I passed the time this morning marking prelim papers but I still have just over a dozen to grade, before the Higher exam on Tuesday. It's raining today and cloud is draped over the tops of the trees in the woods to the west. The view from here always reminds me a little of the cover of The Hobbit.
On Thursday, our librarian and I took my S3 to the Highland Wildlife Park. It's about an hour and a half away, near Kingussie and it was my first visit.
The views were amazing and I'd never been in such close proximity to wolves, tigers and snow leopards before. I thoroughly recommend it.
This week my walk to and from school was soundtracked by Doctor Who audio stories starring Sylvester McCoy. After Christopher Eccleston, I'm afraid Sylv is my least favourite Doctor. I like the idea of him but I find the reality is less appealing than the other regenerations.
Guy Adams' The Quantum Possibility Engine pits the Doctor against Dogbolter, the frog-like villain from numerous Doctor Who Monthly/ Magazine strips. It opens with the brutal betrayal of Bush, Melanie. There's a lot of broad humour with vocal parodies of Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre (contemplating a crime) but there's also quite a witty Trumpian satire on manipulating reality. The Doctor, Ace and Gallifreyan CIA boss Narvin lead vastly altered lives of mediocrity thanks to the eponymous device. There's a melancholy ending for Ace and her office schlub partner Alex. However, at four episodes, it feels twice as long as it should.
3/5 Talmars
Steve Lyons Warlock's Cross is a sequel to Hour of the Cybermen, a very vanilla release from last summer and the earlier Helliax Rift, which I haven't heard. Doctor Sylvester is reunited here with reformed Nazi time traveller Elizabeth Klein and UNIT traitor Daniel Hopkins. There's a mission to a sentient, buried spaceship (which is probably not the one from which tv's Immortality Gate was salvaged) and a lot of paranoia and shooting. I never liked Klein as a concept and she adds nothing to this story. The UNIT commanding officer is as camp as Christmas and only the Eccleston-ish tones of Blake Harrison as Hopkins generate any interest. A dreary 1/5 Talmars
On a more positive note, I am always interested to hear characters and situations from Dr. Who's "Wilderness Years". Companions Chris Cwej and Roz Forrester are futuristic Judge Dredd-style law enforcers who have now appeared in three adaptations of Virgin New and Missing Adventures from the Nineties. In this boxset, they have four, ah, new adventures in The Seventh Doctor: The New Adventures.
Trial of a Time Machine is a leisurely look at crime and punishment from the creator of Chris and Roz, Andy Lane. He presents a mirror-image cop team and a novel, if baffling, method of space/time travel. It's a high-concept opening episode which feels very like the worlds of the Virgin books.
Vanguard is a YA-flavoured story of two groups of alien teens surviving in a world ruled by robots. Chris is tortured rather horribly by the chief villainess. It's perhaps the weakest of the set but it's likeable enough.
The Jabari Countdown, while being a little bit of a soundalike to a Dr. Jodie episode from last autumn, was probably my favourite. It's an Agatha Christie set-up by Alan Flanagan with a gaggle of mathematicians in WWII. The story rejoices in a character named Binkum Fray but the gender politics are very modern. I don't know if there were any openly trans people in the Forties but it didn't feel very authentic. I liked the ending very much, however.
Dread of Night by Tim Foley is the story of an isolated, sinister house in Northumbria and a child's imaginary friend. There's a neat twist but I didn't find the story as scary as other reviewers did. I had a similar experience with the Eight Doctor Time War episode Seizure. If you want an unsettling Sylvester story, 2006's Night Thoughts is hard to beat.
I liked Chris Cwej in the books and here too, as played by Travis Oliver. This was an entertaining set if not hugely memorable. I'd like to hear more of the Doctor's companions from the prose adventures, such as Fitz Kreiner and Sam Jones. (4/5 Talmars)
This week, I'll be listening to the first half of the latest series of adventures for Tom Baker's Doctor. This box set introduces new companion. PC Ann Kelso, played by Jane Slavin. I also plan to finally read the Claremont and Bolton eighties graphic novel Marada the She-Wolf. I've started to read the nominees for the Blue Excelsior Award, which we're shadowing in school. My first selection was Heavy Vinyl from Boom Studios but more of that in the future. Also coming soon, possibly, Mad Love, Black Lightning and, eventually, Jessica Jones.
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