Nightdreamers

The TARDIS is dragged down to a verdant moon with spotty gravity, where the Doctor and Jo encounter some bizarre courtiers prepping for a play in honour of a royal wedding. Trouble is, the bride wants the groom dead as their marriage is one that has been arranged against her wishes as a means to settle an ages old feud between their houses. She'd rather marry her cousin. And somewhere in all this is the rumour of the Nightdreamer King, and his annoying henchman Sly. And a giant worm in a chrysalis.

CRAP. This book is CRAP. How stuff like this can sneak into a range as inspired as the Telos novellas I will never understand; out of 14 books, this is the one clunker of the lot. Booo Tom Arden. Booo your obvious ripoffs of Midsummer Night's Dream. Boo your lack of proper narrative, your awkward obvious flashbacks to Jo and Latep on Spiridon. What is this, Taregt books?

Disappointing. Very disappointing. The Doctor and Jo in this novella are mere shadows of who they are on screen, and everyone else they meet are charicatures rather than characters. The threat of the Nightdreamer King doesn't stand up as much of a menace at all, but it's at least nice to see that Arden gave the third Doctor a speeder bike a la Return of the Jedi to run around on in between the trees.

Okay back to TV.

NEXT EPISODE : THE GREEN DEATH