Once again Gareth ties his story to a very good plot. It's intentionally a little over the top, a little whacked out, a little B-movie-ish. It wouldn't really be Season 17 if it weren't. :-) But it's still very interesting, and enough of a spin on some old ideas to hold the reader's attention.

But, unlike "The Romance of Crime", Gareth isn't quite up to standard on the other important elements of the novel. The characterization of the regulars, so sparkling in "Romance", is just ever so slightly off in "English". Romana seems more the imperious, colder incarnation we met in Season 16 than the jollier, more humorous Lalla Ward incarnation. This is, perhaps, a result of her being separated from the Doctor and forced to spend time with the dimwitted Colonel Radlett for the bulk of the novel, but one would think that with at least K-9 around she'd be a little less distant. Betraying the era in which the book is set just slightly, the Doctor seems a little too much in the background in "English", somewhat lacking the dominant quality of Tom Baker's portrayal during that season. Only K-9 is really nailed down, and his scenes really are quite delightful and amusing, like when he's forced to use 1930s vernacular to explain the situation to the Colonel.

The secondary characters, too, just aren't quite all there. The Colonel is well portrayed, in all his military thick-headedness, as if he were the Brigadier fifty years early and fifty IQ points lower. Percy Closed, facilitator of a program by which elderly people from the future come to 1930 to retire, is also nicely drawn, especially his developing relationship with the man-hunting Mrs Chater. His view of himself as protector of the timestream is also interesting. But the other characters -- particularly the females -- are bland and tend to flow together, even important ones like Julia Orlostro and Mrs Chater upon whom much of the novel hinges. And the villain of the piece, Zodall, is scarcely a patch on Xais from "Romance".

The humor is also not quite all there; whereas "Romance" almost always produced hearty chuckles with its gags, "English" tends more towards brief smiles. All this makes the book seem a tad out of sorts with the flavor of Season 17, which is clearly what Gareth was aiming for. It's not appalling; it's not even particularly obvious. But it's there, and this makes the book just ever so disappointing.

Altogether, "English" is still the best of the three 1996 Missing Adventures so far. Gareth fans should find it quite enjoyable, and MA readers in general should look upon it as a nice diversion from the darker and more complex "Downtime" and "The Man In The Velvet Mask". But, as sequels tend to do, it doesn't quite live up to the quality of "The Romance Of Crime". It does try, though, and is certainly worth the read.

7/10.

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