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Chapter by Chapter features me reading one chapter (or possibly multiple chapters for this one) of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.
For those of you who missed the preview, “The Rescue” is from back in the days when arcs didn’t have titles, just individual episodes. Arcs have been retroactively added in to match the arc titles of later seasons of the classic series. This arc consists of two episodes, “The Powerful Enemy” and “Desperate Measures”. This is also going to be different from the usual novelisations I’ve reviewed one chapter at a time in the past. Those were based on the last available draft and production images the author had access to in order to get the book out on time alongside the movies. The Rescue novel came out in 1988, a year after the late writer wrote it and over twenty years after the David Whittaker script was written. So changes here are totally a matter of choice by the author.
This was also the first story without Susan, the Doctor’s granddaughter. Carol Ann Ford left the show, so Susan stayed behind on an Earth that was just freed from Dalek control to help rebuild the planet and build a new life with her new love interest. I think Big Finish did audio dramas with what’s next, but considering the young Time Lady in training has more knowledge than the Earthlings, you’d think she’d have had a hand in Earth’s eventual move into space and helping form a galactic federation with (of course) Earth as a centerpiece. After all, the show is written by Earthlings. It’s also why most of the aliens and ancient civilisations show up in the United Kingdom, because until Disney+ came along the show was very much British with the occasional Scotsman as the Doctor because they’re still in the UK.
The book itself has no chapter titles. I’ll be noting which of the two episodes is being adapted here, and remember that the BBC dropped this episode on the Classic Doctor Who YouTube channel just in time for me to use the arc as part of Saturday Night Showcase to set up this review. So watch that first if you want, or just follow along the novel. I have the Target Books printing from 1988, imported to the US because of the show’s American fanbase via PBS back when they still mattered. That’s for anyone actually reading along. Let’s begin with the prologue and set our story up with technically part one of “The Powerful Enemy”.
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Somewhere, Spider-Woman is wondering how Choice is getting away with this after the flack she got.
Hardcase #11
Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (April, 1994)
“The Angry Past” part 2
WRITER: James D. Hudnall
PENCILER: Scott Benefiel
INKER: Jasen Rodrigues
COLORING: Moose Baumann & Foodhammer!
LETTERER: Tim Eldred
EDITOR: Hank Kanalz
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I’ve never been to a Disney park, but it seems like people really like the Queen and Gaston from what I’ve seen. It’s a shame that a few easily offended people are once again ruining the fan experience for everyone else.
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Hey, at least someone remembered this year.
Thanks to Google Calendar, I did remember this year. It just happens to be on a Sunday. Thanks to scheduling I have to move the usual “best of the year” article link list to Tuesday. More on this week’s schedule in a moment.
First I have to go over this week’s Clutter Report, which didn’t include any declutter on my part thanks to how my week went. So I have two videos examining why physical media is making a comeback and why that’s a good thing.
Back here, in addition to the annual Best Of we begin the Chapter By Chapter review of the novelisation (I use the “s” instead of the “z” because it’s a British book) of the Doctor Who episode “The Rescue”, which you can see in last week’s Saturday Night Showcase. Watch that and follow the novel as we begin the prologue. It’s a full chapter length and I don’t think I have to worry about chapters being too short like the last book. Also, the Friday Golden Age comic reviews from the Comic Book+ virtual newsstand hits February, 1940 and the CBS Transformers review will be up on Friday, as we continue through the production notes between the first and second pitch drafts. That leaves us two days of feature articles for me to come up with discussions for, plus the other comic reviews and daily videos. And as mentioned in last night’s Showcase we have the other Batman ’66 animated movie before Adam West’s passing to go over.
Have a great week, everyone!
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I hope there aren’t many readers hit with a region lock on this one.
Batman: Return Of The Caped Crusaders brings back the three surviving members of the 1966 Batman series still working: Adam West as Batman, Burt Ward as Robin, and Julie Newmar as Catwoman. Everyone else has to use sound alikes, and they’re pretty good. Released in 2016, the animated movie features our heroes dealing with yet another villain team-up…but things take a turn for the worse when Catwoman’s attempt to turn Batman evil works better than even she planned. Now featuring an army of darker knights, can the Boy Wonder trust the crafty feline femme fatale to save Gotham City?
This is the first of two animated movies featuring West and Ward voice acting their character rather than physically playing them, but not the first time they’ve done it. When Filmation realized they still had a little time on their licence they opted not to cause trouble for Hanna-Barbara’s Superfriends and opted to create The New Adventures Of Batman for CBS. With their previous Batman and Robin, Olan Soule and Casey Kasem, now with HB, they grabbed Adam West and Burt Ward. West would later take over as Batman for the final two “Super Powers” seasons of Superfriends for some reason, with Soule voicing Martin Stein, one-half of new hero Firestorm. West has also appeared in other Batman productions as other characters, including the 1960s Batmobile on Batwheels via archival sound clips after his passing in 2017. Ward has mostly stepped back from acting, but according to IMDB played a version of Dick Grayson during the CW Arrowverse’s take on “Crisis On Infinite Earths” in an episode of Supergirl and himself in other projects.
And yes, we’ll do the second movie next week. For this one: enjoy.
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November 15, 2025
BW’s Saturday Article Link> Amazon’s Mass Effect Series Not Directly Adapting The Games
I should be clear, as I only have so much room to make a decent headline. The new Amazon series will take place in the same universe as the Mass Effect games. It just won’t adapt the games themselves due to having a limited but existing character creation system that alters your experience. Marvin Montanaro, writing for Geeks & Gamers, discusses why this might be a good idea given how the games work, so long as the usual modern Hollywood nonsense of slapping a brand name people like onto a completely original story that they don’t. Besides, there is plenty of expanded universe potential even if you call out a non-Shepard character like the Dark Horse comic this comes from did.
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