Bullet Time

by David A. McIntee

Attempting to cover the Chinese takeover of Hong Kong, Sarah Jane Smith stumbles upon alien activity. The Tzun have been trapped on Earth while searching for the location of a lost ship that will... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0563538341
• ISBN13: 9780563538349
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: BBC Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.4" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Cracking good pot-boiler

Bullet Time marks the return of the "good" Past Doctor Adventure. It's not the best book ever written, and it certainly won't win any prose awards, but it's a cracking good adventure told in the style of John Woo and James Bond. Sometimes you could even see the slow motion choreography of the action scenes.Sarah Jane Smith, a companion of the Third and Fourth Doctor, is enlisted unwittingly by the Seventh Doctor in a secret plan that I won't reveal. Suffice it to say that, as always in a McIntee novel, things aren't necessarily what they seem to be at the outset. The Doctor seems to Sarah to be acting severely out of character, and she wants to get to the bottom of why. She finds out, though, that sometimes you don't really want to know the answer to your questions. Throw in some Hong Kong triads, secret government agencies (lots of them!), and stir, and you get a pot-boiling action flick masquerading as a book.The prose is very workmanlike, with many descriptions given in pop culture references. Luckily, if you're interested at all in Doctor Who (and thus, reading this book), you won't have any trouble understanding them. It still would be nice to have these lessened a bit, though. The rest of the story is told in rapid succession, with rapid scene changes that make it seem even more like a movie. There is rarely a 2-page spread that doesn't have at least one scene change. This makes for quick reading, and also makes the book ideal for reading in small chunks if all you have is a couple of minutes at a time. While the prose is simple, it fits the style of the book, which is a plus.The characters are rather two-dimensional, but that's not the point in this book, so that's not as much of a problem as it would be otherwise. If you want wonderful characterization, deep thoughts and discussions, or things like that, then you'll have to look elsewhere. The characters service the plot, rarely breaking out of their strait-jackets, but doing their job as well as they're able to. For fans of the Virgin New Adventures, there are some things thrown in there for you. The book is actually a sequel to one of McIntee's earlier books, but only subtly. There's no need to have read it in order to read this one. Instead, what this does is make a reader of the previous book say "oh cool!" and move on. People who have read the previous one will know exactly what I'm talking about.This book is fun. Nothing more, nothing less. It's not literature, it's not trying to be. It does its job, and it does it well. If you like an adventure yarn, you'll probably like this one. Go ahead and pick it up.

Looking back fondly...

Sarah Jane Smith is seeking stories in South East Asia, and finds herself pursuing colourful pieces relating to the return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule. But is the strange little man with underworld connections who runs the Pimms Corporation really her old friend the Doctor?This novel is more a story of investigative journalist and former travelling companion Sarah than it is of the Doctor. Indeed, the Doctor's role is far more reminiscent of that he played when Who novels were produced by Virgin: a shadow figure, inclined to manipulate events from the background.But the book doesn't suffer for that. Sarah is a strong character, well able to carry a large portion of the story, and we, as readers, get to see the Doctor's actions as most in the real world would - like observing a great storm from a distance, seemingly calm at first until it breaks with great force on the landscape.Given the relative failure of teaming up a companion with a different Doctor seen in 'Asylum', it was good to see David McIntee carry this off successfully. I have no inherent problem with old companions being reused, but unless it adds substantially to both the returning character and the story, there isn't much point. In this case, Sarah's livelihood as a journalist is an important element in the Doctor's plan and is also the reason for her involvement, making the pairing seem quite reasonable.With more than a nod to the oeuvre of James Bond, this book stands out stylistically from many recent books in the series, and again demonstrates the flexibility of the series' format.