An adventure featuring the Doctor as played by Patrick Troughton and his companions Jamie and Victoria.
Whilst Dreams of Empire’s advocates may wax lyrical about author Justin Richards’ marvellous characterisation and subtle subtext, its detractors fervently attack his gaudy depiction of the TARDIS crew, predictable plot twists and dumbed-down chess metaphors. Having now read the book a couple of times, I find myself leaning towards agreeing with the latter group - albeit with one or two important caveats.
The first is that I don’t find Richards’ depiction of this particular TARDIS crew embroidered in any way; his Doctor in particular is instantly recognisable as Patrick Troughton’s. Yes, amidst these pages he’s often to be found running aimlessly from pillar to post spouting, “Oh my giddy aunt!” or any number of other Troughton aphorisms, but isn’t that what Troughton’s Doctor did? It’s one thing to say that nobody can successfully capture Troughton’s Doctor in print, but quite another to lambaste a largely faithful depiction that doesn’t happen to fit with how one might have romanticised Troughton’s portrayal since the event.
Jamie and Victoria, similarly, are captured accurately on the page by Richards, though whether this is for better or for worse really depends on the individual reader. In my view, Jamie is one of the most memorable and distinctive of all the Doctor’s companions, and so here - as ever - it’s a delight to read about him heroically stumbling through an adventure. Victoria, conversely, I had very little time for on television, and so the same applies to Richards’ depiction of her character. Fair dues, he could have tried to take her somewhere new and do something interesting with her, but when you are working within a tight net and have to put all the toys back in the box afterwards, you are limited as to what you can accomplish. As it turned out, the most that Richards could do was to focus on some of Victoria’s concerns about the sort of life that she has unwittingly found herself leading, nicely foreshadowing the events of Fury from the Deep.
Narratively, however, Dreams of Empire disappoints. The chess theme is perhaps a little too obvious for most adult reader’s tastes, particularly when compared to a seminal serial like The Curse of Fenric, which handles the imagery much more thoughtfully. Moreover, whilst a robotic army of VETACs trying to free the deposed Emperor of the Haddron Empire from his internment had something in the way of potential, ultimately the supporting cast of characters were just not compelling enough to really draw me into Richards’ deftly-crafted web of political intrigue. Of them all, only the burned mask-wearing Hans Kesar stood out for me, and that was only because of his patent similarly to a certain Sith that I could mention (and, if I were to be kind, because of one beautifully-written mirror scene). This is probably one of the main reasons why views on this book have been so discordant - it’s not that Dreams of Empire is a poor novel by any means; it’s just that unless the reader is able to engage with the vast array of supporting characters right away, then Richards’ plot is going to wash completely over them.
And so in all, I don’t think that Dreams of Empire is quite as bad as some would have you believe, but on the other hand it’s also far from being the diamond-studded gem that Richards’ eager acolytes opine that it is, and as such it’s a little disenchanting to see it representing Troughton’s Doctor in BBC Books’ 50th anniversary series instead of what would surely have been a highly sought-after reprint of The Dark Path or even a straight-up belter the like of TheFinal Sanction. A prolific author Richards may be, but Dreams of Empire is the perfect example of why this isn’t necessarily a good thing.
First published on http://www.doctorwhoreviews.co.uk
The 50th anniversary edition of Doctor Who: Dreams of Empire is available to download for just £4.99 from iTunes or Amazon’s Kindle Store. The cheapest paperback retailer today is Amazon, who are selling copies for £7.99 with free delivery on book orders over £10.00.
