Customer Reviews

The King of Terror (Doctor Who)

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

 

 

With 'The King of Terror', Keith Topping's first solo book, we get (another! - it's not so long since 'Deep Blue' came out) Fifth Doctor and UNIT story, as well as the return of several plot elements from the earlier 'Devil Goblins from Neptune' (co-authored by Mr. Topping and Martin Day).

The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough are relaxing in London in 1999, when the Doctor spots an ad in a magazine which obliquely seeks his assistance. He makes the rendezvous and meets up with the Brigadier, now in his seventies but back with UNIT in an advisory capacity. There is a problem, and the Brigadier thinks the Doctor's assistance is required.

And so begins a complex tale with many parties involved: UNIT, the CIA, two races of aliens and a terrorist group called the Sons of Nostradamus. There are a number of twists and turns, and real danger for all parties.

If you've read either the aforementioned 'Devil Goblins of Neptune' or 'The Hollow Men', you won't be surprised to find the book liberally peppered with song titles and lyrics, as well as quotes from televised Doctor Who, all slipped in quite casually for the informed reader, but not so intrusive that I think they would detract for those whose taste in music doesn't match those of Mr. Topping.

The role of the CIA in both this book and 'Devil Goblins' opens a number of questions, which I expect we'll see answered in future books.

All-in-all, a decent read that blends genres (Doctor Who-style science fiction with X-Files-style science fiction and spy fiction), concentrates on the characters and has a sense of fun. A worthwhile addition to the series.

In some ways, this is a disappointing book. It starts off VERY strongly, throwing a lot of pieces to a fairly intricate puzzle into the air and juggling them alomst effortlessly. This excitement doesn't last, unfortunately, as interesting characters that you want to root for start dying and you're stuck with a likeable caricature that is not compelling enough to fulfill the role of main supporting character. Plus, Turlough's characterization seems to have melded with Fitz's in the eighth Doctor adventures and the ending is practically a case study for the term "anti-climax".

On the positive side, the fifth Doctor, Tegan and the Brigadier come across really well in this story and the interplay between the humans and the aliens, mixed in with the double deals and back-stabbing, make for gripping reading. All in all, it's good. It's not breathtaking or amazing, but you will enjoy reading it.

My first instinct is to call this one of the absolute worst books I have ever read, and definitely one of the worst Doctor Who books I have ever read...but to be fair there are a few, a very few, points in its favor. The harsh world of LA is captured tolerably well and Teagan comes off well. That's it, that's all the good I can say. I find the soldiers caustic comments irritating, the Doctor is horribly done and completely out of character. There is one scene where he witnesses a police beating, Teagan interferes, but the Doctor just watches. Perhaps with the cynical 7th incarnation this would have worked, but the 5th Doctor? Never! And the torture of Turlough serves no purpose other than to be cruel to an already tepid character. This book tries for realism and wit but fails miserably. The Doctor's body seems to be just there without him until the very end of the book. The bad guys were somewhat interesting, but predictable and done before. The first solo book by Topping is a mixed bag at best, I hope his future efforts improve.

If "Doctor Who" wasn't written on the cover I wouldn't have belived this to be a Doctor Who book.
The plot is confusing, boring, and completley unlike any Doctor Who I have ever seen/read.
Considering the content of most Doctor Who books and TV episodes, this book contains situations which are indecent and just plain gross.
The only reason I gave this book one star is because it's impossible to rate a book with zero.

"Doctor Who" novelist Keith Topping has made a reputation for himself on various Internet fora, and at U.S. sci-fi conventions, as something of a gregarious blowhard. He's almost certainly reading this review. So, happily, "King of Terror" is exactly what you would expect from a man of Keith's public persona. Loud, illogical, and often amusing.

There's real heart in this book...the individual characters are more carefully thought-out than in other recent "Doctor Who" novels. On the other hand, I think Topping is guilty of overthinking the three regulars too much. The Fifth Doctor gets far too few light moments. Turlough... his fate is both gross and completely irrelevant to the book. If this were a TV story you'd think he filmed his scenes in one afternoon and went on vacation for the rest of the shoot. Tegan is so hard-bitten and hard-drinking that you'd think she was Bernice Summerfield (a more strident character from a different line of DW books).

The rest of the book basks in references to things Keith evidently likes: pop music, "The Simpsons", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", and thirty-year-old "Doctor Who" TV stories. I like books that reflect the moment, and "King of Terror" does. All the characters speak in exactly the same way Topping does on rec.arts.drwho.

The book is set in Los Angeles, but the prose is a little inadequate to describe all the stunning vistas you'd find there. There are, as I recall, zero native Angelenos. I was expecting more of a travelogue (this is "Doctor Who"'s first-ever visit to L.A.). Maybe next time.

"King of Terror" never really takes flight (like the spaceship on the cover which appears to be sitting on the ground), but it's one of the more ambitious Past Doctor Adventures we've had in the past several months.

This book would sadden the Doctor himself. Doctor Who has always been about friendship and respect. It is one of the last bastions for good,innocent adventure, something you wouldn't be afraid to leave out for the neighbors to see. But this book is not one you would want your kids to get hold of. There is far too much negative sexual aggression in it. ...P>This is _not_ Doctor Who!

If you're into cyperpunk or dark fantasy this may be your type of book. If you're expecting a good Doctor Who story this is not it.

What did Keith Topping think he was doing? Or more to the point, why did the series editors let this one loose on the market? If you want the funny, pop culture, action adventure send up of Dr Who this book is trying to be, look elsewhere. "The King of Terror" is a series of loosely connected vignettes that don't add up to much of a story at all, let alone a good story. So much is left unexplained and undeveloped that it was hard in the end to know what the point really was. And it wasn't funny.
That's not to say this book doesn't have some good points. I quite enjoyed the first third or so when I thought the story was going to go somewhere, the two British soldiers were pretty good, and the characterisation of Tegan had its moments. But the Brigadier was a blustering idiot, the Doctor pompous, moralistic and generally useless, and neither of them as written by Topping were sufficiently in accord with the characters as established on the TV show. The other characters were never defined enough to be interesting.
And as for Topping's treatment of Turlough . . . Turlough going out to get drunk and pick up? Turlough telling perfect strangers how happy he is and how wonderful the world is? Was he on drugs at that point? Whoever that was, it wasn't Turlough. Better that he wasn't in the story at all than wasted and misused like this. And I really do mean misused. Sexual aggression and sexual assault has no place in Dr Who.

'The King of Terror' is yet another fantastic novel by the great Keith Topping. If you loved his previous co-written efforts (like 'The Hollow Men') then you will really enjoy this non-stop cascade of imagery and word-play. A clever novel, depicting violence but not glorifying it, discussing relationships but not being over-taken by them, 'King of Terror' is a terrific read.

All the elements are in place for what COULD have been a fun Doctor Who adventure. We have the Fifth Doctor, his companions Tegan and Turlough, the Brigadier and the return of UNIT! What's not to like? This novel, that's what.

The setting this time is Los Angeles rather than the United Kingdom. The threat of alien invasion is imminent and the Brigadier calls once again on the help of his scientific advisor, now in his fifth incarnation.

What a pity that Mr. Topping didn't use the Doctor as fully as he should have with this story. The title character is hardly in the story at all. When we do see him, he and his old friend Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart seem to be at odds with one another. There was some word play between the two that seemed somewhat labored and distressing. Tegan has become a royal pain in the posterior and Turlough is subjected to a totally unnecessary alien "examination".

The return of UNIT was also an opportunity squandered. The characters of Paynter and Milligan were fine when they started off, but they quickly lost their charm when they started rattling off past adventures for the sake of name-dropping during their conversations with one another. (i.e. mentions of the Giant Robot, Zygons, Harry Sullivan, John Benton, etc.) I think this was more a first time author trying to cram in as many Unit references as possible within the confines of a shaky story to prove how savvy he is with the history of the show.

My BIGGEST problem came on page 169. Milligan, Paynter and Tegan are stranded in the Nevada desert, with the lights of Las Vegas twinkling in the distance. Milligan says something to the effect that he wants to "get into one of them Las Vegas casinos and put my wad on twenty-seven black."

Either the author or editor has never been in a casino anywhere on the planet. Twenty-seven is RED on a roulette table, not black.

By the time the Doctor finally gets involved with the story there are maybe twenty pages left for him to do what he does best. But why is he suddenly brooding about it the entire time?

I really wanted to like this story, but I didn't. I certainly wouldn't rank it as one of the worst Dr. Who novels of all time. I think it was just a case of first time author jitters. Keith Topping should improve given time. I agree that this story might have benefitted with the use of a different incarnation of the Doctor. I think it's the use of the Fifth Doctor that doesn't mesh with the rest of the tale.

King of Terror is a terrific novel despite what you might have heard from some narrow-minded reviewers. It begins with one of the best opening sequences in any book (Doctor Who or otherwise) that I can remember and goes on to feature a plot that twists and turns its way from an espionage thriller to an alien romp. I heard bad things about this one before reading it but I can honestly say that I haven't enjoyed a novel as much in MONTHS. Hugely recommended.