Endgame

by Terrance Dicks

Book Overview

Before Feliks - one of the Doctor's acquaintances - is killed in an accident, he leaves behind a coded message. With difficulty, the Doctor decodes the message only to find himself caught up in the middle of a dangerous, world-threatening conflict.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0563538139
• ISBN13: 9780563538134
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: BBC Books
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.3" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

A different Doctor story...

The 4th in the 'Stuck on Earth with no memory' story arc sees the Doctor fed up with others problems and just wanting to be left alone. After the death of a friend, who leaves him with secret documents concerning a myterious third player in the Cold War era bent on destroying the world, The Doctor (after much blackmailing) is forced to save the world again.This novel reads like an action spy thriller, with the Doctor amazing everyone with his fighting prowess, his 'vulcan' neck pinch and his short hair.It also see the return of 'The Players' from their self-titled book also by Dicks. If you're not familiar with these characters, escpecially the motivation for the Countess, you will feel very underwhelmed towards the end of the novel. Actually, I knew about them and was still underwhelmed. I'm thinking this might mean another excursion into the 'Players' at a later date.A distracting point in the novel, comes around page 177 where it seems the editing crew must have been sleeping as one of the main villian's name keeps alternating from Myrek to Marek. A small mistake but it does break the flow of the story.I recommend this book, but only for a different kind of Doctor Who story which would have been better off without the 'Players' involved.

The Doctor Does the Cold War

This novel is adequate for a historical spy novel. That needs to be stated before anything else. Set in the early days of the Cold War, paperwork falls into the hands of an immigrant from the Communist Bloc, who tries to give it to the British but fails. The paperwork confirms the existence of a mysterious Third Force trying to play the Eastern and Western blocs against one another for sheer amusement. The inclusion of historical figure Kim Philby, a notorious traitor who was playing both the British and the Soviets himself, is a very skillful stroke.As a Doctor Who novel, it seems forced. The Doctor seems to have been included simply perforce because Terrance Dicks is supposed to be a Doctor Who novelist. He has plenty of opportunity for globetrotting -- in the course of the novel, he makes it to France, the United States (where he meets President Truman), and Russia (where he rescues Joseph Stalin from evil influence).The problem is, this could just as easily be any schlameel who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and got blackmailed into involvement in the Cold War. Apart from his usual acumen, there's no reason the character should be the Doctor. His inclusion seems like a market-oriented contrivance that neither contributes to, nor detracts from, the novel.The short version is, this is a good spy novel. The historical elements of the Cold War are very well done and the book is fun to read. However, it feels like it's only a Doctor Who novel because the author was under contract. It offers nothing new to the Doctor Who mythos. It detracts nothing either, so there's no reason it shouldn't be read; but there's no real reason for the character in it to be the Doctor.

The most meaningful historical epic of our time

There has never been a more accurate and moving account of the Cold War ever written. American and the Soviet Union are on the brink of nuclear war. Armies of suspicious spies and pandering politicians on both sides are poised at each other's throats, and only ONE MAN -- or is he more than a man? -- can save the world's children.*stumbling drunk clatters through doors*"It's me! The Doc-- *hic* Doctor! Doctor Who!"."Endgame" is Terrance Dicks's first Eighth Doctor novel since the much-maligned "Eight Doctors", and it also comes at a critical moment in the "Caught On Earth" Arc. It's 1951, and the Doctor is halfway through his exile. He's living an increasingly insular existence, and only a set of Hitchcockian circumstances (or perhaps he's just "The Big Lebowski"'s Dude) can lure him out of hiding so that he can save the world.Uncle Terry plays this one solely for laughs. Obviously. In this one, the President of the United States is "Harry S. Truman" (as opposed to Harry S Truman, the historical figure), and every time he appears, he's described by some character or other as "One tough son of a gun" (so to speak). Josef Stalin drinks a lot of vodka. One of the British spies, Guy Burgess, is evidently played by American comedian Jon Lovitz in full-on "Master Thespian" mode.As usual from Uncle Terry, the chapters are short, and littered with casual barbs and flashes of insight so quick you might miss them. Some scenes threaten greatness, and almost deliver. This is the first Eighth Doctor novel since "Demontage" played mostly for laughs -- so it's fitting that the author of that book, Justin Richards, now editor of the line, penned a few lengthy scenes for this one when it was submitted late and under word count (by the author's own testimony).Otherwise, what you see is what you get. "Endgame" is 99.44% fluff and saccharine, albeit delivered by an expert tale-teller and string-puller. It can be finished in a matter of hours, and you're likely to want to stumble around re-enacting some of the more slapstick scenes for a few days afterward. Just don't emulate the copy-editing, which is some of the worst we've ever seen in a "Who" novel. And don't re-enact Guy Burgess's scenes... he wins the award for Most Inebriated Character in "Who History". Just realize... it'll be a LONG time before we see another book like this in the EDA line. As the fictional "Harry S. Truman" might say to his author, "I reckon the buck stops here!"

Back to Basics

It's Terrance Dicks' best Doctor Who book since Exodus, written nearly ten years ago. To some extent, it suffers from immediately following the excellent Turing Test, as Endgame covers much the same ground, being a cold war spy drama instead of a WWII one. But it's a very quick light read, good for a warm summer day.It's somewhat odd at times that there's a lot of focus on the Doctor's lost memory -- by this point, he's been without his memory for over fifty years. In the end though, this series of Doctor Who novels is turning out to be the best I've read in a long time, starting with the Burning but especially Casualties of War and the Turning Test. I'd heard that from the people that are more caught up than I, and they're right.