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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Apocalyptic atmosphere, October 28, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Zeta Major (Doctor Who Series) (Paperback)
As a sequel to the TV story 'Planet of Evil', this story stands up very well. Simon Messingham creates some very sympathetic, and humourous characters. The fifth Doctor, Nyssa, and Tegan are all very well written, but if you do buy this book, I suggest that you should watch 'Planet of Evil' first, otherwise you'll have no idea what is going on. But, apart from that, it is an excellent story, and well worth reading.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Requiem in the Key of Zeta Major, August 3, 2001
This review is from: Zeta Major (Doctor Who Series) (Paperback)
There's a scene in the middle of "Zeta Major" in which three characters find themselves watching, on video cassette, the actual Doctor Who episode to which this book is a sequel - 1975's "Planet of Evil", the creaky Tom Baker vehicle.This scene, the one truly light moment in the novel, represents everything that's both good and bad about Simon Messingham's second "Doctor Who" novel. On the one hand, as a sequel to a story older than a sizeable segment of Doctor Who fandom, it's a success. Messingham takes themes and fugues from the seed story and spins an entirely new tale, set 2000 years into "Planet of Evil"'s future. On that level, Zeta Major is fresh and original (though it helps that he gets to work with the strong ideas planted by Louis Marks in the original). Further, the events within Planet of Evil itself are given literal apotheosis - dialogue from the original story, is quoted as literal chapter and verse. On the other hand, Zeta Major is Dark, capital D. It's also Grim, and Nasty. Cynical. Twisted. Gritty. After thirty pages, I found this intriguing. After a hundred and fifty pages, I was exhilirated. At the end, I was... bored. There's only so far you can take the dystopian approach with a fictional civilization without having something to say, and ultimately, Messingham has little new to tell us about our own Y2K ciilization. While there's a novelty to the increasingly gruesome death scenes, and energy in the satiric riffs at Roman Catholicism and the Mafia (this book predates "The Sopranos), at the end of the day, one can't be blamed for feeling somewhat ill-used.While this is a Fifth Doctor adventure, the Doctor on the printed page is hard to swallow without accompanying sips of televised Peter Davison stories viewed in between readings. Tegan and Nyssa are relevant to the plot - Nyssa's print potential has always been unlimited - but Zeta Major could have been written for any other team of companions and Doctor. The book doesn't suffer as a result of the generic characterizations, though - there's far too much else to worry about.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Couldn't the snarling men once walk through doors?, September 15, 2008
This review is from: Zeta Major (Doctor Who Series) (Paperback)
I've never seen "Planet of Evil", the story that this is a sequel to (although I have it on DVD and will get to it one day, I swear) but I will say right off the bat that that shouldn't be an impediment to anyone coming into this cold. If you're still nervous, here's the gist of that longago story: anti-matter=bad. And people shouldn't mess with it. There, now you're ready to read the book! Featuring the Fifth Doctor with Nyssa and Tegan, the author does a great job extrapolating the Morestran empire in the wake of the Doctor's encounter with them on the original anti-matter planet. A stray comment by him has sent them off on a technological dead-end. Meanwhile the events of "Planet of Evil" have taken on holy writ and the society has fractured into a fanatical church and a very real sense that everyone is trying to kill everyone else. Meanwhile, the giant Tower is about to completed and turned on. The culmination of all their efforts, the lynchpin of their entire future. Only one problem: it doesn't work. Oops. Time for plan B! For once things are already a mess by the time the Doctor shows up (as opposed to him walking in and complicating matters) and the best he can do is react to events in between withstanding mental attacks. Davidson's Doctor was never the most proactive and while he does act as crucial moments he also spends most of his time either being pained or unconscious. This leaves most of the heavy lifting to Tegan and Nyssa, who are generally up to the task. Although for all their running around they don't get all that much accomplished either and Nyssa seems to prove once again that the writers believe "She's an alien, so we can do whatever we want to her." Where does this all leave us? With an interesting story, strangely enough. As I've mentioned earlier, Messingham does a really good job at sketching out the changes in the culture with the limited space he has (considering he has to keep the plot moving) and throws in a lot of oddly structured bits like transcripts and newsletters and whatnot to give different flavors and perspectives. The problem is, the story wants to be an epic tale of a crumbling empire on a "Doctor Who" budget and there's just so much going on that none of it has any depth. The complexities of the politics are interesting and add a dangerous angle to the book, but a lot of times it comes down to people just shooting each other in the face for reasons that boil down to "I don't like you." But between all the hierarchies and cardinals and scientists, you don't find yourself caring about any of it. Everything is so grim and so relentless that it gives a different feel to the proceedings but a constant diet of Something Bad Happening just makes you wish it were over. The book is full of unhappy people doing terrible things and you might agree that the things are indeed very terrible but in the end you don't feel any emotional connection to anyone but our heroes. It also doesn't help that the resolution is just a bigger scale version of how they wrapped up "Planet of Evil", although I guess if it worked once it's worth trying again. I finished this in a few hours and I liked it but ask me any details about it in a month and I'll probably only be able to tell you "It's the sequel to the one with the nice jungle." Whether that's a reason to read it is up to you to decide.
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