Doctor Who: The Deviant Strain
Mar. 4th, 2024 11:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabeth9, Jack, and Rose get drawn into an adventure when Jack answers a distress call.
I havent reread these early DW books for ages, so they feel new again.
The only bit of the book I didnt quite like is the title. It says in the back it was named after the title font for this book series, and it is indeed a good title, but it didnt seem to follow from the rest of the story.
But it was a good story. With lots of good Captain Jack bits.
One bit that caught my imagination was when someone asked if he was really a Captain, and he said 'born and bred' (p30), which isnt exactly a fitting answer with our current system. But you can get all sci fi with it and imagine colony ships heading towards the Boeshane Peninsula, each with their own ship Captain, handing down the responsibility through the family. I kind of like the idea that Jack was raised to feel responsible for everyone around him, and a bit in charge. Not sure it fits with John mocking him for it, or 'hey, I worked my way up through the ranks'. Can make it fit if you want though, like nobody taking small boat 'Captains' seriously, or respecting hereditary power, but Jack did work his way up this time.
Another Jack bit is where a 19 year old girl is injured so she looks old and is mostly not responding to stuff going on around her. Jack insists on protecting her and treating her as an injured person, not a lost cause like some of the others think. He says he used to be afraid of dying, or facing death in combat, but now he's afraid of growing old and having to depend on other people, with only his memories to console him.
... which of course gets *bleak* if you figure the Face of Boe is his future, or think about how much retcon took from him. Revisiting season one Jack is just... like watching the boulder start rolling.
The actual plot stuff rolled along proper adventure. Though the author really doesnt respect cold enough. The characters are worried they'll run out of fuel to stay warm, yet they also survive going for a swim in frozen water with just a bit of a hug to get warm. Still, mostly it's sci fi stuff that holds together as sci fi stuff. Or possibly fantasy, given the mention of the 'Arcane Collegiate', which at least makes Pathfinder crossovers easier. I like that in the end the problem isnt aliens but humans trying to use alien technology to live forever. For an adventure with Jack in you get ominous foreboding. And there's a lot of stuff about energy draining and extra explanations for why they can't just use literally anything other than human lives which did pretty much work, but ends up with life eating undead because arcane spaceship. But also a whole abandoned community being prematurely aged by the lives they have to lead makes it resonant, like they always were being drained by the lab, now it's just a smidge more literal.
I liked rereading this one.
I havent reread these early DW books for ages, so they feel new again.
The only bit of the book I didnt quite like is the title. It says in the back it was named after the title font for this book series, and it is indeed a good title, but it didnt seem to follow from the rest of the story.
But it was a good story. With lots of good Captain Jack bits.
One bit that caught my imagination was when someone asked if he was really a Captain, and he said 'born and bred' (p30), which isnt exactly a fitting answer with our current system. But you can get all sci fi with it and imagine colony ships heading towards the Boeshane Peninsula, each with their own ship Captain, handing down the responsibility through the family. I kind of like the idea that Jack was raised to feel responsible for everyone around him, and a bit in charge. Not sure it fits with John mocking him for it, or 'hey, I worked my way up through the ranks'. Can make it fit if you want though, like nobody taking small boat 'Captains' seriously, or respecting hereditary power, but Jack did work his way up this time.
Another Jack bit is where a 19 year old girl is injured so she looks old and is mostly not responding to stuff going on around her. Jack insists on protecting her and treating her as an injured person, not a lost cause like some of the others think. He says he used to be afraid of dying, or facing death in combat, but now he's afraid of growing old and having to depend on other people, with only his memories to console him.
... which of course gets *bleak* if you figure the Face of Boe is his future, or think about how much retcon took from him. Revisiting season one Jack is just... like watching the boulder start rolling.
The actual plot stuff rolled along proper adventure. Though the author really doesnt respect cold enough. The characters are worried they'll run out of fuel to stay warm, yet they also survive going for a swim in frozen water with just a bit of a hug to get warm. Still, mostly it's sci fi stuff that holds together as sci fi stuff. Or possibly fantasy, given the mention of the 'Arcane Collegiate', which at least makes Pathfinder crossovers easier. I like that in the end the problem isnt aliens but humans trying to use alien technology to live forever. For an adventure with Jack in you get ominous foreboding. And there's a lot of stuff about energy draining and extra explanations for why they can't just use literally anything other than human lives which did pretty much work, but ends up with life eating undead because arcane spaceship. But also a whole abandoned community being prematurely aged by the lives they have to lead makes it resonant, like they always were being drained by the lab, now it's just a smidge more literal.
I liked rereading this one.