The King of Terror
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BBC Books The King of Terror |
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| Author | Keith Topping |  |
| ISBN# | 0 563 53802 3 | |
| Published | 2000 | |
| Continuity | Between The Awakening and Frontios |
| Synopsis: The Brigadier asks the Doctor to investigate a multimedia company's Los Angeles headquarters. But their infiltration is disrupted by the murderous games of terrorists seeking the fulfillment of age-old prophecies. |
A Review by Finn Clark 14/11/00
I had absolutely no expectations for this book. The title's dull (more of a title-oid, really) and the author's name was a complete blank in my memory. Reading Devil Goblins from Neptune can do that to you. So on starting my reading experience I was surprised to find that I was reading some really, really good stuff... but unfortunately that wasn't the only surprise I had before the end.
It's schizoid, basically. I'll start by reviewing the beginning.
This book starts beautifully, displaying craftsmanship that made me slow down just for the pleasure of wallowing in the words. For a while I thought we had a new star on our hands. I don't know if it's inspiration or just Keith taking extra time over it, but King of Terror begins wonderfully.
Then it changes. The plot starts kicking in, though not very fast. We meet Jules and Vincent - sorry, that should read Paynter and Barrington. Don't know what came over me there! They may not be hit men, but they're slick gun-toting professionals with a sideline in cultural stereotyping along the lines of Pulp Fiction's "you know what they call a Big Mac in France?" I thought they were great fun. Paynter and Barrington visit Los Angeles and discuss it a lot. I understand most of this is an extended reference to a Certain Doctor Who Convention, which would probably have bugged the shit out of me if I'd been able to spot these references. As I couldn't, I enjoyed it hugely. This is one of the best double-acts I've seen in Doctor Who fiction for some time. Lovely characterisation, lovely dialogue.
The regulars turn up and meet UNIT, which is all very enjoyable and nostalgic. Strangely, what it made me nostalgic for was Deep Blue. Thanks to BBC Books, it seems that the fifth Doctor, Tegan and Turlough have been established in my brain as traditional partners of the Brigadier and UNIT. How peculiar. King of Terror makes a sort of companion piece with Deep Blue, or perhaps even a trilogy with Mawdryn Undead.
And then it changes again. The writing becomes only workmanlike and the book starts depending on its plot, which is a shame as I didn't think the plot was particularly well constructed. The resolution largely depends on men with guns and high-tech gadgets. Turlough is sidelined in a way that feels simultaneously inappropriate and old hat. Tegan gets her own little subplot, but alas it feels vaguely wrong. I didn't buy it. And the Doctor gets almost nothing to do. This isn't really a book about the Doctor so much as it's about UNIT and its people. If it wasn't for the Brigadier (whose portrayal is a highlight of the book and always rock-solid), I think this might have struggled to feel like Doctor Who.
It was around this point that I started thinking inappropriate thoughts. Some time I plan to do a systematic reread of all the near-future UNIT books, which I expect will make no sense. We've had Evil UNIT, Good UNIT, Trad UNIT, Renamed UNIT... Take King of Terror, Dominion, The Pit, Head Games and Lawrence Miles's UNISYC, then explain how they all tie together. (For bonus points, include the hint in DWM's Mark of Mandragora that UNIT might become the FHD.)
Particularly bizarre, however, are the hints that Keith Topping's
subconscious was becoming vaguely alarmed at the downward direction the
book had taken. The Doctor actually comments on how little he's been
given to do, while Tegan's misadventures are described as a crass Good things: There's a halfway decent effort at creating a new ongoing
villain for the books, which I applaud. By and large, the books have been
utterly shite at creating decent bad guys. Sustained character analysis,
yes. Interesting scary f*ckers, no.
Bad things: Johnny Chester was a mistake, I think. He's got nothing to
do with the story and distracted me. The little alternate-universe
details are also annoying. One realises that it's just the author having
fun with the fact that the Whoniverse isn't our real world, but the simple
process of stopping to work that out is a minor derailment of one's
suspension of disbelief.
As you can see I've picked nits in the book's later sections, but
overall I'd recommend this. Even at its lowest point (the resolution)
it's fun and readable, while some bits of it are wonderful. Even without
my favourite sections, it would still be a cut above many of the PDAs.
Supplement 9/3/03:
Bwahahahaha! Man oh man, I don't think I've ever laughed so hard at a
Doctor Who book. I'm so glad I chose to reread this. Where to
start...
In one respect, this book is great! It's not a good vehicle for
Davison and his companions, but its portrayal of post-seventies UNIT is
the best I've read. Unlike some others, it's not some depressing account
of how they've turned to evil and everyone who ever worked there hates
themselves and wants to commit suicide. Instead we meet a distinctive
bunch of professional world-savers who have a job to do and get on with
it. Paynter and Barrington are wonderfully entertaining and
down-to-earth; it's a shame about the Mary-Sueing with Paynter because it
hurts what in all other respects is a terrific character. I also adored
Natalie Wooldridge and her relationship with the Brigadier. (Her reaction
to meeting the Doctor is a scream.)
The Brigadier is used well too. He's treated as a hero, yes, but not
as a whiter-than-white emblem of decency, honesty, courage and truth.
Keith Topping is having much fun milking his unreconstructed attitudes for
comedy value; this is not a politically correct leader of men. I laughed
like a loon.
In fact we're doubly fortunate that this wasn't a more conventional
UNIT portrayal, since this is their story. Forget the TARDIS crew!
Turlough spends the entire book being tortured. You think I'm kidding?
Tegan, amazingly, fares even worse. The Doctor stands on the sidelines,
analysing his own character like a man answering his reviewers. To all
intents and purposes, this is a UNIT novel that happens to include some
fleeting guest appearances from the Season 21 regulars.
Turlough gets one particularly odd scene. Let loose in Los Angeles for
the first time, naturally he visits a bar and drinks eight pints of beer
in a scene that also involves women and football. (Byzantium! gave us a similarly uncharacteristic
portrayal of Ian Chesterton.) If you can't see the comedy there, this
book is not for you. (Check out p232 and Turlough's "respect" for an even
bigger laugh.)
So the TARDIS crew aren't up to much. That's only the beginning!
Nor, sadly, is the plot. It's a "Two Warring Alien Factions" story and
those never work. The bad guys are boring. The plot is resolved by
aliens kicking hell out of each other while the theoretical protagonists
stand on the sidelines. The cover blurb claims that "Los Angeles becomes
a warzone in which humanity is merely a helpless bystander," but you could
add "the Doctor and UNIT" to that sentence too. Even Control is more
interesting than the book's nominal villains, despite the fact that these
days he's only wheeled on for irrelevant bottom-billed cameos.
It's like certain Gary Russell novels. The plot isn't worth your time,
but it's fun to read anyway because of the character interactions. Well,
basically everyone in UNIT. I also liked the way in which UNIT LA keeps
up the understaffed traditions of UNIT San Francisco (see Vampire Science) by employing precisely three people:
Mel Tyrone, Natalie Wooldridge and David Milligan. (Tyrone is a dude, by
the way.)
On rereading I didn't mind nonsense like Johnny Chester's scene,
incidentally. Since the plot isn't worth worrying about, why not include
a pointless character moment? However those alternate-universe Beatles
were too much; I'll accept fictional prime ministers and presidents, but
George, Billy, Klaus and Ringo were annoying. (And besides, we've seen
references to the real Beatles in Gary Russell's novels; see the names of
Liz Shaw's guinea pigs, for a start.)
And then there's the unintentional comedy.
Captain Geoff Paynter. He's a great character, but what a Mary-Sue!
He's a rough diamond but everyone loves him! And then there's his
unconvincing romance with Tegan... I'm sorry, but I laughed aloud at
p183. It's like the punchline of a bad joke, or a self-spoof. Dumbness
ensues, followed by a Message From Fred on p231: "This is stupid," Paynter
said. "It's a crass romantic comedy subplot that's impressing precisely
no one." Funniest. Line. Ever.
The Doctor gets something similar on p257: "Would all of this still
have happened if I hadn't been here?" That's right, Keith, he wanted more
plot involvement! (Though I do wonder what would have happened in 1999 if
the Doctor hadn't shown up for Dominion, King of
Terror, Millennium Shock, Millennial Rites, etc. Imagine the Voracians kicking
the shit out of the Jax and the Canavitchi while Ashley Chapel turns
everyone into elves and goblins.)
I understand large chunks of the Paynter-Barrington observations will
be familiar to any Gallifrey-goers. I've never attended that convention,
so I didn't care. Much about this book is iffy, but coming back to it a
second time meant that I knew what to ignore and so found it highly
entertaining. A hoot.
Ought To Be Called King of Errors by Tammy Potash
24/1/01
OK, the good stuff first: characters. All characters in this book are
done very well, from the UNIT guys to the aliens to the regulars,
especilly Turlough. The Fifth Doctor is presented a bit nebulously, but
other than that, it's fine.
The bad stuff: everything else. Okinawa is consistently spelled
incorrectly. Someone's got to teach Topping that it is NOT acceptable to
describe someone's appearance by saying he looks like Cary Grant with
shorter ears. It's lazy, it's sloppy, if you've never seen the person
being referred to it's meaningless, and physical description should state
something essential about the character, like in Lord of the Flies. Piggy
has asthma, is tubby, and wears glasses. What color hair he has, or his
ear length, is utterly irrelevant. After System
Shock, Last of the Gadarene, and The Sunmakers, I'm tired of aliens in the boardroom.
Please find something else. The fanwank count is right up with Divided Loyalties. Sometimes it's neat, like the
reference to Cold Fusion. Mostly it isn't; there are
way too many tie-ins to the abysmal Devil Goblins of
Neptune, and oddly, none to Deep Blue. Johnny
Chess should have been excised from the book. I'm tired of the alternate
universe thing with the Beatles' replacement cast memeber and such. And
I'm assuming the author was joking when he said the Brigadier has met NINE
Doctors so far, but I'm open to emails on this. Lars Pearson is going to
have quite a bit to put in the Ass-Whuppings section for this book.
It's better than Independence Day, especially
from a first-time solo novelist, but nowhere near as good as Festival of Death; now there's a first novel that's a
polished gem. I'm still waiting for a BBC 5th Doctor book that's as good
as Goth Opera or Crystal
Bucephalus, or Cold Fusion.
A Review by John Seavey
19/6/01
In a word: Errrrrr...
In several words, Topping tries to pull off a serious stunt, here,
taking the "aliens in the boardroom" plot, which is almost more of a
sub-genre than a cliche of Doctor Who by now, and strip it down to
its bare minimum, counting on sheer style to keep us from noticing how
little plot there is. It almost succeeds, too...clears the canyon, but
perhaps skins its knees and scuffs its jacket here and there.
The book can more or less be divided into "things that worked" and
"things that didn't." Things That Worked: Turlough's escape from his
torturers; Paynter and Barrington's "squaddie eye view" of UNIT; the
characterization of the Brigadier; characters' general reactions to odd,
small moments, like Johnny Chess's guest appearance, or the UFO; the
discussion at the end of what humanity will be remembered for; and, in
general, the style of the book.
Things That Didn't: Turlough's torture (why do writers in the books
always feel the need to torture the Doctor and his companions?); the plot,
which is almost non-existent and has a deus ex machina ending that comes
right out of Topping's arse; the cliched "first they fight, then they
kiss" scenes between Paynter and Tegan; the American dialogue en
masse; the six or seven mentions of the Waro when they're not in the
sodding book; Control, who I just don't get... is this some in-joke
Topping has going with someone?... and the first two pages of dialogue,
which are so purple as to choke one.
On the whole, the book is very good unless you start to think about
what's actually happening in it; then you rapidly realize that the plot
can be summarized in about two sentences. :)
Next up, The Quantum Archangel, which I'm about
five pages into and already dreading... haven't really enjoyed Hinton's
first three books, and this looks to be no exception.
Deep Blue II by Robert Smith?
8/11/01
The King of Terror, surprisingly, is not the worst Doctor
Who book I have ever read. But that's not for want of trying.
What the hell is this? Who thought this had any redeemable features
whatsoever, let alone allowed it to escape from solitary confinement and
be leashed upon the unsuspecting public? Justin Richards, you might have
single-handedly redeemed the EDAs, you might have had a number of very
reasonable and interesting directions for the poor maligned line, you
might be a fine writer yourself who understands plot construction and
characterisation, but what on earth were you thinking when you let this
slip through the safety net?
The King of Terror starts off badly. I mean,
doing-something-incredibly-boring-like-
walking-through-an-airport-and-then- describing-it-in-a-novel badly. The
first 50 pages are an incredibly painful continuity-filled travelogue of
the author's visit to a Los Angeles Doctor Who convention. Okay,
the events are masquerading under the flimsy disguise of two soldiers
reminiscing about being the third extra on the left in episode 3 of Robot, but we get great chunks of characters walking
through the airport, sitting in cafes, visiting the hotel where I'm sure
the convention was held. Two more chapters and they'd have been getting
drunk in the bar while ogling Wendy Padbury, mark my words.
And yet... these 50 pages are the best written of the novel. I thought
it couldn't sink any further than this, and yet this was the novel's
writing peak. Okay Paynter and Barrington are mildly interesting when
they're not retroactively mary-sueing their way into seventies Doctor
Who stories. And when one of them dies, it's a genuinely well-written
scene. The prologue with the God-Emperor himself (also known as the
Brigadier) is a little bit interesting until the Waro get mentioned for no
apparent reason whatsoever and I was contractually obligated to fling the
book across the room. And... nope, that's it for the good stuff.
The regulars. For the love of Terrance Dicks, the regulars. Tegan has a
romance that's so unconvincing that even the character involved tells us.
Huh? Keith, listen to your word processor when it starts commenting on
the plot, that's probably a very good sign. The Doctor does, um, what
exactly? Nothing of interest, anyway. Turlough gets gruesomely tortured to
within an inch of his life and then gets to murder his torturer and
conveniently let off scot-free. I thought that was very considerate of the
author to intervene in the story like that in case something dreadful
happened, like actual consequences or something.
And what's with the gleeful descriptions of every last piece of
violence and torture that takes place in this book? There are places to
work out your inner rage and they're not called Doctor Who novels.
If I were Mark Strickson's testicles, I'd be worried. (For a variety of
reasons.)
This book ties in with Escape Velocity, and what a
pair they make. Of course, in The Keith of Topping aliens invade
and nearly destroy the entire world. As witnessed by, you know, everyone.
On television. And in Escape Monstrosity, set a mere
year and half later, aliens invade and everyone is rather surprised to see
that aliens exist. We're not talking about Lt Hemmings' first name
changing here. If you're going to have your books tied in to one another,
it helps not to contradict each other's entire plot, guys.
Oh, but I haven't mentioned the dumbest bit, yet. Okay, admittedly it's
a tough pick in this travesty, but for my money it's the pre-Millennial
apocalyptic doom. In a book published in October 2000. Not only is that a
pretty loopy idea to begin with, not only does the Nostradamus stuff feel
incredibly out of place and not only have five billion other works
already covered the exact same material, only better and, um, actually
before the Y2K non-event (including Millennium Shock
in the same line of novels!), but we're all so thoroughly sick of it by
now that even if you'd given us the brilliant TV series Millennium at its
height, it would be dull. Words fail me. I can only presume that Keith
wrote this novel sometime in 1999 and was so convinced that an apocalypse
was imminent that it didn't matter what piece of hackwork he turned in,
we'd all be dead before it was published. By a startling coincidence, I
was hoping for the exact same thing.
And what's with the title? It's almost begging to be called The King
of Error, so much so that I'm wondering if this whole book was some
sort of perverse joke. It's such a non-title that it might as well have
been called The Noun of Noun (see, this really is a Doctor Who story in
case all the pointless continuity didn't convince you, although it's true
that Doctor Who usually had interesting characters and plotting and
entertainment value and witty dialogue and humour, but look, another
continuity reference!) and be done with it.
If I ever track down the person on rec.arts.drwho who uttered those infamous
words "On your own? Yeah. Sure" that Keith tells us inspired him to write
the book, they're going to be very sorry indeed. You won't appreciate
being proved more right than you could possibly envision when I'm finished
with you, you complete and utter bastard.
There's a lesson to be learned from writing fifth Doctor and UNIT
PDA's. Don't. This book retreads so many of the sins Deep Blue committed, not least of which are the fifteen
billion continuity references. Okay, sure, mention the Waro on page 1 if
you like if they're the principal villains of your novel and for no
other reason. I'm so convinced that this should be rule number one of
"the Doctor Who guide for lazy authors" that I have a sneaking
suspicion Justin commissioned this so he could have an easy reference
volume to everything that usually goes wrong in PDA submissions.
The King of Terror is an appalling novel. I hope the author got
some pleasure out of writing it, because there wasn't much to be had
reading it. It's full of gruesome violence, continuity references
substituting for characterisation (see also Deep Blue
and Divided Loyalties... and my condolences to fifth
Doctor fans out there - you poor, poor people) and it just drags
interminably. It's not just bad, it's boring too. Avoid this book like the
travesty it is.
A Review by Richard Radcliffe
29/1/04
Having really enjoyed Deep Blue (the other novel
that contains all these characters) I was quite looking forward to this
one. The 5th Doctor hasn't spent that much time with the Brigadier and
UNIT. Tegan and Turlough were one of the more crotchety TARDIS teams, and
the mix promised to be an interesting one.
Keith Topping has filled his book with a vast amount of background and
foreground for every character in the previous paragraph. There's the
Doctor mulling over poor exam results in his youth, the Brigadier thinking
Turlough is from Coventry, Tegan's father having an affair with a typist,
Turlough having allergies galore. This is fanboy stuff gone mad. The book
is riddled with it from beginning to end. Even characters not in the book
are given a dubious future (Jo Grant). It is just too much, and you find
yourself thinking back to the TV show and wondering whether this conflicts
with existing data.
The actual story concerns an alien race named the Jex. They are trying
to invade the Earth, and are doing it through a communications network -
InterCom. Meanwhile the Canavitchi used to be slaves of the Jex, and now
want to wipe them out. Earth is in the crossfire, and the Doctor and his
companions have to save the day. Fact is though the story gets lost
amongst all the characters pasts and futures.
If the authors will insist on filling the background and futures of our
favourite companions, at least make it interesting. Judging from fan polls
in magazines and on the net it seems fans do not want this kind of
"joining the dots". They want a good, solid story that has the Doctor and
his companions involved in a significant way. The characters enlarging
naturally from the story. King of Terror is not a good story, it is
too pretentious. In short it is not good Doctor Who. Combine this
with the fact that the Doctor (the supposed star of the book) has very
little to do - it's a poor read. Never mind. 5/10