Customer Reviews

Players (Doctor Who Series)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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.

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.

Those of us with long memories and the inability to not finish a book once begun may remember Mr Dicks' other entries into the BBC line, one of which was . . . not great ("The Eight Doctors") and the other entertaining but a bit fluffy ("Catastrophea"). But he's reliable and knows how to tell a story and thus he's back again, this time writing an adventure for the Sixth Doctor (and briefly the Second Doctor, but we'll get there in a moment) as they essentially keep dropping in on the life of Winston Churchill in order to keep a shadowy band of game players from killing him and altering history. Which would understandably be bad.

With the Sixth Doctor's televised tenure so brief, it's made his off-screen history rife for mining and exploring and it seems like a new generation of fans have figured out that whatever failings the scripts from that era had, the team of the Doctor and Peri actually did work fairly well and Dicks does his best to play that up. While the Doctor in this incarnation is bombastic and arrogant and at first seems to only keep Peri around so he can have someone to listen to his brilliant thoughts, he does care about her quite a bit, while Peri gets to show some brains. So he more or less nails down the characterizations, which is not always easy to do.

Alas, the plot is where things start to get sort of thin. Namely, there isn't much of one. You can basically sum it up all in one sentence: people try to kill Winston Churchill. This could be gripping time travelling suspense if Dicks actually fleshed out the whys of it but he either doesn't feel like explaining or is setting things up for a future novel, as the reasons seem to boil down to "It's all part of the game!" and "Because we think this is fun!" without really getting a sense of the stakes involved. So the Doctor becomes more reactive than anything else, bopping along and running into Mr Churchill just in time to stop an assassin for showing up or manipulating them all into doing something rather dire.

Fortunately the historical settings work in this book's favor as it is fairly rare that SF readers will be treated to a visit to the Boer War or England before World War II breaks out. The inclusion of historical figures does gives the book a heavier feel than just dumping everyone on some random planet would, especially when the book moves into the latter sections with the political jockeying between Churchill and the Germans and the newly crowned King of England, a rather fascinating moment in British history where nobody seemed to know what the heck was going on. Dicks actually brings us up and close to the historical figures, interestingly enough and his portrayals of them aren't always flattering (Wallis Simpson in particular doesn't come off too well and the king is basically accused of treason in a SF TV spin off novel, which has to be a first). Meanwhile assassin show up every so often to remind us that there's a plot going on beyond historical events. Gee.

But as with all the historical novels based on fairly well known events, you run the risk of the Doctor becoming a bystander or even irrelevant to the proceedings at hand. Dicks does get out of this by playing off the difference between public perception of events and what we "know" happened, although it can be argued that including the Doctor as a helping hand sort of downplays the roles that real people played in these situations. But still . . . Winston Churchill. That's cool.

Interestingly, what there is of a plot essentially stops so that the Second Doctor can have a brief adventure with people from "The War Games", a bit that doesn't entirely work as it gives weight to the notion that the Doctor had a whole host of adventures before the Time Lords exiled him to Earth (which I don't 100% buy) and as it doesn't heavily impact the future plot it mostly seems like a way to beef up the page count. It's nice to see him and all but if this were the TV show they would have just dispensed with the whole scene in a tossed off aside.

And in the end, the whole big conspiracy game thing is . . . what? You've given all these lead-ins and this group of people who appear to be engaged in Doing Bad Things but it doesn't amount to all that much as you aren't given all that much of an agenda to go with other than a cute set of rhymes and the hint that you'll be seeing them again some day. They don't seem all that scary and their origins so nebulous that any threat doesn't seem all that huge. Even without the Doctor around, Winston Churchill could have totally taken them. Because he's Churchill!

So you're given all this setup for a wind up punch that never really comes. They try and they try until they stop trying and then the book is over. Don't get me wrong, it's well written and passably done and it's not often that someone throws big Winston Churchill into the adventures of a man and his police box . . . but it's all rather slight under closer examination, prime minister of England or not.

The story takes place during many events in the life of Winston Churchill. The Boer War, WW1 and the beginnings of WW2. Each time the Doctor has a feeling that events to assassinate Churchill are being manipulated by an unknown team. Most impressive was the use of the 6th Doctor to relay a similar confrontation with Churchill during his 2nd persona. Once again, as in the Eight Doctors, Terrance Dicks is trying to smooth out continuity stuff-ups, by having the 2nd Doctor run errands for the CIA (Celestial Intervention Agency) just before his forced regeneration Therefore the 2nd Docs appearance and references to Jamie and Zoe about all knowledge of him being wiped from their minds in the Five Doctors was obviously during this period. One problem though - you don't really get to find out who or what the PLAYERS are. All characterisation is spot on. Well written, easily read, very entertaining - RECOMMENDED to all.

I'm not usually a big fan of Doctor Who stories where the main characters have adventures with historical figures. Not to say that this situation can't be and hasn't been done well, but the usual result is that the historical events end up being cheapened and the sense of history never gets properly conveyed. So when I read on the back-cover blurb of PLAYERS that the Doctor and Peri were going to be having adventures with (among other people) Winston Churchill, I hoped that I wouldn't be disappointed with the result.

Thankfully, I wasn't. Terrance Dicks has done a wonderful job of making his Churchill appear like the historical figure he was and doesn't let him fall into the trap of being just another character who happens to have a famous name. By allowing us to view Churchill over the course of several decades, a real sense of history is established. This lets us view Churchill in the proper context; he's a real person who has done hundreds of things before without contact with the Doctor. He has his own life and his own place in the history books. This may seem like a simple thing to setup, but I've seen far too many instances where this background isn't established and the result is that there is no connection between the real person and the fictional version used in the story. Dicks passes with flying colours here. With the periodic dips into Churchill's timeline it seems more like the Doctor is jumping in and out of Churchill's personal biography rather than just pulling Churchill into his own otherworldly adventures.

The story itself is straightforward without being totally simplistic. Aliens (the Players of the title) are attempting to manipulate the course of human history for their own bored amusement. The plot is slightly frustrating in that the back-cover summary tells the reader exactly what the Players are up to, but until almost the conclusion, the characters in the book are virtually oblivious to any of their machinations. Another annoyance is that by the end of the story the reader hasn't learned much more about the Players than what the blurb has already informed us of. Fortunately, the sections that deal specifically with the Players (they exist behind the scenes and rarely make personal appearances) are done stylishly enough to compensate for the lack of explanation.

For the most part, the characterization of the sixth Doctor and Peri are handled very well, especially in the beginning section. There are a few places towards the middle and end where Dicks seems to forget the bombastic nature of the sixth Doctor, but overall, he's got them spot on. Even the extended portion featuring the second Doctor is done well, which should not be a surprise after all of Dicks' Target novelisations.

All in all this was an entertaining, fast-paced book that kept me interested the whole way through. During the reading of it, I kept having flashbacks to Terrance Dicks' Target novelisations, but I mean that in the best possible way. While a lot of those books have been criticized for being shoddy, cut-n-paste hack jobs, some of them were excellent examples of the best of Doctor Who. There were only a few places were the comparison to Targets was unflattering and that was the numerous paragraphs that consisted entirely of passages like: "The Doctor brought Churchill up to date and told him of their adventures while Churchill laughed loudly." These information dumps for the varying characters seemed to crop up in far too many places, were very annoying and really broke up the pace of that section. On the other hand, for every one of those present there were numerous places in which his minimalist prose style really helped to quicken the pace and tighten the action. Terrance Dicks has been writing these characters for (literally) decades, and the result is that he can make it look easy and effortless. When he's on form, he can produce some of the most enthralling Doctor Who fiction out there. This is not an example of his best work, but it's certainly not his worst and it comes recommended.

This is Terrance Dicks' best novel for some time. As usual, the author has returned to some of his favourite stomping grounds, including a flashback for the Second Doctor in World War One. The Sixth Doctor and Peri arrive in South Africa just an assassin takes a pot shot at the young Winston Churchill. Having saved Churchill's life, the Doctor believes that more sinister forces are at work, manipulating the actions of the Boers. Hindsight is the Doctor's greatest ally and his greatest fear: how much must he interfere to insure Churchill's future? Events come to the fore in the 1930s, spurred on by the intrigues of the Nazis, accompanied by the mysterious assassin... This is an excellent adventure story, very much in the mould of Indiana Jones or even Colonel Blimp. Familiar faces from the past reappear to aid the Doctor,and the 'Players' may turn out to be very old enemies indeed... Despite believing the Doctor to be an archetypal character, Dicks has got the Sixth Doctor exactly right here. This may even be the Sixth Doctor at his best, and it's a pity that it's never going to be on TV, for Dicks allows the Doctor to ditch that dreadful coat, to be replaced by a costume that Colin Baker might have preferred. 'Players' surpasses 'Exodus': although it employs real life characters from the same period, its overall slant is contrary to the earlier book and far more tasteful. I gave this a high mark because I didn't expect to enjoy it, but I did. However, Terrance Dicks could win higher marks if only he tried to do something a bit more original.

I know I must be one of the few Sixth doctor fans out there, but this book hooked me on the whole series. The characters seem to be very true to form, and well written. Terrance Dicks did a wonderful job writing for these unfamiliar characters. I only hope the other books continue to put forth this type of effort.

This is Terrance Dicks' best novel for some time. As usual, the author has returned to some of his favourite stomping grounds, including a flashback for the Second Doctor in World War One. The Sixth Doctor and Peri arrive in South Africa just an assassin takes a pot shot at the young Winston Churchill. Having saved Churchill's life, the Doctor believes that more sinister forces are at work, manipulating the actions of the Boers. Hindsight is the Doctor's greatest ally and his greatest fear: how much must he interfere to insure Churchill's future? Events come to the fore in the 1930s, spurred on by the intrigues of the Nazis, accompanied by the mysterious assassin... This is an excellent adventure story, very much in the mould of Indiana Jones or even Colonel Blimp. Familiar faces from the past reappear to aid the Doctor,and the 'Players' may turn out to be very old enemies indeed... Despite believing the Doctor to be an archetypal character, Dicks has got the Sixth Doctor exactly right here. This may even be the Sixth Doctor at his best, and it's a pity that it's never going to be on TV, for Dicks allows the Doctor to ditch that dreadful coat, to be replaced by a costume that Colin Baker might have preferred. 'Players' surpasses 'Exodus': although it employs real life characters from the same period, its overall slant is contrary to the earlier book and far more tasteful. I gave this a high mark because I didn't expect to enjoy it, but I did. However, Terrance Dicks could win higher marks if only he tried to do something a bit more original.

Well Terrance Dicks has a another great story here. He wrote many of the serial in novel form during the shows years on the air. In this adventure without giving anything away, the Doctor and peri land in the boers war of 1899. They meet Winston Churchill. They are captured but escape. Churchill continues on with life. This is before a strange man tries to kill him. After the Doctor and Peri leave, the Doctor explain he meet churchill before(in his second form. ) During this type a some old friends come back to help the Doctor foil this plot of the Players. The Players turn out to be some old foes(although it is never really explained(perhaps the foes from the some other new books) if anyone please say in your review. This book puts the main people in real life problems(like peri getting kidnapped!!spoiler ) It is a fun book that takes place in a war time situation. Look for the following people to come back in this novel(dekker,his aide,lady Jennifer and castairs from the war games ) I would recommend this book to fans of the show or of the 6th Doctor and his aide Peri !!!