Plum Pudding Reviews

  The Diary of River Song Series Ten - Two Rivers and A Firewall Two Rivers and a Firewall is the Tenth Volume of Diary of River Song, and it's oddly basically not a very cohesive volume. Each of these stories could 100% be released individually without any consequence to the others. They really did just pick the two more likely to get people interested stories in the set and made them the title. Huh. It's an odd choice, especially since in sets like The Ninth Doctor Adventures, they've scrambled to try and figure out a title that thematically fits the set together. Those sets have disparate stories anyway, but perhaps Two Rivers and A Firewall is on the next level of disparate. It has no story-arc or linking thematic material whatsoever. I think you sort of need something. Even if it's really loose. If you're going to go through the effort of giving a boxset a title, you have to pick a title that means something and links the stories together in some way. Because o

 Dead Plates by David Llewelyn  I’m not sure if I understood Dead Plates correctly- it really doesn’t make much sense, even if it’s rather lovely and atmospheric, the more it goes on the more you realize it has no intent on being coherent whatsoever. This is the one where Bilis reveals he can just infinitely produce sentient duplicates of himself with absolutely no problems. This is integral to the plot, yet it brings up many questions there are no satisfying answers to. It is not interested in providing you with explanations. You simply just have to accept that, which I think is rather ludicrous, even for Bilis, who has previously been established to be a character who can almost do whatever he wants, from vortex free Time Travel to a mastery over memory. At a certain point you have to wonder - what the hell IS Bilis?? These questions are best when subtle and creeping insidious background stuff leads you to them, not when you’re wondering how an entire plot can take place. If you can

  The Second Doctor Companion Chronicles Volume One Ah, the Second Doctor era. An era of base under siege bullcrap, a companion that there will never be any escape from and also an era that did know how to surprise you. Just when you thought it was getting rubbish, this era throws something like The Mind Robber out at you and you remember why this show is fricking marvelous. Why am I beginning this review with such a prelude? This volume is 100% representative of it as a whole - at it's most brilliant stunning Doctor Who side of things, and then also the dull by the numbers aaaagh side of it. I'm certain that if you're the world's number one Second Doctor fan, you will definitely find a lot to love in this volume, but on the other hand, if you're like me, and you approach every tale with the skepticism of "which Second Doctor am I getting right now," you may want to pick and choose.   This also is a set of companion chronicles. On paper. Obviously they'