Doctor Who: Silhouette: A 12th Doctor Novel

Dr Who and Clara visit the Frost Fair during the Victorian Era, They help to solve a mysterious death with Madam Vastra.
read 10/23/2023

I think by the time Doctor Who got past the 50th anniversary and to the Peter Capaldi era, the BBC were in a bit of a pickle. They had reinvented the Who book range for kids in 2005, but in 2014 the audience was increasingly veering older, with a lot more attraction for older fans who remembered the old days - and the much darker, more complex novels.

This is a book that is probably passingly successful in the 2005 framework but feels very wanting almost ten years later. The premise is intriguing, but it never gets beyond feeling like a TV episode on paper. At 11 or 12 years I would have really liked that, I think. As an adult in my 30s, it feels thin. It feels thin even as a kids' story.

When I was actually 11 and 12, Justin Richards was writing books for that more complex 1990s range. I liked them a lot - they were straightforward stories, probably with much of the same "TV on paper" qualities. The difference is I always remember Richards doing a great job of replicating the dialogue of the Doctor and other regulars. They sounded right. His Doctor in this book, on the other hand, is completely generic - doubtless a product of his only getting to read a script or script sections including the new Doctor, and without seeing Capaldi's performance. If I had to make a stab at it, he comes over like an intensely serious Tom Baker - or maybe a humorless Matt Smith. (And maybe one of those is what Richards went for.)

I can even understand the limits of writing for a brand new Doctor, but I'm utterly baffled at the inclusion of Vastra, Jenny, and Strax, all of whom Richards has written for before and all of whom appear prominently on the cover. Sadly, they are only really utilized as plot shortcuts. Vastra barely appears at all, and only Strax makes an impact because, yes, he's the one character blessed with unique and interesting speech patterns.

I wanted to like Silhouette, and there's probably an 11-year-old out there who finds it pretty ripping. That's good! I was disappointed because of the underutilized potential: in the ideas, in the characters, and in the writing. It all felt, to me, like a very tepid version of something that could have been much more fun.

Disclaimer: I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for an honest review.

After a string of mysterious murders in Victorian London, Madame Vastra and her associates find themselves on the case. The only connection they can seem to find is the Carnival of Curiosities, an attraction visited by all of the victims shortly before their deaths. Add to that a curious power spike, and the Doctor finds himself on the case with Clara in tow. But who (or what) is killing people? And to what end?

This is the second Doctor Who novel that I've read and it has definitely redeemed the idea of media tie-in novels for me. I thoroughly enjoyed this story. The characterizations of the team we know and love from the show were spot-on and this felt very much like a good episode of Doctor Who while I was reading it. (In fact, I do kind of wish this could be made into an episode--I'd love to see it and it's much better than anything Steven Moffat has come up with in at least the past two seasons.) It's a unique and engaging Doctor Who adventure and I'd recommend it to anyone who considers themselves a fan of the show.

Justin Richards’ Doctor Who: Silhouette builds a mystery set around the Carnival of Curiosities at the London Frost Fair, where the Doctor and Clara help the Paternoster Gang – Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, and Strax – to discover the source of mysterious murders and how they connect to an industrialist. As Madame Vastra is meant to have inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in creating Sherlock Holmes, some of the mystery elements recall Sherlock Holmes stories, though with added science fiction elements. The Victorian setting adds a feeling of menace and uncertainty while the characters team up in ways that highlight the characterizations which make them so entertaining. Seeing the Twelfth Doctor and Strax, or Clara and Strax, or Madame Vastra and the Doctor creates opportunities for great interactions. This was the second novel featuring the Twelfth Doctor in the BBC New Series Adventures, and the fifty-fifth novel overall in the series. It is sure to delight Doctor Who fans, particularly those who wanted more stories with the Paternoster Gang.

I was excited to see some Doctor Who books available on Blogging for Books, and was intrigued by the Carnival setting of Silhouette.

I have only seen the first episode of the Peter Capaldi season, but I think it was enough to give me a good feel for the characters. A weak area of Silhouette is that it depends a little too much on the reader already knowing who Madame Vastra and Jenny are and doesn't explain their true relationship with each other. Madame Vastra also doesn't seem to have much personality here, I would have liked to see her do a little more. Strax was very well done, and easily steals his scenes. The Doctor seems very like what I remember from the show, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes crotchety, very much not interested in being detained (that's a funny scene, but no spoilers!). Clara too seems true to form, though strangely missing from the cover.

The Carnival of Curiosities is an intriguing backdrop to the mystery to be solved, and I enjoyed how the performers talents were utilized. To say a lot more would be too much and make it less enjoyable I think. I was in the mood for a Doctor Who story, and this did fit the bill. I think those not already into the show might find it a little flat, but fans will easily be able to fill in the gaps with their knowledge of the show and characters.

I give it a 4/5 based on Strax's character and the Victorian carnival setting.

A Doctor Who novel featuring the Twelfth Doctor and Clara, along with Vastra, Jenny, and Strax. Or... well, OK, it sort of features the Twelfth Doctor. This was published in September of 2014, mere weeks after he made his first proper TV appearance, which means this book must have been written with almost nothing to base its characterization of this incarnation on. And boy, does it show. Aside from some superficial descriptions, this version isn't recognizable as Capaldi's Doctor at all, but is just some sort of generically Doctorish figure with strong hints of Matt Smith. It's incredibly distracting, and entirely unnecessary, as there is absolutely no reason this story could not have been written for the Eleventh Doctor instead. It's impossible to see the attempt to write the new version so quickly as anything other than a marketing decision made at the expense of the story, which just makes it all the more irritating.

Not that the story itself is that exciting, anyway. It starts out mildly intriguing, in a somewhat old school-feeling sort of way, but just got less and less interesting as it went on. And even in Doctor Who there's a limit to how much "Now I will tell you all my evil plans at length for no reason, then order you to be killed and conveniently walk away!" you can pull off, and this book decidedly exceeds it.

I will give Justin Richards one thing, though: he does a great Strax. The guy's dialog is spot-on in all its glorious, bloodthirsty hilariousness, and actually made me laugh out loud once or twice, providing some nice bright spots in an otherwise pretty meh book.

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The plot starts with a very interesting situation. A man has been found murdered -and it's clearly a murder and not a suicide, as it would not be possible for him to stab himself in the back- in a locked room. The last thing he did was starting a letter for Vastra, but he never managed to write more than just her name.

The investigation was interesting and the murder method and the alien plot very original and creative, but some parts were a bit predictable. Also, I think that separating the team worked great on one hand, as it allowed to expand the investigation and develop the characters a bit, but it also made a few things redundant. It reminded me a bit of the Agatha Christie episode. An alien murder plot, but still essentially a murder mystery, which is something that I like.

The most negative point of this novel is that out of the three 12th Doctor novels that have been released so far, this is the one where he is most out of character (I'll post the reviews of the other two soon). He looked more like the 11th Doctor rather than the 12th. This is forgivable, as I don't know how much information the author had before he started writing the novel (for those that don't watch the series, the first season about the 12th Doctor started at the end of August). It's not only the Doctor though. Other than Strax, all the characters seemed more or less generic, including the original ones. It doesn't make it difficult to follow the plot though, because it is very well developed.

Not the best Doctor Who novel, but certainly not a waste of time for any fan. One last thing though, there is very little description of the non-original characters, so you do need to know the show to really enjoy this book.

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El argumento empieza con una situación interesante. Han encontrado a un hombre asesinado -y es claramente un asesinato y no un suicidio, ya que no hubiera sido posible que se apuñalara por la espalda- en una habitación cerrada. Lo último que hizo fue empezar a escribirle una carta a Vastra, pero no consiguió escribir más que su nombre.

La investigación es interesante y el modo en el que el alien asesina a la gente y el argumento son muy originales y creativos, pero había partes un poco predecibles. Además, me pareció que separar al equipo funcionó muy bien por una parte, ya que permitió expandir la investigación y desarrollar un poco a los personajes, pero al mismo tiempo convirtió algunas cosas en redundantes. Me recordó un poco al episodio de Agatha Christie. Un asesinato alienígena, pero esencialmente un misterio criminal, que es algo que me gusta.

El punto más negativo de esta novela es que de las tres novelas del Duodécimo Doctor que han sido publicadas hasta la fecha, ésta es en la que está peor caracterizado (escribiré las reseñas de las otras dos próximamente). Se parece más al Undécimo Doctor más que al Duodécimo. Es algo perdonable, porque no sé cuánta información tenía el autor antes de empezar a escribir esta novela (para aquellos que no ven la serie, la primera temporada del Duodécimo Doctor empezó a finales de agosto). Sin embargo, no se trata sólo del Doctor. Aparte de Strax, todos los personajes son más o menos genéricos, incluyendo los originales, pero no es algo que dificulte seguir el argumento, ya que eso sí que está muy bien desarrollado.

No es la mejor novela de Doctor Who, pero no es una pérdida de tiempo para ningún fan. Sólo decir una última cosa, y es que los personajes no originales no están demasiado descritos, así que hace falta conocer la serie para disfrutar verdaderamente del libro.

The technician writer is an underpraised species; a backbone of the publishing industry. They will, quietly and without fuss, deliver a publishable manuscript on time. Justin Richards, editor of the Doctor Who range for several years, is one such writer. With a Richards book you can be certain that the book will be draped around a solid, enticing hook and chug through a logically worked out plot and that the characters familiar from the television will act perfectly consistently with their screen selves. Each story or script is a well-crafted tale, a formula he has honed over more than twenty years of writing Who novels.

Silhouette is a perfect example of Richards’s work. The high-concept summary - Doctor Who donning the mantle of Philip Pullman’s Sally Lockhart adventures, with Clara taking the bulk of the action against a dastardly Victorian industrialist. His revolutionary weapon is an agreeably Doctor Who concept, eventually foiled in a very Doctorish way. The Doctor appears a little Matt Smith-esque at times, but it’s a minor point you can brush aside by pointing out that each Doctor tends to have the same moral core with only surface differences of approach. Everything chugs along as smoothly and mechanically as a well-oiled machine. And almost as soon as the book is done the details evanesce into thin air, almost making you forget the little elements lifted from old Who books such as Managra and Conundrum. Richards has so perfectly honed his formula there’s little to distinguish it from previous novels, no memorable passages, ingenious juxtapositions, interesting subtexts or surprising turns of plot. It’s machine-tooled, mass-produced Doctor Who that keeps the novel range ticking away but without ever expanding or challenging the boundaries of what Doctor Who can do; a shadow of what’s possible from a series so rich in storytelling possibilities.

In this book the Doctor investigating in the Victorian England with the help of my favourite characters, Madame Vastra and Strax. Well written, entertaining light read.

An adventure with Jenny, Madame Vastra, and Strax (plus The Doctor & Clara)!! I do have to say that these are absolutely brilliant characters that I'm happy to see in a book adaptation. They have so much versatility and they're so different from one another that it keeps the story moving along at a wonderfully brisk pace. In this book, there are mysterious murders being committed throughout Victorian London and at first they don't seem to be interconnected except for one thing: the victims all visited the Carnival of Curiosities. What does origami, rage, and a man with a silver topped cane have to do with one another? Ah but you'll have to read this one to find out!!

This is my maiden voyage with a novel based on Dr Who. The show is a big hit in my family, where three generations all consider themselves Whovians. I was curious to see how the characters translated to book format, knowing that usually, I am one of those "liked the book better than the movie" types. While the story, itself, was fine, it didn't thrill me with the same sort of delight that a well written Dr Who script does. I found the portrayals of the five "regular" characters rather flat, and, at times, had trouble remembering this was supposed to be the Capaldi Doctor, and not some ambiguous time traveller. There were a few moments when Strax seemed like Strax, and Jenny showed spunk, but for the most part, I wasn't wowed. Perhaps the fault is mine, though, as I expected the book to paint a picture in my mind that would match up to what I see on the telly each Saturday night.

I'm giving this book a 3 out of 5 stars, though, because even though I love the television series, sometimes the writers have an off time, and I moan and groan about how poorly the script was written, not giving the actors a chance to really strut their stuff. This plot-line was no worse than some of those scripts that I thought weak, perhaps even better than one or two. It could just be that my imagination is not trained to translate a story visually from a book to match what I know on the screen. After all, this adapting from a series is a new sort of read for me. So, just like me giving the writers of episodes I'm not keen on the benefit of the doubt, so I'll give the book series the benefit, too, and a three-star rating. It also strikes me that this would be a good YA type read.

This is something like the 53rd book in the series, so apparently, others have no problem translating from television to text. As I said, the fault is probably in me. Please don't bash me because our tastes are different. But if writers continue to have Madame Vastra refer to her wife, Jenny, as her maid, make Strax dull, Clara a bit of an imbecile, and the Doctor somehow enigmatic and dull at the same time, I'll cross future books off my wish list.

Many thanks to Blogging for Books and the publisher for sending this copy my way.

Tags: blogging-for-books, color-me-disappointed,great-cover, ok-but-not-great, part-start-of-a-series, read, thought-i-was-gonna-like