saoki's review against another edition
2.0
This book is a gory mess. A simple storyline turned confusing through an excess of characters and too many scenes where people are just running around and getting lost.
The idea and the setting aren't bad, it's just that for every interesting or inspired thing in the book there is at least one weird word choice, unfortunate sentence or confusing change of point of view (so many points of view. This too was a learning experience). And then, as the story moves towards the end, there are all those scenes that do nothing besides adding some action or killing an unnamed extra and it all feels a bit like a Five Nights at Freddy's novelization.
As a book, it feels like a lowbudget action movie from the 1980's, which could be a very good thing if only the author owned it.
And, yes, I do see how this book seems to have inspired the season finale in series 1 of the modern Doctor Who, though the TV series actually made use of the theme.
By all that I mean, you can safely skip this book, even if you are a 6th Doctor fan. I assure you.
The idea and the setting aren't bad, it's just that for every interesting or inspired thing in the book there is at least one weird word choice, unfortunate sentence or confusing change of point of view (so many points of view. This too was a learning experience). And then, as the story moves towards the end, there are all those scenes that do nothing besides adding some action or killing an unnamed extra and it all feels a bit like a Five Nights at Freddy's novelization.
As a book, it feels like a lowbudget action movie from the 1980's, which could be a very good thing if only the author owned it.
And, yes, I do see how this book seems to have inspired the season finale in series 1 of the modern Doctor Who, though the TV series actually made use of the theme.
By all that I mean, you can safely skip this book, even if you are a 6th Doctor fan. I assure you.
scottishvix's review against another edition
2.0
There were some great ideas in this book but it just doesn't come together well.
Forgetting about the fact that The Evils of Television had already been done during the Sixth Doctor's era (and if you're going to repeat an idea it's better not to keep reminding us of it) there were far too many disparate plot strands and interchangeable characters to keep track of. It took far too long for the plot to really start so by the time it actually gets off the ground the reader just wants to get to the conclusion. Characters are thrown in randomly and there are just so many of them that when they begin to die off you just don't care.
Lyons would have done much better to cut it all down. Get the Doctor off the planet and onto the station more quickly, cut down the cast considerably so you can focus on the gems he does have (Giselle, Kerston and the Mary Whitehouse analog particularly). Get rid of the fans campaigning for the return of their favourite sci-fi time travel show (by making them so annoying and moronic you just annoy the readers, who at the time this was written would have been the fans), the drunken soap actor whose life is falling apart, the second Marston sphere (two of the same thing causing the same peril? Really?) and bloody Bloodsoak Bunny.
Like I said, there were some great ideas and interesting characters here that could have worked in a more streamlined novel. But with too much going on they get lost in the noise.
Forgetting about the fact that The Evils of Television had already been done during the Sixth Doctor's era (and if you're going to repeat an idea it's better not to keep reminding us of it) there were far too many disparate plot strands and interchangeable characters to keep track of. It took far too long for the plot to really start so by the time it actually gets off the ground the reader just wants to get to the conclusion. Characters are thrown in randomly and there are just so many of them that when they begin to die off you just don't care.
Lyons would have done much better to cut it all down. Get the Doctor off the planet and onto the station more quickly, cut down the cast considerably so you can focus on the gems he does have (Giselle, Kerston and the Mary Whitehouse analog particularly). Get rid of the fans campaigning for the return of their favourite sci-fi time travel show (by making them so annoying and moronic you just annoy the readers, who at the time this was written would have been the fans), the drunken soap actor whose life is falling apart, the second Marston sphere (two of the same thing causing the same peril? Really?) and bloody Bloodsoak Bunny.
Like I said, there were some great ideas and interesting characters here that could have worked in a more streamlined novel. But with too much going on they get lost in the noise.
nwhyte's review
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1348972.html#cutid1[return][return]I rather enjoyed this vicious satire on television, including biting swipes at Mary Whitehouse and the cancellation of Old Who in 1989; meanwhile the Doctor, just poist-Trial, is wracked with guilt about Peri and with unease about what will happen when he meets Mel. This is the story that Vengeance on Varos was trying to be. (And also has an eerie pre-echo of The Long Game and Bad Wolf.) Introduction of two companions, one of whom is killed off and the other apparently in another couple of spinoff novels.
nukirisame's review
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
hammard's review
1.0
10 years before this aired Vengeance on Varos, 10 years after we got Bad Wolf. Whilst all three address the growth of sensationalism in television and make an attempt to engage with the audience on a meta level, Time of your Life fails in a way the other two do not. I think it is interesting to look at why:
1. Anger: Whilst this book comes from a place of disgust at the state of television (and also to some extent Doctor Who fandom) in the early 90s. The others come from a place of exploration of the issue and look at what the ramifications of this could be.
2. Format: Whilst Steven Lyons has proved himself to be an adept writer of other Doctor Who novels, here he shows writing action is not his forte. Whilst they may work on screen here they just become increasingly tedious.
3. Structure: The story here however also has structural problems. The first half starts well enough, with exploration and careful introduction of characters leading up to a reveal. However, it then just keeps on at the same level with increasing violence.
4. Depth: Whilst the two tv stories reflect much more complex ideas about society, this one does not have much else to say once you identify what is Coronation Street, which show is Doctor Who and who is Mary Whitehouse in this satire. As such it just becomes more of a time capsule than anything else.
Points in its favour is the characterisation of The Doctor is excellent and it has a good start. But this is not enough to raise it above the Not Recommended level.
1. Anger: Whilst this book comes from a place of disgust at the state of television (and also to some extent Doctor Who fandom) in the early 90s. The others come from a place of exploration of the issue and look at what the ramifications of this could be.
2. Format: Whilst Steven Lyons has proved himself to be an adept writer of other Doctor Who novels, here he shows writing action is not his forte. Whilst they may work on screen here they just become increasingly tedious.
3. Structure: The story here however also has structural problems. The first half starts well enough, with exploration and careful introduction of characters leading up to a reveal. However, it then just keeps on at the same level with increasing violence.
4. Depth: Whilst the two tv stories reflect much more complex ideas about society, this one does not have much else to say once you identify what is Coronation Street, which show is Doctor Who and who is Mary Whitehouse in this satire. As such it just becomes more of a time capsule than anything else.
Points in its favour is the characterisation of The Doctor is excellent and it has a good start. But this is not enough to raise it above the Not Recommended level.
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