DW: Snowglobe 7

Is it Alien? Is it Cthulhu? Or is it Snowglobe 7 by Mike Tucker?


Yep, Mike Tucker is back with a special effects dream, set in the snow and ice of the Middle East. (No, not the result of being back in time, but of a heavy handed message about global warming.) I rather liked the Cthulhu aspect of it all, there's always fun to be had when there're tentacles around! The plot is fairly standard "stop the rampaging creature", but Mike manages to stretch it out to 250 pages quite entertainingly. (Except for the whole Rabley subplot which isn't go anyway, and could easily, and preferable, have been excised.)

Mike also introduces a new race, the Flisk, which settle on Earth, but one can't help wondering if the one and only sole reason he did this was to cheat an escape and search attempt towards the end of the book... which is really sad as it has been done dozens of times before and is a long way to go burdening continuity with this extra race of aliens.

Another faux pas by Mike is to name one character, a nurse no less, Marisha. That is just a stupid basic mistake anyone should have been able to point out as a no-no, and yet there's a whole list of people at the end who failed to pick up that this might just possibly confuse readers by having two characters with extremely similar names...

On the whole, it's a decent book, nothing sterling character-wise, but worth reading plot-wise.


Order: No continuity given, so chuck in with previous one.

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SNS: Second Sight

Season Three of Sapphire and Steel audios begins with Second Sight by Nigel Fairs.

Steel: You know exactly what I mean, mate. You've always felt threatened by Ruby ever since-
Sapphire: And what about you and Silver? I bet you were grinning like a shocked fox to hear about him.


Season Two ended with Sapphire and Steel trapped on a CD. So how to begin Season Three? The answer: bring in a new Sapphire and a new Steel, raising interesting implications about how easy it is to justify changes in actors, and just what it might mean if David and Joanna ever returned to the series...

But yes, new Sapphire and Steel. And how are they different? Sapphire is a bitch, and Steel is the agreeable friendly one. What? Since when? There's radical interpretation, but that's going too far. Oh yeah, they're also Australian. With very broad, very noticeable Aussie accents.

The plot is a recap of Adventure One with a mix of follow up to The Mystery of the Missing Hour. The innovation of the new S&S is what really this play is about, so the plot is slight, but it is there... but it is rather copying of what went before (then again, that is the point). There is an interesting suggestion of an over-arc idea and there is mention of the Transient War. If Big Finish do develop it, I hope they don't take as long about it as they did with the Tomorrow People arc, or we will literally never hear the end of it.

As for the two new leads... they take a bit of getting used to, but I certainly wouldn't mind repeat appearances. The Aussie-ness is rather... unusual, but as something that only comes up occasionally could be tolerated and possibly even enjoyed. Well done to Anna Skellern and Blair McDonough for stepping up to the challenge. Liza Bowerman is there as Ruby to (I suspect) provide a dash of continuity for the listeners, but again it's hard to get a sense of what her powers are other than something related to music. For the rest of the cast, I'm sure I've heard Patience Tomlinson before, she has a very distinct and recognisable voice, but not sure where. The rest of them... are there.


Interesting start to the season that definitely needs more than one listening. And be sure to stay for the entirely of disc two...

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DW: Episode 4.5

Sontar... HA! Indeed!


The Sarah Jane Adventures continue! Although I do have to admit it is a bit darker than SJA usually gets, what with that ending and all. But there are some points to the plot I am asking about. Like... why bother with Earth? Surely there are easier planets to convert? And given how seen-through the clone was, did we really need that either? Yes, it made for another moment with EXTREME close up on David's face, but... (oh, and his filling is really noticeable when he's yelling.)

[And yes, I caught the moment du Rose. But not of any mention of the Medusa Cascade...]

Of course the best thing about this episode was... Bernard Cribbins! Let's face it, with him as grandpa, it makes the family situation bearable. And I'm glad Freema is sticking around for at least another episode. She should be in every episode! In fact, why not give her her own spin-off series? Martha Jones, Earth Defenders has a lot better ring to it.

Catherine Tate struggles to find a place in this episode. It might be the writer trying to make her more "normal", with being scared, but she's supposed to be a companion, and a feisty one at that, so get on with it woman! Hopefully there will be better writing for her to come (and hoping for more of Donna shows just how much that character has improved).

At the end of the day, it's about how Sontarans are warriors... and that humans can kill them. Isn't that always the real moral?


Next week: Does this count as a three parter then? (No.) But the real question is: is she called Miranda?

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Lionising #57

TSV #57 is now out and at a NZDWFC site near you. (Although how one measures "nearness" on the internet I'm not sure.)

Anyway, the big piece of publishing this time around is the Pilots of the Deep comic strip, many many years in the making. Indeed, there's a piece all about the making that should be read. (Once again great work by Alden to get these comics online.)

The other major exciting piece of the issue is the Life and Times of Neil Lambess, in which he talks of the fame he garnered for finding The Lion (the latter piece already being something online, so I'm not pointing it out). Very amusing read, as is all of Neil's work.

All that and the usual round of book reviews and comics. Read Alden's view here, and also read Paul's view here.

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Those in favour of inanity...

The government has finally announced it's going ahead with the vaccine for young girls to vaccinate them against cervical cancer. Good. About time. It's been available for a while now, and makes sense to use it if we can make use of medicine to protect people against diseases.

To go with this story there was a poll on Stuff, to see if people thought it was a good idea, or a bad idea with two options. The thing that troubles me is that only 80% of people said it was a good idea. (Yes, yes, selection bias, and nothing like a previous potential biased poll, but I'm not talking about that one.)

The first 'no' option was "it will encourage early sexual activity". The hell? What kind of thinking are you doing? "If we stop a deadly cancer, people will have more sex." I know what the majority of people who think this are also thinking (hint: highly religious), but this is power-mad feverish thinking of the worst kind.

The other 'no' option was "I don't believe in vaccinations". Right. Yes. Medical science has developed vaccinations, wiped out small pox, protects millions of people against the flu... anyone remember the outbreak at a Porirua school a few years ago because parents were anti-vaccination? And don't even mention autism to me on this topic... Again, mad thinking.

Evidence based reality... why do so few people want to experience it?

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DW: Martha in the Mirror

Ah, this is more like it! The latest set of books: Martha in the Mirror by Justin Richards.


Diplomatic conference (small one, at least), strange mirror, the Doctor arrives and then there's a death... so what could possibly go wrong? Justin has a plot to tell, and gets on with it. Yeah, there's a young kid, but here she's actually more tied into the plot than other books which just happen to have kids in them. However, the eponymous titular event barely happens, but it does give a neat cover picture.

Most of the twists and turns can be predicted before hand, but there are still a few things that aren't obvious... although the need to tie things up doesn't work well and should really be avoided as much as possible in the future (not that anyone will know what I mean until they read this book).

Character-wise, the characters are pretty simplistic and straightforward, which does mean they are easy to keep track of. The Doctor and Martha are also fairly genetic Doctor and Companion. At the moment, I can't fully remember anyone's name, which should how well written they are, but they can be tracked.

A decent tale, worth picking up.


Order: Reference to Family of Blood, so between that and Utopia.

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On the Campaign path

There will be people who will be able to say more about this than me, but I had a part in bringing of the most... astounding Doctor Who novels that never were to a pdf file near you.

I'm talking about Jim Mortimore's Campaign, of course. It was commissioned for the BBC Books, but then when Jim provided a roller-coaster of a ride no-one was prepared to go with, it was rejected and then provided as a book one could buy and the money went to charity for. (That's when I got my autographed copy.) However, BBC couldn't let that happen, and so it was pulled after too short a run.

Many years later, Paul Scoones approached (I presume, I'll link to his entry if he writes one) Jim about making it an ebook on the NZDWFC website. Jim liked the idea and wrote some essays about the history... but was a little more explicit and email inclusive that Paul felt comfortable with (not wanting to earn any legal problems).

Enter moi. I tidied up his main essay on the actual writing (ie. minor spelling typos fixed) which is nearly as insane writing as the book itself, removed the entire reviews that were quoted (we have extracts now), and extracted and rewrote the problem areas of the "behind the scenes"... and now we have it on the web.

This all said, while this can be gotten free, I do recommend getting in touch with Jim for a physical copy. Nothing like owning something you can hold in your hand, and you can get the unexpurgated essays as well! Hopefully, it will last longer in print than last time...

Anyway, cheers to Campaign!

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