Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #260469 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-19
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Synopsis
'We are the Nestenes. We have been colonising other planets for a thousand million years.' In the 111th century, nostalgia is everything. TV from the 20th century is the new obsession, and Reef Station One is receiving broadcasts from a distant Earth of the past. Dixon of Dock Green and Z-Cars are ratings winners - and the inhabitants of the New Earth Republic can't get enough. But there are other forces that need Reef Station One. An ancient but dying race sees this human outpost as a last hope for survival...and millionaire Walter J Matheson III sees it as a marvellous business opportunity. When the Doctor and Peri arrive they find a fractured society dependent on film and TV. They also discover that the Republic's greatest entrepreneur is in league with one of the Doctor's oldest enemies. The Doctor and Peri must unravel the link between Matheson's business empire and the Nestenes. Because if they don't, they could end up in the deadliest soap opera of all time...

Customer Reviews

A great read!
A great story, interesting and fast moving, and it actually makes perfect sense which is a nice change. The plot is refreshingly straightforward, sometimes creepy, frequently very funny. One of the more enjoyable and worthy adventures in the series

"Peri,nostalgia is best left where it belongs. In the past.”
Synthespians is a readable but ultimately very unambitious novel. The Autons return, but despite the promising field of plastic surgery nothing particular new or interesting is done with them, instead we have a very traditional ‘romp’ as the 6th Doctor and Peri fight off alien invasions (yawn), a megalomaniac James Bond-style arch villain (yawn), in a very basic Target-level adventure. The background setting of trophy wives and backstabbing Dynasty/Dallas soap opera characters is interesting, but shifting the action into a retro-obsessed planetoid 8,000 years into the future is questionable. A light basic read, with a few good Doctor Who in-jokes, but unless you have a burning necessity to read another story with Autons walking round shooting people this is unessential stuff.

A so-so book
This is one of those books that you think is going to be sooo good.And then its release gets delayed and you want it even more.Finally, it gets into the local bookstores, you pick up your copy and rush home to start reading what potentially sounds like the best Who book ever.And a few days later you realise you were wrong.Don't misunderstand me,this book has its merits and can be fun at certain points, but there is far to much referencing to other adventures to keep the plot moving.I find that if you're going to reference things in the Whouniverse(patent pending)then you should do it on the sly, rather then slapping it in someone's face. I can't help but think that if Justin Richards or Lance Parkin or Steve Lyons had written this,I would have been happier.Instead, I'm mildly content.