This is the first published novel for Gareth Roberts who went on to write numerous Doctor Who books, audio dramas, comics, and episodes of the revived tv series and the Sarah Jane Adventures including "The Shakespeare Code," "The Unicorn and the Wasp," "The Lodger," "Closing Time," and "The Caretaker." His stories are known for being clever and funny. Unfortunately, Roberts has also revealed himself as a bigot who rants against LGBT people and I believe the BBC has rightly decided to not have him write for the show again. If it's any consolation I got this book second hand so he won't get any royalties.

As to the book, it features the Seventh Doctor and companion Benny investigating a Fortean flicker, a temporal anomaly bringing together beings from different people from different times on one unremarkable planet. This includes the Chelonians, a militaristic tortoise-like species who clear planets of "infestations of humans," a group of hippie-like individuals traveling to a music festival; people riding an English commuter train; and a galactic criminal traveling with a stolen organic intelligence called The Cell. Without giving too much away, the book is largely a parody of the elaborate plots and schemes that the Seventh Doctor is known to create, with the twist of this time the Doctor failing to anticipate someone else's scheme. But is it worth it to have to keep up with so many different characters and their plotlines, especially since only some tie in with the conclusion while others are shaggy dog stories? ( )

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This was Gareth Roberts' first Doctor Who book (in the Virgin New Adventures series), laying the groundwork for a subsequent career that has most recently produced The Lodger (though we have a couple more Sarah Jane Smith stories by him coming out towards the end of the year). A small plot element - London commuters whisked through a wormhole in space to encounter an alien menace - was re-used in Planet of the Dead, by Gareth Roberts and RTD. Fannish opinion on this one seems a bit polarised; I thought it was OK but not brilliant, with the best bit being the introduction of the alien Chelonians, a race of militant cybernetic tortoises who crop up in other, later Who novels and who were recently name-checked on screen in The Pandorica Opens. I was less impressed by galactic war criminal Sheldukher who I felt varied between dull and nasty. Poor Benny Summerfield has a hard time of it, with her brain being partially rotted by a spiked soft drink. Various other elements jumbled together, not completely successfully, but a fairly satisfactory Big Reveal at the end. The prelude to the book, published in DWM in 1993, is online at http://www.drwhoguide.com/whona11p.htm . ( )

"They've been reading too much space fiction. It's like something out of that rubbish they used to put on after Grandstand."

There's much to like about this debut novel by [author:Gareth Roberts]. There's humor, horror, and a boatload of extras get killed off -- just like the good old days!

The Chelonians are a wonderful new race of monsters for the Doctor to go up against (they remind me just a little bit of the Slitheen, except not as crap), and the criminal mastermind Sheldukher is such a fantasticly vile bastard, one of the best villains in the NA series of novels simply because he's evil for the sake of it. The novel also features the first true adventure of Bernice Summerfield (she was under an alien influence for about 95% of the previous novel, Transit), who, love her or hate her, has certainly made a mark on Who fandom.

Roberts does a decent job of handling the Doctor, moving him back towards the more clownish behavior of Sylvester McCoy's first season in the TARDIS. This is a welcome respite in the NA series. After the rather grim Transit, the tragedy in Love and War, and the darker days to come after this book, The Highest Science is a rare glimpse at the spoon-playing, juggling goofball version of this incarnation of the Doctor. His aloof nature in this novel works well with his new companion, the lush, sarcastic, quick-witted Bernice.

Unfortunately, the plot of The Highest Science leaves something to be desired. The Doctor is tracking a macguffin known as the Lektor... I mean, the Fortean Flicker, and... well, then a bunch of people and Chelonians get transported to the same planet and proceed to run around killing each other until the rather weird resolution and out of the left field downer of an ending. Seriously, the body count in this novel is insane, and I'm not sure how Roberts got away with it. Granted, the attitude of most all of the characters towards these many deaths is somewhat jocular, but still... maybe one could've stopped for a moment of silence or shed a tear or something.

The ending does leave me a bit miffed, and not just because it's a downer. It irks me a little that the Doctor, our great hero, doesn't bother sticking around to figure out a way to save all the trapped humans of the 'eight-twelves'. It's a hanging plot thread that wouldn't be resolved until Happy Endings some, what, 39 books later? It feels like the author just said 'bugger to it' and left the end unresolved so some other poor sod of an author could figure out how to wrap things up.

Flaws aside, The Highest Science is a really nice book to pick up if you're interested in the NA series, but have never read one before. It's a great 'one-off' type of adventure where the reader needs to know little to none of the prior continuity in the series. It is perhaps the closest the New Adventures came to 'traditional' Doctor Who. ( )

A decent enough NA, but nothing particularly special. Saying that, I don't think I have read anything outstanding in the series yet, apart from "Nightshade". ( )