This is a spin off Doctor Who novel set between the TV stories Inferno and Terror of the Autons, providing a leaving story for the 3rd Doctor's companion Elizabeth Shaw. The Silurians - or Earth Reptiles as they are called here - are back, emerging from a shelter under the Channel Islands. Once again there are extreme Silurians who want to wipe out all the "furry Apes" and other factions who realise that humanity now vastly outnumbers them and that they must seek compromise if they are to have a future as a revived reptilian civilisation. On the human side, things are more complicated with UNIT, department C19 and the mysterious Glasshouse as separate organisations all involved in a way I found sometimes rather confusing. I found the narrative uneven, with a lot of set up and some dramatic and violent set piece scenes, but not enough actual plot for me - a contrast from the TV story The Silurians and its Cave Monsters novelisation. On the plus side though it was nice to get to know some of Liz Shaw's and Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart's lives and human frailties outside the stories. ( )

I really enjoyed reading this book. Always love a story that includes one of my favourite Doctor Who species the Silurians. I love how In this story there are different variations of the Silurians. There are the Earth Reptiles and the Sea Devil Warriors.

Gary Russell’s portrayal of the Doctor was spot on and loved that he included Besi! Loved that car! There use to be a replica in a town near me and the owner would drive around in it dressed as the Doctor lol.

My only criticism is that you don’t find out what happens to the different Silurian shelters at the end or what happens to Auggi. ( )

Over the course of the half-century existence of the Doctor Who franchise the Doctor has been joined on his many travels by a series of companions. Most last for a period of time, then move on with their lives after some event or development leads to a parting of the ways. On the show this usually involves a formal farewell of one sort or another or, in the rare case when a companion dies, a degree of mournful reflection. Occasionally, however, a companion abruptly disappears with barely a passing explanation and a new companion is introduced to fill the void. Though she was not the first to suffer such a fate there was nobody less deserving of such treatment than Liz Shaw. Introduced at the beginning of the seventh season. as a brilliant scientist she quickly proved to be a more than a capable associate of the newly Earth-bound Doctor, and played a vital role in his adventures. Yet when the eighth season began she had already decamped back to Cambridge, to be replaced by someone new.

Gary Russell's novel provides readers with a story of the events that led up to her departure. In it she is drawn into a conspiracy involving C-19, the government department tasked with overseeing UNIT operations in the United Kingdom. At the same time a new group of Silurians emerges near a seaside town, leading the Doctor to embark on a solo mission in the hope of avoiding the tragedies of his previous encounter with humanity's predecessors. Amidst all of this the Brigadier is forced to cope with a shrinking budget and a marriage on the verge of collapse, none of which he can allow to interfere with his job of keeping humanity safe from the extraordinary threats it unknowingly faces.

If all this sounds a little busy for a relatively short novel, you would be right. While Russell handles it fairly well for the most part, characters and settings pass through the book's pages in such a rush that they often move out of the story before any sense of who they are is successfully established. Giving the characters more time to breathe might have made for a better book, especially as doing so might have given their many deaths (for a Doctor Who story, the body count is surprisingly high) a greater impact than was otherwise the case. Yet in the end the story itself is entertaining enough, and Liz Shaw gets the dignified departure her character so richly deserved. For many fans of the series, this will be reason enough to read the book. ( )

Returned part way through chapter 4. Couldn't get into this and gave up when the life story of an unpleasant thug seemed to be going on for ever. ( )

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I think the first Doctor Who spinoff novel I read was Gary Russell's Invasion of the Cat-People, long long ago. I was so deeply unimpressed that it was years before I read another one. Since then, of course, I've become aware of Russell as the host of numerous DVD commentaries and as a talking head on Doctor Who Confidential, not to mention being reminded of his activities as child actor in the Famous Five and editor of Doctor Who Monthly. It's not always a howling success when someone who writes about the genre turns their hand to fiction, but after my recent bout of Serious Reading this seemed like a relaxing option, snagged from the BBC website in electronic form.

And to my relief the book is OK. It's basically a boiled together combination of Doctor Who and the Silurians plus The Sea Devils, with flash forward to Warriors from the Deep, plus some back-story about the breakup of the Brigadier's first marriage and what Liz Shaw was really up to in Cambridge. The book also includes a very nicely done farewell scene between Liz and the Doctor, which of course was not shown on screen. The book could pass as an above-average novelisation of a seven-part TV story, which I think is what the author was aiming at, so can be rated a success. ( )