Customer Reviews

Bunker Soldiers (Doctor Who)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The TARDIS arrives in Kiev in 1240, where they are separated from the TARDIS. What will be the greatest threat to the Doctor, Steve and Dodo - the fast approach Mongol horde, the dark angel below the city, or the palace intrigues?

It has been quite a while since a First Doctor novel was published, and so 'Bunker Soldiers' is quite welcome. Martin Day projects the atmosphere of the Hartnell era - things happen a slow pace and a great feeling in doomed inevitability hangs over the book.

The book is written from two perspectives: a third person for a large portion, but interspersed with Steven Taylor as the narrator. This helps bring Steven's character to life and, with actor Peter Purves narrating the lost Hartnell stories on CD, it is easy to imagine him doing so.

The main problem is Dodo - she really doesn't have much to do in this book. However, there is an excellent bit for Dodo quite late in the book when it becomes possible that her actions may later inspire a great tragedy, which causes Dodo a great degree of distress.

Hopefully it won't be so long until the next First Doctor novel arrives.

The 1st Doctor, Steven, and Dodo arrive in the city of Kiev in 1240, a city doomed to be overrun by Mongol hordes. Steven and the government of Kiev plead with the Doctor to help them deter their enemies. The Doctor refuses, not daring to change the course of established history. But in the city of Kiev, other citizens are preparing their own fight against the Mongols. Actions which might very well force the Doctor to interfere....

It is a shame that more William Hartnel 1st Doctor stories are not written. The 1st Doctor, and that period of Doctor Who, is so unique to the series. It has it's own style, feel, and unique charms. "Bunker Soldiers" re-establishes this feel very well: The Doctor is a mysterious stranger, with an almost alien morality and ideology, and eventually persues actions that seem impossible to achieve. Steven has his own strong part to play in this story. He delves into Kiev's society uncovering other secrets. Dodo is not given much to do (which is fine, I never liked her anyway). The story itself is chilling and terrifying, with the inevitable doom of Mongols, and the inexplicable terror that roams the halls of Kiev. "Bunker Soldiers" is a good read of the Hartnell era. I'm glad I bought it.

Let's get the preliminaries out of the way: "Bunker Soldiers" is not the best Doctor Who book ever written. It's not even the best First Doctor book ever written.

It just seems to be.

"Bunker Soldiers" comes along at a wonderful time: there hasn't been a First Doctor adventure in about a year and a half, and the two Past Doctor books before "BS" in the schedule were excessively silly, or continuity-heavy.

But Martin Day writes a simple, stripped down morality tale, centered around a minor historical event, the Mongol destruction of Kiev in the 13th century. As he Doctor tries to reason with the bloodthirsty and strangely honor-bound Khan, Steven and Dodo are besieged in Kiev and hunted by a strange angelic (or demonic) presence. Meanwhile, several citizens of Kiev grapple with problems of faith and mortality.

This "bunker soldier" stalking Kiev may indeed turn out to be some rationally-explained robot, with lots of wires and a remote control. But in the novel, it really fulfills the role of Death. It's a stark symbol, and while not as memorable as Death in "The Seventh Seal", it's comfortably close.

"Bunker Soldiers" is fast and blunt and neither too skimpy nor heavy on detail. It's not the perfect First Doctor novel, but at times, it sure seems to be.

I liked Martin Day's other Doctor Who book "The Wooden Heart", but felt he fell a bit short of the mark with this book. It really drug in places, and the Doctor was absent from a lot of the story. I also got a bit frustrated by some of the characters, as I had trouble imagining anyone acting they way they acted. I mean, it is a Doctor novel so I don't expect everyone to behave rationally, but some of the actions were over the top.

Some of the plot devices were a bit tired. Evil priests, attacking ruthless warlords, insane nobleman, been there done that. Even the aliens weren't all that interesting.

My biggest complaint though was the lack of use of the TARDIS, one of the greatest plot devices of all time (the ability to regenerate being a close second). I think the TARDIS appeared in all of four pages.

If you are really wanting a first Doctor story, this will be a nice way to fill your need. But if you are looking for something fast paced with lots of time travel, you'll be disappointed and should probably check out Day's other book.

I can't imagine how many times the authors of these books have to watch the original episodes in order to get the feel of everything right. Each era of "Doctor Who" in one way or another reflects the time and the state of television drama that existed when it was made, meaning that stories involving the First Doctor tend to evoke the serial style of those episodes, more stagey, with a definite deliberate pace. Trying to write a First Doctor story in the more flashy style of the new adventures would just seem weird, the Doctor isn't designed for that kind of story. He's less hyper, more thoughtful, tending to rely on his friends more. While it would be interesting for someone to attempt to write a, say, First Doctor adventure in the more gothic space stylings of the Fourth Doctor's era (or a Douglas Adams era feel), that honor would probably go to more ambitious and experimental folks, most of whose efforts probably wouldn't go over so well with the general fanbase. What can I say, we like our comforts.

This effort, however, is not so bad.

Sometimes the best you can hope for with this line of novels is some solid storytelling and that isn't darning with faint praise. A well told tale from start to finish can at least pass the time and here the author manages to keep all the parts moving without getting too off-track. The situation is fairly simple, and utterly dire . . . the Doctor, Steven and Dodo are trapped in Kiev, which itself isn't so bad, except its right before a Mongol horde is about to descend and pretty much flatten the city. If things weren't bad enough, some of the more enterprising townsfolk have summoned aid, but they didn't get what they expected and now the aid is going around murdering people apparently at random. Oops.

Given that the reason they don't leave right away is patently absurd (the Doctor is basically being stubborn and doesn't want to open the TARDIS so that the locals can get into it, since they are very interested . . . given the situation I can't imagine he couldn't figure out a ruse to sneak in there) the book manages to not call attention to that too much and get a lot of mileage out of the doomed scenario, with a lot of the scenes coming across as atmospheric as the townspeople get ready for their certain deaths to be handed to them courtesy of the oncoming horde. It adds a certain fatalism to the whole thing and gives an air of desperation. It's perfect for the Doctor, who tries to talk his way out of everything, getting in good with the authorities and even trying to talk the Mongols out of destroying everything in sight if they can avoid it. Steven, meanwhile, acquits himself well and proves how nice it would be to have an actual adult on the TARDIS again (I like Rory and all, but Steven Taylor and Ian Chesterton would probably laugh at him in a polite, British manner). For some reason, he narrates quite a few chapters, which does give us a nice break from the constant third person perspective, but no real insights into him beyond what we already knew. It's not too clear why the author does this other than for a change of pace, but it certainly doesn't detract.

The sticking point is Dodo. She wasn't very useful in the days when she was actually on the show (not Jackie Lane's fault, I'm sure, they probably didn't give her much to work with) and this adventure is no exception, where nobody seems to know what to do with her. Her main contribution is giving the governor the idea of tossing diseased corpses over the walls to hold off the Mongols, although it really only ticks them off. Otherwise she mostly hangs out with one of the other lady characters and doesn't even get into any real trouble.

It doesn't hurt that the supporting cast aren't all wet blankets, a nice mix of people that don't make you keep turning the pages hoping for the regulars to come back. They're not totally three-dimensional but nothing embarrassing is going on, either. There's an attempt to graft a bit of a Romeo and Juliet type plot between two of the younger characters whose fathers hate each other, but once the resident alien starts killing anyone within reach, that falls by the wayside. They do seem cute together, however.

There's also an evil archbishop but he doesn't figure too much into this.

The alien isn't the world's most exciting either. His early scenes are extremely creepy, but for the most part he/she/it acts as a cipher, moving the plot along without really contributing to it. When it does most of its damage the Doctor isn't around and when he gets back he makes short work of it by figuring out what its purpose is. There are interspersed scenes that are apparently from its point of view that will tell you about its true nature long before the characters figure it out, but mostly it just tells people, impersonates others and generally gives us a reason for the plot twists. The way I describe it makes it sound not exciting at all but the author has a knack for managing to keep the whole story moving so that even when you know the outcome (let's just say Kiev won't be a vacation spot again for a while) watching everyone move around in their assigned roles is still fun. Keeping the alien basically offscreen (perhaps as a nod to the so-so special effects of the era, I can imagine the Mongol horde being depicted via stock footage from some other war movie) allows him to focus on the more human drama about to happen which in its way makes it remarkably close in spirit to the era its trying to entertain us with.

I grew up with the Fourth to Seventh Doctors. The First Doctor I grew to like as I got older. He's one of my faves now. When I was younger the Target novelizations were fun, little dull at times; most of them pointless now that you can watch the surviving episodes whenever you want in other media.

When I got back into Who with the relaunch, I checked out some of the original novels, from the off-air period, and the show's new run. They're never that interesting to me. The recent Moorcock book was a real let-down. And I was questioning if I would ever be interested in any new adventures.

This book changed my thinking. Author gets the voice of the Doctor and his companions spot on; on the surface it plays like a Hartnell historical; it takes advantage of the novel format to give historical detail the show couldn't have (even with the bloated length of some of the old serials); the human cast and story is engaging; and there is an alien story more in keeping with the post-70s Who.

It all comes together nicely and holds its own with the televised content.

I'm glad the Kindle makes it possible budget-wise to reissue this book. More reissues!

And more Hartnells please! (Moff, CGI a 1st Doctor/Matt Smith crossover!)

If you like the Doctors adventures in the past, enjoy Russian history and/or are simply a fan of the First Doctor, you'll love this book. Fans of the current Doctor or even more action oriented Doctors of the past may not appreciate the William Hartnell version who is much more an observer and traveler than he is a time-traveling super hero as Christopher Eccleston or David Tennant were or a protector of children as Matt Smith is. Even though I only came to the Doctor in his modern guise I really appreciated the simpler, more passive yet thoughtful, original Doctor.

I enjoyed this book a lot. It told a good story, and put a little history in with it. The history was changed a little, to make a better story, but I still enjoyed it. All the characters were well done in my opinion. I like the Dr Who stories that go into history, and put the Doctor in there somehow. Learn a little, and have a good sci-fi story. A good Doctor who novel, I would recommend it.

This adventure is a very boring adventure with the 1st Doctor,Steven and Dodo. The novel is adventure dealing with human history. There are no aliens etc! This novel put me to sleep which is a rare thing for a Doctor Who novel to do!! Avoid it or check it out at local library before you buy it!!