Doctor Who and the Robots of Duff

Oh dear: this really does not capture the feel of Doctor Who generally and definitely not the Fourth Doctor. I would not be at all surprised if this was not originally written in the Whoniverse at all but had the Doctor retro-fitted into it.

Practically the first thing the story did was dispense with the original Voc Robots etc. in favour of a new, less robotic, breed so that says a lot. The canonical characters do not ring true and could be anybody.

As well as discordant notes (The Doctor convincing someone they would be killed as a joke/incentive was particularly jarring) the Doctor is often sidelined for great chunks of the story. There are very few examples of particularly Doctor-like attributes being displayed (rather than being dispatched in any clever way arguably the main villain is removed by brute force) and it misses the broader dramatic appeal of the series and instead is SCI-FI in all-caps.

There is an attempt at world-building but it is pretty uninspired and quite painful for those who have not built up an immunity to the language of three-volume sci-fi mega-sagas. No good-natured 'reversing the polarity of the neutron flow' here. The most excruciating parts are the philosophical ramblings of an artificial mind in a Yoda-esque argot exploring the time-after-its-not-being-become-the-is-that-is-no-longer-the-was or some such agony: I was past caring. I think there was an explanation of why everything happened but - even if only because it failed to engage me - by the end I had no idea what had gone on.

The voice performance was fine but - and I could be projecting here - he did not seem to be enjoying himself. I cannot blame him.

If you are hoping for a cosy return to 70s: you will be disappointed. It must be the Blinovitch Limitation Effect at work.

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5 people found this helpful

Where oh Where is D84?

Has Doctor Who: Corpse Marker put you off other books in this genre?

Dyed in the wool Whovian...If "Time Lash" or "Greatest Show in the Galaxy" didn't put me off, then this damned well won't

Which character – as performed by David Collings – was your favourite?

errrmmmm all much of a muchness

Any additional comments?

My biggest problems with this book are that it doesn't feel like a Doctor Who book. And for all the fact it is a sequel to Robots of Death it could actually have taken place anywhere. Toos, Poole and Uvanov are the only links to the past story, the robots, as far as I can see the only reason to revisit the planet at all, are so evolved past the originals its equivalent to leaping from Sputnik to Hubble without going through any of the technological revolutions required to actually get there.Where oh Where is D84 when you need him?

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2 people found this helpful

Bland

As a sequel to Robots of Death, I’m sorry to say it’s lengthy but rather dull. Robots of Death was full of murdering robots; this isn’t. It expands on the anxious career-politics of the odious mining world the Doctor and Leela visited previously - but that’s like reading Dune or watching the Star Wars prequels, but with all the action scenes taken out.

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Disappointing Robots of Death sequel

Chris Boucher’s interesting sequel expands on the aftermath and world of Robots of Death but doesn’t really add anything as exciting and chilling as the original. Whilst a novel exercise in a having the same TARDIS crew revisit characters a few years later it doesn’t work as much as I’d hoped. Despite a niche Blake’s 7 crossover there is some unexpected and out of place violence and perversity which felt out of place. David Collings’ lacklustre reading doesn’t make much effort to capture the characters very well, particularly Tom Baker’s fourth Doctor or Leela. Bit disappointing

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Corpse Marker of Death

This novel is a sequel to the 1977 Doctor Who serial, Robots of Death. Corpse Marker is very well written by Chrish Boucher (the original writer of Robots of Death) and very well read by David Collings (one of the actors from that serial), though it will make much more sense of you have actually seen Robots of Death.
Once again there is a robot uprising, and once again the fourth Doctor and Leela are drawn in to the fray!
Well worth a listen for classic Doctor Who fans, or indeed people wanting high concept science fiction.

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Roberts

loved this story; confusion abounds with intreague around every corner. definitely Dr who on top form with several twists.

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Enjoyable but flawed.

Would you listen to Doctor Who: Corpse Marker again? Why?

I did enjoy Corpse Marker as it was an entirely engaging story - even if it did feel like most instances of swear words were put in solely to try and make the book sound more adult than it was - but it did feel sometimes that the Doctor was a secondary character compared to the returning characters from The Robots Of Death and Leela. As such I would be unlikely to relisten to the story.

What did you like best about this story?

One of my favourite story elements was the inclusion late in the book of the Tarranists as this showed just how quickly people could be deified even if they were horrendous people in actuality.

I was also a big fan of Leela's characterisation as it showed her thought process in a way that was original to my understanding although this could be expected as the author of Corpse Marker was Leela's original creator.

Any additional comments?

I recommend this book overall - roughly a 7.5 out of 10 - however I would state that this book is not a sequel for ROD in the sense that it has a similar plot but in the sense that the atmosphere is something akin to a slightly more adult or intense sequel with engaging political games. If you are aware of this I believe you have a larger chance of enjoying the story.

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