Lungbarrow (Doctor Who: The New Adventures) [Paperback]

Marc Platt (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: London Bridge (Mm) (April 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0426205022
• ISBN-13: 978-0426205029
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #600,098 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Doctor who?, May 17, 2004

By 

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

This review is from: Lungbarrow (Doctor Who: The New Adventures) (Paperback)

This is the third time I've read LUNGBARROW, and I think it's the first time that I've actually understood most of it. Yes, this is one of the most complicated, detailed and multi-layered books that the New Adventures produced, but ultimately one of the most rewarding. The more one thinks about it, the more there is to appreciate. It's remembered now mostly for the sections set during the Old Time on the Doctor's home planet of Gallifrey and for the return of the Doctor to his ancestral seat, the House of Lungbarrow in the Southern Mountains of Gallifrey (after a mere six hundred seventy-three year absence). Platt continues on with the story that began life in the so-called Cartmel Masterplan and which was further fleshed out in Platt's own TIME'S CRUCIBLE. But LUNGBARROW is far superior to that previous NA. On a second (or third or fourth) reading, we already know what the great "revelations" will be, so we can focus more on how we arrive at them. And that's the most interesting part of this journey.

First, as for answering all of the questions about Who the Doctor is... In that respect, all the important speeches go to Leela, who simply argues that the Doctor is a mystery, full stop. Of course, the novel itself does go a little farther than that. We see some critical moments in the Doctor's life before he initially left Gallifrey. But the details are sketchy. Some things we see, other things are left to our imagination. The audience is constantly kept a layer away from the action. The most important questions are merely suggested, and not answered. Why does the Doctor do this? Why does he pick one course of action and not another? What is his motivation? We never get anything like a full picture, which leaves the Doctor with a few secrets still intact. The book sits comfortably, balancing between tying up some loose ends from the past, while offering some hints about what will be coming up in the Doctor's future (namely the Paul McGann movie which had aired about a year before the publication of this novel and contained revelations of its own). To be honest, on paper, I'm not thrilled about some of the answers Platt provides ("Grandfather indeed! I've never seen you before in my life!" Ttpppth!). But I can't fault the book for its imagination or its scope. It's to the book's credit that the things that should have annoyed the daylights out of me didn't really bother me much at all.

And now that I've addressed the point that most discussion concerning this book revolves around I'm going to move on to more interesting topics. Don't get me wrong; the tantalizing "secrets" about the Doctor, the Other and their history are all very interesting, but what I take from this book is mostly its range of storytelling, its superb setting, and its memorable characters. The Doctor's cousins are fascinating. Most Time Lords have forty-four cousins, but we only really encounter six of them, which makes the book much easier to follow than it would have been otherwise.

In fact, I'm having difficulty separating the characters from their setting in my mind. I cannot imagine the House of Lungbarrow without the cousins, and the cousins themselves simply wouldn't work without the overarching support of the House. I'm not quite sure whether to describe the House as another character, or the characters as parts of the House. I suppose I'll have to be boring at this junction and just say that it's a bit of both. Certainly they play off each other; the stranger the cousins appear, the more sinister the house becomes.

Platt's characterization is a gift. Not only for his own creations, but also for the established characters that he's writing for. His Leela is deadly accurate, taking what was a fairly hokey idea (Leela choosing to stay behind with Bland Character #3) and actually exploring it in an interesting way. At times, the number of previous characters he's writing for can feel as though it's about to get out of hand. But Platt manages the Doctor, Chris, Ace/ Dorothee, Romana, Andred and two K9s (plus a few Special Guest Villains) in style, although poor Chris spends his last story as a regular having someone else's dreams and flashbacks. No one new to Doctor Who would be able to make heads or tails out of any of this, but then no one new to Doctor Who has any business starting here.

I get the feeling that world-building is something that Platt enjoys doing in his fiction. He's certainly very good at it. The passages involving the workings of the Houses, the Looms, the Gallifreyan rituals, and so on are completely engrossing. Although he's populating Gallifrey with different item, he's using a similar method to the great Robert Holmes, who had an uncanny ability to build up an entire universe by tossing out a few details, painting in some specifics while leaving others to the imagination. It's a rare talent -- one that has served both of these writers well. Platt's prose drew me in utterly, driving up the tension with each passing page, while juggling several items at once while building a fascinating world, and intriguing people.

For me, a good rule of thumb is that if I needed a long time to finish a novel, then it generally means that I was bored or I plain loathed it. But I took my time with this reading of LUNGBARROW, happy to drink in the atmosphere and deliberate over the details. I didn't feel a need to read quickly, because I was in no hurry to finish. I knew what questions would be asked, I knew what answers would be offered. I had much more fun stopping to smell the roses. Good-bye, Seventh Doctor; you'll be missed.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars NA to end all NAs... well, almost., February 17, 2004

By 

M. Ward - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lungbarrow (Doctor Who: The New Adventures) (Paperback)

I really, really loved this book. I never really got on with the NAs when they were being produced [but then I was about 7 when they started so forgive me]. Recently though [well over the past year or so] I have been tracking them down and enjoying almost all of them.

This book is a very good end to the NA series, and although the links to the TV movie seem a bit contrived, they work better than a lot of the series' more fragile inter-book links. At times it's difficult to tell whether what you're reading is really good, imaginate metaphoric prose, or actual occurances; once you get the hang of Platt's style though the book is greatly entertaining. It's true that not a lot actually happens [what does, though, is big] but the book is mostly concentrated on exploration of character - the Doctor's especially - and there are some interesting turns. The Cousins are all well crafted and really stick [I found myself fighting tears when Innocet "folds her thoughts away in the dark"], and some moments are truly surprising.

the connections to Ghost Light are obvious, given that Lungbarrow was the script they felt gave too much away for season 26 of the TV series, turning into Ghost Light instead. It's also really interesting to compare what happens in the book with what would have happened on TV - check out the author's commentary on the BBC Doctor Who website, in the E-Book section. Also, if you can't get hold of a hard copy, the whole book is available from this e-book section, complete with a few revised/extended/additional scenes.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Other Who?, July 22, 2004

By 

Savar Nesbin "-Doc" (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lungbarrow (Doctor Who: The New Adventures) (Paperback)

Well it's about time the mystery of The Other has been revealed. A plot thread set up in the tv series in Rememberance of the Daleks. Actualy you had to read the Target novel of Rememberance to catch all the Gallifrey flashbacks with Rassilon, Omega and the Other.
It's always nice to see Gallifrey in the Doctor Who books. With no finacial restraints, writers can pretty much make what they want as far as the Doctor's homeworld goes.
Seeing the almost undefeatable Seventh Doctor cower before his family was different. Knowing finally that our favorite Time Lord comes from somewhere is a nice refreshing character development.
The character of President Ramona has come a rather long way since his appearance in Happy Endings. Here we see that it is the Gallifreyan Politico that corrupts a person.
I wasn't a big fan of Marc Platt's refrence that Leela and Andred may be the Doctor's parents. -bleh-
Seeing Gallifrey's past and the Doctor's connection was also an interesting spin and hearing the First Doctor reference Gallifrey as a planet full of Valeyards and Vampires was a catching phrase.
Also finally seeing as a fan, The Caretmel Masterplan come full circle, it may have well have been a good thing that the Fox movie hit when it did and the rights revoked. I think as far as the Seventh Doctor goes with Virgin, his life had been played out. Even Lungbarrow establishes he is due for a regeneration. However I always wondered where the series would have gone without the TV movie.
The Dying Days was proof that they could have taken the Eighth Doctor many, many miles beyond the scope of Seventh Doctor stories. But without the movie I think the New Adventures would have died and vanished...
I agree with some of the other reviews here, "Farewell Seventh Doctor", you will be missed. Doctor Who is dead... Long live Doctor Who!