| BURNING HEART by Dave Stone |
| Story ? Synopsis: The year is 3174, and the TARDIS has landed on Dramos, an obscure planet home to the Habitat. Many species live here, and are policed by the Adjudicators. The Doctor sends Peri off, and she meets a band of human rebels, Human First. The Doctor realises his mistake and goes to find her. Before he can find her, he rescues a chatty alien, Queegvogel, from being mugged, and then the Adjudicators arrive, to quash the riot. Peri is helped away by Kane, a member of White Fire, a splinter group of Human First. The Doctor is taken prisoner, and causes a rumpus because his physiology is so alien. He is lumped in with other aliens. Kane reveals he is actually an undercover Adjudicator, infiltrating White Fire, a racist organisation who have recently come to prominence. He saves Peri from them killing her. They hijack a flier and head for the Temple of the Church. The High Churchman, Garon, who organises the Adjudicators, believes he is communing with God through OBERON, a computer system guiding the Adjudicators. White Fire attack the Temple, led by Avron Jelks, a charismatic maniac, who also believes he is on the verge of victory. Peri and Kane find the Doctor. He explains that the trouble is caused by the Node, a huge alien presence on the neighbouring planet, Titania, which is trying to communicate, but causing immense changes to the people on Dramos. Jelks and Garon try to communicate with the Node, but are fried to a crisp. The Doctor fares better, and finds the Node trying to inhabit OBERON. When the Doctor appears to be harmed, an enraged Kane shoots at the Node, allowing it to connect to OBERON, ending its crazy possession. With the force of chaos subdued, the Adjudicators are able to restore order. The Doctor and Peri return to the TARDIS and leave. |
| Review:- It's a kind of crossover... or a thematic nod to the Judge Dredd serial, which was such a success for the comic 2000 AD. Here, the author takes inspiration from that to fashion a story dealing with the actions and reactions of people in the future... and sadly, it seems some things never change. Stone has earned a reputation as an idiosyncratic writer of DW stories, and never uses 1 word when a whole sentence will do. Here, he still delivers a short, well-paced thriller as a colony falls under the baleful influences of a maniac racist and a fundamentalist cop. There are many shades of alien life here, which Stone uses to show that the future will probably be very cosmopolitan, and also so that he can make the humans-only group clearly defined as the bad lot they are. Peri finds a friend in Kane, a man she doesn't trust, but who is closer to her than the nutters in White Fire and Human First. The Doctor, conversely, finds himself lumped in with the aliens, and befriends the over-chatty Queegvogel. Between them, the Doctor and Peri are drawn into the confusion, as people dance to the tune of an external influence... an alien entity that just wants to be left alone. The racists are led by Avron Jelks, who is described as having a mesmeric oratory, but that is explained as being solely due to the general madness, and he's actually a useless idiot. In a similar way, the church maniac, Garon, is also shown to be a nutter, although slightly more competent. Both receive equal justice. Our Dredd-like figure, Craator, is easily likeable, and shows that the system isn't necessarily the problem, because the right people do exist within it. Kane, conversely, is too mysterious to be fully sympathetic, and his amusing backstory relation to Bernice and Jason is gratuitous and dull. The plight of the unfortunate Mora Cica Valdez provides a way to illustrate the underside of the society, and Stone pulls no punches. Even if the ending seems rather glib. I find I'm surprised how much I enjoyed this. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |