Subject:      The Plotters:  Review by the Happy Guy
From:         gaffney@iconn.net (Sean Gaffney)
Date:         1996/12/10
Message-Id:   <58k8c5$klh@news.iconn.net>
Organization: i-Conn
Newsgroups:   rec.arts.drwho

It's not often that I am surprised by the New and Missing Adventures
anymore.  Experience and familiarity of styles has led to my knowing
ahead of time whether I will like a book or not.  Occasionally,
though, I am pleasantly surprised...

SPOILERS for The Plotters!

Believe me, I was looking forward to this.  Bashing Gareth's writing
has become a hobby of mine, and I was ready to be in full force.  I
had already made 1 Plodders joke in my previous review.

Well, I can eat crow.  The Plotters is very good, and only suffers a
little from what I call "Garethosis".  But I'm getting ahead of
myself.

PLOT: So to speak.  I'm not all that knowledgeable of the Gunpowder
Plot, and The 5th of November is a chorus by Carter USM.  Still, this
is a nice historical romp, and I didn't note any *horrid* inaccuracies.
A half-point off for Lynda LaPlante, though. :-(

THE DOCTOR:  The reason to read the book.  Every tic and tremor of
William Hartnell's performance is in here, along with the desparate
improvising that became better known with later Doctors.  It's
refreshing to see the Doctor as a main character in the book, instead
of virtually absent, as so many others have done.

VICKI:  Wet, but he's raised her from 1 dimension to 2.  I don't
really like Vicki, but she didn't grate here as much as she does on
screen.

IAN AND BARBARA:  Nicely hero and herione-ish, a glimpse of affection,
and they never got to see Shakespeare.  Ah, well...

OTHERS:  I enjoyed Glitz and Dibber...um, Firking and Hodge.  Hay
was a little too OTT for my taste, but Cecil and the King were well
done.  I did think that Cecil trusted the Doctor a little too
easily, though.

STYLE:  Ah.  Well, it flows very quickly, as opposed to certain
other Gareth MA's with Death in the title.  There are, however, a
few bouts of Garethosis which made me wince.  Gareth's plummy writing
sometimes leaps out and hits you in the head with a shovel.  Which
fits the Hartnell era, I suppose. ;-)

OVERALL:  If you want an MA in the style of its era, this is it.
Perhaps a different view of changing history than the producers had,
but that's a minor quibble.  I'm still waiting to see if The Well-
Mannered War is written fast (a la TROC) or deadly slow (al la TEWOD).
Let's hope for the former.  This book gives me that hope.

8/10.

Next:  Bad Therapy, the first solo Chris NA, the last NA with Doctor
Who on the cover, and the return of yet *another* familiar face...

--Sean Gaffney
--tell Gareth all is forgiven...well, not *all*...