The Face-Eater (Doctor Who Series) [Paperback]

Simon Messingham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1999 | Series: Doctor Who Series

When the Doctor and Sam arrive on Proxima II they find a settlement rife with superstition and unrest. The native Proximans are inexplicably dying out, and humans too are being killed in horrific ways, with each corpse's face being stripped bare.

Posing as investigators from Earth, the Doctor and Sam must track down the force moving through the dark catacombs beneath Proxima City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 279 pages
• Publisher: BBC Pubns; paperback / softback edition (January 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0563555696
• ISBN-13: 978-0563555698
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,494,339 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Pass this one up if Sam annoys you!!, September 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Face-Eater (Doctor Who Series) (Paperback)

Let's face it, Samantha Jones has GOT to be the worse companion ever for the Doctor to be saddled with and this novel just homes that point in. She's so annoying that I found myself skimming over her parts and getting back to the Doctor. (If I hear one more bit about her being against eating meat and against violence one more time I'll scream!) No, in fact I refuse to buy any more DW books until Sam gets kicked out!! If you like Sam, then get this book. If you find her an insufferable moronic idiot, do yourself a favor and pass this one up. You'll save your blood pressure! Otherwise this story is rather standard fare, nothing really spectacular.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Page-Turner, June 28, 2001

By 

Andrew McCaffrey "The Grumpy Young Man" (Satellite of Love, Maryland) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Face-Eater (Doctor Who Series) (Paperback)

THE FACE-EATER is not terribly original or innovative and does not take the reader anywhere that Doctor Who hasn't (metaphorically) gone before. It doesn't blaze any new trails like ALIEN BODIES, it doesn't redefine a companion like SEEING I, nor does it push the envelope towards a beautiful breaking-point in the way that THE SCARLET EMPRESS did. It is, however, mesmerizing and spellbinding, and I sped through this in about half the time it usually takes me to read a BBC Doctor Who book because I simply couldn't put the book down.

The plot skips along quickly and isn't overly complicated while not being totally straightforward either. This is actually used to great effect by Simon Messingham. When the action slows down, interesting character development takes place as well as some fascinating reflections on the setting. In case you didn't know, this book is set on the planet that is the home to the first Earth colony outside the solar system. There are some excellent passages concerning how isolated these people are, how much they sacrificed to come this far and just what exactly is at stake in this situation.

The Doctor is relegated to the sidelines through most of the story, though for the small amount of time that he is present he has some appropriate lines and great scenes. There are some good moments for him here, the best being when he is tied to a chair and literally spends hours trying to convince his captor that he isn't a shape-shifter. The premise is simple enough, but the scene is wonderfully written and shows that Messingham really has the hang of this Doctor in a way that very few other EDA authors have demonstrated.

Sam, on the other hand, for the first portion of the book, is at her most annoying - worse than she's ever been. She whines, she moans and she complains. She's mean and she's witlessly sarcastic to people who she has no reason to be mean and witlessly sarcastic to. In short, it's everything we've come to know and loathe about her since she joined the Doctor. Fortunately, she tones it down in the middle and end of the book so that she actually becomes somewhat tolerable. I suspect that Messingham wanted to make her over-the-top in her assertiveness to compensate for the events of the previous book but was forced by reason of her love interest in this story to mellow her out a little. It would be far beyond the realms of possibility to believe that anyone could gain an admirer if he or she was continually carrying on in the manner Sam was at the start of this book.

Fortunately, what saves the opening of the book from being a complete Sam-infested failure is the great mystery that Messingham has set up. There's a suspected psychopath on the loose and people are mysteriously being killed. They're all fairly standard Doctor Who elements, but the execution is so superb that it all feels very fresh and new.

One of the highlights for me was watching the commander of the colony going slowly insane as the story progresses. From the very start she's nervous and unsure of her command. There is a conspiracy, she is convinced, that is intent on usurping her authority and destroying the civilization that she has worked so hard to build. Her paranoia gains more control of her mind and eventually she is reduced to setting up trip wires around her office with pieces of string tied around containers of pens in an attempt to find a fictitious intruder (who she imagines is a disgruntled worker out to sabotage her colony and can be identified by wearing, appropriately, a red arm band). The slow progression from slightly neurotic leader to full-blown lunatic is well handled and intriguing. Excellent, well-written stuff.

This is definitely a good book and comes highly recommended despite the painful Sam moments at the beginning. It's not earth-shattering or groundbreaking, but it accomplishes what it set out to do and that is to tell a wildly entertaining story.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Eighth Doctor and Sam, April 10, 2000

By 

"lscraw" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Face-Eater (Doctor Who Series) (Paperback)

Proxima II is the first human colony to be founded on another planet. There are five thousand inhabitants attempting to build a new home on this barren plant. When the Doctor and Sam arrive, they find that not everything is running smoothly; people are being murdered... Chaos reigns as the leader of the colony calls for strict martial law, and the police are brutally murdering people. Fears buried deep inside come to the surface, and even the Doctor is not immune... The native inhabitants can only mimic others, but they hold the key to unravelling the mystery that threatens the human population. Overall this was an enjoyable book, with many unexpected plot twists.