Heart of TARDIS

"It hasn't been much of a day for stopping the unstoppable forces of evil. I have to admit I'm a bit stumped."

Writer: Dave Stone

Format: Novel

Released: June 2000

Series: PDA 32

Featuring: Second Doctor, Jamie, Victoria, Fourth Doctor, Romana I, Brigadier

Synopsis 

In the American Midwestern town of Lychburg, something is afoot. Its citizens are being killed in expressively horrible and brutal ways and the police don't have a clue who's responsible. The only suspects are a mysterious and sinister stranger, who calls himself the Doctor, and his young companions Jamie and Victoria.

The Fourth Doctor and Romana, meanwhile, have been summoned by the Gallifreyan High Council. A force has been unleashed into the space/time continuum... a force so unimaginably terrible that it is set to rip the universe itself apart and plunge it into primal, screaming chaos from which nothing will survive. 

Of course, since something of this nature happens every other day of the week, the Doctor's really far more interested in finding out what's happened to a close personal friend, who seems to have vanished under mysterious circumstances. And quite right, too. The fate of a universe plunging into fetid and unending chaos can look out for itself for a change...

Verdict 

Heart of TARDIS was a pretty decent read but sadly it didn't live up to my expectations. It was a novel I had been in search of for quite some time so I was absolutely delighted to find it Comic Guru, a great little shop in Cardiff. I probably overpaid a little but despite me not enjoying it as much as I'd hoped, it's still a prized possession of mine in my increasing collection. I'm slowly but surely getting through these novels but with me set to move out and heading to university in just over five weeks, I have no idea what time will be like and if novels will be available to me for pleasure reads. I must admit, I was not a fan of Dave Stone's style of writing. There was no need for some of the swearing that appeared in the novel and I actually found him somewhat sexist a little. The earring euphemism for Romana's breasts just had absolutely no place in a Doctor Who novel. No matter the format, this is still a family audience. I really objected to that. I also didn't get the whole Appendix segment to end on in which he seemed to depict a sex scene with Ace. It just made no sense and for me it was a sour way to end. It had barely any relation to the novel. But anyway, the story was good and certainly had its positives but there were also negatives which brought it down to what I would consider a relatively poor rating. The reason I longed after this novel should be apparent just from the cover, which I must say is superb. Who wouldn't want to read a novel featuring both the Second and Fourth Doctors? However, I was extremely disappointed to find that they did not meet. It was even avoided! Although, the Fourth Doctor and Romana hiding under the TARDIS console from the Second Doctor, Jamie and Victoria is quite a comedic image! I like the idea of the Fourth Doctor and Second Doctor having a loosely connected adventure but did we really need both in the novel? I would argue that we didn't purely based on the fact that the chapters with the Fourth Doctor were much longer than those with the Second. The characterisation of the characters in this novel was mostly good with the female companions particularly shining. Stone managed to capture Victoria pretty much perfectly and although it goes against popular opinion, I prefer this trio to when she is replaced by Zoe. It's a rare occasion for me to do a story with Romana I and that's probably because it's narratively difficult to place stories between the Key to Time sixteenth season. I've only seen each of those stories once and the only other story I've done with this incarnation of Romana is The Aunty Matter so she's probably my least known companion which is quite ridiculous really. However, I really liked how she was presented here but I maintain that she doesn't come anywhere close to her successor of Lalla Ward's second incarnation. She did provide some humour and the wonderful bantering that seems natural with the Fourth Doctor no matter the companion! Jamie's characterisation was a bit of a mix but to be honest he didn't have a huge role in the story. The Doctors were characterised pretty well but the Fourth was captured much more realistically than the Second. I really enjoyed Romana's foreshadowing of her regeneration in Destiny of the Daleks based on the princess she met in The Armageddon Factor. It really rose to an intriguing concept that regeneration could be chosen. It would certainly keep in line with some dialogue in The War Games. It just appears that forced regeneration, which as it goes happens pretty regularly for the Doctor, makes deciding on appearance pretty difficult. The Collectors were a very mysterious bunch and I liked how they were sold on the fact that the Daleks even hid away from them and made it look like Skaro had been destroyed. Wblk was the subject of quite a lot of humour from the Doctor and Romana which I liked. I absolutely loved that the Doctor immediately abandoned the search for the Key to Time when it seemed that the Brigadier was in trouble. That was a really nice touch and despite all the bickering between the pair during the Third Doctor's exile, the Brigadier really did mean a lot to the Doctor. That was seen wonderfully in Death in Heaven. The Jarakebeth weren't what I was expecting after the build up to be revealed as the enemy. I liked how they didn't like their name to be spoken but I was expecting something more dramatic. The climax was actually decent and I really liked Romana's distaste at the decor of the Second Doctor's TARDIS console room. I can't recall it being too different from the one she's used to but bantering across regenerations, even by companions, is something I adore. It's just a shame I didn't get that here with the Doctors not meeting as I hoped! There were negatives but there were certainly positives that made up for things to still give the novel a far from disastrous rating. 

Rating: 7/10