Escape Velocity [Paperback]

Being the last in the 'Stranded on Earth' story arc sees a fun, classic story like the ones before the arc had begun. Fitz is back, hours after the eventful happenings on the now non-existant Gallifrey. The TARDIS has returned. A new companion has come aboard and best of all, the Doctor is his old self again (well kind of, he still lacks a lot of his memory and has a tendency to end a situation with more violence than usual.)

A strange part of the novel is the inclusion of the American version of UNIT, they do play a part but have no bearing whatsoever on the story. The ending is great, ending it with the same feeling ,story that continues into the next story (like with the classic 1st Doctor televised stories) and makes this a great starting point for new Doctor Who readers. This is a fun, light hearted book that rounds off the whole 'Exiled on Earth' arc wonderfully. RECOMMENDED!!!

There are a lot of major problems with this book. The motivations of the main villains are not stated until near the end, and even then they are so ill-defined, that it's difficult to grasp what they are doing and why they are doing it. Unfortunately, this fault extends to a lot of the other characters as well. The book spends far far too much time telling us about people rather than showing their actions to us. There are places where it feels as though it is still in outline form, waiting for the author to come over and flesh out these sequences. The prose doesn't do any favours in this department either, as it's workman at best, but occasionally slumps down into incoherence.

The poor pacing is probably one of the main aspects holding this book back. Every time it starts to do things well, the action will start skipping ahead randomly, utterly killing any positive momentum that it had gained. It's not so much a case that the book takes two steps backwards for every one step forward -- rather it takes one step backwards, three steps sideways, a step and a half in a diagonal direction, and spins around on its tiptoes before being gang-tackled at about the 40-yard-line for a minimal gain (and if you like that NFL analogy, wait until you read the ones in the book). This was really a shame, as the bad parts really started to outshine the places that had potential. About half-way through the story I found myself mentally cheering the book on, hoping against hope that it would succeed despite itself. I felt like a soccer mom, bravely shouting encouragement to her skinny, smaller-than-the-other-kids child to defy the odds and not let the team down. And fortunately, despite some moments where it gets really rough, ESCAPE VELOCITY did not score an own goal.

On the plus side, the introduction of the new companion, Anji, is done fairly well. It's obvious that a lot of thought has gone into what makes this character tick. Alas, not as much thought has gone into what makes this character tick inside the context of this story. What everyone has said about her character outline being randomly cut'n'pasted into the text here is completely, one hundred percent correct. It would have been nice to see Anji's thoughts and reactions better integrated into the story.

I also liked the method in which the Doctor arranges to meet Fitz "at St. Louis"; this was quite clever. The reaction to the restored TARDIS was done very well, and the characters of Anji and her boyfriend had a nice chemistry going. The problem is, however, that for everything that I liked, there was something lurking around the next page to annoy me. The aforementioned lack of proper motivations, the pointless inclusion of the UNIT competitors and, worst of all, the sheer silliness of the ending.

ESCAPE VELOCITY was a hard book to dislike. Although it made several major mistakes, it managed to somehow tell an entertaining story that held my interest throughout. It goes from good points to bad in a seemingly random, unpredictable manner, but for all its flaws, it seems to have its heart in the right place. Recommended as a fun romp, as long as you aren't looking for something to take completely seriously.

Escape Velocity is a genial romp. Two factions of an archetypal alien race (the insane warmongerers and the peaceful philosopher-kings) are stranded on Earth, working on competing teams to send the first privately-built vehicle into space. Those competing teams were once friends (and of course, right in betweeen is the women they loved). This is a simple and effective setup, and a good thematic backdrop for the Doctor's own escape into space.

However, the book tends to zip along with all the energy of a pulp story, when it could be argued that this novel, of all others, required a little more thought and dignity (and better-edited prose). Nothing unpredictable or novel ever happens.

It's best to read "Escape Velocity" as a collection of set pieces. The Doctor's reintroduction to Fitz, and the TARDIS's rebirth, both should bring a smile to the reader's face. Anji, the new companion, is an excellent stockbroker and a slightly less excellent girlfriend. We know this because Brake tells us so -- every couple of chapters, when it becomes important, a piece of character outline is stapled into the text. This is nothing new -- technical fiction writers dump their exposition into the text at necessary times (Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton to name obvious examples). It speaks better of the surrounding books that we've come to expect more than this from our "Doctor Who" potboilers, and that's why it's disappointing here.

Escape Velocity is a fast, easy read, safe and predictable. Not necessarily in a good sense. When the Doctor is returned to space, we don't get a taste of new, dangerous uncharted waters -- we simply get a replay of the very first "Doctor Who" cliffhanger, from 1963. A sense of adventure and the unknown has been lost, and it will be up to future writers to return "Doctor Who" to the cutting edge where it has thrived for parts of five decades.