A review by hammard
Doctor Who: The Romance of Crime by Gareth Roberts
2.0
When I tried to remember this story two things stuck out to me; Ogrons running around a space station and Stokes. Revisiting this book these are still two of the most memorable factors but also the most problematic.
The Ogrons were undeveloped heavies in Jon Pertwee era that could just slot into any story but there appearance and speech patterns made the dangerously close to stereotypes of black people. Here Roberts dives head-first into this. They are cartoonishly stupid (due to their evolution), described as being a slave race and impossible to tell apart from each other. The entire experience is unpleasant to read.
Menlove Stokes is a cliche of the self-important artist but the problem comes in where hes is constantly really creepy over Romana. Once might have been close to amusing but how often it happens it becomes distasteful to read.
On top of this the female characters in this story are just appallingly treated, Romana spends much of the story been captured or shooting Ogrons, Madeline is said to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown and Xais is a violent murderer. The only other one mentioned is Spiggot's unnamed family which he constantly mentions.
What does raise this up is Robert's strong dialogue and understanding of structure of stories of this era. This moves it up from being a terrible novel to being a really bad Doctor Who story that could just about fit into the era (albeit with added violence, gore, racism and misogyny)
The Ogrons were undeveloped heavies in Jon Pertwee era that could just slot into any story but there appearance and speech patterns made the dangerously close to stereotypes of black people. Here Roberts dives head-first into this. They are cartoonishly stupid (due to their evolution), described as being a slave race and impossible to tell apart from each other. The entire experience is unpleasant to read.
Menlove Stokes is a cliche of the self-important artist but the problem comes in where hes is constantly really creepy over Romana. Once might have been close to amusing but how often it happens it becomes distasteful to read.
On top of this the female characters in this story are just appallingly treated, Romana spends much of the story been captured or shooting Ogrons, Madeline is said to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown and Xais is a violent murderer. The only other one mentioned is Spiggot's unnamed family which he constantly mentions.
What does raise this up is Robert's strong dialogue and understanding of structure of stories of this era. This moves it up from being a terrible novel to being a really bad Doctor Who story that could just about fit into the era (albeit with added violence, gore, racism and misogyny)