The Devil Goblins from Neptune

Even for Doctor Who, that's a pretty ridiculous title. It's goofy to the point of being extreme, which may have been the intent of the writers, since it contrasts quite weirdly with the actual contents of the book itself. The early 1970s stories were marked by a Earth-centric focus (partially due to budgetary considerations) and revolved around the UNIT organization and the cast that went along with that crew, as they and the Doctor fought alien invasions nearly every week. While it probably shouldn't be what the show is like all the time, it was fun while it lasted and many fans do fondly remember that era. This book attempts to bring it back and add an extra layer of seriousness to it. It's a Third Doctor story and takes place at the end of the seventh season, so Liz Shaw is still on board. What starts out as a rather conventional "aliens are landing" story winds up becoming something more interesting as the novel develops, as the writers decide to focus more on the espionage aspect of the decade, as UNIT is suddenly besieged by a spy and a conspiracy that appears to go all the way up to the top of the hierarchy. Thus while you have scenes where aliens come down and apparently kill people as part of some bizarre plan, after a while it starts to take a backseat to all the international politics that are winging around, with the Russian version of UNIT appearing to try and kidnap the Doctor, with the Brigadier trying to manuever and manipulate his way to the top in an effort to figure out who the heck has it out for him, while the rest of the cast scrambles around just to stay alive. It makes for oddly tense reading, with a weirdly fatalistic sense of resignation hanging over the proceedings, as people like Benton and the Brigadier almost actively questioning what it means to be a soldier and kill people for their country, often in cold blood. The Doctor is characterized well, by turns arrogant and preening, as well as undoubtably brilliant and moral. Liz Shaw is also handled well, an intellectual match for the Doctor who is questioning her involvement with UNIT even as she likes working around the Doctor (as much as he frustrates her), but by the same token she does not really enjoy the blood and horror that seem to come with working for UNIT, an aspecpt she really can't get used to. The plot does eventually seem to involve the aforementioned Devil Goblins and they do have a plan but it is almost extraneous and it's when the plot does seem to focus on them that the plot seems to lag, with the climatic scenes lacking just a little bit of logic and the solution coming really way out from left field. But it just reminds you how well the rest of the story is told and while it won't convince you it's a replacement for the latest Tom Clancy novel, it's a surprisingly mature and realistic tone for a Past Doctor Adventure, evoking the era while at the same time updating it ever so slightly for contemporary readers.

This is a great who novel with the third doctor. It really flushes out a lot of Unit history and helps to understand unit's place in the bigger international picture. Russian Unit includes a great women charecter and Liz and the Doctor are written in such a way that I could hear them speaking the dialogue. As usual with Who novels, I felt the ending was just thrown togetheras an after thought, but I have come to expect that. A great page turner, this reads like Terrance Dicks better books, but with the introspection of Mark Gaitiss. Try this novel and you will be happy.

An exciting and intriguing plot told with dialogue and characterizations that ring true to all the beloved early Pertwee years Dr. Who characters: Liz Shaw, Yates, Benton and Lethbridge-Stewart. Pertwee's Doctor was always concerned with social issues that blended into adult plotlines without ever overshadowing the story and characters. Like Pertwee TV stories, this book mixes scifi, espionage, and a taste of horror (which was later exploited fully in the Baker years) and delivers all of these elements with style and vigorous pacing that never allows any single element or character to get in the way of an exciting tale. It is a guilty pleasure that surpasses expectations. Like the early Pertwee stories, it offers a satisfying plot, fully-developed characters and the same sense or reality that made the first seasons of the third Doctor seem so relevant.

This third Doctor novel, set between seasons seven and eight of the TV series, has got to have one of the hokiest names ever forced upon the reading public. But don't judge a book by its title.An alien object breaks up when entering Earth's atmosphere, and you know that means we're in for alien visitors. The matter is duly reported to the Doctor, but he is having problems of his own. Someone is trying to kidnap him...This story contains some globe-spanning intrigue as well as a new menace from beyond Earth (from Triton, one of the moons of Neptune, to be precise - the hokey name had to come from somewhere...), and, following on from the more "adult" tone of season seven, UNIT is not the happy family you might have expected from season eight.A decent read, with quite a few plot twists which may surprise you.

Wish I could say more than "not bad", and the truth is it ISN'T a bad book, but it isn't quite the Doctor Who we're used to. It almost feels as if Ian Fleming or Ken Follet contributed to this book, lots of "spy stuff" and policital intrigue. It's good to see UNIT back, with Lethbridge- Stewart, Yates, and Benton, but it's all a bit strange, Key to the story are an American spy who infiltrates UNIT for information, leaving a trail of bodies and destruction behind him; and Russian guerillas determined to abduct the Doctor to solve their problems of a mysterious mine in the tundra, from which no human investigators return. Meanwhile, the Doctor is being jumped upon and nibbled on by--you guessed it--Devil Goblins from Neptune. There's a bit too much Spy VS Spy-type activity, and not enough of the Doctor, who seems to be unconscious through quite a bit of the book. Once or twice I began to wonder if the author had forgotten the Doctor altogether. It picks up towards the end when the Doctor becomes more active and prepares to avert a nuclear attack by the Devil Goblins. If you find it a bit hard to start on, as I did, I recommend you keep going, the pace changes frequently enough to keep you interested and hanging on, but not so quickly that you can't keep track of what's happening. I was pleasantly surprised with a book I thought I would end up laying aside, and thoroughly enjoyed as it went on.