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Title: The Year of Intelligent Tigers (Doctor Who) by Kate Orman ISBN: 0-563-53831-7 Publisher: BBC Worldwide Pub. Date: July, 2001 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (6 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: The Year of Intelligent Tigers
Comment: I have to be the spoilsport on this one; I really think it was a bit of a formula entry, with some vague unsatisfying aspects to it.
On Hitchemus, the Doctor gets involved in escalating strangeness occuring between human colonists and the indigenous "tigers". The tigers seem to suddenly get intelligent, aggressive, and interested in some hidden storehouses of knowledge that were built by their ancestors. A key to placating the tigers would be understanding why their high intelligence skips a generation, and possibly the answer to this is amongst the tidbits of ancient wisdom stashed in the knowledge-vaults. Unfortunately, bringing one of the storehouses to the surface (these are mobile vaults that can come surging violently to the surface, just like certain mysterious "nodes" that provide long-range communications), could destroy a thriving human outpost on top of it. Even worse, the tigers no longer seem to care.
The story breaks down into various violent skirmishes between tigers and humans, with the Doctor trying to stop it all, by applying varying amounts of tactful diplomacy, or, when that fails, demonstrations of power that wreak havoc (unusual method for the Doctor!) with the weather, which was already going to pot. Wedged in between all the failed negotiations and pyrotechnics is the development of an unusual relationship between the Doctor and a human colonist named Karl--which to my mind fizzles out--and constant revelations about the tigers that never quite seemed to make sense to me.
Also, the whole music motif jumps from being sublime, to, well, kind of in the way. We have the equivalent of those musicians who played on while the Titanic sank cropping up in this novel, and I'm not sure it really adds anything here. Plus, suddenly the Doctor is very musical.
Offbeat...different...but a bit formula under all the decoration. And I have other favourite formula Dr Who entries.
Rating: 5
Summary: Slow start - but very worth it!!
Comment: The TARDIS and crew arrive on the planet Hitchemus, where a human colony that shares a passion for music, share the world with its only other dominant life forms - harmless friendly creatures that closely resemble Earth tigers. Weather conditions and the peaceful tranquility of the world make it a near paradise to live in...but that's all about to change!
I found that the novel starts off with a leisurely pace, but being quite slow and not really catching the reader with much interest and you're left hoping that it will get better. But, once the plot kicks into gear you'll find yourself engrossed and hard-put to put the book down with it's many twists and developments in both the planet's inhabitants, the Doctor's and his companions lives.
Orman's characterisation is superb. Especially with the creation of the 'tiger' society being vastly more interesting than the 'run of the mill' human society it must go up against. The Doctor's actions do come as a surprise, but isn't uncharacteristic - the ending being the best and will leave you thinking "It's about time you done that, Doc" (No pun intended).
Anji's character is tested and is starting to really evolve as she must decide where her loyalties lie with the colonists or the Doctor, who has gone and abandoned them. Fitz is clearly running scared but his rock-hard faith in the Doctor is also great to see. Plus, the fun loving, innocent tiger 'Bounce' is a character you'll easily find yourself enjoying immensely.
I found that the story does seem to resemble a 'mish mash' of different themes from the televised stories of the Doctor, with "The Silurians" being one of the main.
Overall, as with all Kate Orman books, you will find this an enjoyable experience, and a great and refreshing break from the previous 8th Doctor novels preceding it. VERY RECOMMENDED!!!
Rating: 4
Summary: Violins, Violence, Silence
Comment: In the endless run of just-okay Eighth Doctor novels, "The Year of Intelligent Tigers" shines as one of the most energetic, positive books in the series to date. It's the first "Doctor Who" book I've read in months that turned me on the nuances of writing -- the plotting, the asides and observations, the scene structure. This is the kind of book that inspires people *to* write ... to write something more than negative reviews, at any rate.
Maybe the book's success owes to its author, longtime DW standout Kate Orman, who's been doing this for nearly a decade now, and without a misstep (only her previous "Unnatural History", written with husband Jon Blum, failed to energize). The book rings with Kate's hallmarks -- in the first scene, a character suffers a panic attack while doing research in a library, and it's all set on an Earth colony world populated by humans (here, musicians) representing a specific ethnicity (here, Germans and Middle Easterners, although nothing is done with this premise).
During a delightful 50-page extended intro, we learn more about the Doctor and company than we did in the previous four or five noisy runarounds. Then, in a great visual montage, the Tigers come to town. It's an uneasy battle between man and big cat for dominance of Hitchemus's lone, tiny, land-mass. Kate chooses to focus on just a few characters on each side, and this works to the book's advantage. The tiger names (Bounce, Big, etc) may be a bit too anthropomorphized for your taste.
I love the pace at which the mystery of the tigers' ancient artifacts is solved, and I enjoy the way the Eighth Doctor does not fit well into either side of the war -- both sides impose their own values on him, while all he really wants to do is study, in peace and quiet. The ending is, obviously, a deus ex machina, which could have been a disaster, but since it concludes the story logically (with, I think, heavy references to 1960s "Star Trek" throughout), I mark it down as a success.
Jon Blum is given story credit. He wrote the historical interludes (set during the Doctor's 100-year amnesiac period on Earth), and is credited with portions of the dialogue. It seems fairly obvious which scenes are his -- Jon's view of the Eighth Doctor is wildly sturm und drang, full of shouted declarations of principle. However, both authors' handiwork is visible in the closing scene -- a reflective moment, summed with a quietly haunting line of dialogue. Also great is an extended lecture on Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. The styles complement quite nicely.
The worst part about "Intelligent Tigers" is the knowledge that it will probably be many, many months before another quiet, reflective gem is published.
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