I didn't enjoy this book, but I'm struck by contemporary reviews revealing how a certain segment of fans absolutely loathed the character of Sam. And I'm struck by this because, well, I think she's pretty great. Or at least consistently written.

Okay, I guess, circa 1997, fans had a bunch of hang-ups. First of all, the New Adventures series had revelled in psychological drama and increasingly emotionally wrought companions; meanwhile, teenage girls seemed very 1970s for the program. She was seen as, in a contradictory sense, both lightweight and too much. Fans presumably wanted a companion who could hold their own alongside the Doctor (which had been more the mould of the program since about 1981) yet not someone who would presume to oppose, dismiss, or doubt him. The fact that Sam often feels like the protagonist of these books was especially galling to fans who worshipped the Doctor as a character, and saw the companion as a vital part of the plot rather than the plot per se. And the fact that it isn't always an easy alliance annoyed some fans. Although, to be fair, Ace and Benny were like this with the Seventh Doctor, they were beloved characters, whereas Sam was a teenage girl with outspoken progressive views, so she hadn't endeared herself to those fans before she was "foisted" upon them by those ungrateful authors giving us new content every damn month.

And those progressive views apparently mattered too. I don't care what a person's politics are, personally, but it's interesting to watch the way that Sarah Jane Smith's feminism is perceived to be toned down over her run, but how it's also deemed hugely worthy of comment by anyone reviewing her earlier stories. Some people just didn't want Doctor Who to be "message fiction", as they wanted it to be sci-fi more in the (perceived) X-Files or Babylon 5 approach, where story trumped politics. Others - of a certain gender and ethnicity, dare I suspect - felt like it devalued the books or made them less "hard" if they focused on her attitudes. And, for some, they saw those attitudes as being, dare I say it, a female thing. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1425053.html

The Eighth Doctor Adventures, having tried vampires a bit earlier, now switch to werewolves - though werewolves on a distant planet which is being exploited by ruthless industrialists trying to turn it into a tourist resort. The werewolf bits are memorably nasty and scary; there is a somewhat clichéd but basically endearing tough cop who has to work out the mystery and also what the Doctor and Sam are doing; I wasn't totally convinced by the political set-up, or by the handling of the climaxes of either half of the book. But if you like Doctor Who and you like werewolf stories you'll probably like this one. ( )