 The fourth Doctor Who novella from Telos
publishing is, ‘Ghost
Ship’ written
by a man not so unheard of in Doctor Who circles – Keith
Topping.
Topping has undertook a very
difficult aim, one you can only admire him for, to write
this novella from the perspective of the Doctor himself.
The Fourth. But this isn’t the Fourth Doctor we take
as the norm with his quick wit and rapid responses,
no this is definitely the more subdued one, the somewhat
more sensitive Doctor we saw in TV stories such as The Deadly
Assassin.
When reading the book, I personally
could tell immediately it was the Fourth Doctor, it’s
those tiny characteristics in his perspective that jump
out at you, the Doctor is highly articulate with his
choice of words etc and he is here. The ‘walking in
eternity’ speech from The Pyramids of Mars shows what
tone this novella is written in.
Traveling alone, the Doctor
lands on one of the most haunted places ever, the Queen
Mary, yes that spooky ship which you can still view
today! As is obvious from what I’ve just mentioned,
Ghost Ship is a Doctor Who ghost story,
something which was never the main focus point of any
TV story plot.
Matching the dark and subdued
character of the Doctor is the setting itself and Topping
here hits the target spot on with his choice of prose
– filled with lovely use of adjectives and reflection
of life. Without revealing too much of the plot, even
at the beginning of the story, the Doctor does consider
leaving the ship at once considering the general feeling
of the atmosphere around him, something we have never
ever heard of from the Doctor before – this goes to
show what type of Fourth Doctor is behind this written
account.
Going back to that setting comment,
this novella gave me the impression of the same sort
of misty, dark setting as Horror of Fang Rock, dark and dangerous!
The images painted into the
mind of the reader are frightfully thrilling which makes
you wonder just how this may have looked on screen –
the writing of events and appearances of apparitions
are incredible, as are the Doctor’s account of them
and perspective.
In Keith’s novels in the past
I have always found characterization a strong point
of his, and this novella totally reinforces that view
for me – it’s terribly well written and goes at a steady
pace and never once loses it.
We rarely see inside the Doctor’s
head and
rightfully so, it works best as him as a mystery, which
is one of the reasons why at first I wasn’t keen on
the idea of the novella when I first heard of it, but,
three pages in and I was hooked – I really do recommend
you buy this book, even if you haven’t been keen on
written Doctor Who, the style is so different you have
to give it a go! – Seriously!
» Review by Andy Kitching, Copyright 2002.
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