Customer Reviews

Matrix (Doctor Who Series)

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

 

 

I happened to think this was one of the best Seventh Doctor novels that have come out since "The Hollow Men". Something is affecting the Seventh Doctor, something familiar, and he decides to face it alone and leave Ace with his old friends Ian and Barbara. But when he arrives in 1963 he comes to realize that everything has changed and neither of his former travelling companions know anything about ever travelling with a Doctor. And when The Doctor and Ace reach the source of the problem in Victorian England it becomes clear to Ace that the Doctor has apparently become evil and she must flee from him before he kills her. I feel that the Doctor Who novels work the best when you could picture them as an actual episode. That's when I start feeling sad. But this book is a must have for fans of Sylvester McCoy's Doctor and fans of the series. Robert Perry and Mike Tucker, PLEASE WRITE MORE!

I ordered this book specifically because it had the Valeyard in it, and really wanted to enjoy it, but it was just terrible. : The doctor doesn't know who he is for 70-80% of the book, and it just drags and drags and drags on.. And the Valeyard is handled terribly. Skip it, sad to say.

Considering the fact that the seventh Doctor and his companion Ace (though to a lesser extant) were the stars of sixty different novels as part of the Virgin New Adventures range, it would be hard to believe that there was much else to be said about these two characters. Yet as this BBC Past Doctor Adventure (PDA) by Robert Perry and Mike Tucker from 1998 shows us that is most definitely not the case. Like the best books from the New Adventures range, Matrix pushes its main characters to their limits while all then while adding a new dimension to the Doctor Who mythology. The result is a page turning Doctor Who story.

It all begins with the main characters. Perry and Tucker know their lead characters of the seventh Doctor and Ace well (having written for them previously in the PDA Illegal Alien) and the novel is without a doubt their story. In fact this perhaps more of a story for Ace then it is for the Doctor as he seemingly disappears during the middle part of the book. The result is that, in the middle at least, Ace is left fending for herself in 1888 London which is perhaps more alien to her then any place she had visited in the TARDIS. This gives the reader a great insight into Ace as a character as she tries just to survive throughout without the Doctor or really anyone else to help. But when the Doctor is around, it is clear he is a man at war with himself as his darker side threatens to unleash itself (and apparently does so at the end of Part Two, making it one of the most shocking pieces of Who writing I've ever read). Somehow it seems appropriate that the seventh Doctor, known for his darkness, should be the one who ends up doing battle with his dark side once and for all. The result is that these two characters are pushed to their very limits and the reader is there with them on one heck of an emotional roller coaster.

There's an interesting cast of supporting characters as well. There's Joseph Liebermann as a strange seemingly immortal Jew who becomes involved with a strange man named Johnny, thought to be the Ripper, who floats in and out of the novel's 1888 sections. There's Malacroix, the owner of a circus freak show, who plays a sizable role during Ace's time away from the Doctor and becomes the victim of a wonderful piece of irony. There's also some wonderful characterization of characters like the deaf mute Jed and the various members of Malacroix's circus. Perhaps the highlights of the supporting characters are three from the show's past: Barbara Wright, Ian Chesterton and the novel's villain. The writers handle all three of these characters well and even though the first two are alternate versions of the familiar TV characters, are both recognizable and yet more then flimsy cardboard copies of the TV versions. The novel's villain, who will undoubtedly become obvious as the novel goes on, makes a very effective appearance here nonetheless and makes for some dramatic sequences as well. Plus there's the climatic confrontation between villain and the Doctor is one of the most exciting pieces of Who prose you're ever likely to read. All together the supporting characters help to make this story all the more interesting.

Matrix is a considerable page turner which helps as well. From the opening pages, it's clear that what is about to follow is a dark but fast-paced novel and Matrix never in those regards. The novel is undoubtedly one of the darkest Who stories of all time with some dark looks at not only the seventh Doctor and Ace but at Victorian society throughout. This is due mainly to the inclusion of Jack the Ripper and his influence on events both in the alternate timeline seen in the novel's second part and the sections set in Victorian London. This darkness is peppered with several different action pieces including chases, fights and the aforementioned climatic confrontation. The novel does contain quite a few references to the show's mythology as well besides the sue of the three characters mentioned above including references to events throughout the seventh Doctor's TV reign and stories such as Genesis of the Daleks and The Caves of Androzani (which really is a section that needs to be read to be believed). Thankfully the references aren't too heavy and in fact seem to almost grow organically out of the story which makes them not only palatable but even welcomed. The result of all this is one of the best paced Who novels out there.

All in all, Matrix is a winner. From its excellent characterization of the TV leads, the supporting characters and the writing itself this is a novel that takes the Doctor Who universe and pushes its boundaries considerably. Perhaps more importantly then all that...it succeeds with flying colors in all those areas. While it may not be on the level of say Paul Cornell's Human Nature this is still a fine Who novel nonetheless.

Wow - every time I read a novel from either of the two authors, I wish that I had seen it on tv. Their stories fit perfectly into the season type they are intended for. The Matrix is a perfect example. Right from the start you know something big is going down, as it's not always that the Doctor is terrified out of his wits. Best part of the novel was definitely the surprise villain 'The Ripper'. Wow!!!

Victorian London - a city of fogs, suppressed society, and Jack the Ripper. The Doctor and Ace come back from a corrupted future to find out how Jack's actions have changed the course of history. But the truth is more than they had thought...

The Doctor and Ace have a very interesting adventure in a classic setting, one which often inspires a great story (like 'Talons of Weng-Chiang', 'Evil of the Daleks' and - stretching over to the Edwardian era - 'Pyramids of Mars'). And Jack the Ripper is such a big figure in history that a Who story featuring him was inevitable ('Talons' was a step in that direction).

However, if you are expecting a simple "Doctor vs. Ripper" yarn, you will be surprised. As you might expect from the title, the story ties in very much with the fictional history of Doctor Who, and in ways that you might find surprising.

To say to much would spoil the surprise, so get it and read it before someone spoils it for you...

I wish more time had been given to the alternate universe created by the interfering of Jack the Ripper, whose presence I think I'm not giving away since it's on the back cover copy. Still, this adventure, full of the derring-do of the Doctor and Ace, in the all-time traditional style of everyone everywhere at once, is excellent, and when you spot the Doctor, consider yourself fortunate -- I didn't get in until... well, I won't give anything away.

A very excellent book. The drama was well played and the plot well-versed. It keeps you on your toes and makes you wonder about everything. The Doctor is not himself as he attacks Ace in an alternate history of London. ANd what is this monsterous creature that is after them? Some old companions are here but not in the same context at all. As the doctor wonders with amnesia without knowledge of Ace or the TARDIS he knows something is afoot and must remember. The end is a shocker. This book is for the die hard Doctor Who fan.

Doctor Who Matrix was great and I enjoyed it a lot. It captures the mood of the Seventh Doctor perfectly and the focus on Ace in places was very good.All in all a great a read.

This Dr Who novel is the worst Dr Who novel that I've read over my 30 years of reading them.

The Doctor himself is absent for the vast majority of the book, the narrative being focused entirely on Ace's experiences, with the Doctor apparently roaming Victorian London somewhere in absentia. For some reason, Ace is also a leopard-woman... go figure...!

The story is disjointed, with completely new characters and situations suddenly being introduced well into the novel - no introduction, no history, no nothing - leaving me feeling confused and wondering what's going on. As quickly as these mystery characters appear, they disappear and are never mentioned again - although some of them hang around until the very last page, not actually doing anything or having any part in the story. The entire novel feels as though its three or four completely different fragments of stories that accidentally found themselves in the same book.

Tired SF and melodramatic cliches and imagery are used heavily, especially at the beginning and end of the book - its supposed to be dramatic, but becomes laughable after the tenth time in as many pages something is described as 'rotting'.

If you're a fan of Dr Who, avoid this one - it doesn't do the Doctor any justice. If you're new to the adventures of the Dr, please don't judge all Dr Who books by this effort.

Using the Seventh Doctor for any Missing Adventure (or Past Doctor Adventure or whatever you want to call it) can raise a couple problems, not the least of which is the bit of a split that exists in how fandom perceives McCoy's Doctor, due to his extended shelf life in Virgin's New Adventures. A lot of fans quite enjoyed the more adult take (even if it went a bit too adult for the sake of being "mature" at times) on the Doctor and the attempts at complexity and doing something different. Others thought it totally out of tone with how "classic" Doctor Who should be and wanted that Doctor to star in proper adventures like the ones we used to watch on the telly.

Thus, most of the time when writing these you're bound to irritate at least one facet of fandom. Which is probably par for the course with any series that has devoted fans but hey, I'm only in this one so I can't comment. Thus far, the BBC Seventh Doctor adventures have skewed toward the classic portrayal and eschewing the more complex styles that the Virgin authors tended to bring toward the series. And while I don't want rampant experimentation every time out, a little stretching would be nice.

Things start out promising here. The authors do a fantastic job of setting up atmosphere and giving us a scenario that while potentially tasteless (the Doctor is Jack the Ripper! and we can debate all day whether it's a good idea to blame real people dying on a fictional character) is rife with dramatic possibility. That first shot of the Doctor menacing a crazed Ace, the revised version of London with a frightened Ian and Barbara who had never heard of the Doctor, and the fog and the dark and the stench of Victorian times. When it comes to mood and description, the only author who's come close in the BBC line recently is the fellow who wrote the Eighth Doctor's "The Scarlet Empress" and that was a totally different style altogether.

But unfortunately what starts out as intriguing winds up becoming meandering as the book struggles to fill pages and all narrative drive is lost. The Doctor and Ace wind up getting separated, of course, but then the novel isn't quite sure what to do with the Doctor so instead it has him vanish for a hundred pages as an amnesiac, only to regain his memory at the point where it starts needing him again. In the meantime, Ace gets into all kinds of mischief, including nearly getting molested by an innkeeper, working as a servant girl for a crazy old woman for all of five minutes and becoming a freak in a circus run by an equally nutty man.

The book has so many elements going for it but it doesn't seem to know how to integrate them properly so they all just exist in their own tiny little novels, giving us some nice scenes and local colors but not exactly moving the plot along. Here's an idiot! Merely so the telepathic circuit for the TARDIS can be kept away until we need it back again. The whole circus stuff seems to be commentary on something but the ringmaster, while menacing, doesn't seem to do much more than make idle threats and intimidate people. The authors know when to introduce things but after a while you keep asking yourself why? What's with the old lady? What's with the reverand? Why does Ace keep changing into a Cheetah Person? And why the devil is someone who is supposed to be the Wandering Jew running around? And does it seem to me that they were setting Ackroyd up for something that is either taken up in another book or just really wasn't followed up on?

By the time the climax rolls around, you start to wonder what the heck is going on and that's before the true villain behind this all is rolled out. It's an old enemy from the Doctor's past/future and that may mean nothing to you unless you're a fairly well-read fan. I figured out who it was early on so it was just a matter for his Bwah-ha-haness to reveal himself, at which point things become a reprise of the end of "Star Wars" with an "Embrace the anger and evil inside yourself!" type of argument. Three guesses as to whether the Doctor ultimately prevails? Come on, you don't need three.

Don't get me wrong, the imagery is good (I love the distorted and degrading TARDIS), and the plot keeps moving but with all the different pieces the book as a whole feels unsatisfying. Most hardcore fans will probably enjoy it, if only for the continuity references. Me, I prefer it when the Doctor manipulates the heck out of everyone but maybe next time.