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Title: Verdigris by Paul Magrs ISBN: 0-563-55592-0 Publisher: BBC Worldwide Pub. Date: July, 2000 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.83 (6 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Almost, but just not quite worth it
Comment: The good news about VERDIGRIS is that it has the honor of being one of the only Doctor Who books that I found time to finish reading in one sitting. The bad news is that the only reason I managed to complete the story so quickly was because I was on an airplane and had run out of other things to read. Not that it was a horrible book -- I found it to be a bit mixed, all things considered. The Doctor that Paul Magrs writes for is perfectly Pertwee, in every way. The UNIT regulars appear briefly, but are again deadly accurate to how they appeared on television. Jo Grant's portrayal is relatively shallow, but considering the basis that Magrs had to work with, that probably means he was again completely in keeping with what came before. I had enjoyed every other of Paul Magrs' Doctor Who books (SCARLET EMPRESS was a personal favorite, but MAD DOGS AND ENGLISHMEN and THE BLUE ANGEL both have much to recommend), but this was his book that I appreciated the least.
VERDIGRIS is a book that lives or dies based on how well the satire works for the individual reader. The plot is paper-thin, and many of the secondary characters can be described similarly, being rather shallow and stereotypical. The storyline is unpredictable purely because it flies along in a confidently irrational manner. The main villain is not something to be terribly frightened of, and the Doctor's allies are almost entirely incomprehensible. Of course, these features are all part of the point of the big satirical joke running through the narrative (the joke being that Doctor Who was often camp, silly, and cheap). Doctor Who has always had some aspects to it that simply weren't up to par, and many of them have been poked fun at by fans for decades. But having many of them in a single book meant that I found myself being forced to encounter loads of things that I hadn't particularly enjoyed in the first place and I was now having to read about them again. This did little to endear the book to me.
Doctor Who has always been a series with the ability to poke fun at itself. But humor is a very strange thing; what is funny to one person isn't necessarily funny to another. Even a single joke can float or sink depending on that individual's mood. What I've described above about the book doesn't really sound necessarily awful. The problem for me with VERDIGRIS was not that the idea of a paper-thin plot revolving around fun jokes is necessarily a bad one, nor was it that Doctor Who should always take itself seriously. What I didn't really like was that the execution here left a lot to be desired in numerous places (i.e., many of the jokes fell flat). Had there been something else to entertain me, I probably would have had a more positive opinion of the whole. Unfortunately, with virtually the whole of the book (plot, characters, motivations, etc) tied up in the central joke, there simply wasn't anything else left to interest me. I finished the book feeling faintly underwhelmed.
I did laugh out loud a few times while reading VERDIGRIS; when Magrs' humor is firing straight, he strikes with a resounding bulls-eye. The biggest problem for me was simply that the individual jokes started wearing a bit thin by the end. Sure, there is a lot to take the mickey out of in the Pertwee era, and the jokes that worked for me were hilarious. But unfortunately not all of it was as amusing as the author probably intended. I was entertained by some jokes, but they just weren't enough to justify the rest. The concept of, say, the villain being silly just because there were other silly villains in Doctor Who may be vaguely amusing, but actually having to read pages and pages of the dull villain didn't add up to a pleasant experience. If the book had been significantly shorter, I think the humor would have held up better. Not only would the plot have not felt nearly so vapid, but the comedy wouldn't have had the chance to grow cold. There's a lot to recommend about VERDIGRIS, but unfortunately, there's just a little bit more that I found to counter those positive attributes. Approach with caution.
Rating: 3
Summary: Fondly Re-visting the Early 70's Adventures
Comment: If I may borrow one scene from the novel...the third incarnation of the Doctor is surmising the story so far to fellow Timelord, Iris Wildthyme:
The Doctor started ticking off on his fingers. 'Let's see. We've got the disappearance of all UNIT personnel, excluding the Brigadier, and Mike Yates, who has turned into a cardboard shadow of his former self, we've got a spacecraft full of very irate, hand-bag worshiping aliens hovering above the planet, we've got a forest of deadly trees on fire, a mysterious green man who seems to be our sworn enemy, and, on the other hand, we've got killer robot sheep and the safety of Jo and Tom to account for. Is that a fair summary?"
That's exactly what you get when you read Paul Magrs "Verdigris'. A classic romp back into that magical time of Dr. Who known as the early half of the 1970's!
1973 finds our exiled Timelord and his assistant Jo Grant, relaxing in his home in the English country. He is visited by his self-proclaimed paramour, Iris Wildthyme and her assistant Tom. Her arrival is, shall we say, less than welcome. She has a working Tardis and the Doctor is still in exile on Earth. To make matters worse, Iris is constantly telling him things that have yet to happen to him.
I have quite enjoyed the references to the Doctor's residence made in this and several of the other novels. The concept round out the character and adds a lovely dimension (pardon the pun) to the man.
Magrs does a grand job of capturing the heart(s) of the Pertwee era. This could easily have been shot for the series and it would have fit comfortably well.
This has something for everyone. The third incarnation at his suave best, Jo Grant at her inquisitive best, the hamlet that the Doctor calls home away from his lab, an appearance by the Master and the entire staff of UNIT working in a grocery store.
Verdigris is a fun read. This scores a high 3-1/2 stars with me.
Rating: 3
Summary: Interesting, but...
Comment: Author Magrs manages to weave an intersting story, but where he fails is in his experimentation with plot devices that are simply not Doctor Who. Also, his exageration of the Pertwee era Doctor went beyond farsical and comes across more as silly. In addition, while the Iris Wildthyme character is intersting, she breaks the cardinal rule of Doctor Who, in that she quite often steals the spotlight. A major no no. A good story that would have worked without all the trappings. Borrow a copy from the library instead of investing in the work.
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