Customer Reviews

Invasion of the Cat-People (Doctor Who the Missing Adventures)

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Horrendous. Simply god awful. Like the last few seasons of Doctor Who (Ghostlight, Happiness Patrol, Delta and the Bannermen), there seems to be a faction within Who fandom that have decided that Doctor Who stories must make no sense and be numbingly violent and stupid. As bad as THE MAN IN THE VELVET MASK and that's bad. For the reader, I will identify the exact spot where the book just dies. When "Tim" tells Ben and Polly that he's an alien. From that point on the story ceases and the reader is treated a mishmash of events just slapped together. It's as if the author just had something better to do. The book is very PC. If that helps.

Following on from his excellent "Legacy", Russell follows with a drab, self-indulgent effort which does not fit in with the era of the Second Doctor. Poorly written, characterised and structured.

Gary Russell manages to capture both the charm of the early days of Doctor Who and the sophistication of the later episodes & novels. The characters are odd, the science is wonky, and the plot is strange, but it is all very intertaining. Perhaps one of the best parts of the book is the reactions of Ben & Polly, two characters from the 1960s, to the 1990s. Having traveled to the fictional far future and the distant past without so much as a shrug, we get to see these characters' reactions to the real future of England awaiting them in 30 years time: CDs, personal computers, and McDonalds hamburgers!

Having just become a Doctor Who fan , i started buying some of the books by virgin. One of the first was IOTCP. I adored this book and thought that the cast list at the end was a nice touch. The way the chapters are in episodes are a very nice concept and the cliff hanger at the end of Episode 3 is fantastic. The writing of the doctor is very much that of Patrick Troughton , another plus. Polly and Ben are OK and true to the show. When they are in the book shop and see the biography of River Phoinix is very touching. The Cat-People are a little to unrealistic bad a a good enemy. Over all this is a great story. Well done Gary Russell.