Good. ( )

http://nhw.livejournal.com/535272.html

This is a story of the Eighth Doctor, Bernice Summerfield and the Brigadier defending 1997 London from an invasion of Ice Warriors from Mars. There is lots to like here. I especially liked the setting - the casual name-dropping of real celebrities from 1997 (including Lalla Ward twice, once as herself and once as Romana), but in the world of Doctor Who (the Whoniverse?), where the UK has had a massive space programme since the early 1970s - a sort of sfnal Cool Britannia. It was a heck of a lot more convincing than, say Remembrance of the Daleks' attempt to reconstruct 1963. The basic plot got a little convoluted - sinister British technocrat is conspiring with the aliens to take power, with lots of little details that didn't always tie up well - but the characterisation and writing was great. Sure, the final escape from certain death through improvised parachute and airbags is a bit of a stretch of the imagination, but hey, we have a Time Lord battling invaders from a Mars with a breathable atmosphere - you expect gritty realism? ( )