They really said
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One again TLV is delivering. Anything to do with the Kotturuh i fantastic (and Im a little worried now that theyre probably gone for at least most of the event). I think the middle of the book faltered a bit with the lifeshroud stuff between the great start and end, but it was still a great book.
6 Likes
I didn’t have particularly high expectations going into The Knight, the Fool and the Dead , and yet it still felt wanting. Big, broad, all over the place event things like Time Lord Victorious never seem to live up to the hype to begin with, and seeing as how I’m not indulging in any of the other material, this was bound to feel like a piece of something I’d never know the rest of. Add to that my dislike of the premise (as I understand it based on Waters of Mars) that the Doctor decides to play God, yeah, it had a couple of strikes against it going in.
And yeah, more and more as I read, it felt clear that the book would not be able to end with anything that could be described as a conclusion, and sure enough, well… Unfortunately, I found myself not enjoying the journey either. Knowing what the Doctor was trying to do (which I couldn’t buy into in the first place), and knowing how that ultimately has to turn out, I was just never able to engage with it.
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Just finished this!
Not sure what to think of it really… it felt a bit messy with loads of characters who seem to have all met by a massive coincidence, a girl who is immortal until she isn’t (?) with no real explanation there. The Lifeshrouds being a kind of scam is quite fun but I feel it goes on for too long.
The book was quite short though and there were some interesting parts, I like how it continues the theme that the Tenth Doctor should not choose who lives and who dies.
I gave it 3.5/5. Looking forward to the next parts, and to see how that cliffhanger is set up and resolved!
6 Likes
I expected to like this one a little more than I thought I would, and it felt a bit all over the place, but I still enjoyed it. I remember enjoying the second book a lot more, so I’m looking forward to discussing that.
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This was a good bit of a fun. The dark times are a really interesting, plus it’s really cool seeing 8 and 9 together. Excited to see where things go from here.
6 Likes
I rather liked this. I disagree that there are too many characters, I thought the supporting roles were great, particularly Estinee, she really grounds it, which feels necessary as our usual touchpoint of the Doctor is going gradually further off the rails - which I really enjoyed. It feels like Cole absolutely nails the balance of familiar Tenth Doctor vibes and new, darker, dangerous vibes, which are super effective and feel like they fit right in after Waters of Mars.
I loved the flashbacks to earlier incarnations and I liked the atmosphere and the pace of the whole thing, although the toing and froing with lots of waiting, thinking and technobabble in the middle got a little tedious. I was really surprised by how dark the whole thing was - I suppose because my impression of the NSAs (or at least the Tennant ones) is that they’re very light and for children (I’ve actually never read any of them so may be barking up entirely the wrong tree…), I didn’t anticipate the themes in this novel to be so mature. I wonder if any younger children picked it up based on the bright colours, the Tenth Doctor, the Ood and were confused/horrified by what they found.
And speaking of the Ood… I know Brian has a lot of fans. And I understand why because, as a character, he’s so much fun. But as an Ood? I don’t really get why they chose an Ood. His dialogue patterns don’t seem to fit my memories of how Oods tend to speak, and at one point it talks about him running. It felt a bit as though, while Cole writes characters pretty well on the whole, he’d never actually watched an episode of the show featuring an Ood…
Finally, the cliffhanger is fun, but it did confuse me. I could have sworn that when TLV was first announced, they said that while there’s an overarching story, each release could be consumed and enjoyed individually without having to consume any other parts. Given that this is one of the flagship segments, this feels like nothing short of a bare-faced lie to me? I expected a self-contained story with a satisfying resolution, albeit with loose threads that could be tied up elsewhere. The ending felt much more like I’d just finished The Pandorica Opens than The Big Bang…
6 Likes
If I remember correctly, it wasn’t “each release”, it was more each publisher’s output. You could just get the books without needing the Big Finish audios or the DWM comic, etc. So while in most cases, that’s the same thing because most publishers only released one story, it’s not always the case.
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I see, that makes so much sense. I can see how that could totally be the case and I completely misunderstood it (but I wonder how many others did too. If I bought the novel as a one-off, I’d have been quite annoyed!)
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Seems I’m pretty much in agreement with those who think this was good but maybe a bit messy. It seems to take the Doctor from the end of The Waters of Mars where he’s just flip-flopped from TLV to ‘oh no I’ve gone too far’ (in the space of 2 minutes) and put him in a situation where he’s back to be TLV again and I’m still not sure I’m fully convinced by that.
I think it’s very telling that Eight and Nine turn up at the end to try to stop Ten because, for me, it sort of reinforces how out of character for the Doctor this is which is probably why it never really sat right with me, even from just seeing the TV element.
I did enjoy reading this but never felt I got that much of a handle on the characters. Estinee is not too bad and I do like Brian the Ood (even if I find him a bit gimmicky at the moment) but I don’t think I ever got a handle on Fallomax or Chalskal. I think what it lacked for me was any grounding. There are a lot of ideas being thrown around - Estinee’s immortality, the Lifeshrouds, Chalskal’s mercenary force which, for me, distracted from the Kotturuh who sort of lurk in the background until the end where they seem to be defeated a bit too easily.
I think this is the issue with threats in Doctor Who that are effectively invincible. They can be shown affecting other races and individuals but as soon as you put them in front of the Doctor, they have to be defeatable. This then detracts from them a bit and I think this is what happens with the Kotturuh here. They are kept off stage for a very long time for a relatively short book.
So I’m interested to see where this goes. I’m getting the feeling my issues with the concept of TLV aren’t going to be assuaged but I hope I at least have fun on the ride because, as I say, I did enjoy reading this, even if I don’t feel it was the best constructed story.
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Really well put! This comment was an interesting read!
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Interesting. I can agree with most of what you said, but I felt the Kotturuh were really effective in this book. I thought they had quite a bit of ‘stage time’ and I really ‘felt’ their presence the whole time even when they weren’t ‘on stage’, I suppose because they’re imposing but also because of how utterly dark and threatening their mission and its scale are. To me, it felt like they were lurking, possibly watching, ready to pop up at any time and it really enhanced the reading experience. (I agree about their defeat though.)
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I liked this one well enough, but I think everything done well here is done better in “All Flesh is Grass”.
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Just read The Restoration Empire for the first time and it contains some spoilers for upcoming stories. It is now moved both in the playlist and in the upcoming clubs. Next week will only cover these stories:
| Act 2: Enter The Daleks | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-06-11 | YouTube | The Last Message - Time Lord Victorious Trailer | |
| 2026-06-11 | Eaglemoss | The Last Message |
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