A superb work of Doctor Who fiction.
A highly compelling and absorbing Doctor Who story that shows a great insight into the human condition, written with frankness, compassion, and sincerity. The story offers a wonderful deconstruction of the Doctor's character, taking him down a few pegs, and revealing a fine understanding of the Doctor's ego, his arrogance and self-assuredness, which is presented as his fatal flaw (something to be seen later with the Tenth Doctor, under Davies). The story anticipates, in many ways, Davies's televised Doctor Who career, and it might well be his best work of Doctor Who fiction. The story addresses human sexuality and romance, features a family called the Tylers, and is set on a council estate in contemporary Britain. There is also mention of a war in the Doctor's future (which today we would identify as the Time War). The story touches on the Doctor as a powerful, mythic figure who leaves an indelible impression on the ordinary, everyday people that he meets. What is most striking about the story, however, are the vignettes that focus on the psychology of the supporting characters - the 'little people', the 'extras', if you will - developing them as fully realised, grounded, and realistic individuals who evoke pathos from the reader. The story reminds us that Doctor Who, at the end of the day, like all good science fiction, is not about aliens or technology or science, but rather it's about the human condition: what makes individual human beings 'tick'; and how human beings interact not only with each other - in their everyday interpersonal affairs - but with the alien, the unknown, and the Other (embodied and personfiied in the Doctor); and how the lives of ordinary people are challenged and changed by these forces.
Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-owned