About this blog

This is the official blog of Phoenix Roleplaying, a multi-genre simming site, created in August 2010.

Run by the players, we hope to achieve great things.

Where our journey takes us, who knows.

Sunday 18 May 2014

From Russia With Gore (Review: 'Doctor Who: The Deviant Strain', 2005)

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120108124829/tardis/images/0/0b/Bbcnewseries4-ukhardback-alt.jpg

The short tenure, basically under three months, of the Ninth Doctor, means that there wasn't been a tremendous amount released featuring him at the time. While the revival of classic series novel publication may well mean some more, I'm only going to do one work featuring the Ninth Doctor.

So, courtesy of my local library, I am now looking at the fourth of the six Ninth Doctor tie-in novels, The Deviant Strain by Justin Richards

Where we're at

This is from the second half of his tenure; featuring the Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack. Only the Doctor and Rose actually feature on the cover of the first edition; the later reprints don't feature Rose, possibly to due use-of-likeness issues after she left the show.

The plot

The three time travellers arrive in Russia in the early 21st century, at an abandoned Soviet naval base, where something from even before the base was built is awake and killing people. They team up with Russian special forces to find out what is going on... and stop it before it is too late.

What works

  • There's a strong atmosphere of decay and corrosion in the naval base... it's a good setting to do.
  • The regulars are realised pretty well, especially the Ninth Doctor.
  • The resolution to the threat is a good one and typically Doctor-ish.
  • This is a base-under-siege story, a well-worn Doctor Who staple and easy to do well.

What doesn't

  • The levels of gore depicted on page are arguably a bit more than what would be allowed in the show itself.
  • The Russian Spetsnaz are allowed to be a bit more gun-happy by the Doctor than one might normally expect.
  • Creatures that feed on people's life energies is so cliché. 
  • The prose is OK, but there is no real tension between the chapters; I could happily read one chapter a night and be satisfied with that
Conclusion

Enjoyable enough, but this is hardly a page-turner and there are frankly better novels out there for Nine. The Discontinuity Guide calls it "workmanlike" and I'm inclined to agree.

6/10



Saturday 3 May 2014

éX-Driver sim proposed at Phoenix

One of our new players, Spart, is developing a new sim based on  a Japanese animé. This promises to be a fast-space s

In a not too far distant future, mass transportation reached a new level of autonomy.

Cities are full of AI controlled electric-powered cars, used instead of the traditional fuel-burning manual driven variants.


But even the most advanced systems can be bugged, overloaded and even hacked.

That's where the men and women of éX-Driver come in - highly trained people who are equipped with high tech gear and the ancient fossil-fuelled cars to stop rampaging AI cars.


Spart's proposal can be found here. Please post if you're interested!
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