Product Description

A Doctor Who historical adventure. In turn-of-the-century South Africa, aspiring war correspondent Winston Churchill is befriended by two strangers - the Doctor and Peri. Suspecting mysterious forces at work behind the scenes, the Doctor determines to keep a close eye on Churchill's career.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #755886 in Books
• Published on: 1999-04-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 251 pages

Customer Reviews

Marvellously entertaining and spot on
Wallis Simpson and Churchill in a Dr Who book? What could have been a mess is a truly vibrant and excellent book, very funny in parts. Churchill (what a thing to take on!) is quite believable.The story is great.It's an engrossing and well written book with particularly good dialogue. The only sadness one is left with is that the tv series was never allowed to develop to become as good as this because we have here a Doctor that could and should have had as much story time on air as Patrick Macnee in The Avengers. I was quite a Colin Baker fan when he was on tv though I thought the stories started to let him down really badly ESPECIALLY The Two Doctors and the entirely dreadful Trial of a Time Lord. But at the beginning, Attack of the Cybermen showed tremendous potential to return the programme to glory after the very boring Peter Davison years. In Players we have what should have been and of course IS! The Doctor here is arrogant and wistful in the way he was on TV but he has dignity and intelligence and reliability, and not a whiff of the heartlessness and prattishness that the TV story writers gave him.

Great Book. Easy to read. Hard to put down.
This is an excellent book. Terrence Dicks manages to create highly believable characters (e.g. Churchill). The Players of the title are mysterious and deserve another book, to develop their characters. Some great subtle (and some not so subtle) continuity references. A very simple plot is worked out very well and it even features a lengthy cameo by the 2nd Doctor! The Sixth Doctor's character seems to be rather mellower and calm than it was on TV which is probably a good thing, but it does make him harder to relate too as the 6th Doctor. Still, an excellent book and a quick, easy and lightweight read. I wish they all could be like this.

Better work from Dicks
This is Terrance Dicks' best novel for some time. As usual, the author has returned to some of his favourite stomping grounds, including a flashback for the Second Doctor in World War One. The Sixth Doctor and Peri arrive in South Africa just an assassin takes a pot shot at the young Winston Churchill. Having saved Churchill's life, the Doctor believes that more sinister forces are at work, manipulating the actions of the Boers. Hindsight is the Doctor's greatest ally and his greatest fear: how much must he interfere to insure Churchill's future? Events come to the fore in the 1930s, spurred on by the intrigues of the Nazis, accompanied by the mysterious assassin... This is an excellent adventure story, very much in the mould of Indiana Jones or even Colonel Blimp. Familiar faces from the past reappear to aid the Doctor,and the 'Players' may turn out to be very old enemies indeed... Despite believing the Doctor to be an archetypal character, Dicks has got the Sixth Doctor exactly right here. This may even be the Sixth Doctor at his best, and it's a pity that it's never going to be on TV, for Dicks allows the Doctor to ditch that dreadful coat, to be replaced by a costume that Colin Baker might have preferred. 'Players' surpasses 'Exodus': although it employs real life characters from the same period, its overall slant is contrary to the earlier book and far more tasteful. I gave this a high mark because I didn't expect to enjoy it, but I did. However, Terrance Dicks could win higher marks if only he tried to do something a bit more original.