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A review by scottishvix
Doctor Who and the Keys of Marinus by Philip Hinchcliffe
2.0
This is a bog standard classic Doctor Who novelisation. Unlike some of the others I've read recently, it simply rushes through what happens in the episode, with no time for reflection or getting into the character's heads.
That isn't Hinchcliffe's fault. For one thing, I think he's a far better televison script writer and editor than he is a novelist. But all these novelisations were written by the series writers and script editors and I think it was expected that he would do his part. For another, this was not a story he scripted. It was actually a Terry Nation script from long before Hinchcliffe joined the team. And there's the simple size of the book. These books were supposed to be short. And that works for shorter stories. But for a six episode story there's a lot to cram into a short space and the first thing that gets thrown out is introspection.
Hinchcliffe does get some bonus points from me for using "lugs" as a descriptive term in the third person narrative. I've never seen that in a book outside a colloquial term used by a character and it made me smile.
That isn't Hinchcliffe's fault. For one thing, I think he's a far better televison script writer and editor than he is a novelist. But all these novelisations were written by the series writers and script editors and I think it was expected that he would do his part. For another, this was not a story he scripted. It was actually a Terry Nation script from long before Hinchcliffe joined the team. And there's the simple size of the book. These books were supposed to be short. And that works for shorter stories. But for a six episode story there's a lot to cram into a short space and the first thing that gets thrown out is introspection.
Hinchcliffe does get some bonus points from me for using "lugs" as a descriptive term in the third person narrative. I've never seen that in a book outside a colloquial term used by a character and it made me smile.