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| No time to watch the 'sport of kings' for the Doctor and Romana- the Krikkitmen are attacking Earth! |
Saving the galaxy (again!) has never been so much fun, as award-winning author James Goss gets us back into warm nostalgia mode anew with his latest amusing and inventive adaptation trip in time to that wacky world of 1979 DOCTOR WHO, delivering with style another deliriously fun, uniquely original adventure from the late Douglas Adams' truly special era as its writer/script editor. And a distinctive era it was too, as Adams, best known for the success of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, made the most of the show's unique British-ness and its superstar appeal in lead star Tom Baker. Even if his written or chosen Season Seventeen tales may not have fully translated to the screen in production ways that Adams ultimately liked, his amiable skills and originality were always underlined within them as he mixed high concept with inventive comedy, drama with likeable flippancy, and heroism with lovable silliness. With a charisma brighter than a supernova, this was the time when Tom Baker truly was our Doctor, making the hero institution his own and clearly thoroughly enjoying working with Adams, a man on similar wavelengths in perceiving what they thought WHO should be about in entertaining TV.
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| The 'teeth and curls' era has returned! DOCTOR WHO series image: BBC. |
With Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen, our hero partakes in a never before published Douglas Adams adventure - an unmade film script of intergalactic invasion, adventure and Cricket, as the multi-coloured scarfed wanderer and his superb, super-posh Time Lady companion Romana, plus metal marvel K-9 (proof that man's best friend doesn't need to be flesh and blood!), face the distinctive threat of the xenophobic alien warriors known as the Krikkitmen- once the stuff of myth and nightmares now discovered to be very much alive, well and rampant in their thousands, preparing to wreak terrible revenge on the galaxy, ready to launch the ultimate weapon of destruction, unless our clever heroes can stop them. As many colourful planets and unusual cultures are visited on their often time-bending quest (including one joyless world where just saying 'Hello!' can get you mobbed and arrested!), and the ever-pursuant Krikkitmen start making life very uncomfortable for everyone, it isn't long before the Doctor starts wondering if there might be an even greater danger at work manipulating things behind the scenes. Manipulation that may involve old-time skullduggery via his home planet of Gallifrey...
Also featuring special appearances from Margret Thatcher and Genghis Khan (not to be confused as one and the same person!), a sly super computer to rival Hitchhikers' Deep Thought, the superb concept of War TARDISes (incorporated with minds of war all of their own!), lots of great references to what was really going on in 1979, the most important cricket 'super top spun googly' ever, and even a visit to God (Yes, God! Well, sort of...), if you loved Goss's previous adaptations of the classic Adams/Baker WHO era stories that did make it to TV in The Pirate Planet and The City of Death, then you're going to thoroughly enjoy Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen, not only is it a lovely New Year's treat for Classic WHO fans, but one that also acts as a welcome novel companion (find out more when you read it!) to the recently released BBC Blu-ray of Adams other lost WHO: Shada...
It starts with cricket and it ends with cricket, and nothing will ever be the same again for the galaxy! Fans aplenty will be surely kept happily bowled over and out by another great Adams tale well told by Goss, who once more uses great skill to adapt, expand and enhance the late talent's story treatment and 'inhabit' his brimming mindset and creativity to the printed page. As for the fact that a lot of these story ideas later made it into Hitchhiker's continuance Life, the Universe and Everything...? Does it really matter?
Beyond Adams work (though we hope more of his old/new WHO examples can be found- what about the bonkers story he conceived in '79 where the Doctor becomes a self-exiled hermit?), and with this distinctive new BBC BOOKS/WHO range evolving so successfully, cross-fingers that someone out there will discover and adapt that other intriguing 'lost' Baker film effort of the mid-seventies, that blending of horror with humour that was Doctor Who Meets Scratchman!
KOOL TV RATING: 4 out of 5
Get Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Krikkitmen-Douglas-Adams-ebook/dp/B06Y5ZLB2S/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1515849177&sr=1-1&keywords=doctor+who+and+the+krikkitmen
MARCH 2019: Now available in UK paperback:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Krikkitmen-Douglas-Adams/dp/1785941062/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1552136790&sr=8-1&keywords=doctor+who+krikkitmen+paperback
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