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A review by saoki
Doctor Who: Dancing the Code by Paul Leonard
3.0
This novel is the complete opposite of Time of your Life (the last Missing Adventure I read). A well-written, well-crafted book, with an interesting plot and good point of view characters. It is actually a relief to say that this is a good book! I might not usually read this kind of militaristic thriller, but it's still a proper novel. It's just not that good as a Doctor Who story, which is a shame.
Even as a UNIT-era story, it spends too much time being military and there is way too much shooting going on. I understand the author was probably going for more realism in the war scenario than Doctor Who stories usually get, as there is a proper chain of command, no one really trusts the UN forces (a Very 1990's Take), when Jo is arrested she's taken to an actually female prison, there is a member of the press present as there would be in a conflict like that and the contacts with the different factions are all hers. It doesn't adds up to a badly written story, but it feels a lot like someone threw the Doctor into a previously written military thriller where he didn't fit very well. It feels like half the horror of the story could have been prevented if only the Doctor had acted sooner, and that is never a good look for Doctor Who stories.
But I do have something to say. If this is what happened to Jo before The Green Death, than of course I get why she just declined the Doctor's offer and just left UNIT. I would also understand if she never again touched honey in her life.
Even as a UNIT-era story, it spends too much time being military and there is way too much shooting going on. I understand the author was probably going for more realism in the war scenario than Doctor Who stories usually get, as there is a proper chain of command, no one really trusts the UN forces (a Very 1990's Take), when Jo is arrested she's taken to an actually female prison, there is a member of the press present as there would be in a conflict like that and the contacts with the different factions are all hers. It doesn't adds up to a badly written story, but it feels a lot like someone threw the Doctor into a previously written military thriller where he didn't fit very well. It feels like half the horror of the story could have been prevented if only the Doctor had acted sooner, and that is never a good look for Doctor Who stories.
But I do have something to say. If this is what happened to Jo before The Green Death, than of course I get why she just declined the Doctor's offer and just left UNIT. I would also understand if she never again touched honey in her life.