Doctor Who worth remembering: The Silurian Gift by Mike Tucker

Robert takes a look at Eleventh Doctor Quick Reads novel The Silurian Gift. How entertaining is this short book?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC. Image obtained from: BBC Press.)

The Wilderness Years gave us so many great Doctor Who novels. So is… wait, this came out in 2013? And it was made for adult readers who need to improve their literacy skills? Well, let’s see how it stacks up to a novel-loving Doctor Who fan who’s in no way its intended audience!

Okay, I’m having no luck with Falls the Shadow. I took a break from it to read Norm Macdonald’s book (believe it or not I have a life outside of Doctor Who) and finished that 272-page tasty snack in two days. I’ve been trying to get to page 300 of Falls the Shadow for the past month. So hey, why not procrastinate more!

While trying to decide if I should start another Missing Adventure or maybe read one of the Thirteenth Doctor novels (looking forward to the comment section on that one!), I figured, hey, I want to read something with the Myrka in it, as we all do from time to time. But, not wanting to reread something by Gary Russell for a while, that left me pretty much only with…

The Silurian Gift! The only Doctor Who related property to feature the Myrka proudly on the cover since the 1995 VHS release of Warriors of the Deep! A missed opportunity by Bloodtide if you ask me. So good of Mike Tucker for including this (some would say shameful, I say the reason for coming) monster.

The noble goal of BBC Books

Speaking of shameful, as a typical American I had assumed, because at the time I was too busy reading obscure untalkable things like The Nth Doctor to do five seconds of research, that the Quick Reads series of books were extensively for children.

To my surprise, while it does have huge font and low page count, its audience, like I mentioned earlier, is adults. Although ones who don’t normally read, it was focused on improving adult illiteracy and low literacy with a low price to boot. It’s all rather heartwarming, in as much as a product can be.

Well enough about that, let’s actually talk about the book, shall we? Taking place when the Eleventh Doctor was still wearing tweed but otherwise traveling alone, he finds himself on a trip to the Antarctic to investigate a strange animal attack at a refinery that has discovered the new “Fire Ice” wonder fuel that will solve all the Earth’s problems. Surely.

Along the way, the Doctor picks up the story’s obligatory one-off companion Lizzie, a photographer/eco-terrorist. Charming her way into the story by pretending to be the Doctor’s assistant, she almost immediately loses some of the good will you’d have for her when she starts planting bombs around the base. Sure, the Doctor talks her out of actually killing everyone, but it’s the principal of the thing.

Eventually – as with all stories that have Silurians on the cover – the Silurians show up. It’s revealed that the incredible catch-all amazement fuel of “Fire Ice” was of their invention millions of years ago, in the time when they ruled the Earth. (And for whatever reason has never had a TV episode take place in.)

Silurians, Sea Devils and Myrka!

Having offered the whimsical super fuel to the humans who answered their South Pole distress signal, it becomes one of those Doctor Who stories where the big baddie was man all along! Well, until the second half anyway, this is a Silurian story after all.

But it’s fine, because it eventually leads into the greatest idea ever: humans militarizing the Myrka! This idea never comes to fruition and is really more of a one-off suggestion, but it’s still a great one. Oh, and eventually the Sea Devils show up too. It’s a Warriors of the Deep reunion! (A clip of which you can check out above.)

It’s under 100 pages so I’m not going to go too deep into the plot, but the Sea Devils lead into a rather strange scene where they massacre a bunch of armed human guards holding some Silurians prisoner. Strange as in the Doctor is there sulking with his arms crossed just letting it happen while a Silurian pats him on the shoulder and goes, “Sorry bro, wish it could have been different”. It’s very odd, and in my opinion incredibly out of character for any version of the Doctor.

Besides that though, the Doctor is spot on. While the Moffat-like banter is noticeably dialed down to about a two instead of the normal eleven, I can still read his dialogue in the tones of Matt Smith perfectly fine. There’s also a nice slam against Rich Tea biscuits while talking about the “not really reaching the same level of Jelly Babies” Jammy Dodgers. Although when the story becomes more solemn the Doctor loses more of his distinctive Eleven-ness.

The other characters are about what you would expect for this type of thing, written in quick broad strokes to match the length. No character introduced feels superfluous though, each with their own intended purpose and payoff.

Simple, but effective

As for the overall story, I would say, it’s good. A lot of the comments people make about this is that it’s basically just like a television episode in written format. Which seems obvious in retrospect but at the same time should be some of the highest praise you could give to a TV spin-off novel. That it would fit in perfectly with the source material. A lot of Missing Adventures don’t even attempt this.

I think it deserves this statement, that it could fit in perfectly somewhere in the seventh series with nothing changed and you wouldn’t think twice about it being there, but is that a problem? Should a novel not inspire to be greater than the limits of television? That’s a trick question because this is a Quick Reads novel. It was commissioned in order to get people to start a book club and stamp out adult illiteracy, not reinvent the medium. For that much it is a success, maybe, although I don’t know if it actually brought the love of learning to an adult somewhere. Hopefully it did.

More from Winter is Coming

Honestly the only other real fault I can think of for this novel is that it’s an Eleventh Doctor adventure with a character named Matt in it. So every time they’re in the same scene my mind automatically pictures Matt Smith standing next to the Eleventh Doctor. This is, granted, not going to be a problem for everyone.

In the end, the majority of Silurian stories end in one of two ways. Either with the Silurians all being killed, or placed in hibernation again to maybe come out at a future date. The message is ultimately the same for both, that humanity is not ready to coexist with another species, and until that changes Silurian stories will always be relevant.

Although if my neighbor looked like Vastra, I don’t think I would start freaking out if I saw her watering the lawn when I went to get my mail, but maybe that’s just me.

Next. Review: Terror of the Vervoids: Special Edition. dark

What did you think of The Silurian Gift and/or the works of Mike Tucker? Did the Quick Reads series of books help you or someone you know improve their reading? Would you rather I write about something that isn’t 99 pages, and should perhaps consider writing about the number one Doctor Who novel that’s impossible to read in public, Who Killed Kennedy? Let us know in the comments below.

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