The Forgotten Army
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BBC Books The Forgotten Army |
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| Author | Brian Minchin |  |
| ISBN | 1 846 07897 0 | |
| Published | 2010 |
| Synopsis: An ordinary day becomes a time of terror, as Ice Age creatures come back to life, and the Doctor and Amy meet a new and deadly enemy. |
A Review by John Seavey 12/3/12
As wonderful as it's been to see the return of Doctor Who to our television screens, it's difficult to argue that TV's gain hasn't been print's loss. Whereas we used to get classic novels like Transit, Human Nature and Set Piece (to name just a few of the many, many classic novels released during the fifteen years that the series was off the air), now we get empty wastes of space like The Forgotten Army. Although honestly, it's an insult to the other empty wastes of space that are the current book line to lump The Forgotten Army in with them.
For one thing, it's pretty clear that Brian Minchin didn't have a chance to see an episode of the new season, and is working entirely from the writers' bible in his portrayal of the Eleventh Doctor and Amy. This is a bigger problem than it sounds like, because an actor's portrayal changes the way the character actually behaves, not just in the subtle ways (Karen Gillan's portrayal softens Amy's rough edges and makes her more charming and likeable), but in overt ways, as the writers see the way the actor plays the character and adjust the scripts accordingly. So an Amy Pond who's written just from the initial concept of the character comes across as startlingly unlikeable, while an Eleventh Doctor written just from a quick glimpse of the writers' bible comes across as a spastic idiot obsessed with bow ties. (Yes, yes, I hear you in the back. Shush. Matt Smith is sodding brilliant.)
But even if you account for that, this still is a pretty terrible book, because it never feels like Minchin is trying. The idea of little teeny aliens invading Earth by hiding in a woolly mammoth (that they think is perfect camouflage) should be the start of a hilarious romp, but Minchin never gives the aliens any personality and the whole thing winds up feeling terribly generic. It's as if he feels like he's "just" writing for kids, so why should he bother working hard? (And the actual children in the novel feel as though they're shoehorned in so that the kids reading can say, "Ooh, kids like us!")
When I described this novel to my wife, she said, "But it's still not as bad as The Pit, right?" I replied that I wasn't so sure. The Pit might have been bloody awful, but I felt like Neil Penswick went out and wrote the best novel he was capable of. On reading The Forgotten Army, I felt like Brian Minchin went out and wrote the worst novel he thought he could get away with.
Mammoth Problem of a Book by Andrew Feryok 4/2/16
The third of the first three Eleventh Doctor books unfortunately is a pale shadow of the first two. Granted, part of this is because the first two books set such a high bar. Bart part of it is that it's a book with a premise that doesn't really grab the reader, or at least this reader. When I buy the books, I usually go by the back-cover-blurb descriptions and how much it intrigues me. This was one of the ones were I read the back about Woolly Mammoths in New York and tiny invaders and just yawned and put off buying it until the completest in me forced me to pick it up.
I will admit that Brian Minchin does depict the regulars rather well. The only problem is that, like Justin Richards in The Feast of the Drowned, he decides to go with the most obnoxious interpretation of the regulars. Early in the Eleventh Doctor's era, they were still trying to form the relationship between the Doctor and Amy and, while Matt Smith was a talented enough actor to grab the role by its cuff and run with it, Karen Gillan took longer to develop Amy. As a result, many of the TV writers tended to write her as overly obnoxious, bullying, cliquey and at one point even had her trying to tear the Doctor's pants off at the end of Flesh and Stone! Unfortunately, that is what we get here, as opposed to Justin Richards and David Llewellyn, who successfully toned this aspect down and made her more human. Part of this I suspect is that Minchin is aiming to make a comedy alien invasion story. This becomes apparent from the frequency of the jokes often taken to ludicrous levels that have people stepping out of character just to be funny. I mean, when General Erik declares victory, he is suddenly dancing up and down and shouting "If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere!" This was after he was depicted as a total badass throughout the story! Amy by far is the worst. She is depicted as a complete and utter attention whore who can't go four seconds without jumping up and down in front of someone demanding attention and exclamations of adulations. When she isn't talking about how wonderful she is, she is pouting and bullying anyone near her to tell her how wonderful she is. In fact, Amy doesn't even know what to do at the very end of the book when the Doctor pays her a genuine compliment that she wasn't begging for! As an American, I found it annoying that all her information on American culture came from Glee and American Idol (groan). That would be like saying I get all my information about British culture from X-Factor and Coupling.
It also doesn't help that the other characters in the story are completely faceless cliches. I suspect that the NYPD officer Oscar was supposed to be a call back to the likes of Dekker and Duggan, but he isn't even a shadow of those wonderful characters. He spends most of the story trying to catch up with the Doctor and Amy and then plays Amy's token sidekick in which he is depicted as being a coward and completely incapable of walking a straight line. Then there is Sam and Polly, who should have been the focal characters of the book since Sam is the one who brought the mammoth back from the arctic, but, after they are introduced early in the book, they completely vanish from the plot until very late when the author needs to call them up for a plot twist. And we don't exactly learn anything deep about these characters other than surface details.
Then there is Commander Strebbins who for some reason becomes the NYPD dictator in NYC simply through sheer personality. Where is the Mayor of New York? Where are the outside Federal and State Governments trying to get in and save the city or at least investigate it? I seriously doubt that if all power in NYC was to go completely out that no one would bat an eye or try to get in. Yet it's depicted as if the power going out leaves them completely cut off and that the disappearing NYPD are the only defense in the city. Wouldn't there be military planes flying over and National Guard on the bridges and tunnels trying to get in? I mean, NYC is not some little city! It is the economic center of the US and most of the world! It would be like London, Paris or Tokyo suddenly vanishing off the face of the map. People would notice! Characters also have a groan-worthy habit of launching into unnecessary grandstand speeches gushing about how wonderful the Doctor is or about the wonders out in the universe. Doesn't anyone talk normally to each other in this book?
However, I can't slag this off as a totally moronic book because there were some things that I liked. I love the opening where the Doctor and Amy are trying to subdue the rampaging mammoth in the Natural History Museum. I also love the Vykoids. Considering my expectations were extremely low based on the back-cover blurb, they turned out to be a really effective and surprisingly nasty enemy. They can move faster than time and, in the moment it takes you take one step, they can tie up your legs, pull your underwear over your head, and turn your own gun on you! Even worse, they aren't out to kill but to enslave everyone. These tiny little aliens who should normally be easy to squash underfoot see us as the inferiors of the universe, of no more worth than a stone in the road; they just see us as resources to be conquered and exploited, and we have absolutely nothing that we can do stop them. I love the creepy and silly sequences where they confront our heroes who try to make a dignified stance only to have the Vykoids run rings around them and humiliating them while laughing their pants off at their efforts to look tough when they don't see us as tough at all.
On the whole, I would say this is the most disappointing New Series book I have read in a while. It has an action-packed opening and some interesting and nasty villains. But its characters are horribly done, and it's sad to say when the characters aren't worth following, then why go on the adventure? But then this was the only bad book out the initial batch of three so in the end the Eleventh Doctor got a very strong start in the book series. I can't wait for the second batch when we can finally have Rory added to the mix!