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A First Doctor novel. The Tardis arrives in 64 AD close to the ancient capital of Byzantium. The Doctor warns of the brutality and corruption to be found here, only to see his party split up. Each believe that the others are dead and must cope with the complexities of the city.
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Have you always thought that First Doctor stories would be better if they had more rape and disemboweling? Do you want to read a book where the Doctor appears for maybe 20 pages and does nothing? Then this is the book for you! ( )
  3Oranges | Jun 24, 2023 |
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1252990.html

There are some aspects of this book that are so awful that I almost wanted to claw my eyes out. It is set in the city of Byzantium (the future Constantinople / Istanbul) in the first century AD. The city's population appears to be mainly Jewish (divided between Zealots, Christians and those in between), with a Greek minority and a settled Roman ruling class. It has minarets. Huge thudding mistakes and discrepancies abound in the Latin phrases (one recurring example - the senior Roman government official in the city lives in the villa praefectus). And the first century city has minarets. The presentation of characters' names is horrendously inconsistent - some are Latinised, some Grecianised, some Hebrew (or possibly Yiddish), and one who is called 'Fabulous' (sic). And he seems to think that there were minarets in the city before the Turkish conquest of 1453, and six centuries before the foundation of Islam. Even the transcription of the opening of St Mark's Gospel in Greek is incorrect, which is pretty astonishing as all you have to do is find a copy of Nestlé-Aland - I've got one I can lend you if you like. But (as you may have noticed) I keep coming back to the minarets; it's only one word in one of the book's rare descriptive passages, but it demonstrates the utter superficiality of the author's research into the historical setting.

The train-wreck of the author's attempts at world-building made it difficult to absorb the actual plot, but I did my best. It is set between the first and second scenes of The Romans - it turns out that the Tardis falls off a cliff near Byzantium and the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki all get separated when they get swept up in a riot in the city. A thinly contrived sequence keeps them separated until the end of the book when they discover the Tardis has been taken to Italy; in the meantime the Doctor has helped the local Christians write the Gospel of St Mark. Topping writes Barbara rather well, Ian very badly, and the Doctor and Vicki tolerably. (There is a framing narrative with Ian and Barbara, now married in 1973, taking their son to a museum where they see Ian's old sword.) The most memorable of the supporting characters are some nymphomaniac Roman ladies, and that is not saying much.

I am having difficulty deciding whether or not this is the worst Doctor Who book I have read. The only ones that approach it in awfulness are Eric Saward's novelisation of The Twin Dilemma and Topping's Telos novella Ghost Ship. In the end I think Byzantium! takes the prize for sheer quantity of awfulness; it is roughly twice as long as the other two combined. ( )
1 voter nwhyte | Jun 23, 2009 |
Interesting. I started reading this novel just before watching the most recent episode of Doctor Who (at the time I write this), 'The Fires of Pompeii', which is a very strong episode, reminding one of the old days of the William Hartnell historicals. In fact, 'The Fires of Pompeii' features a throwaway reference to 'The Romans', one of the more famous of the aforementioned historicals. This novel, Byzantium!, is meant to be a prequel to 'The Romans'... so... you know, something in there probably ties it all together, but I'm not clever enough to work it out.

Anyway, Keith Topping's Byzantium! is a story about the TARDIS crew (The Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and annoying brat Vicki) desperately trying to survive a brutal couple of weeks in the ancient city while all hell is breaking loose around them. The group is scattered after being caught up in a near-riot, and forced to fend for themselves. This is interesting, because each member of the party ends up with a different faction occupying the city. Ian ends up with some posh Romans, Barbara is saved by the chief Pharisee, Vicki is taken in by a poor Greek family, and the Doctor ends up cave dwelling with the outcast Christians. There are also Zealots, Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Germanians, wealthy politicians, stern military men, slaves, whores, merchants, and a whole host of double crossing spies. Certainly, Topping has no problems populating his fictional version of Byzantium.

Indeed, the original intent of Doctor Who was to be an educational program, and that's what this novel harkens back to. There are times when it feels like you're reading direct from a history book, rather than a piece of fiction. Topping leaves no topic untouched, from Roman politics, to their theft of the Greek gods, to crime and punishment, to geography lessons, Keith has it covered. I enjoy this in a sense, but page after page of history takes away from the plot, which is (pardon me) quite Byzantine and labyrinthine in nature. Too many characters, too many subplots. In fact, there is no main plot to this novel at all, just the metaplot that Byzantium is going to hell in a handbasket and the Doctor and friends need to get away from there.

Ian, despite the gross mischaracterization (I don't know when he picked up Cockney rhyme), has the most interesting section of the four presented to us. He manages to navigate the treacherous waters of Roman politics, aligning himself with a general who remembers younger, happier days spent in Britannia. Ian is also apparently a chick magnet, as he spurns the advances of about twenty-seven different strumpets gagging for his clean-cut manliness. Sheesh. I don't know what's more unbelievable here, the fact that all the women want Ian's man meat, or that he turns them all down without batting an eye.

Surprisingly, I found the sections with the Doctor to be the most boring. He spends all his time with the Christians, constantly marvelling at how a cult could turn out to be the dominant religion on Earth (he mentions it numerous times). If you're an easily offended Christian, I would probably avoid this novel, because Keith Topping takes all manner of liberties with the origins of Christianity. I'm not a Christian, and I still found myself slightly miffed at Topping's insinuation that it was the Doctor, a friggin Time Lord, who influenced the authors of the New Testament to write and translate the way they did.

Still, despite some flaws (and a rogue exclamation point in the title), Byzantium! is a very enjoyable book in the PDA line. The pure historicals are a nice change of pace, without even the slightest hint of an alien menace. The prose is intelligent, without taxing the mind too heavily, so you could breeze through this novel in a day or two. I would highly recommend it for the Billy Hartnell fans. ( )
  OrkCaptain | Feb 11, 2009 |
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A First Doctor novel. The Tardis arrives in 64 AD close to the ancient capital of Byzantium. The Doctor warns of the brutality and corruption to be found here, only to see his party split up. Each believe that the others are dead and must cope with the complexities of the city.

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