The Blue Angel

by Jeremy Hoad and Paul Magrs

Can the Doctor avert certain disaster as various evil forces arise to exploit the chaos of war with the King of Ghillighast, the Guardian of Darkness? This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0563555815
• ISBN13: 9780563555810
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: BBC Worldwide Publishing
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.4" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

The owls in the mall are of course a commentary on the swooping perils of consumerism

Oddly enough, this is probably the best candidate to follow "Interference". That previous book (or books) was so shifting in terms of where it could potentially take the "Who" universe that trying to continue the trend with a regular run of the mill Who adventure would have just been seen as backsliding, or at least shying away from the things that Miles was trying to do. And yet, it was too early for another adventure of the scope or impact of "Interference". So instead, they decided to go somewhere completely different, to paraphrase another British institution. Magrs' first novel for the BBC line, the rather excitingly bizarre "Scarlet Empress", saw someone attempting to approach the genre SF TV-tie in series with a literary eye, shifting perspectives and techniques, giving us a taste of magical realism in a universe that always paid lip service to it . . . and generally not making any sense. I enjoyed the journey but had to admit that some of it was just plain incoherent, more concerned with dazzling us with the artiface than with the meat of the story. He remains just as distinctive and strange here, but the addition of Jeremey Hoad has both sharpened and refracted his work. There's no overall surface difference, the writing is just as strange as it was the first time but the addition of Hoad does seem to add a certain amount of focus. The story concerns nominally the new TARDIS crew of the Doctor, Fritz and Compassion getting caught up with a starship crew on a mission. Who runs into a giant glass city in space with a variety of aliens and a dictator with a strange complicator plan of his own. Meanwhile, Iris Wildthyme is running around a shopping mall with a bunch of women, one who has a son who may not be her son, and is helping them do their best not to get attacked by a swarm of giant owls. Yeah. For a series that has often prided itself on oddball, this is decidedly off-kilter. Magrs tends to make this work better than it should be being sure of his craft. The odd imagery seems more solid this time out, so that the giant owls and the men in glass chairs and so on feel more like actual aliens than Things That Are Standing for Something Else. I don't mind metaphors in my novels, but at least give me something solid to grab onto, hm? But much like his other novel, he shifts perspective to first person, switches up technique, and in this instance also decides to alternate the actual series of events with a story of another Doctor who might be our Doctor in a different universe, to presumably serve as counterpoint to the tale that's going on. The problem with this is partially the same problem that plagued "The Scarlet Empress" . . . namely, a lot of literary things are going on but for the most part we don't know if it means anything or he's just having some fun. It doesn't help that the Doctor is mostly sidelined and ineffective, Fritz is constantly playing catch-up and Compassion is still kind of a cipher at this point

Life is but a dream

Right away, I knew this book was fun. Probably due in part to the writing style;several sections are first-person viewpoint accounts, while others are third-person present tense. The book is fast-paced. One storyline has the Doctor, Fitz and Compassion living in an English town house, where Our Hero cooks, spends time in his garden and dreams strange dreams of adventure. We also meet Sally, a journalist friend of many years, and her talking dog, Canine. Elsewhere, we find The Three aboard the Federation ship Nepotist. Captain Blandish and his crew have encountered an anomaly in the form of Valcea, home of the Glass Men. Valcea should not be where it is. The Doctor, the Captain and 3 other crew members go planetside to investigate. Once in the city, they meet up with Daedalus, the local benevolent despot. (Any resmblance to a certain Enterprise crew is strictly tongue-in-cheek). Finally, we meet once again Iris Wildthyme (from Magrs' "The Scarlett Empress"). Iris has placed the Doctor "someplace safe", where he dreams of Glass Men and a place called Valcea. Meanwhile, she herself is rescuing a couple of women, Maddy and Big Sue-and Maddy's son Ian- from giant white owls. We are not told what happened immediately after the events of "Interference, Book 2", wisely. Would have been a distraction. More than ever, Iris seems a Doctor wannabe/groupie. What is her connection to Daedalus? The authors end the book with a post-story Twenty Questions. Can you say follow-up? Hopefully. "I remember something about passion flowers. Something specific and horticultural. Abit of general knowledge, which pleases me, too, because lately it's been as if I know nothing about anything at all. I, who used to be such a storehouse if impossible facts. Now I'm a well of endless fiction."

"Doctor Who: The Blue Angel"

A confuzzled doctor, a bonkers story, a TARDIS disguised as a red bus, owls, an impetuous Iris Wildthyme and an original narrative style all combine to make reading this book an experience that shouldn't be missed. If you like your books to be straightforward and easy to follow, don't bother with "The Blue Angel". If, however, you enjoy having your imagination teased, stretched and twisted, then this is the Doctor Who story for you! We are as much in the dark as the poor old Doctor, who isn't really sure whether he's coming or going. His old friend, (not to mention "old flame"!) Iris Wildthyme is in the spotlight, as she hurtles into another ridiculously dangerous escapade. The characters were well realised, the scope of the story wide, the style employed in writing the novel fluid and inventive, particularly the atypical ending. It's safe to say that I loved this book and I'm going to read it again!

Left field is a strange, quiet place.

I was underwhelmed by Magrs' first DW book, _The Scarlet Empress_. It seemed to be trying so hard to be a magical, mystical journey that it forgot to include a point. Fortunately, by his second book (and with the help of Jeremy Hoad) he has managed to do the impressive feat of going further out into left field AND remembering that there should be a point to the story.Casual readers should be warned: this is not a straightforward narrative. The Doctor, despite his best efforts, rarely gets more than a passive role. What really drives the book (for me, at least) is the question of _why_ the Doctor is being forced into a passive role and who is doing it. It's fascinating reading, particularly near the end when the sleepy cottage scenes begin to dovetail with the apocalyptic battle scenes and you start to get an inkling of what's really going on...If you like the unusual, go for this book. Parts of it won't make sense without a passing familiarity with Doctor Who continuity and at least one character's motivations will seem bizarre unless you've read _Interference_, but all in all it's a very fine book, indeed.