7) [Doctor Who] Lungbarrow, by Marc Platt

Well, this is supposed to be the book in which all is revealed about the Doctor’s true family background, in line with the master plan of Andrew Cartmel in the final three seasons of Doctor Who’s original run on BBC. Lots of stuff to absorb; ultimately I wasn’t completely satisfied. I felt very much in sympathy with Finn Clark’s review, collected by the Doctor Who Reader’s Guide: “Love the scenery, shame about the plot.” (Downloaded from here.)

The scenery is indeed fantastic. I love the two K9s coming together as a team – and it occurred to me that the Fourth Doctor left a K9 to all three of his departing female companions, as we will be reminded next year. I liked Leela and Romana, I liked the Seventh and First Doctors, and I very much liked the back-plot of conservatives trying to launch a coup against the new progressive presidency. (Having missed most of Ace’s appearances, and all the previous books with Chris, I wasn’t so excited about them. And I thought that, especially in comparison with Bernice in Human Nature, Chris’ reaction to losing his partner seemed rather minimal.) I even liked the Gormenghastly setting of the House of Lungbarrow itself, though from the architectural engineering point of view it was a bit over the top. (But the Doctor’s robot companion was a bit too much.)

But the plot? Resolution? Meh, not really. If the Time Lords are being woven out of Looms these days (thanks to what sounds like a non-scientific magical curse), how come Andred has retained enough plumbing to reverse the curse and impregnate Leela? I felt none the wiser about where Susan came from; perhaps I missed the crucial passage. Fairly clear that the Doctor is the Other reincarnated; but, in a very real sense, so what? I didn’t like the Hand of Omega in Remembrance of the Daleks, and didn’t much like it here either. Anyway, entertaining enough.

I think that’s it for my exploration of the Doctor Who ebooks on the BBC site, at least until they start putting them into a more PDA-friendly format. I’ve read four, really enjoyed one (Human Nature) and felt the other three were all right but not worth paying money for. However I have as a result discovered the joys of the Discontinuity Guide and the Doctor Who Readers Guide, and may well take some time to browse thrugh them and see what other books are considered particularly good. (I have already spotted that reviews of Stephen Marley’s Managra are very positive.)