cicadacryptid's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
lollymau's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
alysmw's review against another edition
4.0
Best novelisation of an episode I've come across so far. There was a lot of brilliant writing here and the plot and characters were enthralling.
nwhyte's review against another edition
http://nhw.livejournal.com/1028417.html#cutid3[return][return]A relatively early novelisation here, but not an especially good one. Davis' characterisation is poor (Jamie is thick; Polly is a girlie; the head of the Moonbase is from Yorkshire) and the science of the story still makes no sense. Davis' style must have improved over the years - this and Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet are markedly inferior to Doctor Who - The Highlanders.
nwhyte's review
3.0
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1028417.html#cutid3
A relatively early novelisation here, but not an especially good one. Davis' characterisation is poor (Jamie is thick; Polly is a girlie; the head of the Moonbase is from Yorkshire) and the science of the story still makes no sense. Davis' style must have improved over the years - this and Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet are markedly inferior to Doctor Who - The Highlanders.
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3438699.html
I twitched at a couple of differences. One of them is in the conversation about Lister:
‘Just a minute.’ Polly was beside him, her face looking a little anxious. ‘Are you really a medical doctor?’
The Doctor stopped, thought for a moment, and then brought out his inevitable diary. ‘Yes. I think I did take a medical degree once.’ He opened an early page in the diary and looked. ‘There it is; Edinburgh, 1870! What’s this...’ He looked closely at the entry. ‘... Lister... Mmm...’ He closed the diary, thrust it back into his pocket and turned to the patient.
Lister left Glasgow for Edinburgh in 1869, and remained there for the rest of his career. Between the 1967 broadcast and the 1975 novelisation, someone must have pointed out to Gerry Davis that it would have been impossible for the Doctor to study under Lister in Glasgow in 1888.
Another difference is in the account of the origin of the Cybermen, a desperate attempt to restore continuity with The Tenth Planet (though it's puzzling that Davis thought readers of 1975 would care more about this than viewers in 1967):
Benoit sat down on the edge of the console, his cool self again. ‘But the history books say you were all killed when your planet, MONDAS, exploded in 1986.’
The first Cyberman had moved to a position where he could watch the activity in the Gravitron room. He now turned round to answer Benoit. ‘We were the first space travellers from MONDAS. We left before it was destroyed. We have come from the other Cyberman planet, TELOS.’
The Doctor broke in, ‘Then you know how MONDAS was destroyed?’
The first Cyberman looked at him. ‘Yes, and we know what part you played in that. We have returned to take the power you used to destroy MONDAS.’
This represents one line of the TV script where Benoit says "But you were all killed!"
A relatively early novelisation here, but not an especially good one. Davis' characterisation is poor (Jamie is thick; Polly is a girlie; the head of the Moonbase is from Yorkshire) and the science of the story still makes no sense. Davis' style must have improved over the years - this and Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet are markedly inferior to Doctor Who - The Highlanders.
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3438699.html
I twitched at a couple of differences. One of them is in the conversation about Lister:
‘Just a minute.’ Polly was beside him, her face looking a little anxious. ‘Are you really a medical doctor?’
The Doctor stopped, thought for a moment, and then brought out his inevitable diary. ‘Yes. I think I did take a medical degree once.’ He opened an early page in the diary and looked. ‘There it is; Edinburgh, 1870! What’s this...’ He looked closely at the entry. ‘... Lister... Mmm...’ He closed the diary, thrust it back into his pocket and turned to the patient.
Lister left Glasgow for Edinburgh in 1869, and remained there for the rest of his career. Between the 1967 broadcast and the 1975 novelisation, someone must have pointed out to Gerry Davis that it would have been impossible for the Doctor to study under Lister in Glasgow in 1888.
Another difference is in the account of the origin of the Cybermen, a desperate attempt to restore continuity with The Tenth Planet (though it's puzzling that Davis thought readers of 1975 would care more about this than viewers in 1967):
Benoit sat down on the edge of the console, his cool self again. ‘But the history books say you were all killed when your planet, MONDAS, exploded in 1986.’
The first Cyberman had moved to a position where he could watch the activity in the Gravitron room. He now turned round to answer Benoit. ‘We were the first space travellers from MONDAS. We left before it was destroyed. We have come from the other Cyberman planet, TELOS.’
The Doctor broke in, ‘Then you know how MONDAS was destroyed?’
The first Cyberman looked at him. ‘Yes, and we know what part you played in that. We have returned to take the power you used to destroy MONDAS.’
This represents one line of the TV script where Benoit says "But you were all killed!"
halftimelord's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-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
3.0
simsbrarian's review against another edition
4.0
This was an entertaining novelization of the 2nd Doctor episode. The reader (Anneke Wells; actress who played Polly) was good with voices and having the Cybermen voiced by Nicholas Briggs (voice of the new series Cybermen) was a fun bonus for me. The downside: the plot is very thin and, as often happens when the focus is on "action" instead of thoughtful or clever moments; pretty illogical
The Doctor, Ben, Polly, and Jaime land on the moon. Unbeknownst to them; at about the same time, Cybermen ALSO land on the moon. And everyone is headed for the domed space station from which the humans are guiding and controlling the Earth's weather patterns. I will say that the audiobook of the novelization was an improvement over the actual episode as some of the scripting is very flat and boring on screen.
Spoiler
The Cybermen profess to want to destroy Earth because humans may, at some point, again be a threat to them. Eliminate all future threats, sort of thing. So they head to the weather-control station the humans have up on the moon. When this base's "gravitron" goes just a BIT wonky; huge weather problems start occurring on Earth. But instead of just saying "Oh; okay; awesome. We'll just destroy the base and this gravitron and let the huge mega-storms destroy humanity and wipe up the dregs that remain" the Cybermen try to push forward some extremely strange plot involving poisoning the sugar to seed "agents" on the inside and, by the end, cajoling the men to let them in the front door before they count to 10 or they'll blow the place up! Very "how to negotiate with toddlers" and silly but entertaining. For a certain value of entertainment!The Doctor, Ben, Polly, and Jaime land on the moon. Unbeknownst to them; at about the same time, Cybermen ALSO land on the moon. And everyone is headed for the domed space station from which the humans are guiding and controlling the Earth's weather patterns. I will say that the audiobook of the novelization was an improvement over the actual episode as some of the scripting is very flat and boring on screen.
lordofthemoon's review against another edition
3.0
Although I read the Target Doctor Who novelisations voraciously as a youngster, I never found this one in the local library. To date, I've not watched the TV story that this is based on (although given that the missing episodes of that story have been replaced by animation, I probably should) so can't compare the two. This is early in the second Doctor's era, so Jamie has just joined the Tardis crew, but there's still no excuse for making him as stupid as Davis does. I think Polly also isn't served well, but I don't know if that's Davis or Kit Pedler (who wrote the original story) at fault. Still, it's workmanlike and entertaining for a couple of hours.
More...