Doctor Who worth remembering: First Doctor novel Venusian Lullaby by Paul Leonard

We take a look back at First Doctor novel Venusian Lullaby, and what makes it such a special story.

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The Wilderness Years gave us so many great Doctor Who novels. So is Venusian Lullaby one of them? Yes, but before you head off to buy a used copy from Amazon, read what I have to say on it regardless.

Currently I find myself in an odd situation. I’m still trying to make my way through the Seventh Doctor Virgin New Adventure, Falls the Shadow (not that it’s bad, it’s just not the content I read Doctor Who for. Knowing the following novel has the same reputation as Falls the Shadow isn’t helping), but it is proving difficult.

Conversely, I have just finished Spiral Scratch, the Sixth Doctor regeneration novel by Gary Russell. (I’m sure a lot of you read more than one novel at a time, it’s perfectly normal I assure you.) But I’m having a hard time recalling the majority of the beginning despite this. I’m unsure if I’ll cover it in a future article but suffice to say, with no disrespect to Gary Russell, for the definite Sixth Doctor regeneration story I’m still gonna have to go with the Big Finish version (please animate that after you finishing animating the lost episodes, BBC).

Upon this realization I was suddenly struck for no real reason with the urge to write about one of my favorite Missing Adventures stories, Venusian Lullaby. (Maybe next time, The Crystal Bucephalus.) A rather strange First Doctor novel that puts him in a more literal alien situation then any Hartnell story ever did, or even many of the later Doctors, to be honest.

Starting at the beginning but not the one you’d expect

Speaking of, there’s a thin line in how completely alien a story can be, it seems. As one of those “weirdo” fans who enjoys the majority of Doctor Who, faults and all, I want to bring attention to the first attempt at this. No, not the Daleks’ introductory episodes, a great attempt but not really what I’m talking about. The Keys of Marinus? No not that one, try again, wait The Sensorites? Okay none of these really match the alien feel I’m talking about. Basically, we’re talking about The Web Planet.

Yes, the one with Vaseline spread on the camera and people running around in moth outfits shoving their heads into acid while giant ants and some kind of isopod thing that is also a gun menace the cast, until they eventually meet a big blob that in one instance was later retconned into being one of the Great Old Ones. Because why not?

To say it was ahead of its time would be an understatement. It was quite literally them having eyes bigger than their stomachs, the budget could not match the scope of their dreams. But they tried dammit, and it should be admired for that.

Like come on, six entire episodes of the Doctor and his companions interacting with a bunch of dancers dressed in monster suits on a completely alien world with its own completely alien society? They certainly didn’t try that again for a while. And I’m thankful Paul Leonard tried the same type of thing again in 1994 with his novel. With the same Doctor. With two out of the three companions being the same as well. Uh, moving on.

Along with the First Doctor, schoolteacher Barbara Wright also has a key role to play in this novel.

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Klokleda partha menin klatch

The novel starts off right after The Dalek Invasion of Earth. The Doctor, Ian, and Barbara are still majorly bummed about Susan, so, in order to keep their minds off it the Doctor decides to visit his old friends the Venusians (surely you remember Venusian aikido). Or rather, to attend the funeral of one of his old Venusian friends. The Venusian philosopher Dharkig.

Indeed, this is one of those novels about aliens from a non-Earth society. Looking at a list of the characters who appear in this novel is like looking at a paragraph you just wrote with your eyes closed after someone accidentally nudged the keyboard a little. Names like Mrodtikdhil, Podsighil, and Nefkhil. All names I’ve added to my word processors dictionary as if I will ever type them again. (You never know.)

Upon arriving at the funeral, Ian and Barbara are shocked to find out that the Venusians are huge five-legged green almost starfish-like reptile things with several eye stocks and a mouth you probably wouldn’t be able to get away with on a family show. The majority of the characters in this book are these.

They would be hard to replicate in the modern series realistically, let alone in a First Doctor story. I’m thankful that for the cover they decided to illustrate one of them, they’re such a wonderfully absurd and complex alien that Doctor Who could stand to do a bit more of. You can’t just keep doing a Sontaran with a different animal head, no matter how good the story is.

The meat of the story

At the funeral some tasty meat is being passed around, see if you can guess where this is going. Ian, being the kind of guy he is, says he’ll take a rain check but Barbara out of respect takes a bite. Of course, this leads to the realization that for Venusians, they eat their dead. Or, to be specific, the brains of the dead.

For whatever reason the physiology of a Venusian allows their memories to be absorbed by their kin upon death when their brain matter is consumed. How this works when a human does it… well let’s say it takes a bit of the novel for Barbara to become her normal self again. Instead of merely gaining new memories she actually starts to relive them. Oh, and then Ian gets kidnapped by some Venusians that assume he knows how to make rockets.

See, Venus isn’t doing so hot. Well, it is hot. It’s getting hotter, that’s the problem. Everyone is going to die. And while some have accepted it, a fair amount haven’t, and they got their sights on a certain third rock from the sun. One that’s a couple of billion years from developing life on it that Ian might be a little more familiar with. This, along with another alien group showing up out of nowhere to offer the tasty Venusians salvation in an offer too good to be true, is the main conflict.

While the First Doctor’s era could sometimes be full of monsters, in this case, we get something more fleshed out than that.

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Just how alien can we actually go here?

Outside of that, the extent of the writer’s apparent mission statement to make this the most alien story continues throughout the book in fascinating ways. It’s all extremely good world building for a planet and people that’s only remembered later for its karate.

The Venusians being allergic to metal causes a subgroup of rocket builders to make their prototypes out of wood. This leads to the result you’re most likely imagining. Death squads sent out to kill the poor so the rich may live comfortably. A forest of tress made out of gasoline that explode in the day. Multiple subsections of Venusians unwilling to accept their world’s destruction, each with their own ridiculous group name and absurd way to survive the sun roasting them alive. It’s silly, it’s fun, it helps flesh things out, and it’s never boring.

Also, this is either a plus or minus for some people, a fair amount of gore happens in this book. Like explicit gore, most likely because it’s happening to lizard starfish aliens (similar to how Samurai Jack could have hyper violence because it was happening to robots). Probably the only story you could do where a companion of the Doctor eats the brain of a child after talking down the mother of said child from committing suicide. Couldn’t get away with that if this story was about the Lakertyans.

Anyone else notice when this happens

An incredibly minor thing, just a few sentences if even that. The Doctor uses his Sonic Screwdriver in this book. The First Doctor. It is not referred to by name. Something that is pointed out in the TARDIS Eruditorum books/blog is that with these old novels, there’s an aversion to mentioning anything from an episode that takes place after where this novel would have taken place.

It makes absolutely no sense for them to do this but I find it interesting that even if the Doctor is alone, things like “Time Lord” will never be spoken if it’s a story set before The War Games. (The novelization of The Massacre apparently has “Time Lords” mentioned but unless someone wants to buy it for me it’s not on my “must get” list as of now.)

Like the Zarbi from The Web Planet, the Venusians stand out as particularly alien in this novel.

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Haroon haroon haroon

Since I brought it up briefly earlier, let me just say it here. As with The Web Planet, here the Doctor with almost the exact same TARDIS team encounters a totally alien unrelatable society and hijinks ensue. There’s no rule saying no one Doctor can only do this once, but I still find it odd they decided to do this again and even set it before The Web Planet chronologically. Personally, I could see this exact story happening just about the same with the Fourth Doctor/Sarah/Harry team.

Not that I think this was a novel written in response to The Web Planet or anything like that. Not only are the plots fundamentally completely different in almost every single way, but the direct response to The Web Planet was made two years after this novel with Twilight of the Gods, the sequel I can not remember a single thing from but I don’t remember disliking it so it’s probably fine.

Still, Venusian Lullaby comes off as a high concept story Paul Leonard wanted to write, with nothing dishonest about it. The novel is frankly, great, and a joy to read. Everyone acts correctly, even if Barbara is hopped up on memory goofballs for the majority of it. Taking a quick glance at what other people have to say about it has them claiming it’s one of the essential Missing Adventures to read, if not one of the essential First Doctor stories.

And you know what, I completely agree.

What do you think about Venusian Lullaby or Paul Leonard in general? Do you agree with my overall statements or do you think I should have taken a more critical eye to a story with no humans beyond our TARDIS team? Do you think I should next write about The Man in the Velvet Mask, a novel where Dodo spends a fair amount of it completely nude and an event is so poorly described people argued for years on if she was given an STD? Let us know in the comments below.