I'm going to make you a STAR!
Written: Mar 23 '03 (Updated Mar 24 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Decent characters, interesting idea
Cons: The story's not that interesting
The Bottom Line: Intriguing book that unfortunately doesn't grab the reader. Somehow, Miller managed to make an interesting idea go flat.
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| hist's Full Review: Jon De Burgh Miller - Dying in the Sun |
Dying in the Sun is the first solo Who novel by Jon de burgh Miller, and it’s not a bad one (he’s co-written a couple more, so he is familiar with the series). It also isn’t really that exciting. It just sort of sits there, not jumping up to get your attention but also not making you want to throw it against the wall. I guess that’s not a bad thing.
A Brief Description of Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a science fiction adventure series about the Doctor and one (or more) of his companions. They travel around in the TARDIS, which looks like an English police box, but is really a time travel machine. It's bigger on the inside then on the outside. The Doctor is a Time Lord, a race of beings who can regenerate when their current body is dying. So far, the Doctor has regenerated seven times, which means he's on his eighth incarnation.
The book series consists of two lines: a line about the Eighth Doctor and his companions, and a line that consists of "past Doctors" (Numbers 1-7). The past Doctors are from the TV series that ended in 1989, while the Eighth has only been seen on television in a movie on the Fox network in 1996.
The Story
This is a Doctor Who adventure starring the Second Doctor, Ben and Polly
The TARDIS crew is in Hollywood in 1947. Ben and Polly want to soak up the atmosphere, but the Doctor wants to visit an old friend: Harold Reitman, a multi-millionaire producer. However, it turns out that Harold is dead, apparently murdered. The police think Robert Chate, a heroin dealer, did it, but one of the detectives wants to link it to the Doctor. In his usual way, the Doctor insinuates himself into the investigation. He senses that something else strange is going on in Hollywood.
Meanwhile, Star Light Pictures is prepared to release their most eagerly anticipated film, Dying in the Sun. This film is supposed to change the film industry, along with American society, forever. The Doctor believes that there’s more to this movie than meets the eye, so he takes Ben with him to investigate. Polly plays tourist, getting herself involved in a side of Hollywood that could be very dangerous to her. She finds that becoming a “star” in Hollywood isn’t always a good thing, and that sometimes they can be malevolent.
If the Doctor and Ben can’t figure out what is going on, Polly won’t be the only person to suffer. What is the secret behind Dying in the Sun? Who is the director, De Sande? And what purpose did he have in filming this? And most importantly, how can a movie have computer-like effects in 1947?
What Did I Think?
Dying in the Sun seems to be an examination of Hollywood and how the American public sees celebrities. Much is made of the star quality of a few of the characters, though in this book, a large part of that is artificial. Then again, that’s probably the point: that the star quality that we see in our movie stars is artificial, manufactured by Hollywood producers and the pop culture mentality that makes some of us follow these people’s lives religiously. It’s an interesting idea, though it’s been done many times so it’s not a new one. I think it’s a very nice touch that this is done in 1947, which is during the movie studio era. I think it would have been too easy to make it a modern-day story.
However, Miller doesn’t imbue the story with a lot of energy. The book is a fairly easy read, so it moves fairly quickly in that manner. However, it doesn’t draw you in, grabbing you and making you read it until the end. It’s a very straightforward story, almost a run-around. The Doctor bounces from location to location, trying to figure things out, making a deduction or two, and then goes on to the next situation. Surprisingly, even though the Doctor does a lot of running around and nosing into things, ultimately he doesn’t have a lot to do with the resolution. He has a hand in the final fate of the villain, but the situation starts to fall apart through the actions of another character. It’s yet another example of the ineffectual Doctor that permeates the Past Doctor series of books. I found this rather disappointing.
The characterization is pretty solid, though nothing outstanding. The Second Doctor is one of the hardest Doctors to get right on the printed page, as so much of what we like about him is provided by the performance on television of Patrick Troughton. In book form, many authors try to capture Troughton mannerisms without catching the charm that Troughton brought to the character. In this case, Miller does a decent job of getting it right. It’s not completely recognizable as the Second Doctor, but he does make him distinct enough to be satisfying. And he avoids using some Troughton cliches, such as “Oh my giddy aunt!” I was very glad to see that. In Dying in the Sun, the second Doctor is inquisitive, intelligent, not willing to be bullied by authority but not contemptuous of it. He is an interesting character to read about, and I did enjoy seeing what he would do.
The other characters are pretty good too, though nothing special. Ben and Polly are pretty close to their televised counterparts, but they’re not fleshed out to any real degree. Polly is very easily seduced into the star culture of Hollywood and is a typical late 1960’s party girl. Ben is protective of her, a sailor who’s tough as nails when he needs to be but doesn’t always understand what’s going on. Polly’s side of the story is kind of interesting, as she gives a personal touch to the story’s examination of Hollywood when she starts feeling like she is a star. She embodies the arrogance and selfishness that pervades this sort of culture. The rest of the story is about that too, but her story gives us an inside look at it, and I thought it was pretty effective.
The new characters are pretty basic, though not badly done. De Sande is a very credible bad guy. The reader is never sure how much of what he’s doing is because he’s a villain and how much is from some other source. The two other characters who get most of the screentime are Robert Chate and Detective William Fletcher. Chate is a very good ambiguous character. He’s a drug dealer, but he starts out the novel wanting to get out of the business. He’s always been in love with a former screen star, and when he finally meets her as he’s on the run, things don’t go quite as expected. He gives us the outsider’s view of Hollywood and demonstrates the possible result of our fascination with these stars. Polly gets into trouble because she wants to be a star, but Robert has problems because he’s in love with one.
Fletcher is the typical irascible detective who will do anything to find the truth of what happened. As is typical in Doctor Who stories, the Doctor sidesteps the suspicion that is placed on him and becomes an integral part of the investigation. Fletcher is sort of stereotypical in how he reacts to this, and he ends up becoming part of the run-around. However, his character has a really interesting twist that I won’t give away, which redeems him in my eyes. Don’t worry that he sounds typical. Following his story will pay off at the end.
This review sounds very ambivalent, and that pretty much sums up my reaction to this book. It takes a great idea, does a few good things with it, but makes it not interesting enough to really hold the reader’s attention. The climax of the story breaks down into an action piece that doesn’t really fit well with the rest of the novel, and is almost anti-climactic in that sense. It only adds to the interest level if you need a little action to wake you up. It’s a very traditional Doctor Who story, and fans who like that sort of thing may find this book very good. However, it’s not a very good introduction to the book series, as I’m afraid anybody who doesn’t already like the series would probably be turned off by it.
Consider this a very qualified recommendation.
Recommended:
Yes
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Member: David Roy
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