The Resurrection Casket

Well, this is it—my first 10th Doctor book (unless you count the audio books). From the old hand himself. While it was a pleasant enough read, I liked it less than his 9th Doctor venture. The plot, in fact, seemed to me more suited to the Sarah Jane adventures—it had that kiddie feel. The end twist seemed something like a redux of the end of “Boom Town,” which, as you probably know, really annoyed me.

I suspected that any book that had pirates in it would be great fun, but there were only space pirates without any vestiges of the good old days. Most of the characters were pretty boring, though I rather liked “the monster” Kevin, who goes around apologizing before hacking people to bits. He also kind of has a crush on Rose (She flung her arms round Kevin . . . given his height she was probably clutching his buttocks. She let go quickly). The amusingly-named McCavity is not nearly as interesting as his counterpart Margaret Slitheen, though the Doctor seems to have a thing for his dead wife, which is really weird. The other villains, Silver Sally/Salvo 7-50 and her gang of murderous robots, are better. I was as duped as Rose by her façade of kindly robot-girl.

While there was no mention of chess, there did seem to be something uniquely Richards-ian in technology being powered by steam at the edge of a natural phenomenon that busts normal technological working order. I was surprised to find Rose had so little to do, considering that Richards wrote her pretty well in The Clockwise Man. While Richards seems to be having fun writing the 10th Doctor, I’m never entirely convinced he “gets” him. At one point he has him exclaiming “Cripes!” which is cute, but hardly something I’d expect him to say. He also drinks a lot of grog, which, making allowances for the fact it’s more like ginger beer than actual grog, seems a bit out of character. (But then he did dabble in wine in “Girl in the Fireplace.”)

He gets to do long-winded zany moments which are very 10th Doctor—and yet, while they would be fairly entertaining on the show, seem a bit wearisome in print. Still, he has his moments, whether he’s being cheeky (‘Can you get through there?’ he asked, meaning the narrow gap between the doors. . . . ‘I probably can,’ he said. ‘Only teasing’), profound and Doctorish (‘If only everyone was as nice as that, the universe would be so . . . nice’) and even resembling the Sixth Doctor book I read ages ago, Burning Heart (‘Remember,’ the Doctor said quietly, ‘there’s always a choice’).

Visually I think this would be quite an enjoyable (if expensive) story to dramatize—it would probably work pretty well on the radio. (She says, as if she were an authority on radio plays now!) No, there really isn’t anything I can say that is wrong with this book—yet at the same time, it’s certainly not Richards’ best work. However, am I the only one rolling in the aisles at this line, when taken out of context: She gingerly touched the business end of the Doctor’s everlasting match?!?!