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art_cart_ron's review against another edition
4.0
A steady, interesting, tense read. Somehow, it manages to have a more dangerous tone than Doctor Who with a sci-fi basis. Everywhere you look, the threat of being shot, hanged, drowned, bayoneted, stabbed, or quartered. It's also refreshing to have a Doctor Who book with the English as the irrational heartless bloodthirsty monsters (seriously, a completely fair description for this and other periods of history). The images in my mind during this read were far more vivid than I imagine the film version was - but I will probably never know for sure, it being one of the many missing stories of the time.
Polly, for the second story in a row, is based on sexuality and attraction being a motivating factor. I can't entirely discredit this as invalid in the series - it's not like social norms are somehow exempt from historical depiction, but the *way* it tends to go with Polly is a little cringe-worthy, and something I don't look forward to my daughters to reading. In the end, it saved everyone's lives... so, urgh, even more complicated.
Happy to have Jamie's introduction settled. He'll have a lot of character growth to go through to become the staid second Doctor companion he's remembered as. I'm hoping that the inclusion is treated honestly, and that he and Ben end up fighting. That Ben groaning at the suggestion of Jamie's inclusion (based largely on his being a source of competition over Polly... yes, this is a soap opera at heart) was a good character moment.
It was also nice to have the strong suggestion that the second Doctor, Ben, and Polly did quite a bit of traveling between Power of the Daleks and Highlanders - - I'm not used to that treatment of time in the early stories. Maybe I'd overlooked it before. Maybe it was added by Gerry Davis. Whatever the case - Enjoyable read!
Polly, for the second story in a row, is based on sexuality and attraction being a motivating factor. I can't entirely discredit this as invalid in the series - it's not like social norms are somehow exempt from historical depiction, but the *way* it tends to go with Polly is a little cringe-worthy, and something I don't look forward to my daughters to reading. In the end, it saved everyone's lives... so, urgh, even more complicated.
Happy to have Jamie's introduction settled. He'll have a lot of character growth to go through to become the staid second Doctor companion he's remembered as. I'm hoping that the inclusion is treated honestly, and that he and Ben end up fighting. That Ben groaning at the suggestion of Jamie's inclusion (based largely on his being a source of competition over Polly... yes, this is a soap opera at heart) was a good character moment.
It was also nice to have the strong suggestion that the second Doctor, Ben, and Polly did quite a bit of traveling between Power of the Daleks and Highlanders - - I'm not used to that treatment of time in the early stories. Maybe I'd overlooked it before. Maybe it was added by Gerry Davis. Whatever the case - Enjoyable read!
trin's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I can't believe the BBC deleted Jamie's first serial, and also deprived us of seeing Two in drag. Jail for one thousand years!
It's kind of amazing to me how firmly this story is on the side of (or at least sympathetic to) the Jacobite rebellion. All of the English characters (except, of course, for our companions Ben and Polly) are evil, or fools, or evil fools. This feels fairly radical to me for the most British of programs.
I wish we'd gotten to see more of Ben and Polly, as Polly in particular seems delightful. Truly, we were robbed.
It's kind of amazing to me how firmly this story is on the side of (or at least sympathetic to) the Jacobite rebellion. All of the English characters (except, of course, for our companions Ben and Polly) are evil, or fools, or evil fools. This feels fairly radical to me for the most British of programs.
I wish we'd gotten to see more of Ben and Polly, as Polly in particular seems delightful. Truly, we were robbed.
futurama1979's review against another edition
4.0
This book is so far outside my normal reading wheelhouse I really didn't know what to expect, but since I liked the serial as a reconstruction and thought it would be great as a more fluid story, I gave it a go. And honestly like. It's not top tier prose or literary genius but it's So Fun. It's fast-paced, full of action, and has stuff that both is true to and expands on the serial version of the story. It did okay with character stuff too, which can be hard without actors' portrayal stuff and voices. Polly was especially great in this.
But yeah honestly it's like a guilty pleasure read for sure but also I was having so much fun whenever I was reading it it was great.
But yeah honestly it's like a guilty pleasure read for sure but also I was having so much fun whenever I was reading it it was great.
saroz162's review against another edition
3.0
This is a perfectly enjoyable mid-range Target novelization, probably slightly elevated by Anneke Wills' very effective audiobook reading.
It's interesting that when I was a kid, this book stood out to me as being particularly good, and as an adult I can't really tell what it is that would have made me judge it so. My guess is that it was simply more detailed than many of the later Terrance Dicks books, and that it told a largely unfamiliar story: I had cassettes of the fan-traded soundtracks of "The Highlanders," but of course it was only possible to discern so much without a narrator or scene-by-scene description.
This book provided the information I was looking for and made it into an entertaining little narrative without any substantive modifications; for an 11-year-old, that was plenty. For an adult, it passes the time admirably enough while folding laundry or doing other light chores. There are other, better options, though, if you want a really cracking Target adventure with the Second Doctor.
It's interesting that when I was a kid, this book stood out to me as being particularly good, and as an adult I can't really tell what it is that would have made me judge it so. My guess is that it was simply more detailed than many of the later Terrance Dicks books, and that it told a largely unfamiliar story: I had cassettes of the fan-traded soundtracks of "The Highlanders," but of course it was only possible to discern so much without a narrator or scene-by-scene description.
This book provided the information I was looking for and made it into an entertaining little narrative without any substantive modifications; for an 11-year-old, that was plenty. For an adult, it passes the time admirably enough while folding laundry or doing other light chores. There are other, better options, though, if you want a really cracking Target adventure with the Second Doctor.
art_cart_ron's review against another edition
4.0
A steady, interesting, tense read. Somehow, it manages to have a more dangerous tone than Doctor Who with a sci-fi basis. Everywhere you look, the threat of being shot, hanged, drowned, bayoneted, stabbed, or quartered. It's also refreshing to have a Doctor Who book with the English as the irrational heartless bloodthirsty monsters (seriously, a completely fair description for this and other periods of history). The images in my mind during this read were far more vivid than I imagine the film version was - but I will probably never know for sure, it being one of the many missing stories of the time.
Polly, for the second story in a row, is based on sexuality and attraction being a motivating factor. I can't entirely discredit this as invalid in the series - it's not like social norms are somehow exempt from historical depiction, but the *way* it tends to go with Polly is a little cringe-worthy, and something I don't look forward to my daughters to reading. In the end, it saved everyone's lives... so, urgh, even more complicated.
Happy to have Jamie's introduction settled. He'll have a lot of character growth to go through to become the staid second Doctor companion he's remembered as. I'm hoping that the inclusion is treated honestly, and that he and Ben end up fighting. That Ben groaning at the suggestion of Jamie's inclusion (based largely on his being a source of competition over Polly... yes, this is a soap opera at heart) was a good character moment.
It was also nice to have the strong suggestion that the second Doctor, Ben, and Polly did quite a bit of traveling between Power of the Daleks and Highlanders - - I'm not used to that treatment of time in the early stories. Maybe I'd overlooked it before. Maybe it was added by Gerry Davis. Whatever the case - Enjoyable read!
Polly, for the second story in a row, is based on sexuality and attraction being a motivating factor. I can't entirely discredit this as invalid in the series - it's not like social norms are somehow exempt from historical depiction, but the *way* it tends to go with Polly is a little cringe-worthy, and something I don't look forward to my daughters to reading. In the end, it saved everyone's lives... so, urgh, even more complicated.
Happy to have Jamie's introduction settled. He'll have a lot of character growth to go through to become the staid second Doctor companion he's remembered as. I'm hoping that the inclusion is treated honestly, and that he and Ben end up fighting. That Ben groaning at the suggestion of Jamie's inclusion (based largely on his being a source of competition over Polly... yes, this is a soap opera at heart) was a good character moment.
It was also nice to have the strong suggestion that the second Doctor, Ben, and Polly did quite a bit of traveling between Power of the Daleks and Highlanders - - I'm not used to that treatment of time in the early stories. Maybe I'd overlooked it before. Maybe it was added by Gerry Davis. Whatever the case - Enjoyable read!
nwhyte's review against another edition
http://nhw.livejournal.com/1028417.html#cutid1[return][return]The best Davis novel I've read so far, though this is not especially high praise. It's one of Polly's better stories, and of course introduces Jamie as a regular; a couple of odd changes of detail from the TV version, but this is basically a narrative that hangs together on its own merits. Unfortunately there is still something of a sense of the author writing down what appears on the screen.
knitchick's review against another edition
5.0
One of my favorite classic Doctor Who novelizations! The Highlanders was the story that introduced Second Doctor companion Jamie MacCrimmon. Unfortunately this is one of the serials that is still missing, so the novelization is the closest we'll come to being able to see this story. It's a shame, reading this entertaining book makes me want to see it on screen even more! A must read for any Jamie fan!!
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