10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The return of Fitz and the TARDIS..., February 16, 2001
This review is from: Escape Velocity (Doctor Who) (Paperback)
The Doctor has been on Earth with no memory of his past for over a century. He has an appointment to meet Fitz in a bar called St. Louis'. He hopes to learn who he is from this man he doesn't remember. But for Fitz, only a few days have passed, and when he hears about a man with two hearts being killed in Brussels, he heads off to investigate...
'Escape Velocity' is the final story in the "trapped on Earth" story arc, and features the welcome return of Fitz Kriener. Fitz's concerns about the Doctor bring them both into the plots of a small group of aliens, trapped on Earth and trying to esacpe, and the attempts by two of Earth's richest men to become the first independently-funded men in space.
It is also the story of Anji Kapoor and Dave Young, a couple who are having troubles - and they haven't seen nothing before this story...
As a conclusion to a story arc, it is fairly satisfying (although I was somewhat disappointed that the Doctor made no mention of Miranda - anyone would think 'Father Time' never happened!), but it is perhaps more successful as the re-launch of the series into its travels through time and space. In doing so, it evokes the very first Doctor Who TV serial, 'An Unearthly Child', quite successfully by way of returning the series to its roots without necessarily ignoring over 35 years of stories in between.
This is apparently Colin Brake's first novel, although he is a writer of TV scripts, and he appears to have mastered the art of novel writing very well. Hopefully we'll be seeing more books form his pen in the future.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"Writing is so twentieth-century!", November 29, 2001
This review is from: Escape Velocity (Doctor Who) (Paperback)
I'm not quite sure what to make of ESCAPE VELOCITY. On one hand, it is certainly a very flawed work, with many more holes and problems than I'm usually comfortable reading. On the other hand, I can't say it was an entirely unpleasant read, or even an unenjoyable one. It's a fun romp, if you turn your brain off at the door.
There are a lot of major problems with this book. The motivations of the main villains are not stated until near the end, and even then they are so ill-defined, that it's difficult to grasp what they are doing and why they are doing it. Unfortunately, this fault extends to a lot of the other characters as well. The book spends far far too much time telling us about people rather than showing their actions to us. There are places where it feels as though it is still in outline form, waiting for the author to come over and flesh out these sequences. The prose doesn't do any favours in this department either, as it's workman at best, but occasionally slumps down into incoherence.
The poor pacing is probably one of the main aspects holding this book back. Every time it starts to do things well, the action will start skipping ahead randomly, utterly killing any positive momentum that it had gained. It's not so much a case that the book takes two steps backwards for every one step forward -- rather it takes one step backwards, three steps sideways, a step and a half in a diagonal direction, and spins around on its tiptoes before being gang-tackled at about the 40-yard-line for a minimal gain (and if you like that NFL analogy, wait until you read the ones in the book). This was really a shame, as the bad parts really started to outshine the places that had potential. About half-way through the story I found myself mentally cheering the book on, hoping against hope that it would succeed despite itself. I felt like a soccer mom, bravely shouting encouragement to her skinny, smaller-than-the-other-kids child to defy the odds and not let the team down. And fortunately, despite some moments where it gets really rough, ESCAPE VELOCITY did not score an own goal.
On the plus side, the introduction of the new companion, Anji, is done fairly well. It's obvious that a lot of thought has gone into what makes this character tick. Alas, not as much thought has gone into what makes this character tick inside the context of this story. What everyone has said about her character outline being randomly cut'n'pasted into the text here is completely, one hundred percent correct. It would have been nice to see Anji's thoughts and reactions better integrated into the story.
I also liked the method in which the Doctor arranges to meet Fitz "at St. Louis"; this was quite clever. The reaction to the restored TARDIS was done very well, and the characters of Anji and her boyfriend had a nice chemistry going. The problem is, however, that for everything that I liked, there was something lurking around the next page to annoy me. The aforementioned lack of proper motivations, the pointless inclusion of the UNIT competitors and, worst of all, the sheer silliness of the ending.
ESCAPE VELOCITY was a hard book to dislike. Although it made several major mistakes, it managed to somehow tell an entertaining story that held my interest throughout. It goes from good points to bad in a seemingly random, unpredictable manner, but for all its flaws, it seems to have its heart in the right place. Recommended as a fun romp, as long as you aren't looking for something to take completely seriously.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Doctor and Fitz are back - Yaaayy!!!!, August 7, 2002
This review is from: Escape Velocity (Doctor Who) (Paperback)
The Doctor and Fitz are reunited at last. But the Doctor isn't quite the man Fitz used to know. Searching for Anji Kapoor's kidnapped boyfriend the Doctor And Fitz soon find themselves caught up in a struggle between two rivals to be the first privately funded man in space.
Being the last in the `Stranded on Earth' story arc sees a fun, classic story like the ones before the arc had begun. Fitz is back, hours after the eventful happenings on the now non-existant Gallifrey. The TARDIS has returned. A new companion has come aboard and best of all, the Doctor is his old self again (well kind of, he still lacks a lot of his memory and has a tendency to end a situation with more violence than usual.)
A strange part of the novel is the inclusion of the American version of UNIT, they do play a part but have no bearing whatsoever on the story. The ending is great, ending it with the same feeling ,story that continues into the next story (like with the classic 1st Doctor televised stories) and makes this a great starting point for new Doctor Who readers. This is a fun, light hearted book that rounds off the whole `Exiled on Earth' arc wonderfully. RECOMMENDED!!!
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