Scan barcode
A review by kmccubbin
Doctor Who: ...ish by Phil Pascoe
4.0
The highest of high concepts here is almost pulled off! This story is a story about words, in a very literal way. Words are characters. Words are places. Words are obsessions. Words may ust be everything there is.
New writer Philip Pascoe stunningly manages to hold this thing aloft by keeping the wordplay constantly swirling and leaving you just enough of a taste of implicit logic to allow you to feel like it all makes sense. And the Sixth Doctor's pomposity works brilliantly in the context.
But it doesn't quite hold together by the end and, when racing to a conclusion, the whole thing sputters and skids to a stop.
Still, the ambition of it all is thrilling and the moments where the Doctor and the artificial intelligence known as "Book" get so linguistically wrapped around each other that one has to stop and say, "Wait, did you just use that word correctly?"
"I believe so?"
"Really?"
Those moments are gold.
New writer Philip Pascoe stunningly manages to hold this thing aloft by keeping the wordplay constantly swirling and leaving you just enough of a taste of implicit logic to allow you to feel like it all makes sense. And the Sixth Doctor's pomposity works brilliantly in the context.
But it doesn't quite hold together by the end and, when racing to a conclusion, the whole thing sputters and skids to a stop.
Still, the ambition of it all is thrilling and the moments where the Doctor and the artificial intelligence known as "Book" get so linguistically wrapped around each other that one has to stop and say, "Wait, did you just use that word correctly?"
"I believe so?"
"Really?"
Those moments are gold.