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| Doctor Who: The Last Dodo (Doctor Who (BBC Hardcover)) | 
| Author: Jacqueline Rayner
Publisher: Random House UK
Category: Book
List Price: $11.99
Buy New: $7.16
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New (22) from $7.16
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 108124
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.2 x 4.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 1846072247
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781846072246
ASIN: 1846072247
Publication Date: July 19, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 8 | | NEXT » |
 Fun but juvenile June 15, 2008
It was merely okay. The whole line is too juvenile. Wish the BBC would go back to the New Adventures style of books.
 NOT dumb as a dodo April 1, 2008
OK, so I admit I don't think the new novel range is all that great. However, I didn't the think the old novel range was even close to the show (and don't even talk to me about the Virgin novels.) Personally, if you are going to write a Doctor Who novel it should feel like the television show. The characters should be the same, but as with each episode of a program, they should NOT merely repeat random things from specific episodes. The Doctor should not do things out of character (like suddenly become a kung-fu master, as in one novel I read a while back.) A book about Doctor Who shouldn't feel like Alien, Star Wars, or Star Trek.
Amazingly, considering all my predispositions, I really found Jacqueline Rayner's "the Last Dodo" one of the best reads I've had in a long time. Without going into detail about the plot (you can find that anywhere) I was very impressed with both the Doctor and Martha's characters. They were not merely maintained, but continued in an organic way that would not contradict the television show. The book was well-written and something that I could easily visualize. I felt it could easily have been developed into the actual program itself, which must be the highest honor.
Though I usually don't go out on a limb and expose my geekiness too much, I have to recommend this one to fans. Just read it. It's fun.
Low-Fat Doctor Who March 17, 2008
Welcome to the Museum of the Last Ones, the last of anything that ever lived - and now has died. The last of the dinosaurs, the last of the saber-tooth cats, the last of the...well, who knows? With Earth killing creatures off, left and right, the Museum is working overtime to handle it. Bloody humans. Anyway, The Doctor and Martha Jones find themselves within the Museum at the wrong time, at the wrong place, and with lots of heavily armed guards pointing nasty weapons in their direction. It seems somebody has been stealing the animals. And now the Doctor has to solve the answer to why, who, how and when.
The questions the book asks us is - what do we do with endangered species? Help them, clone them, put them in zoos, let them die out? The ethics brought up by the book is, in some ways, more powerful than the plot of the book. But not as powerful as the sonic screwdriver which seems to allow the Doctor to do anything he wants.
The biggest question soon becomes, what will the Museum do when it finds out that he is the LAST of the Time Lords?
"Dominus Temporis, Location: Worldwide" January 3, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
If you are looking for a light-hearted but clever "Doctor Who" adventure, then "The Last Dodo" should fit the bill nicely. Jacqueline Rayner does a fine job overall of translating the mood and feel of the show as well as its exciting if frenetic pace (in its 21st-century incarnation, of course) onto the printed page--and also hits on the show's eccentric quirkiness in a way other writers somewhat miss. The concept of a planet-sized museum of extinct species is inventive and ties in well both with the Doctor being the last Time Lord (more should've been made of this, though) and the underlying ecological theme organically weaved into the tale in a manner suitably serious without being preachy (something "Doctor Who" has traditionally excelled at way before it was cool and trendy, starting with Doctor Who - Planet of Giants and perhaps best exemplified with Doctor Who - Inferno (Episode 54) and Doctor Who - The Green Death (Episode 69)). And as with other novels in this series, the main characters are convincingly portrayed but minus the more complex tensions in their relationship, strengthening my impression that these novels are chiefly aimed at older children and young adults, though appropriately frivolous old-timers are welcome along for the ride.
If many of the strong points of the show as it is now are captured herein, though, so many of its weak points are strangely amplified. Telling the story chiefly through Martha's point of view is interesting and the way she addresses the reader as if sharing "girl talk" is a cute touch, but throughout the story it has the increasingly strong effect of sidelining the Doctor until he seems almost like a secondary character. The story meanders from too-easily solved crisis to too-easily solved crisis, and the Doctor's sonic screwdriver functions much like Batman's utility belt, magically answering any need. Most annoyingly, the story starts promisingly on a different planet, an unusual planet in fact, but then quickly reverts to Earth as usual--the geocentric new series' principle drawback for all its greatness.
Still, the overall concept of this novel is creative, the storytelling competent, and a few twists and surprises at the end spice things up a bit. Highly recommended for kids who love the show, and great for kids at heart who want to mentally escape a drudging commute without concentrating too much. And for the latter, you know you're an old-time Doctor Who fan if you get the in-joke of why the author has Martha nickname the last Dodo "Dorothea" (hint: Chaplet).
Enjoyable but . . . . December 29, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I enjoyed this book more than I think I should have.
The story has several problems. The book description mentions how the mysterious Museum of the Last Ones has been looking for a Time Lord specimen, yet this really doesn't serve as a major plot point in the story. In fact, this part of the story comes and goes rather quickly. In the end, the story seems to meander: lots of running around, but not for any real purpose. I also thought that Martha felt too young. In Series Three, Martha proved to be a sharp, mature companion, but here she seemed more like a teenager than an adult medical student.
On the bright side--and why I enjoyed the story--it's a fun read, occasionally bordering on cute, including a running I-Spyder tally of rare creatures that Martha finds during the adventure. Jacqueline Raynor has a nice writing style, and she creates a good chemistry between the Doctor and Martha. She uses a couple of unusual devices (for a Doctor Who novel) to move the story along, including the I-Spyder tally and a recurring first-person narrative by Martha, that I found engaging. She also gives the loyal fan a lovely (if short) passage that goes back to the third Doctor: a memory of the pain of being a Time Lord in exile, a Doctor in captivity. Traditionally, the Doctor Who novels have kept the Doctor's thoughts and emotions a mystery, so this passage was a surprise I reread a couple of times.
If you're looking for a light read, it's a fun romp.
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