| ATOM BOMB BLUES by Andrew Cartmel |
| Story ? Synopsis: The Doctor and Ace travel to America, 1944, where Major Butcher drives them to Los Alamos, site of the Manhattan Project. They attend a party given by Mr & Mrs Oppenheimer. Ace is set to work with Professor Apple, and nearly blows her cover as a mathematical prodigy. The Doctor then sets her to talk to "Cosmic" Ray Morita, but Butcher hassles Morita over playing a banned record. Butcher tries to pump Ace for information, but is unhelpful. Someone tries to shoot the Doctor, but Butcher strikes first, believing the attack is on himself. The Doctor and Ace head out to Los Angeles to meet Duke Ellington, and trace the singer on the records that Butcher dislikes. Ellington leads them to a church billed as the Chapel of the Red Apocalypse, where they are tied up. Ray arrives, and is alarmed to find them prisoner. The singer, Lady Silk, leads them all to the chapel in the basement. Silk, her partner, Imperial Lee, and Ray all arrived here from a different dimension via Ray's calculations. Lee plans to pervert the atomic bomb to destroy this universe, and set off a chain reaction that will ensure the Japanese win WW2 in every other universe. Butcher arrives, and in the confusion, Lee is shot and Silk becomes cowed - both having swapped with their alternate selves. Back at Los Alamos, Butcher is alarmed to find Lee alive - Ray having brought him back. He also brings back the villainous Silk. They await the countdown to blast-off, but it passes. The Doctor reveals that in this universe, the blast-off was delayed until the next day. Lee commits suicide, giving Butcher his suspect, and Silk is swapped again for the correct Silk from this universe. Ace is not impressed when the Doctor reveals that he caused the delay in blast-off. They head off in the TARDIS, returning Ray to his own dimension. |
| Review:- So, the PDAs draw to a close (for now, at least) with a thriller involving the end of the world... or at least the threat. Cartmel was the script editor during Seasons 24-26, and wrote 3 of the NAs. This, though, is his first book with the Doctor and Ace for the BBC, and his first with these characters since Warlock, back in January 1995. Fortunately, it seems he hasn't forgotten how to deal with them. From their opening arrival and meeting Rex Butcher, the Doctor and Ace are the smooth operators seen in Season 25/6. The Doctor is once again up to a plan, and like The Curse of Fenric, it involves them infiltrating military operations during WW2. This time, it's the Americans who have their secret plans under observation, with the plans for the atom bomb being brought under the microscope. From the first meeting with the Oppenheimers, it seems this will be a story of high science and drama. But the science is also just background, to one man's musical quest, and the danger it could cause to the entire multiverse. One thing that struck me about this story is that it's great fun to read. Pages fly by happily, and there is as much to entertain as there is to educate. This is a comfort when the danger starts to become all too real, and some of the explanations leave a bad taste in the mouth. The shock revelation that this story is taking place is a different universe to ours sets up the remainder of the book, but rather nullifies some of what has gone before. Lady Silk has already been considered villainous by Butcher for most of the time, so it's almost a double bluff that she should turn out to actually be villainous. Her buddy, Imperial Lee, never really impresses as much, unfortunately. But their manipulation of the selfish Ray Morita gives something of a poignancy to the book. Considering the treatment of famous historical names, Cartmel cleverly uses history for his best moves. The Doctor is onto Ray Morita because he's suddenly become a genius - and that's because he is a different man from a different dimension. And the denouement is wonderfully subtle, as Imperial Lee counts down to the launch time, and the Doctor shushes Butcher before he can interrupt - because he knows that's the key to Lee's defeat. On the whole, this is a very engaging book, with depth and imagination and vision. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy of this book. |