Ive just finished reading the first ever published paperback from the Crossover Adventures Productions group, and I have to admit I cannot decide if the book is truly awful, or just above average. Leaving aside the wonderful high quality of the printing itself (which is thanks to Cafepress, and not something I am going to critique in this particular review, rather focussing on what author Aron Toman himself produced), the actual text itself is occasionally entertaining, but essentially it is an overly cliché-ridden script, which contains numerous spelling and grammar errors, glaring formatting issues, great gaps and leaps of logic that advance the plot, as well as infringing several copyrights from various UK television series.
When Astra, a young time travelling adventuress, and her best friend Mort fought the ancient trio of Gods called the Three, they both agreed it was the most terrifying time of their lives. They survived and won only by luck, through killing the eldest of them and removing the remaining twos source for immortal life. They didnt expect the remaining two members of the Three to survive. They didnt expect them to use their limited time to come after them for vengeance. They didnt expect it to happen in a shoddy hotel in 20th Century Earth. And they certainly didnt expect that Mort would be sucked into a wormhole, leaving Astra alone and without help
As I said above, the script itself is mildly entertaining, and at no stage did I feel it was beginning to drag. However, this is quite possibly because of the sheer brevity of the piece. Despite the book boasting a page length of 168 pages, the formatting leaves lots empty room on each page, and the font is at least 12-point, resulting in no more than 100 words to a page. What this means is that the script is really not much longer than 2000 words, and given I paid close to $30au for it, that could almost be considered an exorbitant price for such a length, given thats the price for a 100,000+ novel.
The actual storyline isnt too bad, but for me the biggest problem was in attempting to work out how this is supposed to be a script about hero Astra. The script opens with what is apparently the ending to her previous adventure, and she utilises a dues ex machina to overcome her arch nemesis, Zurkel. However, as soon as the main plot kicks in, she does nothing that is heroic she sits around eating dinner, then looses her companion Mort, spends the entire second act absent from the script, and then re-appears at the very end to announce that it was two guest characters messing with her time machine that saved the day, not her.
Another big issue the script deals with is the fact that its obviously a piece of fan fiction that were being asked to pay for, but doesnt quite realise that by doing that it opens the author up to litigation on behalf of an exhaustive list of copyright holders the BBC, the Estates of Terry Nation, Kid Pedler and Gerry Davis, and so on. In essence, this script is a cross between an episode of Doctor Who and an episode of Fawlty Towers, complete with clichéd clone characters from the aforementioned TV series. I was shocked to read dialogue directly lifted from these shows, as well as references to Gallifrey, Daleks, Cybermen, and so on.
Overall, despite my reservations, the element I liked most about Something Wicked was the promise it showed. As a first attempt, it really did crash and burn, but one thing it did prove is that Arons style of storytelling works better in a semi-original form such as this one, as opposed to creating a Doctor Who fan audio series, where his style is at opposites to what Doctor Who is supposed to be about. If there are any purchasable future adventures for Astra, I just hope the copyright-infringing elements are dispensed with, and Astra actually starts to behave like a hero, rather than someone who mopes around, and lets others solve the day for her.
Overall Score: 3 / 5 (Above Average)
When Astra, a young time travelling adventuress, and her best friend Mort fought the ancient trio of Gods called the Three, they both agreed it was the most terrifying time of their lives. They survived and won only by luck, through killing the eldest of them and removing the remaining twos source for immortal life. They didnt expect the remaining two members of the Three to survive. They didnt expect them to use their limited time to come after them for vengeance. They didnt expect it to happen in a shoddy hotel in 20th Century Earth. And they certainly didnt expect that Mort would be sucked into a wormhole, leaving Astra alone and without help
As I said above, the script itself is mildly entertaining, and at no stage did I feel it was beginning to drag. However, this is quite possibly because of the sheer brevity of the piece. Despite the book boasting a page length of 168 pages, the formatting leaves lots empty room on each page, and the font is at least 12-point, resulting in no more than 100 words to a page. What this means is that the script is really not much longer than 2000 words, and given I paid close to $30au for it, that could almost be considered an exorbitant price for such a length, given thats the price for a 100,000+ novel.
The actual storyline isnt too bad, but for me the biggest problem was in attempting to work out how this is supposed to be a script about hero Astra. The script opens with what is apparently the ending to her previous adventure, and she utilises a dues ex machina to overcome her arch nemesis, Zurkel. However, as soon as the main plot kicks in, she does nothing that is heroic she sits around eating dinner, then looses her companion Mort, spends the entire second act absent from the script, and then re-appears at the very end to announce that it was two guest characters messing with her time machine that saved the day, not her.
Another big issue the script deals with is the fact that its obviously a piece of fan fiction that were being asked to pay for, but doesnt quite realise that by doing that it opens the author up to litigation on behalf of an exhaustive list of copyright holders the BBC, the Estates of Terry Nation, Kid Pedler and Gerry Davis, and so on. In essence, this script is a cross between an episode of Doctor Who and an episode of Fawlty Towers, complete with clichéd clone characters from the aforementioned TV series. I was shocked to read dialogue directly lifted from these shows, as well as references to Gallifrey, Daleks, Cybermen, and so on.
Overall, despite my reservations, the element I liked most about Something Wicked was the promise it showed. As a first attempt, it really did crash and burn, but one thing it did prove is that Arons style of storytelling works better in a semi-original form such as this one, as opposed to creating a Doctor Who fan audio series, where his style is at opposites to what Doctor Who is supposed to be about. If there are any purchasable future adventures for Astra, I just hope the copyright-infringing elements are dispensed with, and Astra actually starts to behave like a hero, rather than someone who mopes around, and lets others solve the day for her.
Overall Score: 3 / 5 (Above Average)
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