Brian HaylesRezensionen

A short fun read ♡

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2879579.html

I think some readers are of an age to remember the slightly incomprehensible 1978 BBC children's TV series that this books novelises - particularly memorable for Who fans in that it stars Sarah Sutton, a year or so before she became Nyssa, and John Abineri, who was in Doctor Who four times; and the writer of course was Brian Hayles, who wrote the four Ice Warrior stories of Old Who and also The Celestial Toymaker and The Smugglers. He died, aged 47, just before the first episode was shown (and before the book had been published).

The book sticks fairly closely to the TV story as I remember it (from first watching it in 1978 and again in 2010). It suffers a bit from the inevitable traps of novelising a script - basically, the omniscient narrator sometimes comes over as kinda dumb. But it's a decent recreation of a very weird story, which provoked happy memories.½

Intrigue, as alien delegates visit a backwards planet.

Nothing really worth seeing, but I was reasonably entertained - often for the wrong reasons.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: D
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: D
Acting: D
Music: C

Enjoyment: C plus

GPA: 1.7/4

The Doctor returns to Peladon, where the working classes are being exploited to further an intergalactic war effort.

I kind of hate planet Peladon, but it isn't nearly so bad this time around.

Concept: D
Story: B
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: D
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: D
Acting: C
Music: B

Enjoyment: C plus

GPA: 1.9/4

Not much to say about this one. It's original writer Brian Hayles' perfectly good novelization of his own perfectly good TV serial - and, because it's one of the earliest novelizations, he's taken the opportunity to flesh out the backgrounds of the characters and the situations a little bit. I'm not sure Peladon comes over as a more realistic society, but King Peladon himself carries a bit more weight when you learn some of his childhood, his relationship with his mother, and so on. The big change - the one that everyone remembers - is that here, Hayles is free to depict Alpha Centauri without the limitations of budget. He has fully-functional tentacles, a "watery eye," and the ability to change color depending on his emotions. He's a walking mood ring!

Scientists trying to stop a new ice age discover buried Martians.

Boring. It's a terrible script, realized so incompetently that a lot of it is literally painful to watch.

Concept: C
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: D
Pacing: F
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: F
Acting: F
Music: D

Enjoyment: F

GPA: 0.8/4½

I am a fan of the Dr Who series both books and television show. The difference between the books and TV show is the complexity of the plots and the amount of violence in the books. This book delivers on both these fronts. The Ice Warriors are both complex in their motives and violent in their actions.The plot works on multiple levels a simple invasion story or a tale of a man giving his essential self to the mind of a computer, Read tis story and the others that feature the Ice Warriors and then watch the Dr Who episode titled Cold War if you want a treat.

Some of the original 1970s Doctor Who Target novelisations have now been published as e-books, so I am re-reading this one in light of the release of the DVD this weekend. This is not one of my particular favourites, but rattles along quite well, with some extra back story being given for a few of the minor characters. There are a number of quite well drawn human characters, while the Ice Warriors come across as quite a forbidding threat here, rather than as the reptilian soldiers the rank and filers sometimes resembled in later stories.

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1037395.html#cutid2

Hayles adapted his own TV script again; and it is generally a good version of a good story, with the excellent point that Alpha Centauri is much less silly on the page than on the screen. I felt that Hepesh, the high priest, was a little more three-dimensional in the original but basically it is a good effort.

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1028958.html?#cutid4

Hayles wrote up his own story here, and did a good job. It may be yet another base under siege, but the people on and off the base all have understandable motivations and reasons for doing what they do. In particular, one feels much more sympathetic to the novel's version of the aggressive Leader Clent than to the original broadcast character. The Ice Warriors are suitably villainous, the Doctor's techno-babble entirely convincing, and the computer itself ends up an interesting character.½