Doctor Who The Book of the Still

Doctor Who The Book of the Still by Paul Ebbs


story by Paul Ebbs & Richard JonesPublisher: BBC Books 2002
ISBN10#: 0563538511ISBN 13#: 9780563538516
Paperback4 1/4 x 7 inches, 279 pages

The Unnoticed are bound to keep themselves isolated from all history, or face a complete collapse from existence. The Book of the Still is a lifeline for stranded time travellers -- write your location, sign your name and be instantly rescued. When the Unnoticed learn that within the book someone has revealed both their existence and whereabouts they are forced into murderous intercession to find it. Fitz knows where it is, but then he's the one who stole it. Carmodi, addicted to the energies trapped in frequent time travellers, also knows where it is. But she's the one who's stolen Fitz. Anji, alone on a doomed planet, trying to find evidence of a race that has never had the decency to exist, doesn't know where anybody is. Embroiled in the deadly chase, the Doctor is starting to worry about how many people he can keep alive along the way...
-----------------The Book of the Still is a BBC Books original novel written by Paul Ebbs and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Eighth Doctor, Fitz and Anji.
-----------------------Doctor Who is a British science-fiction television programme produced by the BBC since 1963. The programme depicts the adventures of the Doctor, a Time Lord—a space and time-travelling humanoid alien. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-travelling space ship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Accompanied by companions, the Doctor combats a variety of foes, while working to save civilisations and help people in need.

The show is a significant part of British popular culture, and elsewhere it has become a cult television favourite. The show has influenced generations of British television professionals, many of whom grew up watching the series. The programme originally ran from 1963 to 1989. There was an unsuccessful attempt to revive regular production in 1996 with a backdoor pilot, in the form of a television film. The programme was relaunched in 2005 by Russell T Davies, who was showrunner and head writer for the first five years of its revival, produced in-house by BBC Wales in Cardiff. The first series of the 21st century featured Christopher Eccleston in the title role and was produced by the BBC. Doctor Who also spawned spin-offs in multiple media, including Torchwood (2006–2011) and The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007–2011), both created by Russell T Davies; K-9 (2009–2010); and a single pilot episode of K-9 and Company (1981). There also have been many spoofs and cultural references to the character in other media.

Twelve actors have headlined the series as the Doctor. The transition from one actor to another is written into the plot of the show, as well as the differing approach to the role that each brings, under the concept of regeneration into a new incarnation. The show's premise is that this is a life process of Time Lords through which the character of the Doctor takes on a new body and, to some extent, new personality, which occurs after sustaining an injury which would be fatal to most other species. Each actor's portrayal differs, but they are all intended to be aspects of the same character and form part of the same storyline. The time-travelling nature of the plot means that, on occasion, different Doctors have met each other. Peter Capaldi took on the role after Matt Smith's exit in the 2013 Christmas special "The Time of the Doctor".
------------------Doctor Who books have been published from the mid-sixties through to the present day. From 1965 to 1991 the books published were primarily novelised adaptations of broadcast episodes; beginning in 1991 an extensive line of original fiction was launched, the Virgin New Adventures and Virgin Missing Adventures. Since the relaunch of the programme in 2005, a new range of novels have been published by BBC Books. Numerous non-fiction books about the series, including guidebooks and critical studies, have also been published, and a dedicated Doctor Who Magazine with newsstand circulation has been published regularly since 1979. This is published by Panini, as is the Doctor Who Adventures magazine for younger fans.
----------------The Book of the Still Reviews
Lets start with a quick round up of everyone else's opinion. SFX gave it high marks saying it "upped the ante for the 8th Doctor books and had the best characterisation of the 8th Doctor yet. Doctor Who magazine weren't as kind saying it was "promising and had many memorable scenes but writer Paul Ebbs didn't know what to do with his high concepts". Dreamwatch were more kind offering 6/10 saying "fans of action and thrills wont be disapointed". The truth with these things (as usual) lies somewhere in the middle.

What with Trading Futures, The Crooked World, Grimm Reality, Earthworld and Mad Dogs you must agree it is as though the book range has found a sense of humour at last. It is a relief to have some fun after some of the heavier books of the range (Adventuress). The Book of the Still is huge fun to read, full of bizarre concepts, freaky characters and strange situations. The book is loaded with scenes that remind me of Williams Who at its peak, camp, funny and undeniably entertaining.

Lebenswelt is a great place to visit. Earthworld, Hitchemus, Ceres Alpha, the Poodle Planet, Zanytown...recently we have been treated to a number of wonderful worlds to explore and this is no different. Paul Ebbs achieves one thing I admire very much in writers and pours on unpleasant sights, smells and sounds...he makes the reader squirm with his grotesque descriptions of Lebenswelt, sewage laden streets, flocks of killer bats...its all nasty stuff. A lot of writers like to create beautiful worlds and show of their prose in intense descriptions of paradise but I think its much braver to prove yourself the hard way by making people uncomfortable.

Reading this a second time means I can afford to step back from the plot and look at the characters more intimately. Just look at the Doctor, a charming, sweet, generous man who in all respects has a relationship with secondary character Rhian except sealing the deal (thats the sweaty stuff to you guys and gals). They fight, they dance, they stick with each other not even knowing why. Its great stuff and is helped by the fact that Rhian is described as unnatractive. If I had a complaint it would be that this plot thread (which admitedly isnt written as a romance...thats just my own little subtext) is forgottern at the end as the two part company. A shame.

Fitz...aww bless him he's still making the same mistakes, falling for women just by the way they fondle his ears. Trechary, heartbreak and betrayal are coming...we all know that its just waiting for the inevitable to come. This plotline verges on the sickening at times (bit too mushy for me) but later twists turn it into a tragedy (of sorts) and you can't help but feel for Fitz. His admission (finally) that he loves the Doctor is possibly his best moment yet.

Of course its Anji who wins here. By all accounts I should utterly hate her. Much like Tegan she bitches and moans throughout, takes instant dislikes to people and generally causes a lot of mischief. However unlike Tegan she is written with such a sense of humour, her thoughts coming thick and fast (any scene where shes is back stabbing Rhian is instantly priceless!). The madness with which Ebbs writes Anji makes her passages a particular delight.

Unfortunately the plot is less than water tight and the books BIGGEST problem is that lots of mysterious things happen (like Fitz suddenly bunking the planet) and it takes ages to find an explanation. Don't get me wrong there are many highlights in the twisty plot (the meeting of plot twists at the EXPLOSIVE ballroom dance is possibly the books shining moment, a point in which the shit hits the fan and we watch everyone get dirty!) but in general the events just amble along intruigingly and then WHAM...twist palooza about two thirds in. A book should guide you to its conclusion giving you little nibbles of closure on the way...this leaves all the answers really late.

And the ending is just hopeless. After all the high energy and whacky fun things turn ugly, lots of odd things happen and the book is over and im left scratching my head thinking "okay what happened there". Not a good way to finish a book that has (more than any other recently) made me genuinely laugh out loud a lot.

But I shouldn't grumble to much at a book that is stylishly written and handsomely cast. Lots of scenes (the dance before death, the paper aeroplane, the 'trio' of villains) standout long after you've shoved it back on the shelf grumbling about being too thick to get the ending.

Crazy but a lot of FUN.-------------------------------
The Book of the Still. It's a lifeline for stranded time travellers. It's the object of everybody's attention. It exists in all time periods. You sign your name in it and get instantly rescued. This is huge, mythic stuff.

Given the central idea at its core, this should have been a world-shattering novel (well, it does have a little of that in it, but there's a lame cop-out involved). Plotwise, though, it's decidedly humdrum. There's far too much faffing about on Lebenswelt instead of dealing with the ramifications of what the Book actually is. And when we do get to it, it's taken apart and turned into a spaceship, which is surprising, yes, but nevertheless completely undoes the mythic nature of the Book itself.

That said, the Obligatory Spectacular Opening nicely lives up to its own, getting us off to a great start. It's all very Transit-like at first, which is great, suggesting that this will be a mould-breaking, ball-busting thriller of a novel. Unfortunately, the specific mould that needs to be broken right now is the EDA limiter on standout novels. For a while, this looked like it might be the holy grail the EDAs have been searching for, namely a book that actually worked in every way. I'm fairly sure my feelings of disappointment stem from the fact that it couldn't live up to its opening, far more than the inherent inadequacies of the novel.

The rest of the Lebenswelt scenes are fairly uninspiring, with one (fairly important) exception that I'll come to in a moment. The mayor doesn't even get a name and the book doesn't seem sure if he's important enough to qualify for one or not.

The rest of the book hits us with some big ideas: like the Book of the Still itself, the Unnoticed are a much bigger idea than the novel wants to sustain, so they're progressively weakened as the story progresses. But they're still a fabulous and very different idea. It's a bit of a shame that the end up with the Darlow-Gimcrack-Svadhisthana origins that they do get. While this isn't a terribly idea by any means, it nevertheless seems to cheapen the initial effect that the Unnoticed have. I appreciate what the novel is trying to do, and why the Lebenswelt stuff is important, but I can't help but feeling there could have been a better way to fulfil the potential that's here.

Flying inside the pages of the Book of the Still to the photosphere of the sun is another pretty cool idea, but it does feel as if it's there just to be big. It's as though Jim Mortimore popped round to the Ebbs household halfway through and happened to mention that a couple of enormous ideas should be inserted somewhere.

However, there's one place where the book doesn't let us down and this is probably what saves the book: the prose. It's fantastic. Yes, it's rough and ready and keeps throwing in idiosyncratic turns of phrases that any sane editor would have trimmed... but it also works fabulously. Despite all my complaints above, I really enjoyed the experience of this book, almost always because of the actual writing. This is a true rarity for Doctor Who books, which don't go in for this sort of thing much, so it's extremely refreshing to find here.

And it's actually funny, as well, which helps no end. This is one of those novels that would probably work better as a dramatic reading by the author. There's a freshness to this book that goes a long way to making it feel far more special than it probably deserves to be.

This also helps the characterisation immensely. We've got a fairly small cast (the non-naming of the mayor shows that the book didn't want to get out of control with this... although if I had my say, *he'd* have turned out to be the origin of the Unnoticed, simply so no one would find out his true name), which means we get some actual character stuff with Carmodi and Rhian. They're... okay. I'm not sure what we get justifies the epilogue or the prologue, but it's enough to carry us through the novel. Rhian's pseudo-companion role isn't terribly inspiring until Anji turns up and starts making fun of her, which livens up the story immensely. Both Carmodi and Rhian have some decent twists waiting for them, which work quite well. I'm not crying out for a return appearance or anything, but I'm happy enough with what we do have.

I also really enjoyed Fitz's 'romance' with Carmodi. It's hilarious and a very amusing parody of just about every other EDA. I also like the way we're told straight up that he's been brainwashed, instead of leaving this revelation til the end.

I really liked the ending, though. I've heard that some people had problems with it, but I can't say I found it particularly confusing. The only bit that seems suspicious to me is Rhian's dad, who we very conveniently don't quite meet, so he's almost certainly someone we're familiar with. If we were supposed to guess who he was, then I'll admit to being stumped, but I don't think that was the intention.

Oh, but can I just say, using the Doctor as the assassin is not only brilliant, but for the first time ever that this sort of thing has been done, it actually works. On the other hand, the restoration of Antimasque is incredibly wet and I'm surprised the novel even stooped to that level. Oh well, one more for the mixed bag.

Overall, The Book of the Still is a bit of a mish-mash of experimental writing, some genuine surprises and a plot that continually underwhelms itself, given the nature of the setups it provides. Not living up to the mythicness of the Book of the Still itself is almost criminal. I sorely wish this were better than it is, as it has just the sort of boldness that the books could use in abundance, but on the other hand, I really enjoyed the skewed angle the prose came at. However, I'm confidently predicting that this book will age gracefully and by the time Finn Clark does his fifteenth readathon, we'll all be reevaluating it to high heaven, mark my words.------------------------------
Most of this book is lots of fun. It's lively, it's packed with good ideas and the writing is good. It's perhaps trying a little too hard in places, straining for the bonniest mot, but it smooths out a bit in later chapters. Lebenswelt is a great planet. It takes a few chapters before you feel you've got a grip on what's going on there, but once you do you'll find plenty to intrigue you.

It's a hard story to categorise. It's not quite an "oddball story", whatever that is, but it's not gritty realism either. I think perhaps the best description might be "science fantasy", that oft-maligned sub-genre which has been slagged off by SF purists since time immemorial but in fact has its own charms. The Book of the Still creates futuristic worlds which might be described as socio-economically high-concept, just like George Lucas gives us worlds that are environmentally high-concept (city-planets, cloud cities, waterworlds, swamp, jungle, desert, etc.) Its ideas and situations are fanciful but not absurd, taking your imagination on a trip without having to resort to outright magical fantasy like The Scarlet Empress. There's a lot to like in here.

The regulars are okay, though I particularly liked Fitz's sixties-ness. That's something I've rarely got a sense of in the books. The Unnoticed are great, keeping the story driving even when we get off Lebenswelt. (There's a goof on page 191 - the Doctor meant to say 2000 years, not 4000 - but I'm really nitpicking here.)

Unfortunately things fall apart a bit at the end. Then they fall apart a lot.

By the end, events are basically out of control. Strictly speaking there's no main bad guy, the only candidates being either comic relief or not really evil. The book degenerates into a lot of running around and confusing revelations. I've just finished the last page, but I've no idea whatsoever who was telling the truth, who was misleading whom and even whether a certain mentioned character ever existed in the first place. And X being Y didn't much work for me either (if that's really true, that is). Personally I had a hard time matching up the characterisation and goofiness of X to the very different goofiness of Y. It would only have taken a little bit of foreshadowing to make that palatable for me - but like I said, I'm still not sure if that bit was true. I'm confused.

But that's only at the end. Most of this book is simply fun, packed with twists and ideas. In a line that's recently produced Grimm Reality, Adventuress of Henrietta Street and Mad Dogs and Englishmen, this book still manages to seem like a quirky side-step. Recommended.-------------------------
The Book of the Still gets off to a terrific start by leaving the usual initial plot set-up/TARDIS crew introductions to later, and fast forwarding to the first big action scene. Unfortunately the fact that Lance Parkin used the identical shock reveal of the Doctor in uncharacteristically gung-ho mode for the opening of last months Trading Futures means the identity of the protagonist is pretty obvious from the start, but its still an effective opener for all that.

The only real problem with this novel is highlighted by what comes next, as the innovative opening gives way to the standard Who formula of the Doctors imprisonment and subsequent escape. This veering between new ideas and familiar worn-out routines continues throughout the novel, and such excellent ideas as fast-chain memory acids, travelling in paper spaceships, pitching tents on the surface of the sun (yes - really!), and the wonderfully grotesque Unnoticed are somewhat undermined by being straitjacketed by formulaic chases, captures, interrogations and escapes that were old hat 10 years ago. Particularly dire are the three main 'bad guys', who are all stock generic characters - the psychotic leader; the heavy; and the mad professor. The 'alien' worlds fail to convince - the planet of Lebenswelt being so rich that jewellery lies as rubbish in the streets is a nice idea, but unfortunately the only real impact this seems to have is that everyone wears really big shirts; at the first sign of trouble these filthy rich inhabitants illogically take to looting (eh?), and for all the familiarity of the world it may as well be Earth.

On the positive side Fitz has the most attention lavished on him since the arrival of the terminally boring Anji, and he carries the majority of the novel well. While some have bemoaned the fact that Fitz is involved in yet another romantic escapade they miss the fact that the situation here is entirely new - rather than being the instigator of a one night stand here Fitz is programmed to madly fall in love (not lust) with someone who's only interest in him is his proximity to the Doctor. He handles it well, and its good to see him treated as something other than some bumbling 60's throwback for Anji to sharpen her claws against.

Things get seriously bent out of shape at the end though, as the excellent build up to the climax with the Unnoticed disappears up its own backside in uroboric time paradoxes, techno babble, and confusing explanations. On second reading it starts to make some kind of sense, but Ebbs tries too hard to dazzle with a clever ending, and instead ends up frustrating the reader after the clearly communicated ideas of the first 250 odd pages. Increased clarity here would have led to a more satisfying ending I feel.

For all the occasional lapses into the mundane, The Book of the Still still has much to recommend, is fluidly written throughout, and is by any standards an impressive debut. Unfortunately though, as with Stephen Cole's Vanishing Point, this is a novel of big ideas that suffers by restricting itself to the action adventure mould of the long distant television series that spawned it. While it's a good novel as it stands, it is ironic to think that it probably would have been a better one had it not been a Doctor Who novel.