2007 Book Log #62: The Sensorites, by Nigel Robinson

The Sensorites is a rather old Doctor Who novel--and unlike all the other Doctor novels I've read so far this year, it's actually just a novelization of an actual episode. The good news is, at 143 pages, it's a very light read. The bad news is, at 143 pages, it's a very light read.

Too light a read, in fact. More than once, I found the author offhandedly summarizing something such as "Barbara persuaded John to do this" or "the Doctor argued the Sensorite Elders into doing that" in a sentence or two, rather than actually spelling that out in dialogue. Classic violation of "show, don't tell", this. The same thing happened fairly often in parts where we're just told that "Susan trusted the Doctor implicitly", or some such.

So, yeah. I've actually seen at least part of the episode this book was novelizing, and the actual episode is a much more interesting implementation of this story. The book? Skippable. One and a half stars.

IBARW: Favorite characters of color

To steal an idea from technosage, I thought that in honor of International Blog Against Racism Week, I would take some time to squee about favorite characters of color in my various fandoms.

In Elfquest, Rayek and Ember. Rayek because I spent several years roleplaying him on Two Moons MUSH--I in fact still have a lot of the roleplay logs. (I play Rayek in those up through 1998 or so.) I loved Rayek a lot for starting off an arrogant jerk and maturing eventually into a humbler yet still highly motivated elf. As for Ember, I really liked her storylines trying to grow up in the shadow of her famous chieftain father, not to mention her brother packing more magical power than anyone in their tribe had ever seen. Some of the best RP I ever did on Two Moons, in fact, was as Rayek--in no small part due to eveshka and mizkit.

In Firefly, Zoe. Because, well, duh. I loved every deadpan line she had playing off of Mal, as well as her loving and vigorous relationship with her husband.

In Doctor Who, Martha. Out of respect for those of you who have not yet seen the full third season of New Who featuring Martha as Tenth Doctor's Companion, I will simply say that she is made entirely of awesome.

In Battlestar Galactica, Sharon Agathon, a.k.a. Athena, the cooler iteration of the Boomer series of characters.

And, of course, in classic Star Trek we have Uhura, the voice of the Enterprise. Because she is a musician, because I loved the old Trek novel Uhura's Song (and the feline sentient who took on the name Another StarFreedom in Uhura's honor), and because, let's face it, her hottest moment ever was whipping out that knife on evil!Sulu in "Mirror, Mirror". ;)