| Title | : | Doctor Who: The Deviant Strain |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0563486376 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780563486374 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 256 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2005 |
But there is something else in Novrosk. Something that predates even the stone circle on the cliff top. Something that is at last waking, hunting, killing. Can the Doctor and his friends stay alive long enough to learn the truth?
With time running out, they must discover who is really responsible for the Deviant Strain...
Featuring the Ninth Doctor as played by Christopher Eccleston, together with Rose and Captain Jack as played by Billie Piper and John Barrowman in the hit Doctor Who series from BBC Television.
Doctor Who: The Deviant Strain Reviews
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A perfectly creepy Ninth Doctor story set in the chillingly creepy abandoned Soviet naval base.
With this being the first of the recent batch of NSA that tied into the second half of Eccleston’s only series as The Doctor, meaning Captain Jack is also aboard the TARDIS.
I always prefer three people aboard this ship and they are all utilised perfectly.
As soon as they arrive at the base the time travellers meet Colonel Levin, suspicion arise especially with Jack’s American accent!
The group are soon thrust into a mystery as a body has been found by a local stone circle and is in a bad state.
A really strong adventure that has some really scary effective moments during the second half of the novel as the alien involvement is discovered and the unique plan has been revealed.
There’s a good ‘Bad Wolf’ mention.
For a TARDIS team that wasn’t onscreen that long, it’s great that we have these additional adventures. -
Everybody but everybody assumes that the BBC "dumbed down" its Doctor Who novels for the new series, presumably to appeal to younger readers. "The Deviant Strain" is no exception.
However, the story's panache lies in its brooding atmosphere and the ever-lingering dread that there's something verily lying just under the surface of the frozen Russian setting. The characters aren't particularly fleshed out, but we don't need them to be; "The Deviant Strain" is, after all, a creature feature, and strives to be nothing else.
The problem is not just with the insipid characterization of Captain Jack (this was written, after all, pre-"Torchwood"), but with the way the action takes a 180 degree turn from an atmospheric thriller to a standard runabout with zombies and blobs. Talking zombies, mind you. There's also a badly predictable whodunnit in there and plenty of running through corridors in a scientific research base that has a seemingly endless supply of...well, corridors.
Overall, not as bad as what some of the other reviewers have written about it, but "The Deviant Strain" has probably already lost itself in the quagmire of mediocrity that are the BBC NSAs in the last nine years. -
This is probably the worst Doctor Who book I've read. And I've read a lot of them now. Richards seems to have little concept of the Doctor, Rose, or Jack as characters. His storyline lacks focus and direction. His efforts to build suspense are misguided and frustrating. As short as this book is, it took me ages to read. There are so few 9th Doctor Books, it makes me really sad to know that this is one of them.
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The Novrosk Peninsula: the Soviet naval base has been abandoned, the nuclear submarines are rusting and rotting. Cold, isolated, forgotten. Until the Russian Special Forces arrive and discover that the Doctor and his companions are here too.
This was a strange one for sure, strange in writing and story. As at times it didn't feel like a DW story more like a generic creature feature that just so happens to involve, the Doctor, Jack, and Rose. The story is all over the place, but despite all that I can't sit here and say that i didn't enjoy myself, as the concepts for this story was there, huge floating jelly fish monsters, zombie soviet soldiers and empty human skin sacks, all set in the frozen depths of Russia. Everything was there, but it just didn't mesh for me, the story is good, but as a DW story it just doesn't fit, it felt like the author tried to mash to odd jigsaw pieces together and tried to call it art. Sadly i wasn't fooled, so yes as a spooky creature feature this is good, but add DW sci fi on top and it doesn't work. This could of been because i listened to the audiobook version of this story which has a terrible narrator (i wouldn't reccomend) that if i had read the book i might feel differently, I don't know maybe I'll try this in physical copy one day down the line, but for now im happy to move on to the next DW adventure, as even the show has its weaklink episodes.
3.5/5 Stars GoodReads ⭐⭐⭐💫
65/100 Jelly blobs -
Another quite enjoyable adventure in the Dr Who universe, with some suitably gory moments and scenes to make you shiver with excitement and terror!
I liked the whole premise of the story, although didn't quite understand how none of the Villagers could have been in on it too - without giving too much away, I'm sure they would have queried the age of their policewoman at least a few times. And a couple of the plot 'twists' were quite easy to spot.
But that said, by suspending belief and pretending that this parody of Russia was realistic, I was able to enjoy the read and could see the TV actors running around solving this problem just like they do on screen. -
Superior tardis team my beloved
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A soviet era nuclear naval base has been abandoned. The town surrounding it is surviving essentially at a subsistence level. There is something far more dangerous than the radiation leaking from the subs. It's been there quite a long time sending out a message for help, which Captain Jack inadvertently answers forcing him, Rose and the Doctor to ride in for the rescue. Though their Russian is perfect, at least one person knows that there's more to the arrival of the threesome than their cover story implies.
I love Doctor Who with a ridiculous passion but that being said, this book left so much to be desired. Because Eccleston was only the Doctor for a short time, these stories are precious. After all, who doesn't want a bit more of the Fantastic? Unfortunately, this book is almost painful to read. It's a scant 256 pages and yet felt like a tome that was never going to come to an end. This is the first of the Doctor Who books that I almost gave a DNF rating.
When the Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack arrive, they discover one young man dead and his girlfriend Valeria drained of her youth. She is nothing but a husk, with no ability to communicate and absolutely incapable of taking care of herself. Because this is not the first time something like this has happened, townspeople have become suspicious and actually blame Vourdalk - a vampire from Russian folklore. That sounds interesting doesn't it? Naturally, it cannot possibly be Vourdalk as we discover when the Doctor begins investigating. Nope, it's all about aliens, glowing blue blobs and zombies. It seems some people decided that they want to live forever. The story takes a massive turn and feels like a bad rip off of Stephen King's Tommy Knockers. Since King already told this story and brilliantly at that, inserting the Doctor does nothing but remind us that we're reading an author with less than half the talent of King.
The story quickly turns from an intelligent investigation to the Doctor, Rose and Jack running from the blue blobs, and setting shit on fire. That's when it absolutely lost me because it felt like a complete bait and switch. Yes, I get that as much as the Doctor is a super brilliant Time Lord, he spends a good deal of time running and dodging to get away from the bed guys but that usually comes with a coherent story which The Deviant Strain greatly lacked.
In terms of characterisation it was absolutely off. Yes, I can picture Captain Jack running into combat and working to save someone he saw as vulnerable and need of his help. My question however is where did my smiling, flirtatious Jack go? He was absolutely generic. Even though The Deviant Strain is set before Torchwood, there should still be some sense of who Captain Jack is. This character is such a cardboard cut out with no personality that he really could have been anyone with the name Captain Jack tacked on for fan service.
Then there's Rose, who runs around tossing herself at anything that looks dangerous. She's like a fish out of water. I didn't recognise her at all. She seemed to be there so that the Doctor could explain what is going on. Yes, I realise that this is the main function of the companion in the Who universe, however; each companion has a personality that is distinct. Rose just ran and threw herself at stuff without trying to figure out the big picture or even giving the Doctor a sense of humanity which is something that she was really good at.
Read More -
This is the second Justin Richards book for the new series adventures and personally I think this is a much more of an improvement than his first entry, The Clockwise Man which, wasn’t bad but wasn’t good either.
I’ll start off the review by talking about the characterisation. The book features The Ninth Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack and they’re all fairly well written. They all get quite a lot do in the story, especially Jack who I think is probably one of the best things about the book as he does have some really good moments.
One of the things I liked most about The Deviant Strain is the tone. The new series books often go for quite a light hearted tone but this one is probably the most serious new who book I’ve read and definitely felt a lot more adult which I really appreciated. Another positive is that it’s packed full of story which is one of the reasons I found myself quite engaged with the book. Richards really nails the atmosphere in this story as there are moments where it really feels like a proper base under-siege story. I could almost see this working as a second doctor story.
Even though I liked the amount of story there was in the book, there were times where I found it to be somewhat convoluted and a little bit hard to follow. I still enjoyed it, however I did find myself a bit confused in some parts of the book. Another problem I had with the book is there’s quite large number of characters and there weren’t many which I really cared about. The villains themselves are quite underwhelming and the theme of immortality has already been done quite a few times in Doctor Who but it wasn’t really well executed in The Deviant Strain.
Overall it’s not a bad book and I’ll admit after reading a few of Justin Richard’s books, I’m not really in a hurry to go and seek out more of his work. Great characterisation, somewhat interesting story even if it is a little convoluted and villains that weren’t all that interesting. Definitely not a terrible book by any means! -
Well, knock me over with a feather. A Justin Richards "Doctor Who" novel that is exciting, creepy, paced like greased lightning, and had me imagining it as a double length, film-worthy sets of TV episodes. The 9th Doctor & Captain Jack are beautifully characterized, Rose makes her best ever (and least annoying) appearance in print, and the Russian characters & setting are first class work. This was an absolutely delightful surprise...and Mr. Richards is now forgiven for writing "System Shock".
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So, this book is kinda the epitome of a 3 star. My reaction for most of it was "welp, this sure is a book!" it wasn't bad, it wasn't great, it was just kind of...there.
I kind of like Ecchelston's run with the 9th doctor and wanted to give a book of his a shot. This particular book's results was not fantastic.
There were several issues.
*spoiler warning*
1. the book took too long to start. the first half was kind of dull and you could tell the author REALLY liked talking about Russian military stuff (i saw he also wrote a book called 'option locke' for the 8th doctor and it's basically set in the same way).
2. the climax was way too long. like the actual final climax of the book started about 100 pages to the end. and considering the book is only ~250 pages, that's a LONG climax.
3. they introduce a character really early on where this girl who gets her energy drained is just kind of...there for the whole novel. she gets saved a bunch of times and then they don't do anything with her. she just literally kind of exists. she doesn't talk, move, or affect the plot in really any way. you expect her to be important because they keep talking about her so much but nope, she's there for literally no reason (even when they introduce a device that you think will be used later to heal her and they just don't)
4. a LOT of people randomly die in this one and there's a bunch of named people who i ASSUME you're supposed to know who they are or care about? but you don't. i know doc who likes to kill rando's, but this one felt a tad excessive.
*end spoilers*
Overall, the book wasn't terrible, just incredibly average. I definitely want to read another 9th doctor book, but i'm definitely going to give a different writer a chance and not go right into another one of Justin's. Even 3/5. -
Definitely one of the better written of this fun series. I really enjoyed the storyline and the secondary characters in this one. Usually I am just happy hearing about the Doctor and his companions but in this case I was just more intrigued by what was going on with the mystery and the fate of the secondary characters. Also it was just fun being back with #9 - he was the first Doctor for me in a way. I never watched any Doctor Who before him as I grew up in the 70's (born in 1970) and the Doctor was Tom Baker and at the time him and the Trash Cans with Plungers freaked me out.
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this was written so well. you can ask my friends (aka
maya) how scared i was during the first half of the book. i couldn’t even pick up the book in the evening without getting paranoid. the second half was a fast read, though. it was super amazing and super unexpected. -
I always like Justin Richards books for Doctor Who because they're just that little bit darker and that makes for great reading!
This one follows The Doctor, Rose Tyler and Captain Jack Harkness in early 21st Century at an abandoned Soviet base after the cold war. There's Russian soldiers, zombies, jellyfish aliens and bodies with the life sucked out of them.
What's going on, and can the Doctor save the day?
I did forget that Jack wasn't immortal because he was travelling with the Ninth Doctor and once I remembered his near death experiences were a lot more dramatic.
Oops. Sorry Jack.
Although his compassion toward one of the victims was lovely. There was no flirting, just genuine care.
I flew through this book like I always do with Doctor Who novels. Nice to continue with the Ninth Doctor's adventures in the form of written fiction :)
5/5 stars.
Really enjoyed :) -
The audiobook reading was really crap. The narrator did very posh voices for both the Doctor and Rose. The Doctor with a touch of self-important professor and Rose almost constantly bewildered. It was so far out of character. Jack's accent was very successful either, and the Russians all sounded alike with stereotypical exaggerated Russian accents, which didn't make sense anyway considering the Tardis was translating. It would have been much better to read it without different voices.
Given the reading, I really can't fairly judge if the characters were otherwise in character. The plot was ok. -
I’ve been a long time fan of Doctor Who yet this is my first time reading one of the books and it read EXACTLY like watching an episode. You go through it super fast because of the mystery and thrill everyone loves in the show so if you’re also a fan of the tv series, I recommend giving it a read. I hope the rest are written like this too.
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Пять звезд! не за ценность данной книги в мировой литературе, а за то, что придя домой, усталая и голодная, я всего лишь хотела посмотреть ее начало - и на несколько часов выпала из жизни! Браво! Кажется, для меня это станет удаленными сценами сериала Доктор Кто :)
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An interesting premise, and I love both Rose and Captain Jack, but again I struggle to 'see' Eccleston's doctor here. A bit too generic.
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Yeah I dunno. It started out SUPER WELL. About half way through I was confident this was gonna end up being a 7 or 8/10. Well… nah. What happened. Huh?? What happened Justin?? The same exact thing as his previous book, The Clockwise Man, happened. A VERY promising start, then a pretty shit second half. WHYYYYYY. I’m not mad, just extremely disappointed :(
problems in The Clockwise Man were still apparent here. Weird characterization of our main characters, extreme convenience of events, and just some really questionable writing. I dunno man, the last 50-60 pages were a massive slog to get through. So much was going on, it was so hard to wrap around what was even happening. The conclusion was a massive confusion-fes which ended up making it unsatisfying as hell. And don’t get me STARTED on the weak as hell villains. JEEEZ they were so bad. This book went in a direction I wasn’t a fan of, and wow it kinda ruined the book for me. The only reason why I gave it 3 stars was because the first half was honestly great. It had some actually creepy scenes filled with suspense, and I was enjoying myself immensely. Also, I LOVED Jack in this. Defo the highlight of the whole book. Out of ten, I would give this a 5.5. -
The Ninth Doctor was my first introduction to the series. Having the opportunity to see another adventure with the Doctor, Rose, and Captain Jack was a thrill. Overall I enjoyed the story and felt that it was worth the read.
One thing that I loved about this story involves Jack saving Valeria. When they first find her withered and unresponsive he carries her and refuses to abandon her. Later on he continues to risk his life for her, even when she is abandoned by her family. Jack risks his life repeatedly saving this girl that everyone thinks is completely gone. Then in the end as they say farewell Valeria silently embraces Jack. Moving for the first time since the incident, showing that she is alive and present. That ending was the most powerful moment for me.
I realize that the story is written at a level that it's easy for fans of all ages to read and understand. However, I wish there was a little more description on the additional characters to help better distinguish them. Additionally I would have enjoyed more banter between the Doctor, Rose, and Jack. -
A Russian-set adventure in which the Ninth Doctor struggles to overcome the stark gloom of an abandoned Soviet village where some villagers have died in bizarre fashion. The story was not without interest, but I struggled to get into it. None of the background characters struck me as likeable enough for me to be overly concerned if they survived or not. Captain Jack spends a lot of time running about, dodging blob monsters but lacks his characteristic charm or sexual ambiguity.
The true villains of the piece would have benefited from greater character development to make their schemes seem more menacing and less rushed. The whole 'dangerous tech' idea would have made this plot well suited to a Torchwood story (though admittedly a Cardiff setting would not have that air of crushing, grey despair about it...... -
I did a non-spoiler review for my "Doctor Who" podcast here:
https://www.thenerdparty.com/timeands...
All in all, I liked this combination - Ninth Doctor, Rose, and Captain Jack. It's not often I get a Captain Jack story, pre-Torchwood (i.e., can still die). I think there was a good premise, but it's an action story, which can sometimes be difficult to capture in narrative form. I think it gets bogged down in action 3/4ths through the book. So it is not a bad story by any means, but I don't know if I would recommend it. If you are a die-hard Ninth Doctor era fan, I think you will enjoy it. -
This book was a little hard to follow, with a lot of moving pieces, but that said it was a fairly gripping adventure, and I enjoyed reading it, especially with the nods to the TARDIS translation matrix. Even as I say it was hard to follow I have to admit that is more that the logistics of what was actually happening -- in terms of character arcs the plot twists were fairly easy to see coming as i had pretty much clocked every character as a goodie or a baddie shortly after their introduction, with one or two exceptions. Still, I do think its a good read for a lazy Saturday morning. 3.5 stars but rounding up because thats how math works. ;)
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*2.5*
Do not listen to the audio book if you actually care about the characters sounding remotely like their television counterparts.
I don't mean accents. Rather, there's so very much that can be done with cadence and emphasis alone and this reader hits alllll the wrong notes. It took me out of the story over and over as I found myself trying to remember which Doctor was I supposed to be picturing again? That sounds ten-ish, or three-ish, or two-ish....no it's a nine story? Ugh. Too airy vague for NINE. Wait, Rose?! She shouldn't sound that damsel-ish. Highly distracting.
The story itself was average but has some interesting moments for Capt. Jack. -
Probably one of my favorite Dr. Who novels. The author captures Nine perfectly, Rose was a tad bit flat and even though her actions were on point for the character, I feel her dialogue could have used a little bit more Billie Piper and less "I am writing a lady character that says lady things." Overall though, the story very easily could have been another televised episode and had enough twists and turns that it really kept the story moving forward at quite a rapid pace.
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Sadly, I have to say that the book bored me out of my mind. All characters were flat and interchangeable. Even Jack, Rose and the Doctor could very well have been anyone else and no one would have noticed. The second I thought it would get deeper and more interesting
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This is yet another Doctor Who novel I've really enjoyed reading. It may be a little "dumbed down" and Rose may be slightly off but this could have easily be adapted into a televised story for the main series. I think Whovians would enjoy this in general though it does depend on one's tastes and opinions.
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あらすじ
救難信号をキャッチして冷戦時代のシベリアに到着したドクターとローズとキャプテン・ジャック・ハーネス。
行方不明となった若い男女が発見されるが、男の方は干からびたクラゲのような死体となっており、女の方は生存してはいたもののすっかりと年老いた姿となり、感情もまったく残っていなかった。
吸血鬼の仕業か、人体実験か、それとも宇宙人の仕業なのか3人は調べることに。
感想
絶体絶命の状況に追い込まれて行く3人がそれぞれに諦めないことで状況を打破していく。答えが見えない中で、人々のほんの小さな勇気や優しさの積み重なりが、世界を滅亡から救うとってもDoctor Whoらしいお話。ラストシーン、キャプテン・ジャックの切なさと格好良さにやられる。 -
So this one catches ya pretty much right away. The monsters were creepy and there were a few surprises so that’s cool. I liked that Captain Jack Harkness was in it this time. Although it didn’t really explain why. If you read this make sure to read the Acknowledgments at the end as there is tidbit in there that is cool if you’re a geek like me.
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This was a good book that had people getting old and a strange tentacle monsters that took place in Russia. I like how Mr Richards touched upon local superstition as he set up the mystery of the book. Yet I found it integrating that he was able to use the time and setting in the book to add to the story. I also like how this progressed Captain Jack and the Doctor and Rose's friendship.
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Oh my gosh! Don't read this book at night!! It is the most amazing book ever and has some very creepy elements that will give you goosebumps! I could not put it down, if you like doctor who then definitely you should read this book!
