Wetworld

"The only people who've called me a threat are people who are up to no good."

Writer: Mark Michalowski

Format: Novel

Released: September 2007

Series: NSA 18

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Martha

Synopsis 

When the TARDIS makes a disastrous landing in the swamps of the planet Sunday, the Doctor has no choice but to abandon Martha and try to find help. But the tranquility of Sunday's swamps is deceptive, and even the TARDIS can't protect Martha forever.

The human pioneers of Sunday have their own dangers to face: homeless and alone, they're starting to see that Sunday's wildlife isn't as harmless as it appears. Why are the otters behaving so strangely, and what is the creature in the swamps that is so interested in the humans, and the new arrivals?

The Doctor and Martha must fight to ensure that human intelligence doesn't become the greatest danger of all.

Verdict 

Wetworld was a pretty good novel but I must admit that after a fantastic first five books with the Tenth Doctor and Martha I was hoping for better. Reading on the usual train journey home from mid to South Wales, I again noticed that my reading speed has drastically increased as I read to just over 200 pages in the three-and-a-half hour journey, whereas on previous trips I've been happy to get to the halfway stage of a modern era original novel. I quickly finished the last forty pages upon arriving at home but sadly I couldn't be delighted with what I had read. Despite how negative I'm sounding, I must iterate now that I didn't think the novel was bad but I just thought it could have been gratefully improved. I thought the Sunday setting was good although for what was stated, only setting a century or so into the future seemed a little unlikely and quite ambitious. However, that's not massively important because who's to say we won't be colonising planets 92 years in the future? I thought the characterisation of David Tennant's Tenth Doctor was pretty good although Michalowski did go over the top a little bit with the constant talking and humorous ignorance. But you could still see the traits so that was absolutely fine. His characterisation of Martha was very good I thought which was terrific to read and I did like how he split the TARDIS pairing up very early on and even after their initial reuniting, they were rarely together due to Martha's condition. That was suffered at the hands of the swamp monster and now I need to talk about something that irritated me very much. I just hate it when the main enemy or antagonist in a story doesn't have a name. The Doctor referred to it as 'swampy' on more than one occasion and with a nickname like that I just couldn't take it seriously as a monster. The concept of it was actually very good with it using the intelligence of others rather than having its own and I also liked it's reproduction method. That's all the monster thought life was for - to reproduce. The Doctor instantly opposed that with a great speech about living your life which was fantastic. I thought Candy was a wonderful character and she was probably my favourite part of the book to be honest. Her little backstory was terrific and I loved how she, and the Doctor, hated her nickname. Ty was a humorous character and she became rather attached to the Doctor which was something Martha didn't like. You could really see in this novel just how much Martha loved the Doctor and with him just mentioning the word 'babies', it seemed like she was planning her future family. I did like how she hated herself for some of her thoughts though. Col and Orlo were also good characters but I wasn't too keen on Marj sadly. Pallister was a pretty decent villain and was a good puppet for the swamp monster during its final moments. The Doctor injecting himself with all sorts of RNA and poison was intriguing to say the least but it showed just how far he was willing to go to get the upper hand. His constant use of the 'Doctorotronic' was excellent. Martha wanting flying lessons for the TARDIS was interesting and I also liked the references to The Seeds of Doom, Gridlock, Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks and Human Nature/The Family of Blood. The latter reference meant that the book was placed quite late into the pair's travels together which often isn't the case with a book, or at least the ones I seem to have read. I still have so many to get through but I'll get there. This one ended pretty well and I liked that the Doctor made it clear that the swamp monster had a choice. However it didn't take it and paid the price thanks to some ingenuity from Ty and the Doctor. Overall, a decent enough novel but it wasn't without its problems. I mean, otters being a central part to the plot? Come on, it's so ridiculous I didn't even want to mention them.

Rating: 7/10