otherwyrld's review
2.0
This is a novelization of a 4 part story that first appeared in 1967 and featured the 2nd Doctor with companions Jamie and Victoria. I was too young to see that at the time of screening (I would have been 4 years old), but as one of the few complete 2nd Doctor stories left, I would have seen it when it was reshown (possibly as late as the 1990s). I have fond memories of this one being very creepy and suspenseful despite (or maybe because of) the poor picture quality of this serial. It was the first time those creepy little buggers the Cybermats appeared.
I was not that impressed with this book to be honest. This story should have been suspenseful - a group of archaeologists investigating the tomb of one of the most dangerous beings in the galaxy, who are not nearly as dead as everyone hopes - but it spends far too much time on histrionics. Many of the characters are very poorly written stereotypes of scientists who spend most of their time squabbling instead of actually doing their job. The human villains here are just pathetic and ill conceived - their motivations for the expedition are nothing short of ludicrous. The only group that comes across well are the crew of the spaceship who transports everyone here - they wisely get out of the way early on and stay in their ship.
The Doctor doesn't fare much better - it is never really explained just why he is there at all. Oh, I know the Tardis takes him where he needs to be rather than where he wants to be, but he really doesn't do nearly enough to prevent the Cybermen from escaping their tomb, which I presume is his intent. His companions are merely painted in broad strokes rather than achieve any semblance of original thought or action.
The Cybermen start off rather clumsily written, and there is a distinct lack of suspense for much of the book. It does start to pick up a bit towards the end, but it's too late to make much of an impact by that point. The Cybermats are not really as creepy as in the serial, so they lose a lot of their impact.
The writing is pretty bad as well a lot of the time, and the extraneous use of some words make it painful to read at times. The Cyberman picks up his Cybergun and aims it at the spaceman who points his spacegun back at him, and so on. I really struggled to wade through this treacle, and it took me several days to read the 141 pages of this book.
(Barely) 2 stars
leighsnerdlife's review
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
nwhyte's review against another edition
http://nhw.livejournal.com/1028958.html?#cutid2[return][return]I have been unimpressed by Davis' previous Cyberman books, which were nothing like as good as my fond memories of them. But in this case, writing up what is certainly the best Cyberman story, Davis rose to the occasion and produced what is probably the best Cyberman book. He even succeeds in injecting Victoria with some gravitas, making her both courageous and assertive in total contrast to her screen character (he makes her blonde as well for some reason). It is not bad at all.
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