The Corinthian Project

"It is time to turn to the oceans!"

Writer: Davey Moore

Format: Novel

Released: July 2007

Series: DYD 04

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Martha

Synopsis

When the TARDIS lands in an undersea community known as the Corinthian Project, it doesn't take you long to realise there are some very strange things going on. Explore the Project and see if you can uncover the truth...

Verdict

The Corinthian Project was a good little book to continue my reading through the Decide Your Destiny series! It still baffles me that eighteen years later I’m covering more stories from the time of the Tenth Doctor and Martha that were released contemporarily, but here we are! Honestly, that era of Doctor Who will never be topped in terms of popularity and it’s why there are so many things for me to be blogging. Like these Decide Your Destiny books! I thought this particular book felt a little different from the others I have read so far. It certainly seemed to have a larger page count and just holding it in my hand it felt thicker and bigger. That soon became confirmed as I was reading as each mini segment felt long. There were some that stretched to three pages which is very unusual for this kind of format but it did allow for a little more depth which is often missing from these stories. I certainly felt like I had a greater understanding and appreciation for the plot concerning the titular Corinthian Project because of how much was described. There was considerable detail and honestly if the character of the reader wasn’t present then this wouldn’t feel like a book aimed at a younger audience. It certainly had a semblance of maturity which I appreciated a lot. I liked how there was no wasting time in getting the reader on board the TARDIS and it was clear that the author was trying to appeal to a wider audience of not only Doctor Who fans with how much detail was used to give background on the Doctor, Martha and the TARDIS. I like that and I think it’s good to try and appeal to a larger reach even if it isn’t necessary. One thing I must mention is that I wasn’t a big fan of the format of narration. It felt like it was being talked at which wasn’t good and rather than reading the story in real time it felt like an account of what had happened. It just felt slightly odd in that regard but it didn’t have too much of a bearing on my overall enjoyment of the story. I thought going to the future was good and I enjoyed the prospect of exploring the Corinthian as a shipwreck site. That does feel ripe for the Whoniverse and given what happened last year at the Titanic shipwrecked site this had an eery feel. It was in the future though and things didn’t quite feel as haunted when we had a type of seaweed that could ensure you could breathe underwater or some rather impressive bio suits. Things had a strong sense of protection which was a nice caveat for the threats. I thought the pace was a little slow probably owing to the longer segment lengths, and I must say there were a couple of moments where there was no choice to be made and we were just told which number to go to next. I don’t like that in this kind of story. I mean, look at what the series is called! I feel like I should have something to decide. I thought Jalla was a good character and the way they became the villain of the piece was pretty clever. The shipwreck of the Corinthian sitting on the site of an oil gold mine was good and I rather liked the monetary incentive behind Jolla. The fact it was planned to make the Corinthian blow up in what looked like a natural disaster was decent stuff, but the reader being the one to put things right felt a little off though I do understand the appeal of having a young child save the day given the target audience. One thing I did adore was the final line of the book in suggesting that if you could go back in time that you would make some different decisions along the way. That was a wonderful to encourage a reread and going the alternative routes not taken. I shan’t be doing that as my destiny has already been decided for this story, but I loved it. Overall, a decent read!

Rating: 7/10