Product Description

The TARDIS takes the Doctor and Rose to a destination in deep space - Justicia, a prison camp stretched over seven planets, where Earth colonies deal with their criminals. While Rose finds herself locked up in a teenage borstal, the Doctor is trapped in a scientific labor camp. Each is determined to find the other, and soon both Rose and the Doctor are risking life and limb to escape in their distinctive styles. But their dangerous plans are complicated by some old enemies. Are these creatures fellow prisoners as they claim, or staging a takeover for their own sinister purposes? Featuring the Doctor and Rose as played by Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper in the hit series from BBC Television.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #137231 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Customer Reviews

Return of the Slitheen
The second of the initial three 9th Doctor novels features a momentous occasion that was bafflingly left out of the TV series - the 9th Doctor and Rose's first trip to an alien planet. Despite this momentous event however, it's not long before we're back in familiar territory, as the Doctor and Rose are captured and put into two separate prisons, and all the familiar prison-drama clichés are wheeled out.

Just when it looks as though The Monsters Inside is going to be a dull prison- breakout drama however, the Slitheen turn up, and things become a lot more interesting. Despite a rather nice costume design I'm not 100% convinced by the rather juvenile farting antics of the Slitheen on television, but their ability to disguise themselves as human drives much of the drama and suspense of this novel, with Rose never quite sure just who is human and who isn't. To add to the complexity we also have another family of Raxacoricofallapatorians on the loose, and Cole manages to blur the line between the traditional roles of good guys and bad guys to good effect.

It's by no means perfect, with an overabundance of technobabble and some rather bland supporting characters, but The Monster Inside is a fairly decent effort, and is recommended for all those who are frustrated by the fact that on television a Time Lord with a machine that can travel anywhere in the universe cant seemingly escape Earth's orbit.

A surprise win!
Lovely! I approached this book with a certain amount of ariness, I must admit, after the disappointment of Justin Richard's needlessly complicated and rather condescending though admittedly entertaining Clockwise Men. Steve Cole has hardly been my favorite of Who authors as I usually find his writing to be stilted and dry, overall rather boring prose and difficult to read. Maybe it was the simplicity of writing for a younger audience (which of course they're denying they're doing but is quite obvious from the prologue that manages to explain the Doctor, the TARDIS and the general idea in not offensively simple terms) but I must say, he has pulled off what fellow 9th Doctor authors Rayner and Richards couldn't: a fun story, written in the style of the show with no needlessly complicated or unneccessary side-plots or characters.

The fact that it turns out to be a Slitheen story obviously means a fair amount of humor and most of the rather rude kind (the so-called SCAT-house being my favorite example!) and hearing Rose mention Justicia onscreen in Boom Town gives one a little bit of a smile as if you're in on the joke having read about their adventure within the penal colony system. Seperating the Doctor and Rose at first seems rather sketchy as I wasn't sure if he could manage to make the original characters they're obviously going to have to interact with interesting. And if he made even the smallest mistake with the main characters to begin with, the whole thing would collapse.

I'm happy to report that he doesn't make one misstep in his portayals of the regulars nor in his original characterizations. Flowers in particular was a delight to read about in her interactions with the Doctor, with Dennel coming off less well as a stand in companion for Rose, though not enough to be bothersome.

The plot is wonderfully straightforward though that's not to say it doesn't hold its fair share of surprises. Unlike the muddle of Clockwise Men or the mess of Winner Takes All, this really seems like it could be brought to life on the small screen. Not that it isn't grand in scope but it keeps the tone and the format of the show well in mind.

An overall win! And the hardback format, I must say, was wonderful! I'd like to see BBC use it more in the future!

the doctor and rose learn to fend for themselves!
This book is a great light read where we see the doctor and rose try to cope with out one another. This brings a light relief from rose being miss "Help me doctor!" and instead finding her own two feet fighting to survive. We also get to see the doctor try to be as devious as possible in order to reunite the pair. It gets a bit confusing towards the end but don't let that put you off. The best bit is seeing an old "friend" in the book but i won't spoil it especially the bits where you know that they are right!

Good book which forces the characters to go beyond their normal routine and actually have to shine for themselves - for once! Have fun reading it!