| BLUE BOX by Kate Orman |
| Story ? Synopsis: The Doctor and Peri are in America, shortly before Christmas, 1982, when the Doctor suddenly leaves Peri alone in a cafe, only getting in touch via a telephone in a hotel she checks in at. He gets her to find Robert Salmon, a computer expert who has helped him before. They also meet with a journalist, Chick Peters, who is getting information on a businesswoman, Sarah Swan. The Doctor reveals that he has been enlisted by the Eridani, who are trying to retrace a device that crashed on Earth by mistake, in 5 pieces. They have found 3 of them, but Swan has one of the 2 remaining. Via a set of ruses, her segment is retrieved, but her friend, Luis has the final piece, and it has hatched into a creature, the Savant. Sarah steals the Savant from Luis, by which time the Doctor has deduced that the Eridani device has a powerful addictive effect on human beings. He tries to neutralise the Savant, and succeeds, but Luis becomes a new Savant. The Eridani get their final segment, and the Doctor determines to stop Sarah, who has realised that the Savant can be used as a powerful mind-control device. Despite trying to use Luis to destroy the Doctor, he manages to trick Sarah into chasing after him, whereupon he sets off a device to neutralise the new Savant. He does. The Eridani try to fix as many of the people who came into contact with their device, and the Doctor threatens them not to be so careless in future. Swan remains in a psychiatric institute. |
| Review:- Well, a slightly shaky start for the BBC in this, DW's anniversary year. Thankfully, this book is an improvement on their recent output. Kate returns to the fray with what I seem to think is her first PDA/MA, and it is also 12 months since we last saw this team in action, in Palace Of The Red Sun. The big theme here is computers, and the things they can do with information. Also, how people can get other people's information when they shouldn't. Hackers. Very interesting subject matter for PC users (and this makes more impact to me than System Shock or Millennium Shock did, as I have more knowledge and interest in computers now. I'm even studying a computer course. Entertainingly, it's a small-scale book, and yet it feels like it travels a lot of distance. The overall major cast numbers about 8, with a large number of extras. The story is a fairly straightforward quest tale, with our heroes trying to extract the secret jewels from our villainess, and much back-and-forth, with the stakes slowly climbing, until we get some real impact, as best shown when Sarah uses Luis to get a waitress to give her $100 from the till, before going to rob a bank. The Doctor dresses down in a sombre coat, and spends most of the time trying to catch Swan or trying to convince her to give up. He is fun to read, which is often my top criterion. Peri gets less to do, being a rather generic figure who emotes and gets into narrow scrapes, and questions why she stays with the Doctor when she appears to hate it so much. Chick narrates the whole story, and remains sceptical that the Eridani really are aliens, even at the end. He has personal issues to deal with, and suffers at Swan's hands, making him sympathetic. Swan is a monomaniacal nutcase, with no redeeming features, which makes a change, I suppose. Bob Salmon is a good ally, a bit dopey at times, but a good representation of the hope for humanity. Luis is a friend deluded, who pays a terrible price for his friendship and his greed. And that's pretty much it. I suppose I must say I enjoyed the conceit of a device that subjugates other humans, but then I'm a sucker for hypnotism. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy of this book. |