Grave Matter

Grave Matter could very well have been a television serial from season 22 of Doctor Who. It starts out fairly slow, turns a bit grotesque towards the middle, and then becomes violent and action packed at the climax. It might've made a good episode, much better than the wretched The Mark of the Rani that came after Vengeance on Varos (the gap in which this story is set).

I should say before I go on that I really enjoyed Colin Baker's portrayal of the Doctor, even though he was served with some horrible scripts. He did what he could with those stories, and brought something different to the character that we had never seen before. One only needs to listen to some of the current Big Finish audio plays (where the scripts are actually good) to hear how well Colin shines as the beloved Time Lord. Colin, along with Patrick Troughton and Tom Baker, actually played the role like the Doctor was... well, an alien. Which he is. He likes human beings, sure, but he's still not one of them.

That being said, Justin Richards has really nailed the Sixth Doctor's character at this early point in his existence. Sometimes when reading a Doctor Who novel, I can't quite picture certain characters saying certain things, because it seems well out of character. However, Richards must've carefully studied some of the episodes before writing this, because I could clearly hear Colin in my head delivering those lines.

It's not just the dialogue though. This Doctor is bold, brash, bombastic, and well, generally brilliant. Like the Third and Ninth Doctors, he's not afraid to mix it up and jump in on the action when he has to. It's a mild spoiler, but the Doctor gets to pilot a helicopter at one point, which is a lot of fun to imagine. He also gets to shoot some of the baddies (with a tranq dart gun, don't worry), and run and jump and clobber zombified villagers throughout the final 100 pages of the book.

The Doctor's companion, Peri, is also quite likeable in the novel. Her lines also stay very true to the character, and in a tongue in cheek nod to the continuity errors of the television series, Richards has Peri occasionally use a British slang instead of the American equivalent (her character is American, if you've never seen this era of the show before). Although she doesn't understand some of the high science and technobabble the Doctor spouts off, Richards doesn't write her off as a complete airhead, which is a nice change of pace.

The non-regulars introduced, the villagers of the little island village, are fleshed out pretty well. In particular, the island's doctor, Madsen, has some pretty intimate scenes towards the middle of the book. I don't want to spoil anything, but they are pretty grisly and horrific. If you're squeamish, skip this part of the novel.

Overall, Grave Matter is yet another zombie runaround set in the Who universe. It's setting is rife with all the typical horror story cliches. The only thing missing from this particular story was a guy running around whacking zombies with a cricket bat. Still, it is moderately enjoyable entertainment if you're seriously missing the classic era of this great show.