Escape Velocity

The Doctor and Fitz are reunited at last. But the Doctor isn't quite the man Fitz used to know. Searching for Anji Kapoor's kidnapped boyfriend the Doctor And Fitz soon find themselves caught up in a struggle between two rivals to be the first privately funded man in space.Being the last in the `Stranded on Earth' story arc sees a fun, classic story like the ones before the arc had begun. Fitz is back, hours after the eventful happenings on the now non-existant Gallifrey. The TARDIS has returned. A new companion has come aboard and best of all, the Doctor is his old self again (well kind of, he still lacks a lot of his memory and has a tendency to end a situation with more violence than usual.)A strange part of the novel is the inclusion of the American version of UNIT, they do play a part but have no bearing whatsoever on the story. The ending is great, ending it with the same feeling ,story that continues into the next story (like with the classic 1st Doctor televised stories) and makes this a great starting point for new Doctor Who readers. This is a fun, light hearted book that rounds off the whole `Exiled on Earth' arc wonderfully. RECOMMENDED!!!

The Doctor has been on Earth with no memory of his past for over a century. He has an appointment to meet Fitz in a bar called St. Louis'. He hopes to learn who he is from this man he doesn't remember. But for Fitz, only a few days have passed, and when he hears about a man with two hearts being killed in Brussels, he heads off to investigate...'Escape Velocity' is the final story in the "trapped on Earth" story arc, and features the welcome return of Fitz Kriener. Fitz's concerns about the Doctor bring them both into the plots of a small group of aliens, trapped on Earth and trying to esacpe, and the attempts by two of Earth's richest men to become the first independently-funded men in space.It is also the story of Anji Kapoor and Dave Young, a couple who are having troubles - and they haven't seen nothing before this story...As a conclusion to a story arc, it is fairly satisfying (although I was somewhat disappointed that the Doctor made no mention of Miranda - anyone would think 'Father Time' never happened!), but it is perhaps more successful as the re-launch of the series into its travels through time and space. In doing so, it evokes the very first Doctor Who TV serial, 'An Unearthly Child', quite successfully by way of returning the series to its roots without necessarily ignoring over 35 years of stories in between.This is apparently Colin Brake's first novel, although he is a writer of TV scripts, and he appears to have mastered the art of novel writing very well. Hopefully we'll be seeing more books form his pen in the future.