Product Description

The fifth Doctor Who takes Tegan and Turlough to Tayborough Sands for a holiday, which is cut short when the crew of a boat are found slaughtered. Tempers are fraying in Tayborough, violent incidents are at an all-time high, and holiday-makers are being transformed into strange monsters.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #765836 in Books
• Published on: 1999-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Customer Reviews

Unsettling and grim - but absolutely brilliant
Firstly I must say, the characterisations in this book are excellent. From the 5th Doctor right through the Tegan, Turlough and onwards they're all top notch, ditto for the guest cast. When faced with the horrifying situation that they all end up in, this only adds to to drama and the excitement. The writer has added little flairs and touches to all the regular characeters we're already familiar with, making them seem exactly as we remember them - especially Tegan and Turlough, and in particular the 5th Doctor. As the book gets grimmer and even more bleak and -dare I say it- actually scarier as it goes on, you just have to turn the page to see what's going to happen next because the plot is so compelling (if slightly familiar to many sci-fi buffs). After finishing it, I let out a huge sigh of relief and then contemplated what had happened - it's exhaustingly thrilling to read. It definitely ISNT typical Doctor Who and I can see why people say it isnt, but whether you like it or not will depend on your own personal taste. We'd never have seen an episode like this onscreen because it is much too sinister for the tea-time audience... but my, what a rush. A must-read for 5th Doctor fans.

So like the series, you�ll have to read it behind the sofa.
From dashing young officer to eco-terrorist to wannabe Buddhist in the space of three stories, Captain Mike Yates enjoyed a remarkable character development for a Doctor Who companion. Deep Blue is an attempt to fill in the blanks between the Boy's Own-style Mike Yates who appeared as the man from the ministry in The Green Death and the 'traitor' who pulled a gun on the Doctor in The Invasion of the Dinosaurs.

It also neatly pairs him up with a Doctor not dissimilar to himself in terms of manner, appearance and outward age - number five, to be precise. This calls for a little creative jiggery-pokery - what are the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Turlough doing in a Pertwee-era UNIT adventure? - but Morris handles it well. There's a touch of Robert Holmes about his style: the premise might not be the most startling or original (this is that old chestnut about little green men) but the pacing, insight and, above all, characterisation lift it to another level. Personally, I haven't watched a Fifth Doctor adventure since The Caves of Androzani was broadcast so I was stunned by the way he, Tegan and Turlough, and the UNIT regulars for that matter, sprang to life before my eyes. I know, I know - every reviewer seems to say that about these new BBC novels. But that's what puts them above other TV/movie tie-in novels: the original TV characters were so memorably written and acted that, unless the author makes a complete hash of it, the reader finds them coming to life again with very little mental effort on his or her part.

As for the set-up, well it's those damned alien invaders again, this time plaguing an English seaside resort. Why do aliens keep trying to invade Earth in the late twentieth century? Surely it's becoming a bit passe, like an intergalactic Majorca. I mean, everyone goes there. Why not try somewhere a little off the tourist trail, like Mondas or Skaro? Anyway, Morris tells the story well - suspenseful build-up in the first part, all-out action in the second - and brings a neat twist at the end. His division of the book into four large chapters, following the classic four-episode format of the series, is a nice touch too.

Deep Blue is a corking read and I suspect, like those late night Pertwee/Baker video sessions some of us indulge in, an excuse to wallow in a little seventies nostalgia. It also raises the galling thought that somewhere, in a parallel universe, Doctor Who is still on the air in that magical tea-time slot and, thanks to digital effects and a new generation of script writers like Morris, McIntee, Perry and Tucker, enjoying another long-overdue golden age.

Haven't read it in a while, but...
Inspired by the magnificent Bodysnatchers (another Dr Who title from Mark Morris), I thought I'd read this, his second contribution to the series. As in Bodysnatchers, here he revels in the ability to concoct the most stomach churningly disgusting scenarios, happy in the knowledge that it never has to be made. The joys of writing over filming, perhaps.

And there's PLENTY of blood and guts to worry about. Limbs fly, huge spider things (Xaranti I think they're called) clamber around ripping people apart... the book STARTS with somebody dying messily on a boat. Natured the Doctor and chums turn up, get involved (with ex UNIT guy Mike, before or after his transition to becoming a Monk, I'm not sure...) and Tegan meets a guy. This guy dies... messily of course... along with a huge portion of the population of the town they're in. It gets to quite chaotically messy levels, and yet ends in a limp, painfully half-arsed way.

Yes, the Doctor asks the alien leader to leave. And the aliens leave, presto. Memories are erased, and everything's peachy. Er, did I miss something? Hundreds are dead, blood's everywhere, and he just ASKS them to go away? It's such a huge cop-out after a moderately impressive gore-fest. Still, the book is enjoyable for the most part: "There's a monster on the beach, sir!" This would have been an impressively adult TV episode, were it not rounded off with such a lame resolution.