| THE NIGHTMARE OF BLACK ISLAND by Mike Tucker |
| Story 10 Synopsis: Rose has a vivid nightmare concerning a huge four-armed monster attacking a lone angler on a rocky beach. The TARDIS homes in on this, and materialises close by. The Doctor finds pools of blood, but no body. On their way to a nearby village to get help, they are chased through a wood by horrid monsters. They reach a pub, where the locals stay for protection. The abandoned lighthouse and the Rectory seem to be starting points for the investigation. At the rectory, the Doctor annoys Nathaniel Morton, who claims merely to be in charge of an old folks' home. After lunch, the Doctor persuades someone to take him across to the lighthouse in their boat, whilst Rose snoops around the Rectory. She finds the staff are aliens, the Cynrog. They induce nightmares in her, learning about her and the Doctor. At the lighthouse, the Doctor finds a spaceship, and a large generator that is using the nightmares of local children to generate the monsters. He makes it back to land, and informs the locals that if they keep their children awake, the monsters will go away. Rose escapes from the rectory, meeting the Doctor as she does so. He gives her the sonic screwdriver, in order to disable the lighthouse generator. He parlays with the Cynrog to learn their intentions, which involve creating a huge beast called Balor. But there is a part of Balor still missing, and the mammoth beast doesn't recognise its creators. As the generator is rewired to transmit impulses from adults rather than children, Balor's compisition changes, until it reduces to nothing. The Rectory is destroyed in a huge fire. The Doctor sends the few remaining Cynrog home in their spaceship, their dreams of war over. The locals near Black Island return to their normal lives. |
| Review:- The dreams of children are diverted to sinister ends, as a town cowers in terror of the night... Tucker's background is as a model maker during the later years of the original series. With Robert Perry, he co-wrote several PDAs, and returned to the day job (as it were) with the new series. Here, he gets the privileged chance to write for the 10th Doctor and Rose. And he gives us a scary story set on the Welsh coast. The arresting opening, with a lone angler brutally killed by an indescribable sea monster leads straight into the TARDIS arriving, and the pace seldom lets up, and this is a good thing. After investigating at the beach, and a frantic dash through a night-time forest, our heroes find the oppressed locals tucked up in the pub. Having already zoned in one place of interest, the lighthouse, the locals tip them off about the other spot, the Rectory, and then it's just a matter of dodging monsters, and checking things out. As with most of the books in this range, we get child characters for the target audience to identify with, and Rose befriends Ali, in particular. The idea that the nasty aliens are manipulating children's nightmares hardly seems original, but it's well written and exciting, so I don't think it matters. Rose manages to come across well for a change (unlike how she did on screen in the 2nd series, during which these books are nominally set). The Doctor gets plenty to do, unravelling Bronwyn's legacy, and standing up to the Cynrog. Though he slightly relies on Rose to fiddle the machine at the lighthouse, he puts himself in danger through facing Balor. His deductive powers are in full flight, and he brings calm and consideration to those he helps. By keeping the number of his settings down, Tucker manages to generate enough energy and interest in what happens, and the story doesn't really need to wander about too much. The conclusion is surprising, and the mercy shown to the surviving Cynrog makes a change from the "no second chances" mantra we got in The Christmas Invasion. There are a couple of small problems. Naming a character Robert Perry is pretty naff, and making Ali spout Ace's infamously nauseous "I'm not a little girl anymore" is unforgivable. Apart from those, this is one of the very best books in this series. |
| Disclaimer: I've read the book. |