A review by plaidbrarian
Doctor Who: Love and War by Paul Cornell

3.0

This book holds a pretty important place in the "canon" of the New Adventures series of Doctor Who novels. It firmly establishes the Seventh Doctor as more than a cosmic chessmaster, but a real manipulator, willing to do whatever is needed to preserve the "good" no matter the cost. It breaks the bond between the Seventh Doctor and Ace, but good. And it introduces Berniece "Benny" Summerfield, a character who rivals many "official" companions in popularity, and indeed proved appealing enough to get her own spin-off series once Virgin Publishing lost the rights to put out books featuring the Doctor himself. And yet, most of what we get here is fungus, moping, and Ace thoroughly rutting a space hippie.

And it's disappointing, because I generally enjoy Paul Cornell's writing, as well as the few other TNAs I've read (as big of a Who fan as I am, I never got into these at the time), but this all seems so very... average. Particularly Benny. I know she becomes a great character, but besides a few moments of personality, she's mostly just there. She doesn't seem "special" enough to come on as the new companion, she just happens to be standing around when the job opens up. Also, I'm confused as to why the Doctor seems kind of Alzheimersy... he seems to keep thinking he's back in his original incarnation, confusing Ace with Susan and Dodo. But, again, I haven't read a lot of these, maybe that's explained elsewhere.

So, yeah, perfectly adequate Doctor Who and all, but not really worthy of the reputation it has achieved/