Goodreads reviews - Doctor Who: The Clockwise Man (New Series Adventures, #1)

Book: Doctor Who: The Clockwise Man, by Justin Richards.

4/5 Goodreads review also here.

 This is the first book in the Doctor Who New Series Adventures series, featuring the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler. It was also one of the first Doctor Who books that I read back in 2015, and I quite enjoyed it. Some thought below, including spoilers:

+1 I found the writing style to be enjoyable and fast to read, and the plot to be quite engaging, with an interesting mystery plot and several twists throughout. The steampunk ambience was also a plus for me, featuring a crossover between 1920s London - the era was also well portrayed, as far as I know - and outer space aliens who endeavour to blend in among the 1920s humans by using non-anachronistic clockwork technology (quite reminiscent of the later clockwork droids in Ten's era!).

+1 The Doctor and Rose are well characterized overall. Nine is perhaps a bit more 'hero action' driven than in other of his stories at times (more hands-on than relying mainly on wits, although the Doctor does this too, depending) - but I feel that the characterization still fits his character quite well. He's also fittingly quick-witted, sarcastic, with social criticism remarks ready at hand, and very, very preocuppied about his misplaced leather jacket (and sonic, but more about the jacket xD). 

I especially enjoyed the portrayal of Rose, nicely depicted as proactive, assertive and compassionate throughout. She navigates the world of 1920s reenactment in a very relatable way (flimsy 1920s cocktail calf-length dresses aren't the best thing to navigate a cold, damp London in, for sure, and she rues the complete lack of jeans and any trousers when shopping for more adequate clothes for her sleuthing, but is happy enough to find sturdier and comfier dresses and skirt suits, at least xD). As per usual for Rose, she has great rapport and a lot of empathy going on with several characters, from her wholesome dynamic with disabled child-heir Freddie to her one and only scene with housemaid Beth, which also leads her to remember Gwyneth from "The Unquiet Dead". She also doesn't like to be called 'my dear' by middle-aged gentlemen, which is 100% understandable.

Even when trapped in your more stereotypical 'damsel in distress' scenarios, I really liked that, true to her TV portrayal, Rose's attitude is always defiant and never passive - in some cases, it's anything *but* passive, as she single handedly deactivates a clockwork cat which was attacking her, without waiting for the Doctor to come to her rescue. She's also quite proactive even when relegated to 'caretaking' roles, and as especially loved the moment where she launches herself in the path of the inner clockwork workings of the Big Ben without a shred hesitation if it means that she can save the life of the injured child at her care. She also finds time to come to aid of the Doctor during the final showdown, nonchalantly running over to kick the gun away from the antagonist's hand while grappling with Nine, and then going back to doing what she was doing (multitasking queen xD). While I would have loved to see her taking a larger role in some parts of the story, the parts where she does appear are great 👍.

+-1 As to the overall dynamic between Nine and Rose, they're a pretty balanced team throughout, even if Nine does get to be a bit more active and present in the story, and also tends to leave to do his own sleuthing without so much as leaving a note for Rose, which rightly annoys her. They also found some time to go visit the exhibition they planned the trip for in the first place, which is not as common as you might think (xD), and had some interesting scenes where they debate the usual Whovian ethical topics on peace, violence, wars, genocide, imperialism and what have you. I was not the biggest fan of a couple of Nine's quips, though, especially the one during the final showdown when Rose needs the Doctor's help and he comments on how 'she's always impatient' (turns out she had all the reason to be 😑). I am also not a big fan of romantic Nine/Rose, so I also didn't love the moment where jealousy is implied on Rose's part when Nine has to interact with another female character 😬.

 

Thankfully, Rose's 1920s reenactment seems to be way better than her "Victorian" get up xD. And incidentally, also better than Clara's stereotypically over-the-knee flapper dress for the Orient Express  (1920s dresses as a rule were calf-length, which was already quite a leap from the 1900-1910s, and this is described correctly in the book!).

 

-Female representation: There are rather more male than female characters in this story, with only 4 female characters of relevance to the plot: Rose Tyler; the 'Painted Lady' Melissa Heart (see below); Lady Anna (a cousin of the Romanovs who has a minimal role in the story, apart from being constantly saddened and worried about her haemophilic son Freddie); and housemaid Beth (who is promptly tragically murdered after a scene with Rose 😩, but I did really like that scene, at least, especially as it touched on class inequality as well as sorority). Another Russian aristocrat, called Nadia Koznyshev, has an additional non-talking cameo at the start of the book. In spite of the fewer number of female characters, Rose Tyler and Melissa Heart do drive large parts of the story, and have fully proactive and interesting roles and characterization. Bechdel pass, as Rose speaks with Lady Anna, Beth and Melissa.

+1 Melissa Heart, called the Painted Lady because she always wears a painted masquerade mask over her face, is initially depicted as a more 2D antagonist with clear traits of the femme fatale archetype, but later on more fleshed out as a way more interesting character. At the start of the story, she's the apparent main antagonist, controlling clockwork droids and wreacking violent havoc among the innocent servants of the aristocrats of London. She later on turns out to be an alien in disguise who seeks revenge for the death of her parents and brother at the hand of the tyrannical despot, who she's searching for. After becoming an ally of the Doctor against their common enemy, she ends up assimilating part of the Doctor's ethos, regretting the innocent casualties she was responsible for and considering that, while she doesn't regret the despot's ultimate end, her means were also not worth the cost.

-1 We also learn that Melissa keeps her face covered due to a botched operation that was intended to disguise her as a human. The fact that the it is the alien woman who ended up with the monstrous and 'deformed' results of this disguise (the alien despot similarly ressembles a human man) is also worth noting, and more than one character wonders whether she's very beautiful or very ugly under her mask, reducing the enigma of her character to her mystery appearance quite a lot 😕.

Melissa's masquerade masks, and her Medieval clockwork droids, are very reminiscent, once again, of the masked 18th Century clockwork droids in "Girl in the Fireplace" during Ten's era.

On monarchy, despots and imperialism:

-1 At the start of the story, we are introduced to several Russian aristocratic characters, mostly related to the Romanovs, who fled to London after the Russian Revolution of 1917 and aspire to 'take back their homeland' someday, by means of Anna's young son, Freddie (who is way more interested in being able to lead an ordinary, fully functional life than in being the ruler of Russia). While this plot line per se doesn't have much relevance in the whole story, I feel like the pro-monarchy and rather entitled ideals of these aristocratic characters aren't (at least initially) criticized as much as they should, with Nine basically listening to their claims and calling them harmless (I guess they kinda are in that point of the story, but their ideals are not). In that scene, the Doctor actually doesn't just sympathise with their specific plights as dispossessed exiles, but surprisingly also seems to have rather few critical things to say about their 'take back the monarchy' plans.

I seem to add this reaction gif to a lot of review posts, but it's just too good xD

 

While there is plenty to criticize in the means by which the Russian Revolution (or the French one, or what have you) achieved their goals, and the Doctor also addresses this with Rose, I feel like the huge class imbalance problems that caused these revolutions in the first place are a bit (if not much) glossed over. Although this is mostly limited to the first couple of chapters of the book, it also rubbed me the wrong way. We should be able to denounce both things - That humankind unfortunately tends to resort to horrible means even when their motivations are legit ("Ends and means, always tricky"), but also that aristocratic ruling classes should not be ruling in the first place, especially if it leads to the starvation and opression of the general population.

 

Crowley excels at this kind of nuanced (and cynical) criticism, for example.

 

+1 Fortunately, while the theme of deposed rulers is one of the main aspects of the story, the plot does not specifically revolve around this group and their dreams of past glory, but instead focuses on criticizing a power-hungry despot who caused genocide, war and destruction and was deposed and exiled to Earth as a result - and then, trying to escape from his exile, doesn't much care if that involves destroying the whole of London as well. Which, I guess, could also be taken as a direct parallel of the supposedly 'idealistic dreams' of the currently 'harmless' Russian exiles to recover their status and their ruling position. The themes of war and genocide are central to the plot, especially in the second half of the book. Fittingly addressed in several discussions, these topics suit the post-Time War Ninth Doctor perfectly, who navigates each day as "a sort of enthusiasm for life between the ennui".

Nine's passionate anti-war stance is quite well portrayed in this book

-1 Nine and Rose were initially visiting 1920s London to visit the 'British Empire exhibition', which is very much constantly praised by all aristocratic characters they meet, as could be expected. While there is also a clear criticism on imperialism via the main antagonist's genocidal and tyrannical overlord history, Nine also offers a dodgy comparison of the imperialism of the Commonwealth with the European Union (??), saying it was "a collection of states and countries that in this case shared a common history rather than a common geography. But despite the fact that Britain no longer ruled many of them directly, there was a sense of cohesion and pride everywhere">. A "common history" being that of the British oppressors, I'm assuming :S. This was a baffling sentence to come from the Doctor's mouth, frankly. 

Why are we remotely trying to justify imperialism in a book that's also focused on the dangers of imperialist mindsets, tho?

+1 However, later on he does a bit of a full 180 (which suits his ethos much more) and engages in an impassioned debate on imperialism and the Commonwealth with the antagonist alien despot (initially masquerading as a British aristocrat who parrots the full British patriot ideals on imperialism, pretty much aligned to his own genocidal imperialism), concluding that "there are things to be ashamed of too", and later on angrily stating that "whole communities [are] wiped out to preserve your empire. Planets ravaged for daring to question your authority. Thousands of people simply disappearing to suit a political purpose". There's the Doctor, where were you at the exhibition, my dude, what was that about whitewashing the British Empire as something legit? 

Whoops

+1 "Being human isn't only about flesh and blood". Finally, I enjoyed the additional discourse throughout the book on the validity of sentient beings who are not human, and especifically as related to androids and robotic beings. Showing 'human(e)' qualities should objectively not be the rod to which other beings are compared as a measure of their validity and morality, granted, but the Doctor does use this argument in the book as a way to oppose the dehumanization as of not only androids, but robots/droids in general, perceived as lesser or disposable by other characters. I especially liked the character of Repple, a humanoid android who becomes an ally of the Doctor and Rose and undergoes a complex journey of self-discovery during the story.  

 

✨If you want to read more reviews of the Doctor Who New Series Adventures:

-The Monsters Inside (New Series Adventures, #2) 

-Winner Takes All (New Series Adventures, #3).