| Title | : | Doctor Who: Winner Takes All |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0563486279 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780563486275 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 245 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2005 |
Searching the galaxy for cunning, warlike but gullible allies, they find the ideal soldiers on Earth. Will Rose be able to save her family and friends from the alien threat? And can the Doctor play the game to the end and win?
Featuring the Ninth Doctor and Rose as played by Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper in the hit science fiction series from BBC Television
Doctor Who: Winner Takes All Reviews
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giant porcupine aliens is the sort of ridiculous shit we love doctor who for tbh
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Winner Takes All is only my second Doctor Who read, and my first to feature the adventures of the ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and Rose (Billie Piper). Rose convinces the Doctor to make a quick trip back to present-day Earth to visit her mother, Jackie, who’s just won a holiday in a sweepstakes competition. The Doctor, who has little patience for Rose’s family and her on-again, off-again boyfriend Mickey, soon suspects that this trip to Earth may not be wasted time after all. The newest videogame craze, Death to Mantodeans, is taking Rose’s neighborhood by storm, and when people start disappearing – including Jackie – the game turns out to be a very real, very alien threat to humans. Since Christopher Eccleston only brought his unique and unforgettable spin to the Doctor’s character for only one season, it’s nice to have additional adventures available that help flesh out his time and relationship with Rose. This story itself started off a tad slowly for me, and it took a couple of chapters for me to really get “hooked.” Once Rose and the Doctor reach the Mantodean stronghold for the final showdown, Rayner had my attention – particularly in the superb way she revealed just how much Rose’s friendship has grown to mean to the Doctor over the course of their time together. Rayner does a fantastic job with all of the series’ character voices – the Doctor, Rose, Jackie, and Mickey are all true to character and fit seamlessly within the context of how they are portrayed on the show. The new characters – especially Robbie, with his Harry Potter-esque fantasy life – fit well within the context of the story and interact well with the canon characters. While porcupine-like aliens are a trifle silly, even by Who standards IMO, this novel works immensely well as a ninth Doctor adventure and I – somewhat surprisingly – thoroughly enjoyed it.
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2.5 stars. Pretty enjoyable in general--with Rose making herself useful and all--but the parts with Mickey felt more like plot devices than really ¨believable¨ (as far things get believable in the Whoverse anyway), and the aliens were, uh, ridiculous. Not supposed to be, OK. Still. Giant porcupines and all.
I also would have liked to see a certain conversation take place at the end between Rose and the Doctor, considering what they had had to do in the second half of the novel. The ethical implications were huge, and definitely not the kind of stuff you should conveniently ignore and swipe under the rug. -
5 stars
I wish the Doctor would be nicer to Mickey. -
Not a bad new series adventure but I have to say, it’s better than The Clockwise Man. I reckon that some of the ideas in this book are still pretty relevant today as the video game industry is massive and to take the idea of aliens using video games to take over the world is quite an interesting thought, but a frightening one. While the novel isn’t as well paced as The Monsters Inside, it still has a decent flow to it which is one of the reasons I prefer it to the first Ninth Doctor book; The Clockwise Man, as that really did suffer from pacing issues.
Rayner does a brilliant job of perfecting the characters of The Ninth Doctor and Rose. You can just hear their voices whilst reading their dialogue in the book. Jackie Tyler is also in it to as well as Mickey Smith which is by no means a bad thing and they too are also well characterised. Surprisingly, Mickey gets quite a lot to do and is somewhat a significant part of the plot. We’re also introduced to a character called Robert, a young boy who really just wants a new life and I think it’s implied that he is schizophrenic. While I didn’t mind his character, I thought the sections with him were quite distracting and weren’t all that interesting.
My main problem with Winner Takes All is the main villains. The Quevils are a pretty lame concept and I never really got a sense of them being a real threat in the story. At times I even found them to be rather annoying than scary. While their plan and motivation were ok, they just weren’t interesting creatures or very imaginative either. Because of this, the scenes that were meant to have tension when they were bellowing threats weren’t very tense at all. I could imagine them being in a 90’s B Movie.
Overall it’s a fun book with the two regulars being very well written with great interaction. However the distracting sections with Robert and the weak villains make this book to be just above average I’d say. -
Actual rating is 3.5 stars.
This book is based on the television series. This one has the characters of the Ninth Doctor and Rose as his companion. In this one, Rose convinces the Doctor to take her home to check in on her mother. While there, they discover that everyone is caught up in a lottery craze that has an underlying sinister motive from an alien race who is running this lottery.
I am a fan of media tie-in novels if the characters are portrayed correctly and it belongs in the respective universe. This one fits the bill. I have read some reviews where this was compared to The Last Starfighter and that is an apt comparison. I have mentioned about the characters and I felt like the author did a great job with the established characters. I had no problems picturing the actors for their respective roles whether it was the Doctor, Rose, or Mickey. I loved how the author portrayed the dynamics of the relationships between all these characters. Even the new characters were a delight especially Robert who is a kid just entering puberty and I enjoyed his reaction in meeting Rose. The story might be a little on the silly side but it is a Doctor Who story so one should expect that.
My review might be a little biased because my favorite Doctor is the Ninth Doctor. That being said, I believe all the elements are there for your typical enjoyable story for this universe. Aliens being the antagonists, our heroes coming to the rescue, and the trademark silliness that brought a smile to my face. I recommend this book to all fans as I enjoyed my time with my favorite Doctor. -
The 9th Doctor and Rose back together.
Only having one season with the doctor that I fell in love with makes me sad but I love that there are so many books that have them as the main characters. That way readers/whovians can continue the journey with the 9th doctor and Rose.
With Winner Takes All we also get Mickey and Jackie. So in a way this brings the gang back together. And what a fun journey/adventure it was.
I have to say that Jacqueline Rayner really was able to put what Whovians love about the 9th doctor, Rose, Mickey, and Jackie onto the page. This was nicely written and I plan on checking out other books written by her. -
If you're in your forties, this book will probably feel a lot to you like the plot of The Last Starfighter. Desperate to gain an upper hand on the Mantodeans, the Quevvils, who look like giant porcupines have distributed a video game, promising humans vacations and fabulous prizes if they play it. In this case, the old adage applies, if it looks to good to be true then it is. The Quevils are looking for a human smart and skilled enough to enter the Mantodeans area and deliver a disrupter. What these players don't realise is that the game is real and each time they die in the game, a real human dies. When the Doctor and Rose pop by to visit Jackie, Mickey challenges the Doctor to a game and being much smarter than the average human, the Doctor gets further in the game than anyone has before, thus drawing that attention of the Quevvils. The excited Quevvils capture Rose and the Doctor caught up in their quest to finally win the war, not realising that this time they've caught their undoing.
Rayner did a really good job of nailing the characters perfectly. Every page I read, I could visualize the ninth Doctor, Rose, Jackie and Mickey perfectly. I do however wish I have been given a better sense in the timeline of where this story takes place. My best guess is that it happens sometime between World War Three and Boomtown, simply based on the Doctor's relationship with Mickey. For the Doctor's plan to be successful, he absolutely has to count on Mickey not only doing his bit but being intelligent enough to pull it off and yet it's clear that he doesn't have any respect for him yet.
At this point, Mickey and Rose have clearly ended their semi romantic relationship but that doesn't mean that Mickey is above being jealous. This is something Rose is acutely aware of - so much so then when she has to choose whose bonds to release first, Rose unties Mickey before the Doctor, sensing that had she approached the Doctor first that it would upset Mickey. This is far more progress than Rose ever made in the show in terms of Mickey because there never really seemed to be a time when she ever considered his feelings, particularly if the Doctor was involved. It was nice to see for a change, even if it was out of character for Rose.
I found it ridiculous that given the Doctor's abhorrence of guns that he would play Death to The Mantodeans in the first place. The Doctor comments that there's a big difference between guns in a game and guns in real life but I don't believe for one moment that the ninth Doctor would have made this distinction, even if it meant showing Mickey up. More than any other Doctor, the ninth is the PTSD Doctor and I believe that he would have been too haunted by the war and the destruction of Gallifrey to see this as a harmless game. He does however go off on the stupidity of humans for believing that they could get something for nothing, which is characteristic of the ninth Doctor.
Winner Takes All provides one of the few examples in which Doctor placed in a situatioin where he didn't have many options. Yes, he manged to work his way around the Quevvils but not without having to control Rose as a player in the game for a time. He is adamant that no one would should be treated like this and felt strongly that this would change the nature of his relationship with Rose. In these moments, the softer side of the Doctor is revealed and as a reader, I got a real sense of the Doctor's pain. When he threatened the Quevvils if any harm came to Rose, it showed the darkness that lives inside of him if pushed too far.
Read More -
Rose and the Doctor return to present-day Earth, and become intrigued by the latest craze, the video game, Death to Mantodeans. Is it as harmless as it seems? And why are so many local people going on holiday and never returning? Meanwhile, on another world, an alien war is raging. The Quevvils need to find a new means of attacking the ruthless Mantodeans.
This is the best one so far! And I feel im the only person who thinks that, as a lot of the other reviews see to not look to fondly on this story, which I do understand peoples gripes, but for me this is everything that Doctor Who should be FUN! It's Sci-fi, it doesn't need to be serious, giant porcupines that create a video game for humans to play, so they can fight there war for them against the Mantodeans, giant praying mantis. It's fantastic, the Doctor is full of jokes and sass and just badass at times, and this story gets dark! At times really dark! And I've always thought that the book should do what they can't do on the tv show, and this book finally breaches that gap and keeps it going. As well as being silly and lighthearted to bring the mood back up after those dark moments. I would say my biggest gripe with this story, is where I agree with others, that this is a mikey centered story and I wasn't a huge fan of mikey in the first series, he was just annoying, but here I will admit he somewhat redeems himself, but still mikey is mikey. But don't let that put you off, it's just me being picky, if you want something fun, silly and down right Doctor Who, then this is the book for you.
5/5 Stars GoodReads ⭐⭐⭐⭐🌟
100/100 Quevvil tingles 🦔🦔 -
On a return visit to Earth, The Doctor and Rose discover that everyone is hooked on playing ‘Death to Mantodeans’ video game.
The mascot of the game dancing porcupine-like creatures called Quevells. It’s revealed that The Quevells are using the game to determine the strongest human fighters so that they can enroll them into battle against The Matodeans.
Tapping into the popular video game market of the time, the book does borrow for other known Sci-Fi stories.
But for younger readers this will be their first entry point to a story like this.
It’s a fun adventure, and enjoyable read. -
The first thing you need to know is that I fell asleep while reading this. Twice.
The second thing, however, is that it's not actually that bad, as I discovered from the times I was actually, actively reading. The characters' voices are captured quite accurately, I could just hear Christopher's beautiful northern accent in my mind, saying the things Nine was saying in the page. So yeah, it was quite well accomplished. Still, there was something to it that was definitely not working and, personally, I believe it has to do with the format. It's most likely that the stories of Doctor Who's universe work a lot more effectively on the screen that the page.
So yeah, hence the 3 stars. This was rather good, but it still felt like it failed. -
What's not to like about this? Rose and the Dr, battling evil aliens that are using human avatars to gain access to their enemies stronghold....
This is a typical TV tie-in novel - it reads just like an episode of the series, without the real depth of character that you'd expect from a 'proper' novel. That said, it doesn't really matter, as the characters are extremely well known anyway and I kind of like that you don't find out the background to the alien war. Some of the Dr's humour comes through the pages and on the whole the characterisation felt correct.
And the story is pure Dr Who fair ... if not wholly original. Still, it was a great little read and kept me very entertained for a couple of days! -
Welp, this is another "meh" in the long long of meh doctor who books i have read. I really like the 9th doctor and want to like his stories, but this being the 4th book of his i have read (there only being 6) so far i haven't been impressed by any of them.
This book is kind of like "what if the last starfighter was evil?" but without the interest or me caring.
The characterization was all spot on, which seems to be par for the course with these 9th doctor books, but it was the story itself that was dull. It's nice to see Mickey actually do something in a story even though i'm not really a fan of him, but it didn't really make a good enough premise to carry itself.
It was hard to take the villains seriously considering that they were basically doofy hedgehogs and all the people kept dying for basically no reason.
There was a side character called Robert who did what basically most side characters do in these novels which is not a lot as well. It was definitely a "how many pages are left in this book" kinda book and the ending came super fast and was the climax was over in about 2 pages.
All in all, not a great 9th doctor book. Out of Clockwise man, deviant strain, winner takes all, and only human, i'll put this one tied for last with deviant strain. 2.5/5 rounded up to a 3. but barely. -
THIS was more like it! After Clockwise Man, I wasn't sure about the Doctor Who books anymore. This one was a lot of fun though! The Doctor and Rose were much more "in character", and I really enjoyed all the pop culture references, the joking around, and the bad puns! Plus, it was good to "see" Mickey again.
While there were a few "huh?" things about the plot (porcupine aliens kidnap humans in order to mind-control them through an enemy aliens' stronghold) I still really enjoyed the character interactions, including those of the younger boy who was caught up in the mess and kidnapped by the aliens. In his mind, he kept building himself a story where he was the hero, but in the end he DID get to help the Doctor save everyone.
It was a lot of fun, and really truly only "fluff" reading, but I enjoyed it a lot because I still miss the Ninth Doctor and Rose. -
3.5/5 Engaging plot, pretty good characterization, a proactive Rose, and featuring some ethical themes such as criticizing the violence and danger of video games, anti-war mindsets as per usual, denouncing the behaviour of bullies, and tackling the ethical issue of controlling a person. The story also features a handful of problematic elements I didn't like, though.
Spoilers below!
Female representation:
Rose Tyler is the main female protagonist as Nine's companion, and her mother Jackie makes a limited appearance as a secondary character (would have liked to see more of her, although the dynamic between her and Rose was lovely). Most female characters in this book, though, are extras, neighbours from the Powell Estate plus some random humans abducted for the game, plus a female Quevvil alien. All of these characters hardly talk or only have a very minimal part in the plot. The one who appears a bit more is incel-teenage Robert's mother Daisy, whom Rose befriends at very nearly the end of the book. Apart from Rose, most of the action and dialogue in this book goes to male characters, from the Doctor to Mickey Smith and his male friends, Robert, local bully Darren Pye, and male Quevvil characters.
+1 Rose is proactive and shows a lot of agency, wits and resourcefulness. She confronts a bully head on, rescues Mickey and the Doctor in a very resourceful way, engages actively in the adventure at hand (which involves saving human beings from aliens who are making them play as part of a video games against their enemies), and, even though she apparently seems to think that in the Doctor's mind she always plays the role of the one who 'needs to be rescued' ('He gets to be the superhero. I get to be rescued'), the truth is that she always tries to find a solution on her own, instead of waiting to be rescued, and is a very proactive companion overall.
+-1 In the last third of the book Rose becomes a playable character inside the video game they're trying to put a stop to and all her movements and actions are being controlled by the Doctor, who's very much not happy about it, but it's also worth mentioning that it's the main female character, who has been very proactive so far, who ends up in this more passive position involving a dodgy non-consent issue. At least the plot does explore at length how this loss of control and the feeling of someone else controlling her every move (even if it's her best friend) affects Rose, who describes the feeling as terrifying, uncomfortable and vexing. Even when the videogame effectively transforms her into 'Super Rose', with superhuman strength, speed, agility and stamina, something that she wishes she could be in real life, she still feels massively uncomfortable about the situation as she is unable to make any single choice or movement of her own. For his part, the Doctor continuously rages at the fact that he is forced to control Rose in this way and is very upset about the fact that the Quevvils are making him dehumanize Rose (and the other humans) in this way, and the issue of the indignity of treating human beings as puppets and toys is frequently brought up in the book, which I appreciated.
+1 Jackie Tyler also shows her usual upfront side and confronts neighbourhood bully Darren Pye when he has a go at Rose.
+1 Female bonding and Bechdel: We see several instances of bonding between female characters throughout the book, featuring several women from Rose's neighbourhood, and also the scenes between Rose and Daisy', teenage Robert's mother. I particularly enjoyed the mother/daughter relationship between Rose and Jackie, here portrayed as healthier and more mature than is shown in other books and episodes, and they worry and care about each other in a very lovely way.
Some problematic issues, from a feminist pov:
-1 True to his characterization in the series, Mickey Smith is portrayed with so much male entitlement going on his character is pretty jarring, even if he also has some better scenes in this book. He neglects the housework in his flat 100%, never seeming to clean anything and, in a grating scene, also expecting his (ex)girlfriend Rose to bring him the groceries his kitchen has been lacking for a good while ('(There won't be any biscuits) since I stopped doing the shopping for you'). In this grating scene, the Doctor goes all 'yay bros' with Mickey and sits down for a videogame session, casually and 'jokingly' telling Rose to 'Go and get us some milk and biscuits, will you Rose?'. Ugh.
-1 Although Rose is labelled as Mickey's 'ex-girlfriend' in one instance, Rose also feels like they haven't properly split up, and, similarly to what happens in the series, the ambiguous triangle between Rose, the Doctor and Mickey frustrates me to no end and doesn't promote anything that's remotely healthy when it comes to relationship dynamics. Mickey is overtly jealous of the Doctor, the Doctor bashes Mickey and has a go at his capabilities at any time he can (even though, to be fair, Mickey does play an important part in the story when it comes to saving the day with his computer and videogame skills), and it's a very cringe-worthy situation all in all (more about that here:
http://aeternalswirlingfight.blogspot...).
-1 Mentions of domestic violence and feminicides which I feel are treated a bit more 'humorously' than they should: Mickey's (male) friends also think that he has more value among his peers for having dated the 'most beautiful girl of the neighbourhood', and what is worse, he is also seen as more virile and badass for potentially having murdered her (and maybe other blonde women), as was suspected of him during the disappearance in the TARDIS in S1 of New Who. Later on, we also briefly encounter a man who has wilfully sent his wife/girlfriend to die because he couldn't stand her, but lately comes to mildly regret it. If one is not going to full on denounce gender violence, I think that it is better not to mention it in the first place.
+-1 Several male characters, especially Mickey and Robert (we'll talk about this incel below) are afraid to show fear and pain, and turn to bragging and creating Gary Stu stories where they're the hero to hide their insecurities. The book does add conscious criticism to these issues, though, with Rose innerly eye-rolling at how Mickey feels embarrassed for expressing vulnerability, and the Doctor at one point claiming that it's OK [for men, and everyone] to cry and be afraid ('It's OK to cry. I cry all the time').
-1 The whole depiction of tennage Robert's character is that of the ultimate incel and he got on my nerves constantly. He feels oppressed because all the pretty girls don't fawn at his feet in adoration, and wallows in self-pity at his lack of social skills to be suave and charming. He ends up being super creepy about Rose and at some point in his incel daydreams he actually wishes he could control and own her (similarly to other girls in his fantasies), something which, especially considering Rose's arc in the last third of the story, is not great. He dislikes his mother with a teenage passion because he feels that she coddles and embarrasses him and spoils his chances to be charming with the girls. All of these traits are combined in his daydream fantasies, Gary Stu fanfics where he's the hero and the Chosen One (ripping off Star Wars, Harry Potter and more) and goes on adventures without his mother, and gets all the girls, of course. There's nothing wrong about fanfics and daydreaming and self-inserts, but Robert fits the incel archetype to a T, and his entitlement and toxic masculinity shows in all of his self-insert adventures in a very obnoxious way. There is also a huge difference between having a crush and wanting said crush to fawn at your feet because you're theoretically entitled to that - that is young boys displaying all the misogyny and entitlement that they have been learning and not deconstructing in the slightest. It isn't adorkable teenage hormones, it's a string of abusive relationships in its making.
Not sure if the author was going for parody/criticism when it comes to this character, it kind of looks like that sometimes, but it can feel ambiguous at times, and in some respects, it actually looks like the character is meant to be kind of flawed but adorkable, with a hero-ish journey and ultimate character development as his intended arc. But because none of his incel traits are really challenged by any of the characters, and he never actually changes in that respect, this character started and ended being supremely cringeworthy to me, parody or not.
-1 Finally there are two rather cringy and gratuitous mentions of 'alien bondage' - featuring Mickey browsing the Internet looking for exactly that after a cringe-worthy first scene with the Doctor (and Rose) mentioning the topic.
Ethical issues:
+1 The whole premise of the book revolves around several interesting topics, from the inherent violence of video games and the dangerous effects they can have on people's ethical mindsets, to how human beings will readily also turn to violence and bullying in real life more often than we'd like to think. It also tackles the very Whovian topic of an war between alien races which the Doctor will try to stop, and a very Hunger Games-esque plot where one of these alien races uses human beings as 'playable characters' in a videogame that is designed to kill and conquer their enemies.
-1 However, the Doctor seems to think that 'a bit of fantasy violence can be therapeutic' (as opposed to the story's 'videogame', where the players turn out to be real living beings being killed in real time), happily engaging in killing 'alien baddies' with Mickey. While this statement may be sometimes true, in this particular case, it is also rather throwing under the bus the fact that more than one kind of 'normal' videogames (the kind where you're not actually killing real sentient beings) do normalize real violence in a very problematic way.
+1 Anti-war themes all round, with the Doctor and Rose criticizing the unnecessary conflict between the Quevvils and Mantodeans (Technology like this, and they use it to further a war).
-1 However, the Doctor actually kind of commits genocide in order to save the human captives (atomizing most of the Quevvils when they're still teleporting) and also ignores the attacked Mantodeans at the end (which seem to have everything in control but even so, he doesn't think about them), going away in his TARDIS as soon as the humans were freed. That is a problematic issue, imo, and not very Doctor-y, especially for the Ninth Doctor, who is fresh out of the Time War and is very opposed to the concept of genocide.
+1 The Doctor's approach to Rose being happy (but also guilty about that happiness) when she thinks the bully who attacked her mother is dead was a very nice, nuanced scene: '(...) it's all right. You're still allowed to hate them. As long as you don't gloat at their downfall, that's all.'
+1 Mickey thinks about how the Doctor just expects him to put himself in danger and/or help him with his plans without asking for his opinion, and it's a very valid point. Rose also wonders at some point whether the Doctor sees her as more than the validation he needs to be a hero in the eyes of someone else, and also feels angry at the lack of consideration that Nine sometimes has towards her, her mother or Mickey.
+1 As mentioned above, this book fully tackles the issue of non-consent and dehumanization when it comes to controlling a person's movements and actions (the people in the videogame are real people controlled by others). The Doctor is forced to control both Rose and a Quevvil and he rages about the fact that he's controlling another being as if they were a 'toy' or a 'puppet' ('You don't treat someone like that. You don't treat a person like that. And they're making me do it, making me degrade her like that. (...) Making me sink to their level (...) Making people dance around like puppets, making me take away every scrap of dignity of my best friend...(...) We'll get out of this (...) But, back of our minds, it'll always be there'). He also gets angry when the Quevvils refer to the human victims as 'carriers' instead of seeing them as individuals. The narrator also shows Rose's point of view about how problematic that situation is and how helpless and annoyed she feels while being controlled.
-1 Even though this issue is amply discussed, the Doctor and Rose never actually discuss it in person when all is finished, which is not a very healthy decision (and it is their MO, because Nine actually says how they will never discuss it in person because they never do, even though it has left them both traumatized). Also, the Doctor makes a joke that is in very poor taste at the end of the ordeal, when Rose is not present, and to incel Robert of all people, saying that he wouldn't mind from time to time if he were able to control Rose in the way that he formerly raged about being forced to do just before (¿?), because it would lead to a lot less trouble :S. Not-so-great humour as a result of even more repressed, uncommunicated trauma? In any case, such an unnecessary thing to say.
And see what I mean when I said that none of Robert's incel traits are challenged? The Doctor does teach him about how crying is healthy and several ethical dilemmas in their time together, but if anything he is being enabled here, and he leaves the TARDIS at the end none the wiser that Rose is not head over heels over him. Ah well. -
I think this one's my favorite out of all the Doctor Who books I've ever read. Oh, I love the Ninth Doctor! And this book just personified the relationship between Nine and Rose so well, while putting in such a whimsical, dangerous story. I absolutely loved it.
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Struggled to finish this book despite its short length due to my lack of interest in the ridiculous plot. It wasn’t terrible but it certainly wasn’t good. Alien porcupines aren’t as cool as they sound.
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this felt like the dw x jumanji crossover i didn’t know i needed
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This one has been sitting on my shelf for a while. I really enjoy reading books that accompany television shows, and I wanted to give the "Doctor Who" books a try.
This one was great! It really read like an episode, and I was very interested to see what would happen. There was a good amount of suspense written into it, and the characters felt very true to themselves.
This certainly won't be the only one in the series that I read. -
Started really well and a strong ending. Just dragged a bit in the middle. Difficult to get the characters just right when we had seen so little of them in the show at this point
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Reading this book again for the first time in about 15 1/2 years. It's my Whoniversary which means that for the next 24 hours, it's all DW all the time. And it also means revisiting adventures from what was *my* era of the show: Nine and Rose.
And, man, what a fun adventure to read through again to remind me how much I love these two. (Not that I ever forget, but the sheer amount of happiness that reading about them gives me is sometimes underestimated by my own mind.)
Rereading this years later, I noticed that the general plot of this story can be seen somewhat in a visual format in the season 1 Sarah Jane Adventures episode "The Warriors of Kudlak." Only in that one children who win champion levels of laser tag are physically transported to a ship that's taking them to a battlefield on the other side of the galaxy. But there are very similar themes explored in both and they both are just really fun adventure stories.
As usual, Jacqueline Rayner shows why she was labeled the queen of the Doctor/Rose shipping community by making Rose the center point of all the Doctor's decisions, even this early on in their friendship. As with Monsters Inside, we as readers aren't told exactly when this adventure takes place, but we know it's before "The Empty Child," (cos Jack isn't traveling with them), and after "Aliens of London/World War III." No references are made to Daleks, but it could simply be that there was no reason to bring them up. I would say this is definitely set before "Father's Day" though because Rose thinks about her father numerous times throughout the adventure, hinting that this may be leading up to the request she makes of the Doctor that leads to that whole story.
The strong point of this story is very much the interaction between the Doctor and Rose, as well as the relationship between Rose and Jackie and the development of Mickey as a character. This is in the early days of Mickey discovering everything that he can possibly be, but we can definitely see how he's changed since even just World War III. Robert is also a great one-off side character that, while he doesn't seem to have much going for him as a character when he's first introduced, became very much a mental younger brother for me by the end of the story and I was happy to see him make it through the adventure okay.
We're not given any Doctor POVs in this adventure, so everything that he does while Rose is forced to play her way through the video game is told to us through Robert's perspective. And, as anyone who has watched the show would expect, the Doctor's angry stillness when he thinks about how the Quevvils are forcing him to manipulate Rose is completely terrifying. Anyone who has seen Dalek knows what look Robert is referencing and it sent wonderful shivers down my spine. The Doctor went full Oncoming Storm with no one to aim that darkness at and I wish I could see it on a screen.
Also, we get Rose sticking up for other people and for herself numerous times, and I love to see it. That's my girl! (Or, y'know, technically, that's the Doctor's girl, but I root for her, too!)
The only downside to the novel (and what keeps it from 5 stars) is the very rushed ending. The Doctor saves everyone very quickly after a lot of buildup, finds Rose in the TARDIS, and then he and Rose just kind of swan off. While that is very true to how the show works, there's also usually some sort of conversation to substantiate how this adventure helped them grow as characters. That's kind of missing from this one and it all just feels kind of hollow because of it. -
*CAUTION! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!*
The Doctor and Rose are back in London, but there's something strange going on. People are winning consoles for a new video game and other are getting scratch-off tickets giving them a free holiday...only they aren't coming back. Instead, they are transported to another world to become living avatars in a game created by aliens to infiltrate an enemy stronghold. This people are controlled by unsuspecting humans playing the game through the consoles back on Earth.
The basic plot idea of a video game turning out to be real isn't new, but the execution is still really enjoyable. Rose is especially good in this book, being very resourceful in a pinch, but also reacting in a very natural way to adversity and challenges. The Doctor shows his more human side with a boy named Robert who was kidnapped, but also shows his more alien side when he doesn't react with sympathy or concern when Rose's mom is hospitalized. There's also an especially poignant moment when Rose is put into the game and the Doctor is forced to control her. When he starts making modifications to the controls to increase Rose's efficiency in the game, he gets really upset, realizing that this entire scenario of controlling other people is wrong, that what he is doing to Rose is wrong...and yet he has no choice because without a controller, the aliens will kill her and everyone else in the game.
3.5 stars because the part with Mickey recruiting other folks to help the Doctor free people from this game was rather shaky, more a matter of plot convenience rather than being convincing. Also, there isn't a moment at the end of story when Rose and the Doctor talk about or acknowledge in any way the moral implications of the Doctor taking control of Rose...even though it was part of the video game and done to save her life and the lives of others. I thought that should have been touched upon. But despite these problems, I still really enjoyed the book. -
Given the 2005 version of Doctor Who was the one most likely to comment on the mass media, this novel of aliens using video games for their own ends fits right in. The Doctor and Rose are back on The Powell Estate, where they find a craze for scratch-cards which practically guarantee the chance to win either a game system or a holiday, neither of which is actually what it seems. There’s a lot of room for satire here, and Rayner does have fun in the earlier sections creating a game where you seemingly blow creatures apart without consequence, before pulling back the curtain to reveal consequences piled high. Although, given this is a book aimed for a younger reader, there is a limit to how far the scenario can be pushed (go and watch David Cronenberg’s ‘Existenz’ if you want a darker and more adult spin on the same subject). This isn’t a book where “Everybody lives”, but of the characters we get to know it’s clear which one isn’t going to make it.
The Doctor, Rose and Mickey are all portrayed well (Jackie stays more in the background) as is the giddy feel of newly returned Doctor Who. Where it does fall down somewhat is in the supporting characters: with the Harry Potter obsessed immature, youth feeling like padding; while the menacing estate bully suddenly switches from a near Neanderthal to a man who can manipulate possession of alien technology for a profit with eye-brow raising speed.
It’s far from perfect then, but it still left me with a big happy smile on my face. We only have thirteen TV episodes with The Ninth Doctor, and six novels. We’re not going to get anymore of the former, so maybe we deserve some more of the latter. -
I really enjoyed this book. It took a little to get used to reading British accents, however, once I did, I didn't want to put the book down. I thought the plot was very interesting, and enjoyed the way I never knew what was going to happen next. The Quevvil's were an interesting character, and I liked how they tried to get humans to destroy their enemy by playing video games. I would recommend this book if you like Doctor Who.
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"She thought she’d chosen to travel with him of her own free will, but she’d figured out that he had his own agenda. Because he needed a companion. He needed her. Somehow, she validated him. If a tree fell in a forest when no one was there to hear it, did it make a sound? If a Time Lord saved a world when there was no one there to know it, was he still a hero?"
thank you jacqueline rayner for my life this was so fun and so good -
The ultimate book to test your suspension of disbelief. If you make it past half of the story, you're great at it. I stopped counting clichés and plot holes very quickly, otherwise I would have thrown the book away. There are some nice moments, though, that make it almost bearable. Almost. -
Rayner absolutely NAILS Eccleston's wit, I genuinely laughed out loud countless times while reading this. The chemistry between The Doctor and Rose was on point and extremely heartwarming.
Only disappointed that The Doctor never said Ricky. -
I bought a few Doctor Who novels to keep my occupied on my plane ride to Colombia! Hope it doesn't disappoint. I sorely miss the Nine & Rose days.
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AMAZING. Sooo cool. I mean... I could see it being an episode, too... Great Doctor, great book.
