In turn-of-the-century South Africa, an aspiring young war correspondent called Winston Spencer Churchill is befriended by two strangers -- the Doctor and Peri. Suspecting mysterious forces at work behind the scenes, the Doctor determines to keep a close eye on Churchill's career.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Sixth Doctor Story,
By A Customer
This review is from: Players (Doctor Who Series) (Paperback)
Although 'Castrophea' was very disappointing, 'Players', written by veteran TV writer Terrance Dicks, is very much a return to form.It was very brave for Dicks to write a book set in a period which he has never written for. His characterisation of the Sixth Doctor and Peri are excellent, and Winston Churchill is very believable, although his characterisation of the Second Doctor is a bit hit and miss. All in all, this book is very good, and anyone who is a fan of the sixth Doctor, and Terrance Dicks, should definitely buy it!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Winston Churchill and other manipulators,
This review is from: Players (Doctor Who Series) (Paperback)
When Peri declares herself disgruntled at the end of an adventure, the Doctor asks what it will take to gruntle her again. As king for elegance, the Doctor suggests England at the end of the 19th century. And it is at the end of the 19th century they arrive, but not in England. Instead, they arrive in South Africa, at the beginning of the Boer War, and soon find themselves in the company of a war correspondent by the name of Winston Churchill...This book introduces the Players, a group of shadowy beings who play games by manipulating the fates of people and countries. Terrance Dicks reuses them in his Eighth Doctor novel, 'Endgame', but this is their first appearance and hence sets the tone for the latter novel. It also sets a pattern followed by the later 'Divided Loyalties', which is to say the book has three parts, the first and last featuring one incarnation of the Doctor (here, the Sixth) and the middle an earlier one (in this case, the Second). This is a fairly satisfying arrangement, as we get to see more than one incarnation without having to go through all the hoopla of having two different incarnations meet. It also re-uses some supporting characters from the last Second Doctor serail, 'The War Games'. While the return of Lieutenant Carstairs and Lady Jennifer is no doubt a bonus for Who fans, I don't believe casual readers would find this in anyway a problem. And then there's Tom Dekker, from 'Blood Harvest', a Seventh Doctor novel. The Sixth Doctor's era seemed particularly concerned with the shows continuity, but I'm pleased to say this book uses continuity as it should: as a reward to those who follow the series without isolating casual readers. I am sometimes critical of Terrance Dicks writing, but not with this book: it seems like he had had a break from writing Who and leapt back into it with relish. On all counts, a worthy addition to the series.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"You came a cropper with that Dardanelles business, didn't you?",
By Larry Bridges "thebachelor" (Arlington, MA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Players (Doctor Who Series) (Paperback)
First, the good things about this book: The concept of the Doctor meeting Winston Churchill is a superb one, and it's surprising it took so long for someone to use it. It seems very approprite that the writer to finally chronicle this epochal meeting (or rather, meetings) was Terrance Dicks, the "grand old man" of "Doctor Who" fiction. The interaction between the Doctor and Churchill is very enjoyable, and the way the book is structured around three different periods in Churchill's life (the Boer War, World War I and the Abdication Crisis) is exciting and deeply evocative for a Churchill fan like me, reminding us of the variety of experiences Churchill lived through in his ninety years. As a "Doctor Who" fan and Churchill aficionado I would have stood up and applauded when I read the passage in which Peri notes how alike Churchill and the Doctor are, an observation which had occurred to me often before, except that I was reading the book on a bus!
The continuity references to the TV series and earlier books are handled extremely well, enriching the story without getting in the way. I had never liked the so-called "Season 6b" concept (the idea suggested by some fans that the Second Doctor actually had many further adventures between "The War Games" and "Spearhead from Space") and had anticipated being annoyed by its being made "canonical" in this book, but the panache with which Dicks handles this part of the story won me over. The appearance of a character from "Blood Harvest" is also well handled, and can be appreciated either as a reference "back" to "Blood Harvest" by people who have read that book or as a reference "forward" (since "Blood Harvest" takes place later on the Doctor's timeline) by those, like me, who have not. The characterization of Peri is excellent and that of the Sixth and Second Doctors is also very good, although perhaps a tiny bit too interchangeable -- at one point in the Second Doctor segment I realized I had been envisioning the Doctor in his Sixth body for a page or two. Now the disappointing points. First of all, there is no plot. "The Eight Doctors," which I liked a great deal, has often been criticized for the weakness of its plot, but it does have a strong central idea connecting all its set pieces -- the Eighth Doctor has amnesia and must visit his previous seven selves to regain his memories. For much of "Players" the reader remains hopeful that the events will turn out to be connected by a strong plot thread. Unfortunately, in the end one realizes that, although there are threads connecting the three set-piece sections into which the book is divided, they are very weak ones. "Players" is, in fact, less unified than "The Eight Doctors," even though the latter book is divided into eight set-piece sections. One ends up suspecting (especially after reading the intriguing last chapter and epilogue) that "Players" will turn out to have been simply an extremely long prologue to its sequel, Dicks' forthcoming Eighth Doctor novel "Endgame." This may not be a bad thing, however, if "Endgame" turns out to be a good book. For me the most serious problem with "Players" is a passage in which a fictional character becomes involved in one of Churchill's real-life exploits in such a way as to seriously lessen the degree of heroism which Churchill showed in the real-life situation. I feel that Dicks should not have treated the historical career of one of the greatest figures of the twentieth century quite so cavalierly as he does in this passage, and it is largely because of this that I am giving this book only three stars. Nonetheless, I do recommend this book. Winston Churchill is its "guest star," and he does not disappoint. No one else can write books that have the feel of "real" "Doctor Who" as effortlessly as Terrance Dicks. No "Doctor Who" fan will want to miss the thrill of witnessing the first meeting of Britain's greatest real-life hero and her greatest fictional hero under the blazing South African sun.
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