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”.
BW Media Spotlight 