Doctor Who Book Review: Ten Little Aliens.

I was at a bookstore the other day, and found something that made me completely geek out. A 50th anniversary Doctor Who book collection. 11 books, 11 authors, 11 Doctors. So, in a decision I will likely regret towards the end of the week, I bought them all. I figure I'll review them here as I read 'em. So, first up: the First Doctor story Ten Little Aliens, originally written in 2002 by Stephen Cole. By the author's own admission, it's basically Starship Troopers combined with an Agatha Christie novel.

The basic story is as follows, a group of 11 space marines get sent to an apparently lifeless meteor in order to do some final training--real ammo vs. real death bots, etc. While there, they come across ten alien corpses. The corpses of the leaders of their enemies, actually. Oh, and the Doctor, Ben and Polly, who, in standard Doctor fashion, just accidentally landed in the middle of everything. The asteroid proves there's more to it than meets the eye, there's something other than the training droids trying to kill everybody, and, oh, the corpses are vanishing one by one.

This is one of those stories where the Doctor isn't really the main character. The space marines are, with Ben and Polly integrating with them fairly well and the Doctor just cooly staying distant and separate from everything. Which is actually rather indicative of the First Doctor in general, now that I think on it. Also, much ado is made about how old and weak he is--the fact that Ben and Polly are the companions will give longtime fans a clue as to how much longer the First is gonna stick around. That said, he's still the Doctor, and he's still the smart one, and he does pull some really important lifesaving moves toward the end of the book, he's just not what you would call the focus.

The book is also obviously a product of its time, what with the space marines, overall tone, surprising violence, and general methods of warfare. That said, the Doctor and his companions are all wonderfully sixties. It makes for an interesting read. There's one story that gets oddly...experimental, almost like a choose your own adventure book, except it less choosing what happens next and more whose viewpoint you're following, but that's not too bad.

There are also a couple of other things that made me chuckle. Ben notices at one point that the Doctor has lost his train of thought, like an actor who's struggling on stage. Which is of course where a lot of Hartnell's Doctor's charm came from. The Doctor also makes reference to his oncoming regeneration in a sly little moment. In the end, it's not the best Doctor story I've ever read, but it's good enough. It was exciting, and gripping enough. I'll give it a 7/10.