Lungbarrow

Title:	Lungbarrow
Author:	Marc Platt
Genre:	SF, Tie-In
Series:	Doctor Who New Adventures
Copyright:	1997
Ranking:	?Unranked
Binding:	paperback
LibraryThing:	Title:Lungbarrow WorkId 48792
Type:	Owned
Read:	1997

Well, I had gotten the impression from comments by other people that I would find this one confusing, that it would raise more questions than it answered, but I don't think so. It answered quite a few questions, or, strictly speaking, dropped the broadest of hints, hints which followed up the intriguing hints about the Doctor's past which had been dropped in "Cold Fusion". Tied up quite a few loose ends, really. It even explained the return of the sonic screwdriver! In atmosphere, it reminded me somewhat of "Strange England", but more, really, of "Ghost Light".

After I read this, I realized something about many of the New Adventures. Much of the TV Who was dedicated to de-mystifying things. Gods are just aliens, faith as a weapon against haemeovores, human culture as a result of alien interference, and so on. But the New Adventures are bringing the Mystery back - and I don't just mean making the Doctor more mysterious, Leela's comment in "Lungbarrow" about the Doctor notwithstanding. All the bits about Death and Time and Pain, the "gods" of Gallifrey, are bringing back the Otherness (and I don't mean the Other!), bringing the Mythic into Doctor Who. And I like it.

Sid & Nancy scale: a giant's house