Customer Reviews

Byzantium! (Doctor Who)

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

 

 

Well, this was a very unexpected delight. I expected a book set in the Roman era to be large on heathen practises and short on anything that could be described as spiritual but the author proved me wrong in a well researched and well developed book. Nice characterization, a strong sense of history and some beautiful prose (there's a particular chapter three quarters of the way through the book that deals with a myriad of peripheral characters that's very cinematic). Keith Topping appears to be one of the great chameleons of Doctor Who fiction - writing horror (The Hollow Men, coauthored with Martin Day), spy fiction (The King of Terror) and, here, straight historical, with equal ease. Colored in broad strokes, but with subtle moments, Byzantium is a real winner.

This Doctor Who novel was very exciting to me. The time period, and its brutality made for a great story to me. I think the way the characters got seperated and then somehow get brought back together was a little far fetched, but.....I put that aside and read the story for what it was. The thirst for power by the Romans and the Jews, and their brutality towards the Christians was probably very close to the the way the people thought in that time period. The one thing I never liked about Dr Who novels, is the high amount of death that is associated with them usually. So many interesting characters tend to be murdered. But, again, I put that aside and enjoyed the novel for the time travelling fun that it was. If you are thinking about buying this book, I say go ahead, and then enjoy the read.

I was all set to go all Continuity Cop on this one and point that the Doctor, Vicki, Ian and Barbara had already gone on a Roman adventure when they first met . . . fortunately for the author he does have a line toward the end explaining how the two adventures fit together. This creates its own logistical problems but to go into that would probably be a bit nitpicky for a show that isn't exactly tight with its own continuity linkages and a bit beyond the scope of what we're trying to do here. Plus, this book gives me plenty of other material to talk about.

Ever see "The Romans"? First Doctor four-parter, pretty decent. The gang romps around Rome, gets involved with Nero and gladiators and lions and intrigue. It's pretty good, and also quite funny. But something about it must have not sat right with the author, who seems to go out of his way to ensure that the world has a "serious" Roman adventure in the "Who" canon as well, as if the farcical sense of humor that serial displayed was somewhat out of place and thus had to be rectified. And oh boy, does it.

The plot here is vastly simple . . . the crew lands in Byzantium, proceeds to explore the city and then gets separated in the midst of a violent uprising. They then spend the rest of the book apart engaging in separate activities. That's more or less the plot. Unlike some of the serials where the crew was thrown into separate plots that eventually connected, or showed different facets of the same central plot, the book basically has them doing four separate things until the book is over and they have to get back together. Barbara winds up with the Pharisees, Ian winds up in a Roman house, Vicki ends up with the Greeks and the Doctor hangs out with some Christians. Ostensibly the central plot has to do with a Roman general doing some house-cleaning as the conspiracies and plots spin all around the cast but what makes this galling is that the regular crew has a very limited effect on any of this. Their tasks are to more or less spin their wheels until events conspire to get them all back together in the space of twenty pages.

In the meantime, what are we treated to? Apparently the author did some very extensive research (judging by the references listed in the back) to ensure that the setting was accurate so once again we're treated to an author showing off said research by cramming as much of it into the book as possible at the expense of the plot. This means that pretty much every character spouts off at length about the setting, whether it's the city itself or aspects of the culture, or the history of the various religious factions. It's somewhat tolerable from Barbara, who at least is a history teacher but we're also treated to lectures on early Christian history from the Doctor as he helps them translate the Gospels. If this had anything to do with the plot at large, it would be easier to stomach but if I wanted to experience a documentary on Romans, I would just go get one of the references that the author mentions.

Furthermore it seems that his contention is that everyone in Byzantium is violent and/or racist, as the Christians hate the Jews, the Jews hate the Christians, the Romans hate everyone except the British and we're treated to quite a few unpleasant scenes (including one of a surprisingly graphic torture) where people are stabbed and killed and slaughtered merely to prove again and again (as the book keeps telling us), Byzantium just really isn't a pleasant place to live. Most of the violence is very detailed well (crucifixions anyone?) to the extent that it seems out of place. The book probably reaches its low point when Vicki's new guardians decide to beat her to help her fit into the house and learn discipline but there's plenty else to dislike. If we're being shown that life back then was plenty brutish, well, mission accomplished, but almost three hundred pages of everyone being miserable isn't exactly entertainment.

It doesn't help that the cast seems somewhat out of character. The lectures aside, something seems off with just about everyone's dialogue, a certain looseness that doesn't make them sound like how we remember them. Vicki is far more sniveling at first than you'd expect (Susan was the whiny one, Vicki had a bit more get up and go), Barbara spends most of her stint reacting to things and while Ian seems to act the closest, even he seems . . . off. The Doctor seems far more subdued . . . upon finding that his TARDIS isn't where he thinks it will be, he seems to give up entirely instead of trying to puzzle through where it might have gone, simply because the author wants him to stick around and teach us more about early Christian history. In fact, everyone from the TARDIS can quote Scripture at length and use it to dazzle their adversaries, running rings around the people who would twist it for their own needs. For a show that rarely discussed known religions, it's a bit jarring to have everyone suddenly be an expert.

It all climaxes in another episode of violence but unlike stories like "The Massacre" where the explosion of violence feels like the release of a gradually increasing sense of tension, caught up in the tragic inevitability of history and the actions of everyone else, here it happens because it has to and feels disconnected from nearly everything that has gone before. In fact, it all feels disconnected. Instead of feeling, at worst, like four separate novels attempting to share the same space, it just feels like the crew is marking time until they get back together, moving in circles until the book requires them to finish this story.

Don't get me wrong, it's not all bad. The bones of the history are interesting and the portrayal of Ian Chesterton, sex symbol, as all the other Roman girls want to paw over him, would probably gladden William Russell's heart and thus be okay with me. The confirmation that he and Barbara get together is nice but everything else is just a bunch of unpleasant people talking history at me in lieu of a plot and then getting killed. That's nice and all but when the best thing I can say about it is that I read through it quickly so I could get it over with, it's not exactly a huge recommendation. At least it reads quickly.