Legacy (Doctor Who-the New Adventures)

Then I started reading page twenty-five.

While the opening had used its continuity references as building blocks for the story, what immediately followed was an unrestrained and pointless gallivant through Doctor Who stories too numerous to count. The references during that opening were necessary, but not off-putting. I hadn't watched the previous Peladon stories in quite some time, but I didn't feel as though I couldn't follow the story because of the referencing. But I simply can't imagine what someone who without an encyclopedic knowledge of Doctor Who stories would make of some of these. I kept waiting for the book to regain the momentum that it possessed during the beginning, but it simply never did. Portions of it were enjoyable, but between the overburdening continuity references, minor sloppy plotting, and strangely worded sections of prose, there was just too much carelessness for me to really enjoy this book.

If the story outline of LEGACY had been written to its absolute fullest potential, then the book would have been a fairly average and non-demanding action adventure. But there are just too many little things dragging it below what it could have been. Pointless and gratuitous continuity references abound, and rather than enhancing the story, more often than not they are distracting and silly. There are several passages that would have seemed poor in a first draft, yet somehow made it through to the final manuscript. For example, someone is going to have to explain to me how Alpha Centauri (who's entire skull is a gigantic eye socket - he has the biggest eye in Doctor Who history) could possibly not identify an assailant that was standing directly in front of him. And Ace is relegated to a pointless and boring subplot that, despite what the narrative actually comes out and tells us, does not have any impact on the main story. Just too many minor things spoil this average adventure.

The pulpy action-adventure cliches actually work part of the time. But for every sentence that can be read with a knowing smirk, there's another one that appears with a groan. Still, I found myself somewhat enjoying the simplicity of the plot even though the book really seemed to be daring me to like it. Despite the flimsiness of the storyline, and the shallowness of the characters, I kept finding little pieces to enjoy. To put it another way, while at the end of the day I still can't say it was a good book, there were enough little moments to prevent me from labeling it as totally worthless.

This book certainly feels very earnest. It's attempting to hit quite a lot of buttons here, but many of them are missed. LEGACY may have its heart in the right place, but its brain is slightly off-center. A lot of the problems are relatively minor, but the sheer number of them prevented me from liking this one.


Great Cover, good story   May 6, 2002
G. Van Der Bent (Katwijk, The Netherlands)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I just finished this over the weekend and since it's the first of my 'Virgin DOCTOR WHO adventure novels' I just had to write a review, mainly because it was such a good read.

I'm only gonna touch on the story, I don't want to spoil anything, but I must say LEGACY is more of a sci-fi/ Sherlock Holmes hybrid than a traditional timelord adventure. On the other hand, with the inclusion of the Ice Warriors it also feels like vintage WHO, so don't worry!
However, it was the mystery that sticks to me as being one of the best part of the books, although (and I find this to be the case with most mysteries) it was more interesting to learn of the villains motivations and evil masterplan than it was discovering his identity.

I find Gary Russell to be a very enthousiastic writer and in his foreword he explains of his lifelong ambition to write a good WHO novel. And in my opinion he succeeded in doing that! The passion just drips of the pages here, and Russell gives a good characterisation of the Doctor as this mystery man full of quirky yet human traits. He also feels right at home with Bernice Summers and (in a small part) Ace.

There are, I'm sad to say, a few minor flaws. For once LEGACY is so full of characters and backstory (especially of the planet Peladon and it's rulers) that it sometimes seems like a bit too much, and gets confusing. Also the open ending was a bit predictable.
Than there's also the problem of the violence. I'm a big horrorfan myself and I never had any qualms with a bit of gore.
But these elements (of which LEGACY has a lot) seem so out of place in a DOCTOR WHO adventure. I understand that WHO always was a horror/ sci-fi hybrid, and the small volume of other WHO novels I read (mainly in the BBC book series) also had their share of violence, but to me it just doesn't belong in this series.
Anyway, it doesn't hinder in the end and I still recommend LEGACY to anyone who loves WHO.

Also, I mentioned the great looking cover. My brother, who doesn't like DOCTOR WHO at all, noticed it right away and said it definitely was an eyecatcher (in my opinion it really is that good). He even admitted that it might interest him in reading the book, and isn't that what a good cover should all be about?

All in all, I'll be reading these DOCTOR WHO novels for a long time coming!