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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A disappointment with too little Interference, May 8, 2001
This review is from: The Ancestor Cell (Doctor Who) (Paperback)
This novel is a disappointment. It is one for completists attempting to tie together lines of continuity. However, this is not one for the casual fan. It gives the necessary back story to the eighth Doctor's exile to Earth in The Burning and subsequent stories (including the wonderful Turing Test), but in some ways it is better left unread. But saying that, this is one of the most important of the new eighth Doctor adventures in the series of Doctor Who novels. It is important for the very reasons that make it inaccessible to the casual reader. It is important because of the pivotal position it has in the continuity of the eighth Doctor series of novels. It comes at the end of an arc of stories beginning with Lawrence Miles controversial Interference. Interference is a wonderfully written complex two part novel. It deals with big questions of memory and death. It develops Miles' creation the Faction Paradox, a race bent on meddling with established history. But, for the Doctor Who fan Interference is important because in this book Miles interfered with Doctor Who orthodoxy, overturning established myhology from the original television series. However, Interference caused the editorial team for the series a problem. While Miles was bursting with ideas, writing his novels as part of an established series caused problems for those that followed. Miles had tampered with the Doctor's character, making him an agent for a villainous race; he had killed off an established character (although reintorudcing them in a subtly different form); he had introduced a new companion, Compassion, that in the Miles mythology was to become a walking talking living time machine. At some point, though, somebody had to deal with the implications of Miles' approach. And editorially, it was decided that the interference Miles had caused should be ditched. However, rather than doing this casually in a series of novels, it was decided that one novel would address all of the continuity issues. The Ancestor Cell (co-written by the then editorial adviser) was that novel. Abrief summary of the plot illustrates the complexity. It is set on Galifrey, the Doctor's home planet. This is a Galifrey awash with fear, where the Faction Paradox has become increasingly influential. The Doctor's companion Romana is President of the Time Lords of Galifrey and is attempting to get the Doctor's new time machine in order to protect Galifrey. Also a mysterious edifice has appeared in the skies above Galifrey, inhabited by a series of bone spiders, and seemingly the prison for one aspect of the Doctor's past selves. Also cast into the mix are an impossibly elderly version of a past companion of the Doctor, and the Grandfather of the Faction Paradox cult. The Doctor has to deal with these various aspects. So many different plot and continuity strands do not make for a happy story, and this novel is confused and convoluted. The conflation of two different writing styles does not help either, the approach reminiscent of the story told of an old Doctor Who story, The Dalek Masterplan, where the script writers each week attempted to conjure a more outrageous cliffhanger to see how thier colleague would get out of it. Too many subsidiary characters fight for limelight. And while there are some wonderful cameos, the past Lord President of the Time Lords is a wonderful memorable character, the principals - especially the ill used Compassion, a companion of the Doctor, are badly used, as if the wirters are embarrassed about having to deal with the character. Perhaps its problem is that it is too ambitious, but as the end of an era in the stories - the influence of Miles' mythology; and Cole's editorship; as well as ... (well, that would be telling) - it is ultimately a huge disappointment. So, one for completists, not for fans. And if you want to read how this sort of ambitious work should be written within a long running series then you should try Lawrence Miles' Interference or Dead Romance. Both have ambitious scope, but handled by a thoughtful, and careful writer.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Much better than I was expecting, May 17, 2001
This review is from: The Ancestor Cell (Doctor Who) (Paperback)
I've read nasty review after nasty review of this book on seeral online forums. I purchased it partly because I'm a sad completist, but mostly because I didn't belive that anything with Peter Anghelides' hand in it could turn out all bad. It seems I was correct. In many ways, this book is a lot of fun. Seeing the Doctor slowly turn into an enemy agent against his will is fascinating. Also, the insidious nature of the plot Faction Paradox is running against the Time Lords is breath-taking. There are some truly marvellous scenes where bits of Time Lord history are whittled away piece by piece with no one but Fitz noticing. It's creepy stuff. On top of that, the controversial aspects of the novel don't bother me at all. Change is part of an ongoing serial. Fans who can't accept that would be better off going over their favorite serials/novels rather than railing against the new direction in the books. (Besides, anyone who thinks that some of these changes aren't going to be undone in the future are extremely naive.) The Doctor is wonderful in this book. Compassion seems like an afterthought, which is odd considering how badly most of the other characters try to capture her. I also have to admit that I guessed the nature of the artifact about ten pages into the book, so that was somewhat predictable. Fitz veers from nightmarishly gauche to fantastic, so no change there. If you're biased against taking things in a new direction (or biased towards Lawrence Miles), parts of this book will probably bother you. Regardless, it's a good read, better in fact than the post "Caught On Earth" books I've read (_Earthworld_, _Vanishing Point_).
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The arc comes to an unsatisfying end, November 1, 2001
This review is from: The Ancestor Cell (Doctor Who) (Paperback)
I've been waiting to read The Ancestor Cell for a long time. It has never shown up at the usual place I buy Doctor Who books, so I finally broke down and bought it when I was in the States. Given everything I had heard about the book, I had really low expectations going in. Given those expectations, I actually enjoyed it quite a lot. It's nowhere near classic Who, and there are a lot of problems with it, but I did end up finding it worth my time. The thing that did it for me was the characterization of Fitz. I've had the benefit of reading a lot of Post-Earth-Arc books with Fitz in them, so perhaps that coloured my view a little. Anyway, Fitz is extremely well done in this one. For awhile, I really found the constant "womanizing" of Fitz extremely annoying. Every time he looked at Tarra, Romana or any of the other women characters, he was constantly thinking of how they looked, how he would follow those legs anywhere, etc. It got on my nerves. However, as the book wore on, I started to realize something. This was Fitz's coping mechanism because he's scared spitless throughout the book. The events are too much for one human to handle, and he's taking refuge in what he's always done: going after the ladies. It also sets him up for a horrific revelation later on in the book involving one of those women, which might not have been as powerful if it hadn't been set up by Fitz ogling her earlier in the book. The other really good character is somebody who's "related" to Fitz. I really ended up caring what happened to him, and his sense of betrayal. I thought he was going to be a stock character, but he turned out not to be. Unfortunately, I can't go into any more detail without spoilers. You'll know who I'm talking about when you read it, though. The Doctor is also well-characterized, but he's not really anything special. He does Doctorly things, he has to make a momentous decision that can have drastic consequences. He's able to make that decision because of the direction the Eighth Doctor books was going to be changing, so at least it's not a reset-button issue. The Faction Paradox come across as run of the mill villains in this book, which is a shame after the set-up Lawrence Miles gave them. In this book, they're more of a "Nothing can stop me now!!!!" sort of villain. I swear I could almost see one of them twirling a moustache at times. It really let the book down, I think. It's too bad Miles couldn't finish the story that he started. I'm not a big fan of his, and it may have been just as bland, but it would have been nice to see what Miles would have done with his creations. Instead, we get a stock story that really doesn't go anywhere and the only reason it goes as far as it does is due to editorial fiat. Too bad, but it's still an enjoyable read. Just don't go in expecting a masterpiece.
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