Retrospective: John Peel by John Seavey 4/10/03
For many fans, John Peel is one of the most recognizable authors for the Doctor Who line, despite a relatively small output of novels (Timewyrm: Genesys, Evolution, War of the Daleks, Legacy of the Daleks). Part of this comes from his career outside of the series; Peel is a fairly prolific genre author, contributing a number of non-fiction episode guides to several series as well as a wide variety of TV tie-in fiction. Part of this comes from his previous contributions to Doctor Who before the novels began; he novelized several of the classic Dalek stories, as well as providing a history of Gallifrey. Part of it comes from his on-line appearances; like many authors, Peel has contributed to discussions on Who in general and his own work in specific. Unfortunately, a good portion of it also comes from his two controversial Dalek novels -- stories that not only derailed Dalek continuity, but did a not inconsiderable amount of damage to his reputation as an author.
On reading his first two novels, it's hard to imagine how he could have gotten any reputation to begin with. Both Timewyrm: Genesys and Evolution have embarrassingly simplistic plots; mysterious villains are doing evil things, and after a Nancy Drew-esque investigation, the Doctor confronts them and stops them. Timewyrm: Genesys is the more embarrassing of the two, as the Seventh Doctor is cavalier about the villain's threat to the point of idiocy and has to telepathically restore his third persona to defeat her. Peel's stated that he disliked the Seventh Doctor and preferred the earlier eras of the show; yet, when he brings us a Fourth Doctor story in Evolution, the regulars are virtually unrecognizable. The Doctor frequently threatens violence against people he dislikes, and Sarah Jane is a crack shot and expert horsewoman. Still, at least she avoids most of the sexual indignities Peel heaps upon Ace. Genesys was supposed to be a more "adult" novel, and Peel apparently took that to mean underage girls being molested by large, violent men. I'm honestly not sure what he was trying to achieve with his treatment of women in his novels, but all I got was seriously disturbed; when the Doctor tells Ace to stay around an increasingly drunken and lecherous Gilgamesh, and explains that she should forgive his behavior because they had different standards back then, it really is something that makes the reader feel ashamed to continue with the book.
Stylistically, Peel can best be described as "average." There aren't many cringingly bad turns of phrase, but there's also not much to distinguish the prose from one novel to the next; neither novel flows well, and the science in Evolution is abominable. The best thing you can really find to say is that he writes action sequences well.
But all that pales next to his Dalek novels. John Peel was, of course, the first (and, to date, last) author to do novels featuring the classic Doctor Who monsters; his close connections with the Nation estate, and his history of writing the novelizations to Nation's Dalek stories, made him the front-running candidate when the books switched over from Virgin to the BBC. But given Peel's axe to grind regarding Dalek continuity, and the lack of strong editorial guidance from new BBC editor Nuala Buffini, it's perhaps not surprising that War and Legacy turned out to be his weakest books.
Both of them share many traits with his previous two books -- simplistic plots, bland and uninteresting characters, and an attitude towards women that is either sexist, misogynistic, border-line pedophiliac or frequently some combination of the three -- but added to them is Peel's strong conviction that Doctor Who hasn't been any good since 1980. Both of his novels lose the trail of their plots about half-way in so that Peel can focus on his true interest, explaining how the Daleks were better before Terry Nation stopped writing the stories himself. The Thals, and their plan to reinvent themselves as Dalek-killing Daleks? Forget it, we've got to explain how Davros' leadership was bad for the Dalek race. A tearful and emotional reunion between the Doctor and his long-lost grand-daughter? Nope, sorry, no time... got to explain how the Master wound up on Tersurus prior to The Deadly Assassin. The books drown in their own continuity, while simultaneously managing to alienate any fans the series had attracted since the 1960s ended with their disdain for the later eras of the program.
Peel hasn't written for the line since; he's always said that the series doesn't provide sufficient financial recompense to its authors, and that he wrote what he did as a labor of love. (It probably didn't help that, according to rumor, the Nation estate took 90% of the royalties for the two Dalek novels.) Given fan reaction to his later novels, it's probably just as well that he's not doing another novel for the range... although certainly, almost anything else he'd write would be an improvement over his contributions to date.