Doctor Who - Full Circle Doctor Who - State of Decay Doctor Who - Warrior's Gate

Target Books The E-Space Trilogy

• Lost in Time and Space by Andrew Feryok

Lost in Time and Space by Andrew Feryok 20/3/08

This has to be one of my favorite trilogy/story-arcs in all of Doctor Who, with the Key to the Time series coming in at a close second. The concept of this trilogy is rather simple: the Doctor is lost in a parallel universe and must try and find a way back "home" to our universe. Along the way, he has many strange encounters with creatures and cultures not seen before in our universe. The trilogy was quite lucky to have attracted such talented writers who were able to write stories that were far from run-of-the-mill. Even Dicks' gothic horror story has been twisted to make it unusual from the norm. But now I get to enjoy the trilogy in a whole new medium: in the Target book series. All three authors of the original television scripts have penned the book adaptation of their stories, which gives the trilogy an extra amount of credibility.

Before talking about the trilogy in general, here is a summary of my thoughts on the individual stories themselves (you can read individual reviews in more detail in their appropriate sections):

Full Circle - The story kicks the trilogy off to a good start. A mist-filled swamp filled with Marshmen resembling the creature from the black lagoon are just the start of this adventure. Wrapped around this we have a space colony hiding a dark secret and trying desprately to conceal it, while the Doctor tries to unravel a genetic puzzle linking the colonists to the Marshmen they fear. The book is very well written by Andrew Smith, recreating the original story very well and even includes new material which adds to the understanding of the Marshmen and their motives. If there is any drawback it is that Romana and K9 get very little to do, but the Doctor and his new friend Adric are able to carry the story quite well on their own.

State of Decay - The books take a slight downturn with this story. Terrance Dicks' adventure is actually very atmospheric and mixes gothic vampires with ancient sci-fi spacecraft to create a story with a unique mood while also allowing Tom Baker a last hoorah in the style that he is best known for. However, Terrance Dicks' writing style is problematic, with way too much narration and a difficulty in capturing the regulars. This is even more startling considering he not only wrote the original script but has written many other Tom Baker books before! Dicks does add some new material to the book, but, unlike Smith, it does not seem to add much more to our understanding of the story or its characters.

Warriors' Gate - The trilogy ends on a high note. This is definitely one of the strangest and most confusing stories the Doctor has ever endured, taking place literally 'nowhere' and with a race that can exist on a plane above even the perception of the Time Lords. The book has lots of additions, even more than the previous two in the trilogy, and really expands the story to areas that the television show could never realize with their budget. Probably the most interesting change is the rearrangement of scenes so that Romana is much more central to the story while the Doctor and Adric are virtually sidelined. In fact, many of the Doctor's scenes in the Tharill world have been rewritten for Romana. Probably the greatest addition is a new leaving scene for Romana and K9, which is less rushed and does justice to the characters far better. Overall, a splendid book.

In comparing the three books, it is difficult to pick out a favorite. For story, Full Circle would probably be my favorite since it is both accessible and original. For imagination, Warriors' Gate definitely gets the award. In fact, I am still trying to get my head around some of the many concepts brought up in this book. For atmosphere, I would actually go with State of Decay, particularly the ancient ship which has been converted into a giant blood storage device and castle, and the discovery of the giant vampire underneath makes for a truly chilling setting. As a whole, the trilogy works very well, with Full Circle and Warriors' Gate acting as the high concept stories, while State of Decay provides a more traditional adventure to break things up. Each story is different from the other, allowing each to stand unique and at the same time working as a whole.

Overall, this is a great trilogy and one which I return to often on VHS and now in book form as well. All three books make for a good read and while State of Decay may have some prose problems, I would still recommend it as well. If you are a fan of Tom Baker, Target books, or this trilogy, definitely check it out. If you are not, I seriously recommend it anyway since the books, with all their added material, may help to explain much of what confused you about them before. As a final note, I reiterate my challenge for someone to try and read Warriors' Gate without seeing the episode first and see if they can understand what the heck is gong on! Wonderful! 10/10