Loving The Alien

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2683562.html

This is the culmination of the arc of Seventh Doctor novels by Mike Tucker and Robert Perry, the previous stories being Illegal Alien, Matrix, Storm Harvest and Prime Time. I really enjoyed this, as I really enjoyed them all, and I've realised that this sequence is one of the unsung successes of Who spinoff literature.

The story is suitably complex; the Doctor investigating Ace's murder, even though she is still alive; confused astronauts arriving from another timeline; cyber-technology and giant ants infesting London. There is sensawunda and emotional intensity. There is homage to Quatermass (and perhaps one or two Tuckerisms). I think I couldn't recommend this to readers, even Who fans, who had not read the previous four in this mini-series, but I would warmly recommend reading the whole lot. ( )

The first manned space launch of the British Experimental Rocket Group, in late 1959, has gone hideously wrong — the vessel and the astronaut were lost, but something else came back instead.

Meanwhile (if such a word can be used in time travel), the Doctor has just finished the autopsy of the body he found in a grave some books ago — Ace. The immediate cause of death is a gunshot through the head. The dead Ace seems to be the same age as the living, breathing young woman travelling with him. The Doctor decides that if he has a chance to stop Ace dying, he needs to be there where and when it's supposed to happen — London, in late 1959. It's not necessary to actually tell her that, of course; it would ruin his plans...

A sequel to Illegal Alien by the same pair, a novel which was originally meant as a possible Season 27 story. This would also have made a decent TV serial, if some of the more obvious and dissatisfying plot holes were plugged and a few ideas taken out to make it tighter. It's well written, most of the ideas are interesting, the late 50s Cold War paranoia is tangible, the parallel London is chilling, and the characterisation of Seven and Ace is spot on (Seven is at his most secretive and manipulative, at least in the beginning); still, there's something missing, and the end result is merely entertaining rather than magnificent. ( )