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Doctor Who: Grave Matter (Doctor Who (BBC Paperback))

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Ok, I admit it.... these novels are a guilty pleasure of mine. Some people eat food that's not good for them. Others wear clothes that are not color coordinated. I sometimes read a Doctor Who novel.

I've always had a soft spot in my heart(s) for the sixth incarnation of the Doctor. Just as I was getting to like him, the BBC did away with Colin.

The Doctor is at his "multi-colored-pompous-best" in this story. But it's the fun pompous incarnation of the Doctor and not the more acerbic one that has appeared in some of the other novels in this series. You can just hear Colin Baker saying the lines throughout the novel. Author Justin Richards really got the character down!

There's also all the wonderful wordplay between the Doctor and companion Peri. These novels tend to flesh out the ongoing relationship between the two that never really got a chance to flourish on the television show. A nice touch, I thought.

People are dying on the remote island of Dorsill. Whether it be by flu or by accidents.... there is strangeness about. And what's with the sheep and chickens? And why is a recently deceased fisherman emerging from his grave? You'll have to read this novel to find out.

I had a fun time with this adventure. I think this story would have made a fine midseason episode. One of those that is low on the sci-fi and high on setting and characterization.

One of the best lines in the book.... " A walking corpse knocks at the door in the small hours and you call it a teething problem?"

Fans of the sixth incarnation will get a kick out of this.

I honestly wasn't expecting to like this book so much. I thought it'd be a diverting little read--something to kill a subway ride with. Was I wrong. Richards has delivered a solid, compelling tale that's simultaneously creepy and thrilling. Not only does the atmosphere grab you from page one, but the story has enough twists and turns to keep the reader from ever being one step ahead of the game. Richards has the Sixth Doctor and Peri's relationship down pat--the banter, the jibes, the good-naturing bickering, and the hidden affection. Of the New Dr. Who novels I've read, this is easily the best.

First off, let me say that I'm not in the habit of reading books based on television series. Actually, I've always found the idea a little silly. But I've enjoyed Dr. Who for years and having run out of the BBC-released video tapes, I decided to try out a book just for a laugh. Surprisingly, each one I've read has been very well written and very entertaining. Grave Matter is no different.

While this particular incarnation of the Doctor is not my favorite, I must admit I found him appealing in this story. The plot was a mixture of horror, suspense and science-fiction written with a decidedly British and Dr. Who-esque twist. This is not serious literature but it is well written and, like most Dr. Who books, defies the stereotypes that normally plague books based on TV shows. The only problem with reading these books is that its easy to regret that the show is no longer being produced - so many of these stories would make excellent shows.

We're probably at a point where there are more Sixth Doctor stories than actual filmed Sixth Doctor episodes. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Colin Baker got a bit of a shaft from the BBC, but that doesn't mean his scant years were rife with narrative possibilities. His relationship with Peri was one of those that were worthy of salvaging, since we had a case where Doctor and fellow traveler got off on the wrong foot (he tried to choke her, for starters) and then eventually became quite chummy. One can probably do a whole book on Peri's contrasting attitudes between the Fifth and Sixth Doctors, but if you're looking for deep psychoanalysis, go find a Paul Cornell novel. We're here to fight evil.

The TARDIS drops our twosome in yet another remote village, which after some brief exploring winds up being populated by a number of very friendly people who have decided to live as simply as possible. Things are going swimmingly, but there are some strange events, like people who have died of the flu or in random accidents, strange incidents like the sheep who seem to act as one unit, or the fact that nobody has seen the guy who owns the island in a while.

Oh, and the whole thing with the dead getting up and walking is worrisome, too.

This strikes me as Richard's not very veiled attempt to write a zombie novel into the "Who" mythos, and for the most part he does succeed. First of all, he stays true to the series by not only giving us a vaguely scientific explanation for everything going on (hint: it's alien related, though I will say I'm pleased that for once the Doctor doesn't instantly know every detail of the alien menace involved) but a moral quandry as well. He deals out the clues and the suspense in pieces, giving us small parts as we go along and still managing to pull the wool out from under us at more than a few points (I didn't see one betrayal coming, although to some extent we're faked out). It's clear from the onset that something strange is going on (or else the book would either be six pages long, or boring) but we're not told until much later in the game exactly what. It's to Richards' credit that not only is the explanation not embarrassing, but also doesn't rely on some old trope of the show.

Still, really it comes down to the zombie type scenes and those are fairly effective, which isn't exactly easy. Seeing a horde of shambling, unstoppable undead roving toward you in a mass is a bit unsettling on screen, it's a bit harder to convey that in prose. Richards doesn't bother trying to a great extent, and the book doesn't really seek a horror vibe except for a "Who's next?" kind of way. You know the principles are going to survive, so it's merely a matter of seeing which secondary characters are going to make it. Meanwhile, everyone gets to run around corridors in the time-honored fashion, plans are enacted on the fly and Peri is put into mortal peril yet again to the point where you start to wonder if she's a masochist or just has a really high level of patience. It's not even the first time she's been taken over by an alien force.

And yet, amazingly, this all works. It won't move you to tears or have you turning the pages in a nail-biting fashion, but there are no off moments, the plot hangs together amazingly well and a splendid time is had by all. The characters are sketched with enough information to not make them ciphers or self-consciously quirky, and thanks to the scenery and some nicely handled violence, there are some rather gripping moments (the series of scenes where someone tries to kill himself has a nice tone of increasingly hilarious dread). There's even a nice visual reference to "Curse of Fenric" (I'm not sure if that's intentional). The Past Doctor Adventures are exercises in nostalgia by their very definition, you don't expect any new ground to be broken. But when the results are as pleasant as this, you won't you don't mind as much.

The TARDIS deposits the Doctor and Peri on a windswept island where they encounter in rapid succession a strangely taciturn man and a funeral cortège. Both these are clues to the strange happenings that are starting to engulf the small fishing village on the island...

The Sixth Doctor's era is rightly remembered as the most gruesome of the TV series, and this book fits right in. Taking a lead from movies like 'Night of the Living Dead', the Doctor, Peri and newly acquired friends from the village progress slowly through a story that, at points, literally drips blood. Some of the occurrences are not for the squeamish. And you may find yourself shouting at characters who do things you know they shouldn't from what you've seeing various horror movies.

Justin Richards ties the whole thing together with a suitably Who-style explanation, showing yet again the highly flexible nature of the series which can fit a horror gore-fest within its milieu without any problems.