Ian Stuart Black The War Machines (1988)
There was at least a decade, possibly as many as two, during which the only things I actually read were Target Doctor Who novelisations. We now live in such times that there are certain wankers who would probably regard this as an achievement, and it is the proliferation of these people and their ridiculous opinions which mean that every time I'm about to say something about this fifty-year old kids' show and all it has spawned, I have to check myself to make sure I'm not saying it simply in the hope of annoying someone. This seems a sad thing to have to consider in regard of how much I once loved Who, but never mind.
As you might surmise, having spent at least two decades reading Target Doctor Who novelisations, I have most of them; and because it's now possible to do so, and because they're still mostly pretty cheap, I've decided to fill in the gaps and track down the twenty or so I never owned because I like things to be tidy. I'm probably also going to try to read them too, that being the whole fucking point of having a book, but I guess I'll just have to see how it goes.
The War Machines was one of the last Hartnell stories, and was arguably the first to introduce a hypothetically global threat to a contemporary setting, specifically London in 1966. So it's arguably the first to truly present the famed, and perhaps overstated, juxtaposition of yetis and lavatories, figuratively speaking. I had the VHS reissue and remember enjoying the thing well enough, although it probably wasn't anything remarkable in and of itself. The war machines of the title seemed less than convincing on screen, which is only really a problem if you can't tell the difference between a dramatic presentation and reality, or somehow regard the visceral realism of Aliens of London as the gold standard of artistic integrity. All the same, this is a book, so let's concentrate on that.
Who has always had a tendency to recycle, and The War Machines spins upon an idea we have since come to term the technological singularity, or the rise of the robots as we thought of it in my day. The idea has been around a lot longer than Vernor Vinge, and this iteration was preceded at least by Philip K. Dick's Vulcan's Hammer, numerous things written by Asimov, even Čapek's RUR back in the twenties. The story apparently came from Kit Pedler who, as creator of the cybermen, clearly had an enduring interest in technology as a double-edged sword. Ian Stuart Black expanded upon the idea for telly, possibly further drawing on Quatermass and A for Andromeda, among other examples of alien forces escaping the corporate confines of industry and progress. Here the villain is a homegrown supercomputer named WOTAN. Ian Stuart Black expands on the television version at least to the point of naming the war machine which eventually destroys WOTAN. Specifically he names it Valk, which I suppose might be a truncated Valkyrie, and between Valk, WOTAN, and the Inferno nightclub in which we first meet Hartnell's newest companions - Ben and Polly - it's tempting to look for some sort of Wagnerian pattern to the story, even if I suspect there isn't really much to be found on that score.
It's far from being the greatest thing I've ever read, but The War Machines is a decent children's book and is reasonably well written, lacking the groaning cliches and narrative shorthand which has been a problem with at least a few of these novelisations, and the cloying sentiment which has characterised the revived show since 2005. This has been a pleasant reminder of Who as it was, back when you could tell that those responsible were at least trying.
There was at least a decade, possibly as many as two, during which the only things I actually read were Target Doctor Who novelisations. We now live in such times that there are certain wankers who would probably regard this as an achievement, and it is the proliferation of these people and their ridiculous opinions which mean that every time I'm about to say something about this fifty-year old kids' show and all it has spawned, I have to check myself to make sure I'm not saying it simply in the hope of annoying someone. This seems a sad thing to have to consider in regard of how much I once loved Who, but never mind.
As you might surmise, having spent at least two decades reading Target Doctor Who novelisations, I have most of them; and because it's now possible to do so, and because they're still mostly pretty cheap, I've decided to fill in the gaps and track down the twenty or so I never owned because I like things to be tidy. I'm probably also going to try to read them too, that being the whole fucking point of having a book, but I guess I'll just have to see how it goes.
The War Machines was one of the last Hartnell stories, and was arguably the first to introduce a hypothetically global threat to a contemporary setting, specifically London in 1966. So it's arguably the first to truly present the famed, and perhaps overstated, juxtaposition of yetis and lavatories, figuratively speaking. I had the VHS reissue and remember enjoying the thing well enough, although it probably wasn't anything remarkable in and of itself. The war machines of the title seemed less than convincing on screen, which is only really a problem if you can't tell the difference between a dramatic presentation and reality, or somehow regard the visceral realism of Aliens of London as the gold standard of artistic integrity. All the same, this is a book, so let's concentrate on that.
Who has always had a tendency to recycle, and The War Machines spins upon an idea we have since come to term the technological singularity, or the rise of the robots as we thought of it in my day. The idea has been around a lot longer than Vernor Vinge, and this iteration was preceded at least by Philip K. Dick's Vulcan's Hammer, numerous things written by Asimov, even Čapek's RUR back in the twenties. The story apparently came from Kit Pedler who, as creator of the cybermen, clearly had an enduring interest in technology as a double-edged sword. Ian Stuart Black expanded upon the idea for telly, possibly further drawing on Quatermass and A for Andromeda, among other examples of alien forces escaping the corporate confines of industry and progress. Here the villain is a homegrown supercomputer named WOTAN. Ian Stuart Black expands on the television version at least to the point of naming the war machine which eventually destroys WOTAN. Specifically he names it Valk, which I suppose might be a truncated Valkyrie, and between Valk, WOTAN, and the Inferno nightclub in which we first meet Hartnell's newest companions - Ben and Polly - it's tempting to look for some sort of Wagnerian pattern to the story, even if I suspect there isn't really much to be found on that score.
It's far from being the greatest thing I've ever read, but The War Machines is a decent children's book and is reasonably well written, lacking the groaning cliches and narrative shorthand which has been a problem with at least a few of these novelisations, and the cloying sentiment which has characterised the revived show since 2005. This has been a pleasant reminder of Who as it was, back when you could tell that those responsible were at least trying.
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