Doctor Who - The Wheel of Ice by Stephen Baxter

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

BBC Books - The Wheel of Ice

BBC Books have released details on the next book in their hardback range of Doctor Who novels; The Wheel Of Ice is written by science fiction author Stephen Baxter and features the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe. It is due to be published on 16th August.

The Wheel of Ice
By Stephen Baxter


Resilience. Remembrance. Resolution. Whatever the cost.

She had no name. She had only her mission - she would return Home. And bathe in the light of a long-dead sun... Even if it meant the sacrifice of this pointless little moon to do it.

The Wheel of Ice: a ring of ice and steel turning around a moon of Saturn, home to a colony mining minerals for a resource-hungry future Earth. A bad place to grow up.

The Wheel has been plagued by problems. Maybe it's just gremlins, just bad luck. But what's the truth of the children's stories of 'Blue Dolls' glimpsed aboard the gigantic facility? And why won't the children go down the warren-like mines? And then sixteen-year-old Phee Laws, surfing Saturn's rings, saves an enigmatic blue box from destruction.

Aboard the Wheel, The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe find a critical situation - and three strangers who have just turned up out of nowhere look like prime candidates to be accused of sabotage ... The Doctor finds himself caught up in a mystery that goes right back to the creation of the solar system. But it's a mystery that could have dire repercussions for the people on the Wheel. It's a mystery that could kill them all.

A thrilling, all-new adventure featuring the Second Doctor, as played by Patrick Troughton in the legendary, classic series from BBC Television.

BBC Books Senior Editorial Director Albert DePetrillo commented:
Stephen Baxter is one of the leading lights of British science fiction, and I was thrilled when he decided to write for our Doctor Who list. The Wheel of Ice is a delight - a bold Second Doctor adventure with elements of the harder SF that is Stephen's forte. It's fitting that our first original adventure for a past Doctor since 2005 should be a book as special as this.

(All quotes from The Doctor Who News Page )

[Stuart Wallis]

This would be the book that was delayed from a year or two ago, I assume. Well as long as it does definately now restart the PDAs, and the series is the antithesis of the rather formulaic (give or take) 9th, 10th and 11th Doctor ranges...

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Well it's not an exclusively PDA range per se. The hardback series was launched with the 11th Doctor novels The Coming of the Terraphiles (2010)and The Silent Stars Go By (2011).
This year sees the hardback range become more regular with the recent publication of Gareth Roberts' Shada novelisation and prior to The Wheel of Ice in August, July sees the publication of a new historical adventure for the 11th Doctor, Dark Horizons by J T Colgan

[Stuart Wallis]

Please don't complain if the viking history's wrong in this one...

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I'm not actually an expert on that period and I don't believe it features any well known historical figures so I think we'll be safe on that front.

[Stuart Wallis]

Unless Boudicca turns up in it...

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

The idea of the whole of history happening at once has been done on TV though

[Anthony Williams]

I'm rather excited by The Wheel of Ice - it'll be nice to get a new PDA, particularly one with the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe

[SiHart]

This sounds like a good read!

[Alex Me]

Just finished this today. Was ok, but I was not superbly impressed. A lot of the reviews for it said it captured the feel of the era, but I felt the Doctor personality in particular was a bit off, feeling more like a more modern doctor then the original 2nd Doctor.

There were a lot of references to the series continuality though, this also felt a bit weird as the era (war games nonewithstanding) was quite continuality free if I recall. References two Silurians in particular were annoying as the Doctor should not have even encountered them yet.

The book however was well written, and the actual plot was very similar to stuff we would of seen in the late sixties, so I'll give it a 7/10 overall.