I'm not reading until the full story comes out, but could it be just the 'reimagined' first Doctor (lol) they mentioned somewhere, and he's a decent character..? At least he should come up with great fantasy concepts. Hopefully. Does he rap?
Judge it by the full version of course, but on the strength of that I'll read it when I get the print collection for completist reasons, and hope that it doesn't get the first Doctor as badly wrong as that extract hints. Will judge the rest on who writes them, and any advance extracts. Would be horrible if this one sells badly and convinces Penguin that nobody wants first Doctor stories. :-(
SFX has reviewed A Big Hand for the Doctor. They gave it four out of five stars. But then there's this... ...and a voice in the back of my head is going, "What? What? What?"
So he's the dude from Plugged. Is it known if the hand he's missing is one of the two you'd like it to be?
^Reimagined First Doctor's basically the same character as the main character of Colfer's previous book. The synopsis says he's missing a hand. So I'm hoping there's no cop-out there
*sighs* I repeat what I said earlier in the thread. Anyone who wants a really great First Doctor-era story that both looks at the Hartnell era from a 21st century perspective (through Susan's POV, the 60s seem as barbaric as the Tribe of Gum while still having enough inherent charm to make her want to stay) but also a First Doctor who, uh, acts like the First Doctor (he's never even called the Doctor nor is the TARDIS named; only "Grandfather" and "the Ship"), please try to track down a copy of the novella Time and Relative by Kim Newman. It's exactly the sort of thing this SHOULD be; old and new, aware of what comes later but respectful of what came before, provides new and fascinating insights into Susan (especially) and the Doctor's characters while also managing a very good and believable adventure too, all from a respected writer who's made a name for himself outside of Who yet knows the show very well.
I didn't expect there to be these stories at all, so I don't really have any expectations they could fall behind. I'm glad if there's good stories at all whatever they exactly might be.
Well, I've read it. It's brilliant. It's like a story from the 1977 Dr Who Annual, written by someone with seemingly no knowledge of the series at all. It's the sort of the bonkers stuff that modern brand-managed Who fiction hasn't given us for years. As to whether it's any good...
I think you just answered that: "It's like a story from the 1977 Dr Who Annual, written by someone with seemingly no knowledge of the series at all." Please tell me that X-Rani turns out to be the villain, and the ugly mutants put in an appearance?
Don't be silly, that was the 1980 Annual. I'm not saying this like it's a bad thing. I think what Colfer's done is rewrite the first Doctor as if he was being made for today's tv audience, which as the stories are being aimed at the kids who watch the show today, strikes me as a sensible thing to do. There's a place for every interpretation in Doctor Who fiction, not just stories that slavishly copy the style of the tv series in any particular era. Those tales that really push the envelope can be some of the most exciting.
I think there is some middle ground between 'Slavishly copy' and 'is written by someone who read about Doctor Who once in the Radio times'. I'm torn on it, there are a couple of neat ideas in there but as part of the celebration I would have liked to have seen a story that was actually about the Doctor as he was not as he could be remade. Otherwise what's the point of having a 50 year celebration? I guess the real question is who this is actually intended for? Doctor Who fans or Colfer fans?
Michael Scott is writing the second Doctor book. No, not Michael Scott of Dunder Mifflin, though that's who I immediately thought of. This Michael Scott is an Irish author who wrote a series about Nicholas Flamel, the alchemist associated with the Philosopher's Stone.
Neil Gaiman is writing the final novella in the series. I've known about Gaiman's participation since summer, but wasn't able to say that I knew. I'm really curious to see how Gaiman handles Doctor Who in prose. At least as well as he handled Elric and Narnia, I'd hope.
Very cool. I might check out the printed copy at some point. Far too many books on my to read list and I'm way behind.