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Doctor Who: Virgin New Adventures #19
Doctor Who: Blood Heat
‘Not men, Ace. Silurians. The original rulers of the Earth.’
The TARDIS is attacked by an alien force; Bernice is flung into the Vortex; and the Doctor and Ace crash‐land on Earth.
An attack by dinosaurs convinces the Doctor that he and Ace have arrived in the Jurassic Era. But when they find a woman being hunted by intelligent reptiles, he begins to suspect that something is very wrong.
Then they meet the embittered Brigadier Lethbridge‐Stewart, leading the remnants of UNIT in a hopeless fight against the Silurians who rule his world. And they find out that it all began when the Doctor died…
The TARDIS is attacked by an alien force; Bernice is flung into the Vortex; and the Doctor and Ace crash‐land on Earth.
An attack by dinosaurs convinces the Doctor that he and Ace have arrived in the Jurassic Era. But when they find a woman being hunted by intelligent reptiles, he begins to suspect that something is very wrong.
Then they meet the embittered Brigadier Lethbridge‐Stewart, leading the remnants of UNIT in a hopeless fight against the Silurians who rule his world. And they find out that it all began when the Doctor died…
309 pages, Paperback
First published October 21, 1993
6 people are currently reading
380 people want to read
About the author
Jim Mortimore
49 books19 followersJim Mortimore is a British science fiction writer, who has written several spin-off novels for popular television series, principally Doctor Who, but also Farscape and Babylon 5.
When BBC Books cancelled his Doctor Who novel Campaign, he had it published independently and gave the proceeds to a charity – the Bristol Area Down Syndrome Association. He is also the writer of the Big Finish Doctor Who audio play The Natural History of Fear and their Tomorrow People audio play Plague of Dreams. He has also done music for other Big Finish productions.
He released his first original novel in 2011, Skaldenland.
When BBC Books cancelled his Doctor Who novel Campaign, he had it published independently and gave the proceeds to a charity – the Bristol Area Down Syndrome Association. He is also the writer of the Big Finish Doctor Who audio play The Natural History of Fear and their Tomorrow People audio play Plague of Dreams. He has also done music for other Big Finish productions.
He released his first original novel in 2011, Skaldenland.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
March 28, 2010
The very 1st Doctor Who book I ever owned. Read it when I was about 15, and it got me hooked on.
May 19, 2014
In the televised episode "Doctor Who and the Silurians" , the Third Doctor defeated a race of intelligent reptiles to save Earth.
This novel asks the questions: What if the Thrid Doctor had been killed and the Silurians completed their conquest of our planet? The Seventh Doctor and Ace find out when they are spun into an alternate universe where the Silurians are masters of Earth, opposed by a small remnant of humanity.
In this alternate universe, we meet the Brigadier, Liz Shaw, Jo Grant and others--changed because history changed when the 'Doctor' in THIS timeline was killed.
Lots and action and some very good writing here.
I particularly liked the characterization of the Brigadier---not the same man we know---embittered by twenty years of leading the resistance--and unsure of the new Doctor.
Highly recommended for Doctor who fnas, of course but especially if you liked Nicolas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, do not miss this particular WHO novel.
(Note this books if the first in a 5 story arc called "the alternate Universe sage". But it can be read as a stand alone.
This novel asks the questions: What if the Thrid Doctor had been killed and the Silurians completed their conquest of our planet? The Seventh Doctor and Ace find out when they are spun into an alternate universe where the Silurians are masters of Earth, opposed by a small remnant of humanity.
In this alternate universe, we meet the Brigadier, Liz Shaw, Jo Grant and others--changed because history changed when the 'Doctor' in THIS timeline was killed.
Lots and action and some very good writing here.
I particularly liked the characterization of the Brigadier---not the same man we know---embittered by twenty years of leading the resistance--and unsure of the new Doctor.
Highly recommended for Doctor who fnas, of course but especially if you liked Nicolas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, do not miss this particular WHO novel.
(Note this books if the first in a 5 story arc called "the alternate Universe sage". But it can be read as a stand alone.
February 23, 2009
This was unexpected. I could remember bits of this one from first time around, but most of it turned out to be wrong..!
After a run of perfectly serviceable titles, we suddenly erupt into a proper story-arc (for the first time since the original set of NAs) and this first entry is a cracker, positing an alternate universe in which the Silurians apparently unleashed a world-changing virus as a result of the Third Doctor's actions in the original series (although this explanation is rather skimmed over.)
There are a couple of wonderfully chilling moments near the start, especially the entry of Jo Grant into the story, and the slow build-up of tension until the war erupts. Alas, the plot structure lets itself down badly at times, notably in the excursion to London that turns out to be merely cover for a different mission just feels wrong, and the utterly ludicrous way Benny gets out of the impossible doomed submarine scenario near the end. But otherwise, everyone is mostly true to character, although this time it is the changed Brigadier and Liz Smith who get to dominate proceedings which they do most effectively.
And there's no doubting the excitement of the action sequences. They genuinely do meet that brief of doing things that could never be done on tv (even in NuWho!) whilst barely sacrificing plausibility.
Overall then, this is a fine entry in the series. Not quite up there with Cornell (due to lack of depth) but exceptionally close.
Next up: The Dimension Riders
After a run of perfectly serviceable titles, we suddenly erupt into a proper story-arc (for the first time since the original set of NAs) and this first entry is a cracker, positing an alternate universe in which the Silurians apparently unleashed a world-changing virus as a result of the Third Doctor's actions in the original series (although this explanation is rather skimmed over.)
There are a couple of wonderfully chilling moments near the start, especially the entry of Jo Grant into the story, and the slow build-up of tension until the war erupts. Alas, the plot structure lets itself down badly at times, notably in the excursion to London that turns out to be merely cover for a different mission just feels wrong, and the utterly ludicrous way Benny gets out of the impossible doomed submarine scenario near the end. But otherwise, everyone is mostly true to character, although this time it is the changed Brigadier and Liz Smith who get to dominate proceedings which they do most effectively.
And there's no doubting the excitement of the action sequences. They genuinely do meet that brief of doing things that could never be done on tv (even in NuWho!) whilst barely sacrificing plausibility.
Overall then, this is a fine entry in the series. Not quite up there with Cornell (due to lack of depth) but exceptionally close.
Next up: The Dimension Riders
Read
May 25, 2016I decided recently to take another look at some of the Doctor Who original spin-off novels that formed such a big part of my adolescent (and even pre-adolescent) reading diet. It has been so long since I read a Doctor Who novel that I have become used to the pacing of the television show, especially the frenetic post-2005 series. It took a while to get used to the slower plot, digressions, sub-plots and long chains of events. Nevertheless, there is a strong atmosphere to Blood Heat. Jim Mortimore skilfully builds an alternative Earth where the Doctor was murdered and the Silurians defeated the humans, almost entirely wiping them out. Moreover, with a few exceptions, he largely does so without unnecessary and jarring continuity references. There is continuity here, but it is handled subtly to build a world based on one we know from the TV series, but shockingly different, rather than just for a nostalgic in-joke.
Benny is largely absent from the novel and the Doctor, in true New Adventures style, spends much of the book captured and lurking in the background. This is really Ace’s story as we see her adapt to her surroundings and meet the alternate universe Manisha (her friend, murdered by racists in our universe). She goes through the emotional wringer and Benny goes through the physical wringer as only The New Adventures could do (you know you’re in a New Adventure when everyone suffers from bleeding eyes).
The prose is efficient, if unspectacular, with strong characterization, especially the Brigadier. The story harks back to season seven, obviously with the Silurians, but also in the jaded Brigadier, Benton and Liz, similar to their parallel universe counterparts in Inferno. What Blood Heat shares with its Malcolm Hulke-scripted source material is complicated characters, with a lack of clear-cut heroes and villains.
Overall, this is a superior New Adventure and reminded me how good Doctor Who books can be.
Benny is largely absent from the novel and the Doctor, in true New Adventures style, spends much of the book captured and lurking in the background. This is really Ace’s story as we see her adapt to her surroundings and meet the alternate universe Manisha (her friend, murdered by racists in our universe). She goes through the emotional wringer and Benny goes through the physical wringer as only The New Adventures could do (you know you’re in a New Adventure when everyone suffers from bleeding eyes).
The prose is efficient, if unspectacular, with strong characterization, especially the Brigadier. The story harks back to season seven, obviously with the Silurians, but also in the jaded Brigadier, Benton and Liz, similar to their parallel universe counterparts in Inferno. What Blood Heat shares with its Malcolm Hulke-scripted source material is complicated characters, with a lack of clear-cut heroes and villains.
Overall, this is a superior New Adventure and reminded me how good Doctor Who books can be.
July 4, 2023
This book marks the beginning of a 5 part arc in the NA series of books. The action is unrelenting, it kept me turning the pages. A really great book indeed. Ace and the Doctor have more to do than Benny as she is absent for most of the novel. This one features an alternative Earth where the Silurians are hunting the last humans that are struggling to survive in the planet. It also features the UNIT group and that includes the Brigadier . I highly recommend this book. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Read
August 13, 2021I was a bit scared on the New Adventures when they first appeared on the shelves at WHSmith. I was still discovering what is now known as 'the classic series'; I didn't want adventures that were 'too broad and deep for the small screen', I wanted Season 27. These books, so carefully marketed as Much More Grown Up Than That Thing Off The Telly, looked bleak and intimidating. It was only some years later when my brother and sister gave me Shakedown for my birthday that I discovered to my delight that it was not at all unlike the programme I loved, and I began to explore the rest of the series.
It’s probably just as well that it happened that way round. I may have been judging those early volumes by their covers, but I can’t imagine that I would have found much to enjoy in their various attempts (successful or otherwise) to be experimental/edgy/adult/serious sci-fi. Blood Heat, on the other hand, marks the first point in the series where I can say with confidence that I'd have liked what I read, because, although it took them a little over two years to get there, it marks the point at which the New Adventures finally produced A Traditional Doctor Who Story. Unashamedly a sequel to (and frankly a rerun of) a Pertwee story, it borrows heavily from at least three others, and takes that era as its model, giving us a moral dilemma that pits military might against scientific caution, amidst iconic Doctor Who imagery such as a deserted London, a submarine in peril, laboratories, dinosaurs, caves.
It’s revealing just how much more comfortable Jim Mortimore is with this scenario than the standard NA set-up. The opening is a car crash, the parallel universe McGuffin messily sandwiched in the persistently dysfunctional TARDIS crew – Ace and Bernice hate each other for no apparent reason, the Doctor is incomprehensible and unapproachable, Ace is still in a teenage strop even though she is now embarrassingly clearly an adult, and to top it all Mortimore has Bernice acting like a complete idiot before he disappears her altogether for a conveniently lengthy section of the book. But the book relaxes as soon as he has packed Ace off on a military adventure and paired the Doctor with Liz Shaw: suddenly it’s as though we’re rid of the inconvenient shackles of the 90s novel format and back on familiar territory.
Okay, there is a bitter twist (of course) – this is a parallel future in which the Pertwee Doctor died, which allows Mortimore to continue to New Adventures’ trend of pissing all over memories of the series. Bask in the nostalgia as we meet a feral version of Jo Grant who has had a miscarriage! Meet her uncle, a homicidal warmonger determined to take the world into nuclear oblivion! Witness sweet-natured Sergeant Benton being a bully and the Brigadier being a hate-filled liability! I suppose the classic series has a precedent for seeing unflattering alternate versions of these characters, as well as for all the military action packed into these pages, though the level of gratuitous violence makes Eric Saward’s episodes look like Camberwick Green; it is not, in many ways, all that far from the Doctor Who of Season 7 and I think as a teenager I'd have bought into the idea that this is what ‘adult’ Doctor Who looks like, but revisiting a fondly-remembered era in this way now leaves a rather nasty taste in the mouth.
The main problem, though, is simply that it becomes tedious. The actual plot is rather thin on the ground, so in the ultimate tribute to 70s Doctor Who it is padded out with lengthy action sequences, like a six-parter desperately treading water between the first and last episodes. The only difference is that Pertwee dashing around the home counties on his Vehicle of the Week™ while UNIT troops engaged in a shoot-out was entertaining, whereas one gore-spattered episode after another in prose can’t distract from the fact that the story is not really going anywhere, especially problematic when pretty much the same basic narrative has been more effectively realised on television. The moral dilemma doesn't even really work here – done properly, we should feel empathy for both the Silurians and the humans, both rightful inheritors of the earth in their own eyes, both wronged, both guilty. Instead, both sides are painted as so objectionable (the odd individual aside) that I ended up feeling that they all deserved to die. (Mind you, if the author’s attempts at complexity in Ace’s inner turmoil are anything to judge by, maybe we should be grateful that not too many other characters are explored in depth.)
At the end of the day, thanks to a disgraceful but entirely typical deus ex machina, the world is not destroyed but is left in more or less the same situation as it was at the start of the story, only with the humans and Silurians inexplicably willing to negotiate. Manoeuvring these parties into that situation would have made for a good story, but unfortunately it’s not the one that's told. I heaved a heavy sigh as we returned to the TARDIS with Ace and Bernice hating each other for no apparent reason, the Doctor being incomprehensible and unapproachable, and Ace in a teenage strop; we're left on a cliffhanger, but rather making me rush to read The Dimension Riders this novel has merely succeeded in making me want to watch Doctor Who and the Silurians and remember how this stuff is meant to look.
It’s probably just as well that it happened that way round. I may have been judging those early volumes by their covers, but I can’t imagine that I would have found much to enjoy in their various attempts (successful or otherwise) to be experimental/edgy/adult/serious sci-fi. Blood Heat, on the other hand, marks the first point in the series where I can say with confidence that I'd have liked what I read, because, although it took them a little over two years to get there, it marks the point at which the New Adventures finally produced A Traditional Doctor Who Story. Unashamedly a sequel to (and frankly a rerun of) a Pertwee story, it borrows heavily from at least three others, and takes that era as its model, giving us a moral dilemma that pits military might against scientific caution, amidst iconic Doctor Who imagery such as a deserted London, a submarine in peril, laboratories, dinosaurs, caves.
It’s revealing just how much more comfortable Jim Mortimore is with this scenario than the standard NA set-up. The opening is a car crash, the parallel universe McGuffin messily sandwiched in the persistently dysfunctional TARDIS crew – Ace and Bernice hate each other for no apparent reason, the Doctor is incomprehensible and unapproachable, Ace is still in a teenage strop even though she is now embarrassingly clearly an adult, and to top it all Mortimore has Bernice acting like a complete idiot before he disappears her altogether for a conveniently lengthy section of the book. But the book relaxes as soon as he has packed Ace off on a military adventure and paired the Doctor with Liz Shaw: suddenly it’s as though we’re rid of the inconvenient shackles of the 90s novel format and back on familiar territory.
Okay, there is a bitter twist (of course) – this is a parallel future in which the Pertwee Doctor died, which allows Mortimore to continue to New Adventures’ trend of pissing all over memories of the series. Bask in the nostalgia as we meet a feral version of Jo Grant who has had a miscarriage! Meet her uncle, a homicidal warmonger determined to take the world into nuclear oblivion! Witness sweet-natured Sergeant Benton being a bully and the Brigadier being a hate-filled liability! I suppose the classic series has a precedent for seeing unflattering alternate versions of these characters, as well as for all the military action packed into these pages, though the level of gratuitous violence makes Eric Saward’s episodes look like Camberwick Green; it is not, in many ways, all that far from the Doctor Who of Season 7 and I think as a teenager I'd have bought into the idea that this is what ‘adult’ Doctor Who looks like, but revisiting a fondly-remembered era in this way now leaves a rather nasty taste in the mouth.
The main problem, though, is simply that it becomes tedious. The actual plot is rather thin on the ground, so in the ultimate tribute to 70s Doctor Who it is padded out with lengthy action sequences, like a six-parter desperately treading water between the first and last episodes. The only difference is that Pertwee dashing around the home counties on his Vehicle of the Week™ while UNIT troops engaged in a shoot-out was entertaining, whereas one gore-spattered episode after another in prose can’t distract from the fact that the story is not really going anywhere, especially problematic when pretty much the same basic narrative has been more effectively realised on television. The moral dilemma doesn't even really work here – done properly, we should feel empathy for both the Silurians and the humans, both rightful inheritors of the earth in their own eyes, both wronged, both guilty. Instead, both sides are painted as so objectionable (the odd individual aside) that I ended up feeling that they all deserved to die. (Mind you, if the author’s attempts at complexity in Ace’s inner turmoil are anything to judge by, maybe we should be grateful that not too many other characters are explored in depth.)
At the end of the day, thanks to a disgraceful but entirely typical deus ex machina, the world is not destroyed but is left in more or less the same situation as it was at the start of the story, only with the humans and Silurians inexplicably willing to negotiate. Manoeuvring these parties into that situation would have made for a good story, but unfortunately it’s not the one that's told. I heaved a heavy sigh as we returned to the TARDIS with Ace and Bernice hating each other for no apparent reason, the Doctor being incomprehensible and unapproachable, and Ace in a teenage strop; we're left on a cliffhanger, but rather making me rush to read The Dimension Riders this novel has merely succeeded in making me want to watch Doctor Who and the Silurians and remember how this stuff is meant to look.
October 7, 2023
Pretty entertaining but pretty dark. Darkity dark dark.
February 28, 2016
You can tell that Jim Mortimore was a super fan of "Doctor Who and the Silurians." You can also tell Jim Mortimore was a fan of titles that sound more like Cinemax movies.
I suppose it's the author's prerogative to re-imagine a novel's universe ( or alternate universe ) however he/she desires. And yes, this is a hypothetical world where the Doctor is dead and the Silurians have murdered all but a million humans. But, as a reader, it's pretty unsettling to watch two characters you absolutely love, like the Brigadier and doofy ol' loveable Sergeant Benton, straight up murder aliens in the face.
On the Doctor Who ridiculous/unwatchable scale, Blood Heat is pretty meh...but not hilariously meh. More like, okay...the Doctor is being aloof...he knows what's going on...I'm pretty sure I could skip the hundreds of pages of the Brigadier being angry and overdramatically pontificating on "the children...the children..." and just read what the Doctor is actually doing kind of meh.
In the grand scheme of the narrative arc between Blood Heat and Conundrum, this novel serves the purpose of getting Ace to distrust the Doctor more than she already had. But...300 pages...?...goofy Sergeant Benton turning into Rambo...?...Benny being shot for no reason...?...
Meh.
I suppose it's the author's prerogative to re-imagine a novel's universe ( or alternate universe ) however he/she desires. And yes, this is a hypothetical world where the Doctor is dead and the Silurians have murdered all but a million humans. But, as a reader, it's pretty unsettling to watch two characters you absolutely love, like the Brigadier and doofy ol' loveable Sergeant Benton, straight up murder aliens in the face.
On the Doctor Who ridiculous/unwatchable scale, Blood Heat is pretty meh...but not hilariously meh. More like, okay...the Doctor is being aloof...he knows what's going on...I'm pretty sure I could skip the hundreds of pages of the Brigadier being angry and overdramatically pontificating on "the children...the children..." and just read what the Doctor is actually doing kind of meh.
In the grand scheme of the narrative arc between Blood Heat and Conundrum, this novel serves the purpose of getting Ace to distrust the Doctor more than she already had. But...300 pages...?...goofy Sergeant Benton turning into Rambo...?...Benny being shot for no reason...?...
Meh.
June 1, 2016
I loved this one from when it first came out, because Dr Who at the time rarely did alternate history and this alternate history of its own past was an amazing thing to discover. It builds in a sense on the alternate history seen in Inferno, the best of Pertwee's TV stories, and yet this is modern (for the time) Dr Who running into an alternate history version of reality created in a different outcome from a story almost 20 years before.
If you didn't run into it in this period, in these terms, then the WOW factor might pass you by. You'd be best of going back to watch some of Pertwee's classics, Inferno, The Silurians obviously, a few others, then a couple of McCoy's to set his tone in your mind, something that readers of this book would have known by heart but which probably now elude modern readers. Get this dual background, then look at Blood Heat as the amazing event it was
If you didn't run into it in this period, in these terms, then the WOW factor might pass you by. You'd be best of going back to watch some of Pertwee's classics, Inferno, The Silurians obviously, a few others, then a couple of McCoy's to set his tone in your mind, something that readers of this book would have known by heart but which probably now elude modern readers. Get this dual background, then look at Blood Heat as the amazing event it was
September 26, 2018
I sought out this Doctor Who novel in the Virgin New Adventures line after enjoying
The Face of the Enemy
and
The Time Travellers
in the Past Doctor Adventures series, the plots of both of which also involved alternate timelines in the Who universe. It was my first VNA novel, and unfortunately it will probably be the last, as it just wasn't as good as the PDA books I've read. Part of this may be attributable to elements unique to Jim Mortimore’s writing, or perhaps to the fact that I just didn’t warm to the characters of Bernice Summerfield and the more warrior-like Ace in the VNAs. Or perhaps it was because the story wasn't resolved within the novel, as the events in it proved part of some overarching contest between the Doctor and some unnamed Big Bad whom he would face again in the next novel. But with so many Doctor Who novels out there to choose from and only a finite amount of time available to read, I think I will invest it in other series that seem truer to what it is I enjoy most in a Doctor Who novel.
April 27, 2021
A skilfully fannish What If story where Jon Pertwee’s Doctor died and the Silurians took over the world, Blood Heat uses iconic bits of the series in a darker way than usual. It’s a thoughtful book besides its grisly antics, but Mortimore would flesh out the story to stronger effect as an unlicensed “Director’s Cut” in 2016, worth checking out. Actual rating: 3.5.
January 17, 2012
The first of a 5-part arc in which the 7th Doctor, Ace and Bernice Summerfield are spun into various alternate universes by an unknown hand. In this one, the Silurians won back in their premiere story and the world's been taken over by dinosaurs as the last vestiges of UNIT fight the good fight. Except the Doctor still wants to make peace! A good adventure yarn with memorable set pieces (Benny's not in it enough for my tastes though), but rather dark (a staple of the series). Jim Mortimore's previous novel for the line also had illustrations. I wonder why he gets special treatment.
July 7, 2010
One of the best VNAs so far. The TARDIS crew are blasted into an alternate universe where the Silurians have overrun the Earth. Loads of action, lots of scheming on all sides, and a solid ending. Best of all was the alternate universe version of the Brigadier: TOTAL BADASS. Loved it.
July 30, 2011
Ridiculously epic & terrifying. This is one of the most successful "Doctor Who" stabs at an alternate universe storyline; it's full of "what-if" scenarios that fans have dreamed about for years. Some of the imagery is truly breathtaking.
March 11, 2010
The very first grown up Doctor Who book that I read, and I loved it then and enjoyed it just as much second time around many years later. An excellent parallel-world tale.
November 4, 2023
"Blood Heat" is generally regarded as the best of the "second season" of Doctor Who novels. It does have much going for it. I will start, though, with what for me are problem areas. One is the continued portrayal of Ace as a single-minded, professional soldier, who is somehow still angry all the time and not for any good reason. This one-dimensional Ace is nowhere nearly as interesting as her younger self in the TV series and the early Big Finish audios (produced a few years after the Virgin run of Doctor Who novels). Another is that Mortimore indulges in too many drawn-out battle and fight scenes, described in just a bit too much gory detail. If realism is what he is aiming for, that is fine, but to have characters performing superhuman acts, such as Bernice's single-handed takeover of a nuclear submarine, undercuts the supposed realism injected by the detailed descriptions of all the ways to damage a human body. Further, the ending of the novel is a greatly rushed final battle sequence, and the resolution just magically "happens" because the novel has to end. Last, for this review anyway, is that because the novel is an alternate universe story, the reader gets to retread much old ground if the reader has seen the previous Doctor Who TV serials that this book builds on - "The Silurians," "The Sea Devils," and "Ghost Light" primarily, with a few smaller references to others. Something that may bother some readers is that this is the first novel in a five-novel "Alternate Universe" sequence that finds The Doctor being manipulated, forced to live through versions of history in which he did not win out or was not around to solve the problem. As such, the ending of this novel is a blank space. We know that The Doctor is being manipulated, but we do not know who is doing it or why.
Now, for the good parts. First, this novel is probably the best-written New Adventures novel up to this point. The novel has very little clunky dialogue. Mortimore avoids the many early-novel mistakes that clutter previous works in the New Adventures series. He gets down to telling the story, with straightforward plotting and a good sense of how to keep characters distinct and interesting. We are meeting characters we know from the past, but these are much different characters in many ways, shaped by entirely different circumstances. Mortimore does very well in making the characters both like their originals, yet different. He is especially good with Sergeant Benton in this regard. The story has about five different threads, and Mortimore does well in keeping them all going on the same general course. As an interrogation of "Doctor Who," and thus, necessarily, of The Doctor, this novel is better than most others. With the exception of Ace, the characterizations are all clear in setting up why characters take the ethical positions they do, and why they act as they do. Thus, "Blood Heat" has more positives than negatives and makes pretty good reading.
Final Note: Mortimore self-published a "writer's cut" version of this novel, substantially longer. I have not read it, so I do not know whether it counteracts some of the criticisms I have.
Now, for the good parts. First, this novel is probably the best-written New Adventures novel up to this point. The novel has very little clunky dialogue. Mortimore avoids the many early-novel mistakes that clutter previous works in the New Adventures series. He gets down to telling the story, with straightforward plotting and a good sense of how to keep characters distinct and interesting. We are meeting characters we know from the past, but these are much different characters in many ways, shaped by entirely different circumstances. Mortimore does very well in making the characters both like their originals, yet different. He is especially good with Sergeant Benton in this regard. The story has about five different threads, and Mortimore does well in keeping them all going on the same general course. As an interrogation of "Doctor Who," and thus, necessarily, of The Doctor, this novel is better than most others. With the exception of Ace, the characterizations are all clear in setting up why characters take the ethical positions they do, and why they act as they do. Thus, "Blood Heat" has more positives than negatives and makes pretty good reading.
Final Note: Mortimore self-published a "writer's cut" version of this novel, substantially longer. I have not read it, so I do not know whether it counteracts some of the criticisms I have.
October 19, 2022
I am reading Jim Mortimer's rewrite/re-edit of his novel which is self published (and available directly from him @ [email protected], should anyone be interested. Its also beed edited to avoid copyright issues with the BBC.
I thought this was one of the best early New Adventures books, although it wasn't without some flaws. What made it special (IMO) was the premise - that the 3rd Doctor failed to stop the Silurians and that their deadly virus, quickly wiped out the majority of the human population of the earth. It was also set as the first part of a series that dealt with a hidden plot using the fabric of the multiverse.
The revised version builds upon the original premise, fixes the Benny problem the first edition had (due to minimal notice of this characters creation a few novels earlier in "Love and War, Paul Cornell's classic story). Indeed, these additional scenes add a huge amount of depth to the Silurian civilisation (although elements of Jim's creation here go beyond what makes sense to me). This aspect of the novel keeps the Moon formation element from Malcolm Hulke. Jim also adds a rather bizarre Jo Grant theme as an additional back story to her character in the original novel. I wasn't entirely convinced this was at all necessary - or its thematic purpose within the Novel and so far as I can see, the scenes portrayed several different versions of her time line (although I was also half convinced it was meant to be a single time line in places).
I enjoyed reading the majority of this revised version (which has a different ending from the original novel), but there are elements that I think needed a good editor to help Jim finesse his ideas. Personally I am also quite doubtful that anyone who survived a 99 % genocide event would really consider a peaceful solution viable, even if they had become very very tired of the fight for survival of the species and considered the Brigadiers plan to be so far off the mark. In preferred the original ending (into the continuity of the next story in the series) better than the one Jim gives here, although as a stand alone novel, the rather open ending does work, albeit in a not entirely satisfactory way (for me).
I would recommend anyone who liked the original book, give this expanded version a read. For anyone who likes the rather straight forward moral tales and pseudo-conflict of the classic TV series and cant broaden their horizons, this probably isnt for you. Its not as soap opera character dynamics of New Who either, but hard core concept sci-fi.
I thought this was one of the best early New Adventures books, although it wasn't without some flaws. What made it special (IMO) was the premise - that the 3rd Doctor failed to stop the Silurians and that their deadly virus, quickly wiped out the majority of the human population of the earth. It was also set as the first part of a series that dealt with a hidden plot using the fabric of the multiverse.
The revised version builds upon the original premise, fixes the Benny problem the first edition had (due to minimal notice of this characters creation a few novels earlier in "Love and War, Paul Cornell's classic story). Indeed, these additional scenes add a huge amount of depth to the Silurian civilisation (although elements of Jim's creation here go beyond what makes sense to me). This aspect of the novel keeps the Moon formation element from Malcolm Hulke. Jim also adds a rather bizarre Jo Grant theme as an additional back story to her character in the original novel. I wasn't entirely convinced this was at all necessary - or its thematic purpose within the Novel and so far as I can see, the scenes portrayed several different versions of her time line (although I was also half convinced it was meant to be a single time line in places).
I enjoyed reading the majority of this revised version (which has a different ending from the original novel), but there are elements that I think needed a good editor to help Jim finesse his ideas. Personally I am also quite doubtful that anyone who survived a 99 % genocide event would really consider a peaceful solution viable, even if they had become very very tired of the fight for survival of the species and considered the Brigadiers plan to be so far off the mark. In preferred the original ending (into the continuity of the next story in the series) better than the one Jim gives here, although as a stand alone novel, the rather open ending does work, albeit in a not entirely satisfactory way (for me).
I would recommend anyone who liked the original book, give this expanded version a read. For anyone who likes the rather straight forward moral tales and pseudo-conflict of the classic TV series and cant broaden their horizons, this probably isnt for you. Its not as soap opera character dynamics of New Who either, but hard core concept sci-fi.
April 11, 2024
This was an enjoyable read. Jim Mortimore creates a fascinating what-if built on the foundations of the original Silurians serial from the Pertwee era and it works really well.
It is nevertheless a book of its time. The roaring popularity of Jurassic Park back in the 90s undoubtedly led Mortimore to believe it was acceptable to pepper his story with endless dinosaur species and simply expect his readers to know what he was talking about. Given the dinosaurs don't really do much here except act as surrogate horses for the Silurians and pose the occasional mortal threat, it feels a bit overdone; this is a sci-fi novel, after all, not a science textbook.
The other criticism I have, and this is becoming something of a trait for NA novels, is the denouement. Perhaps it is a limitation of the genre, but having to wrap everything up in the final few pages to allow the Doctor and friends to scoot off to the next adventure robs the novel of its potency. After setting up such a climax, the resolution seems hollow, even trite. I suspect this is less the fault of Mortimore and more the editorial demands of the series, with each novel being effectively standalone and unable to sustain significant plot threads across multiple books. See Cat's Cradle for evidence of how even a supposed "link" doesn't really work in practice when you have so many different writers writing in isolation.
Overall, though, this is a solid NA and I liked it.
It is nevertheless a book of its time. The roaring popularity of Jurassic Park back in the 90s undoubtedly led Mortimore to believe it was acceptable to pepper his story with endless dinosaur species and simply expect his readers to know what he was talking about. Given the dinosaurs don't really do much here except act as surrogate horses for the Silurians and pose the occasional mortal threat, it feels a bit overdone; this is a sci-fi novel, after all, not a science textbook.
The other criticism I have, and this is becoming something of a trait for NA novels, is the denouement. Perhaps it is a limitation of the genre, but having to wrap everything up in the final few pages to allow the Doctor and friends to scoot off to the next adventure robs the novel of its potency. After setting up such a climax, the resolution seems hollow, even trite. I suspect this is less the fault of Mortimore and more the editorial demands of the series, with each novel being effectively standalone and unable to sustain significant plot threads across multiple books. See Cat's Cradle for evidence of how even a supposed "link" doesn't really work in practice when you have so many different writers writing in isolation.
Overall, though, this is a solid NA and I liked it.
April 26, 2020
There were a few things I'd've liked more of - it'd have been nice if Jo hadn't and I think the comparisons to racial violence (specifically ) fall a bit short given that at the time they're introduced in the narrative all but one of the Silurians we've met have been gleefully hunting humans for sport.
But I did really like the ending to this, and I liked the fact that both sides use the 'for the children' justification to do increasingly more terrible things: I think it got the point against genocide and war across a lot better than the aforementioned links to real world racial bigotry.
But I did really like the ending to this, and I liked the fact that both sides use the 'for the children' justification to do increasingly more terrible things: I think it got the point against genocide and war across a lot better than the aforementioned links to real world racial bigotry.
August 15, 2020
Strong contender for my favourite VNA to date (read in a week, which is a good measure of how much I enjoyed it). If you've watched Doctor Who and the Silurians and Warriors of the Deep, there are lots of references back, although you could probably get the gist of the story without them. The ending made me want to start the next VNA as soon as possible.
March 16, 2023
Highly enjoyed this book! Well written action, moral dilemmas, well characterized ace and benny (although benny occasionally felt under-utilized). Fully subverted my expectations by the end, twice. Seems to be leading into some sort of arc as well, which seems to have potential.
April 27, 2023
An entertaining enough entry in the series and more explicitly 'Who' than some of the previous stories, but its tale of a parallel Earth where the 70s TV Silurian tales played out differently treads familiar ground for 'Who' and post apocalyptic fiction.
April 5, 2024
Interesting concept, but this is ultimately just Inferno with extra Silurians and a TARDIS switcheroo. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/202...
November 25, 2024
The New Adventures' tendency for exaggerated "adult" themes starts to take its toll here. Jim Mortimore constructs a relatively unique Silurian story, but writing versions of the UNIT Family as genocidal fascists feels deeply misguided.
September 30, 2025
A huge improvement over Mortimore’s first contribution to the range, taking Doctor Who and the Silurians in the direction of The Quatermass Conclusion or Survivors. One of the few VNAs to have a story that actually justifies the dark, edgy tone this series loves to use.
November 12, 2018
Blood Heat is a sort of mash-up between the Third Doctor stories Inferno and Doctor Who and the Silurians, with the Seventh Doctor's New Adventures era emotional complexity. Aside from ditching Benny for 2/3rds of the book and a disappointing "cameo" from Jo Grant, this is beautifully crafted Doctor Who novel. It's fast and well paced and has great characters. Read it, if you can find it.
March 16, 2020
One of the first New Adventure novels that I read. Dark but well worth a read.
August 5, 2020
Pretty sure this is my favourite NA so far. Straightforward, classic adventure.
May 24, 2021
It was okay, it was fun to get to see some 3rd doctor era characters (liz, brig, benton) but I just couldn't really get into the story.
May 29, 2023
The third NA in a row to be able to lay claim to the title 'best so far'. Malcolm Hulke would be proud.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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