quipxotic

I've finally finished listening to the Fourth Doctor story Scratchman by Tom Baker. It's not a good book, but in parts it's very enjoyable, frightening, and utterly bizarre. What comes through in abundance is the Doctor's (and I suspect Tom Baker's) great love for his role and his two companions, Sarah Jane Smith (played by the late Elisabeth Sladen) and Harry Sullivan (played by the late Ian Marter). It's that love that gives the story a mix of wistful melancholy and joyous nonsense. Tom Baker's performance on the audiobook is delightful and makes the whole thing much stronger than it otherwise would be. It's a performance that almost makes up for a plot that makes no sense and the overabundance of similes. Oh so many similes! I'm not against them as a rule, and some of the ones in this book are very good (or surprising, or evocative), but when they appear seemingly ever other sentence even good ones get old. There are Time Lords in abundance here too, but they're cardboard cutout villains and after a while they become more a formality than a threat. There are some interesting cameos - versions of the First, Second, and Third Doctors play a role, the Tenth and Thirteenth Doctors show up briefly, and the Fifth is mentioned. The Thirteenth Doctor's appearance is particularly touching. The whole book is a bit like someone took all their favorite elements of Doctor Who, shook them all up, and dumped them out into story. Who knows, maybe that's exactly what Tom Baker did? Still, this is probably not a book for a casual fan; but fans of Tom Baker and his Doctor, have at it.

Last week I finished writing dabbles for UNIT Encounters. Unlike most UNIT audios, this set contains four separate stories rather than one overarching one. This makes it a whole lot harder to write for as each of the one hour stories is a lot tighter and there are fewer gaps for me to fill; but they're good stories with some interesting ideas.

A couple of new additions:

• Last week I finished up the drabbles for "UNIT: Silenced." It was a good set of stories but I'm glad to be done with them now.


• This weekend I posted new First Doctor drabbles for the Companion Chronicles stories “The Alchemists” and "Return of the Rocket Men." The former was a brand new story for me, but the latter was an old favorite I've meant to write something for for awhile.

And I'm still plugging away at "Hill House Eight" - adding things, deleting things. I have no idea how much I have to go. A lot, most likely. Also Netflix, for the love of everything good and holy, please stop trying to get me to watch something besides "The Haunting of Hill House?" I'm fic writing here, I'd rather not have to hunt to the end of my list every time I want to fact check something.

On a fandom note, I've finished writing drabbles for vol. 1 & 2 of the UNIT audios from Big Finish. The vol. 2 drabbles got a wee bit out of control (i.e. there's a lot of them), although I'm not sure why. Maybe because that box set is about conspiracies and international intrigue, which requires more explanation than vol. 1's straight-up action thrillers?

Anyway, I don't have a copy of vol. 3 and I've already written for vol. 4 (mostly in the Third Doctor Drabbles), so when I return to UNIT it'll be with vol. 5.

If you've not listened to the UNIT (New Series) audios, they're a lot of fun although they're a bit of a mixed bag in tone. That's a feature not a bug - in interviews the Big Finish staff talk about how they intend this series as a means to experiment with lots of different kinds of stories. Mostly I enjoy that aspect of them, but it is a bit jarring when you go from a fun and funny set (like vol. 5) to a deadly serious set that really puts the characters through an emotional grinder (like vol. 7). Still, it does mean there's something for everyone.