| INVASION OF THE CAT-PEOPLE by Gary Russell |
| Story ? Synopsis: A spaceship containing the Euterpians crashes on Earth, followed millennia later by their enemies, the Cat-People. The TARDIS is infiltrated psychically by a mysterious young man. He makes strongest contact with Polly. The Doctor takes them to Cumbria, 1994, where a mysterious ghost-hunting experiment is taking place. Ben & Polly leave the Grange, and meet the mysterious young man, Tim. The Cat-People land their spaceship behind the Grange, and take the Doctor and Thorsunn (one of the Euterpians) prisoner. Thorsunn plans to let the Cat-People destroy Earth, in return for allowing her safe passage off it. The Doctor soon puts her in a bad light to the Cat-People. The Euterpians use RTC units to prevent themselves aging. Tim uses one to deal with a Cat-Person investigating the Grange. Desperate, Thorsunn takes the Cat-People spaceship back in time. But she can only reach Baghdad c.900BC. The Doctor knows that the bombs she is looking for are spread across the planet in a crooked non-pattern. He manages to trick the Cat-People into leaving her behind, whilst they travel further on. She dies when she finally reaches the Grange in 1994, as a Cat-Person shoots her down. Tim and Polly take the train down to London, then a plane to Sydney. The Cat-People dock their spacecraft with its mother-ship. Two other Euterpians, Dent and Wilding, are trying to find their team leader, Godwanna, who has hidden herself away and gone insane. They try to use the leader of the ghost-hunting students to find a way into Godwanna's lair. Polly finally realises Tim has been using and tricking her, but when she confronts him, he seems to use her anger to destroy the Earth. In fact, he has changed the planet into a ball of energy. He has been in league with Godwanna all along, but uses an RTC to age her to death. The Doctor alerts the Cat-Queen to treachery in her ranks, and then she forces him to take them to where Tim, Dent and Wilding are. They want to energy of the Earth, but Tim destroys them and their craft. The Doctor tricks Tim into entering the TARDIS, after reducing the dimensions. His sonic attack bounces back and destroys him. Dent and Wilding restore the Earth, and the Doctor manages to save the students from the Grange before it's destroyed. |
| Review:- A freshly changed Doctor finds himself drawn into a mystery as two alien races plot destruction for the Earth, from diverse standpoints. In some ways, this is an excellent attempt to assimilate a Missing Adventure as a mere fantasy novelisation of a story that never actually happened. In other ways, it's a painfully tacky book that uses a legitimate framework to tell a story that would never have even been considered for screening in 1966. In its favour, the story is split into 6 episodes, with dramatic cliffhangers, and Gary has also created a fantasy cast list so that the reader can visualise who his characters might look like. Sadly, this cast list sums up the problem of the book. Published in 1995, set in 1994, the story seems to revel in mixing its guest cast with its "regular" cast, to the detriment of the regulars. Rather than trying to consider the touches that would have made this a lost story from the time, it's just a 1990's parody of the truth, and not even a good one. Would giant cats and locations purporting to be Cumbria or Sydney actually have been done in 1966? I very much doubt it. But who cares? Well, Gary seems to want to have his cake and eat it. The Cat-People have some good points. Their society shows there is thought behind it, and a predominantly female race who aren't sexy is a bit of a break. But despite their lingual traits, they never seem anything more than a bland bunch of ne'er-do-well desperadoes. The subplot where one plots to assume control of the squad is not enlivened in any way. It tarnishes the TARDIS team to have to kowtow to these people, and it makes the Euterpian disregard for them seem quite understandable. Maybe that's the point, who can tell? The Euterpians fare much better, probably because there are only a few of them. Dent & Wilding being the good guys are initially quite peripheral, but become more important and involved as the story advances. Thorsunn is our main viewpoint at first, and a bad 'un she is. It's confusing when we cut away from the action to follow her arriving in the country, and then her demise, followed by the scenes where the Doctor double-crosses her, but shows that Gary has a useful eye for this sort of narrative trick. It's a shame that Thorsunn doesn't make her bid to foil the Doctor until it's basically too late, but the eventual scene at the end of episode 4 when the reader learns that the Cat-People weren't being as duped by the Doctor as Thorsunn thought, adds a great layer to this subplot. Godwanna is mostly present as a threat, and her eventual appearance is cut laughably short at the hands of the person she thought she was in league with, despite no signs to that effect. Tim is given the best characterisation, although his slight tolerance of humans is all that discerns him from Thorsunn, and his greater skill at manipulation. That he has the cheek to read Polly's tarot cards, show they all say he's a bad 'un, but leave her thinking the Doctor is the trouble, is rather interesting. His final bid for glory leads to his rather sudden death, in the very rushed conclusion. The human cast are pretty much of a muchness. That the students seem obliterated halfway through the book, and it's no loss, pretty much sums them up. Their professor, Bridgeman, has depth and motivation, and is a good character, but Kerbe is the opposite. Nasty, brutish and his involvement is short. Ben gets little to do, except trust the Doctor and miss Polly. Well, woo hoo. Polly is given great prominence, and the book proudly boasts of a foreword from Anneke Wills. Unfortunately, whilst giving Polly depth of background, she never gains depth of character - or not as a pleasant character. Her moaning in 1994 makes one wonder why Tim puts up with her, and makes sympathy for Ben. The Doctor manages to hold things together, playing the Euterpians and the Cat-People off each other, guarding RTC's, and trying to protect Earth in every time and place he goes. He comes out of this book well, even if it isn't a story worth reading. Polly fans might, at a push, enjoy this book. I don't know who else would. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |