a rainy forest chase he does this by putting his virtual camera high in the trees and in another, he grabs a snapshot from a flying belt’s hang time before a dangerous dad brings it down.

Issue 1 of The Troop is a bit of a contest between abuse violence and revenge violence but Noel Clarke is setting up something that is intentionally not shiny. This is a tale where everything soft is burnt away – that can lend the truly poignant bits great impact later on. Now it’s up to Clarke and Cassara to deliver on the promise shown so far.

Listen to our interview with Noel Clarke here.

Artwork preview:

Issue #1 is out 9th December 2015

<br />

The thick of it cast make a cameo in The Amazing Spider-Man

The cast of the BBC political comedy, The Thick Of It, make a completely unexpected cameo on the cover of December’s issue of The Amazing Spider-Man.

Chris Addison, Peter Capaldi, Joanna Scanlan, Paul Higgins, James Smith and Polly Kemp can all be seen on the cover, sat inside a London bus, whilst Spider-Man is fighting.

Armando Iannucci, the creator of The Thick Of It tweeted the image this morning and asked fans if they knew how the cameo came to be.

“Anyone know why Thick of It cast are in recent Spiderman issue? As a lifelong Marvel fan I’m delighted. And curious.

6 more Target Doctor Who novels from BBC Books

BBC Books has announced the republication of 6 more Classic Doctor Who novels with Chris Achilleos’s stunning classic artwork and a series of new introductions by Gary Russell, Michael Moorcock, Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat, Tom McRae and Alastair Reynolds. All 6 titles are published on 10 May 2012 at £4.99 each. The titles were selected based on the response to a poll on the Doctor Who Facebook page.

Continue reading 6 more Target Doctor Who novels from BBC Books

Book Review-Doctor Who: Magic of the Angels

The Doctor, Amy, and Rory complete their sightseeing tour of London with a visit to the theatre, but things quickly take a dark turn when young girls begin disappearing from the area. The Doctor suspects Sammy Star’s magic act may be involved, especially when Sammy’s assistant vanishes during a performance.

Determined to uncover the truth, the Doctor and his companions team up with the residents of an old people’s home. Together, they face off against a deadly Weeping Angel that threatens to claim more victims. As the clock ticks down, the Doctor warns his friends: don’t blink!

While it may be a quick read at only 128 pages, this Doctor Who adventure delivers on both action and character development. The weeping angels are used effectively, and the dialogue and interactions between the Doctor, Amy, and Rory feel true to their on-screen personas.

Overall, it’s an enjoyable read that will satisfy fans of the series.

⭐️⭐️⭐️