The Aztecs

"The Aztecs always showed the utmost courtesy to their intended victims."

Writer: John Lucarotti

Format: Novel

Released: September 1984

Series: Target 88

Featuring: First Doctor, Susan, Ian, Barbara

Synopsis 

The TARDIS materialises in Mexico during the Aztecs civilisation. The Doctor and his companions step outside to discover they are inside a tomb - the tomb, it turns out, of Yetaxa, once High Priest of the Aztecs. 

Barbara is hailed as Yetaxa's reincarnation by Autloc, High Priest of Knowledge, and Tlotoxl, High Priest of Sacrifice, when they find her in the precincts of the tomb wearing the bracelet if the deceased Priest, now revered as a god. 

As she takes advantage of her position of unaccustomed power to try and dissuade the Aztecs from practising human sacrifice...

Verdict 

The Aztecs was an excellent novelisation and a really great way to finish the year! 2015 has been an incredible year for both Doctor Who and myself personally. Series 9 was hugely successful with some quite outstanding stories in which we saw the wonderful Ashildr debut, Clara emotionally die and the Doctor finally step foot on Gallifrey again. We've seen the release in the UK of the Titan Comics adventures from the USA with the Ninth (just about), Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors having some quite wonderful adventures in which we saw the Nimon, Celestial Toymaker and Weeping Angels all make magnificent returns. I really am a huge fan of this magazine and I hope all remains well for it next year. Doctor Who Magazine has been very good this year and the comic strip content in there has been to a high standard which is really pleasing. For me personally, it's been a hugely eventful year and that's why I didn't quite achieve the 308 blog entries of 2014, something I'm not sure I'll ever do again, but 274 isn't too shabby at all. For next year, I do hope to increase the novels during the summer as they're just so difficult to manage to do whilst I'm at university and have academic reading that I need to do. I expect 2016 to be dominated by comic strips and audios as they're what I'll buy the most of and I'm absolutely fine with it. I will continue to read on the train journeys to and from university and I'll fit in the odd television story in along the way! It's a year I'm looking forward to and if I can get anywhere near 274 stories I'll be happy! But now let's talk about the story at hand and it was one I really enjoyed. I was a bit sceptical as to how I'd respond to this story because I've watched it at least four times so it's fair to say I know it pretty well. With each watch, my rating has actually improved and with the novel getting the same rating as the last time I watched, it's fair to say that is what I truly think of the story. I just love it and as my interest in History has increased between each watch (and now read), I really found myself loving Barbara blurting out all she knew about the Aztecs. It's a superb setting and although the story is set in Mexico, it somehow doesn't seem to be in a foreign country - not that it mattered. There were quite a few deviations from the television story and I actually really liked them. The use of the torch from Ian to stun Ixta was great and I loved the description of the latter's reaction. He just couldn't understand how light was made without fire. Despite doing this story so many times now, I'm not sure why I haven't researched the Aztec period as I'm sure it would add to my enjoyment of the story if I knew more about the period in which the serial, or in this case the novel, was set. I really love the Doctor in this and Lucarotti did an excellent job of characterising William Hartnell's First Doctor. Steven Moffat has been a tad critical of this incarnation not actually being the Doctor as we know him now but I would disagree with that. I think he's just magnificent and on television I would just about say he's my favourite incarnation. He really is superb. I was disappointed buy the delivery of the infamous "you can't rewrite history, not one line" quote which was a shame as I was looking forward to reading that part of the novel. I really did anticipate it and it was a shame. Tlotoxl was brilliant as the villain in the story and I love the irony in me calling him that because well, it was actually Barbara who was the wrong one in this story. Tlotoxl was absolutely correct in what he was doing throughout the story which I just think is brilliant. Susan didn't play as big a role as I remembered but the highlighted roles of Ian and Susan more than made up for that. Ian and Ixta's battles were fantastic and Ian using just his thumb at one point was really great. Barbara serving as Yetaxa was marvellous and I loved the essence of the plot in it basically being about opening a tomb. Ian's venture to the TARDIS in doing so was eventful to say the least! I really enjoyed Autloc's emotionally story and Barbara's disappointment at what she did, even if the Doctor convinced her she had done good. The dash to the TARDIS at the climax was very good and overall, this was just a wonderful read! A great way to finish the year. 

Rating: 8/10