nwhyte's review against another edition
http://nhw.livejournal.com/1031032.html#cutid6[return][return]I seem to be against received fannish wisdom in finding this rather good, if taken on its own merits. The original story is one of the great Who stories; the novelisation, constrained to less than fifteen pages for each of the ten episodes, is not quite of the same quality, but none the less tells a good story well, with decent foreshadowing of the Doctor's fate and sensible meditations on the nature of war. This is the first Hulke novelisation I have read in this run, and sadly was the last he wrote before his death, so I am looking forward to the others.
sshabein's review
4.0
My 10 yr old son and I finished reading this together, and I think I liked it a bit more than he did, but I've already seen the TV episodes. It's a really good send-off for the Second Doctor.
pussreboots's review
4.0
Doctor Who and the War Games is a novelization of the last ten episode serial of "The War Games"(1969) to be filmed in black and white and the last regular appearance of the second Doctor. The novel takes about 250 minutes worth of story and boils it down to 143 pages. What's left is a quick but thought provoking look at war while providing some glimpses at the truth behind the Doctor.
The Doctor and his two companions, Jaime and Zoe land in what appears to be the middle of a WWI battle field. They hook up with a volunteer ambulance driver and quickly begin to realize that the battle field contains more than just one war. Between being captured, interrogated, and escaping they manage to put together a map of the different "time zones" where the different historical battles are taking place.
The reason behind this elaborate war game and the Doctor's reaction to it continues to have repercussions in the series. The Doctor's reactions to the War Lord and to the planned creation of a super army for some future invasion bring to mind the ninth Doctor's anger. His love for Earth and humanity and his flippant remark about stealing the TARDIS sounds more like sometimes goofy exuberance of the tenth Doctor.
The War Games is also the last appearance of the second Doctor (except for future multiple doctor episodes). His forced regeneration and exile on earth (see Spearhead from Space) makes me wonder if tenth doctor will have a similar fate. We know a regeneration is coming later this year since Tennant has bowed out of the show. The tenth Doctor as portrayed by Tennant has frequently reminded me of the second and third doctors so it wouldn't surprise me if the upcoming regeneration harkens back to The War Games.
The Doctor and his two companions, Jaime and Zoe land in what appears to be the middle of a WWI battle field. They hook up with a volunteer ambulance driver and quickly begin to realize that the battle field contains more than just one war. Between being captured, interrogated, and escaping they manage to put together a map of the different "time zones" where the different historical battles are taking place.
The reason behind this elaborate war game and the Doctor's reaction to it continues to have repercussions in the series. The Doctor's reactions to the War Lord and to the planned creation of a super army for some future invasion bring to mind the ninth Doctor's anger. His love for Earth and humanity and his flippant remark about stealing the TARDIS sounds more like sometimes goofy exuberance of the tenth Doctor.
The War Games is also the last appearance of the second Doctor (except for future multiple doctor episodes). His forced regeneration and exile on earth (see Spearhead from Space) makes me wonder if tenth doctor will have a similar fate. We know a regeneration is coming later this year since Tennant has bowed out of the show. The tenth Doctor as portrayed by Tennant has frequently reminded me of the second and third doctors so it wouldn't surprise me if the upcoming regeneration harkens back to The War Games.
esperata's review
3.0
This is a faithful retelling of the TV series, albeit cutting a few corners to condense the ten part programme into a standard paperback. The main problem with it is that the character interaction that brought the TV episodes to life is missing from the book.
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