| COLD FUSION by Lance Parkin |
| Story ? Synopsis: The Doctor is busy on an ice world. He meets Ziyou, who reported seeing a ghost, and had to go on the run. Another ghost appears, but the guards find him to arrest him. Meanwhile, the TARDIS lands on a cold planet in the future. Whilst the Doctor and Adric try to trace a temporal disturbance, Nyssa and Tegan book into a hotel. The Doctor and Adric are investigating the skitrain station when a mysterious couple halt an approaching train. Before they can get aboard, Adjudicators arrive, and the couple flee in a transmat, whilst the Doctor and Adric are taken to the Adjudicator base, Scientifica. Unaware that they are believed to be the vanguard of an invasion force, the Doctor and Adric are shown around, and find there is a top secret project on Floor 100. During the night, they break in, and find a patient kept in cryosleep. Awoken, the Doctor recognises her, and she regenerates. The Adjudicators arrive, and the Doctor and Adric are arrested as spies. In confusion, they escape with the Patient, but Adric buys them time. They meet Tegan, and board a train taking them away from Scientifica. Adric pairs up with Roz Forrester. Nyssa is saved from arrest by Chris Cwej. Adric and Roz are joined by the Doctor. They make their way to the Machine, which Roz activates, causing ghost-like figures to appear, and kidnap the Doctor. After one minute, she switches the Machine off again, but finds herself a prisoner. Meanwhile, Chris and Nyssa find a spaceship carrying 24 fusion bombs, which they hijack. The train carrying the Doctor, Tegan and the Patient is buried in an avalance, but they are rescued by Adam, a noted terrorist, who opposes the Scientifica way. They head for the Nightingale hospital, where the Patient can be treated. The Machine is a primitive TARDIS that the Patient arrived in. Chris and Nyssa land on the planet's surface, but are attacked. They join up with the Doctor and co, and reach the Nightingale facility, where the Patient is restored to normal. The Adjudicators track down the fusion bombs to the hospital, and take everyone hostage. The Doctor and the Patient are allowed to send the Machine back along its time track to Gallifrey, but the leading Adjudicator, Medford, loads the fusion bombs onto it, believing the Time Lords to be the ghostly apparitions that are causing so much trouble. Medford shoots the Patient, but the other Doctor arrives, and Medford loses control of the situation. The newer Doctor helps bring the Machine back through time to the present. He has consorted with the ghosts, who are the Ferutu, godlike masters of time from another universe. The Doctor tricks them into containing the exploding Machine, and then obliterates them. The Adjudicators are left to clear up the mess. |
| Review:- There is temporal trouble brewing on an unnamed planetoid, and two sets of time travellers come to deal with the mess... but to differing purposes. There's no reason why there can't be multi-Doctor adventures, and this is one that manages to cross both ranges (as they then were) without betraying either too much. The main thing in the book's favour is being split into 6 sections, each of 3 chapters, which suggests an effort to make it feel like a novelisation of a TV show. The drama accelerates in later episodes, and possibly the trip on the Northern line is a homage to the dog-leg aspect of 6-parters which is spoken of by writers who struggled to make the stories work. Despite having 7 regulars to cope with, there is plenty of story to go round. The drama of Gallifrey's past, and an early TARDIS crash landing connect with the idea of alternative lords of time trying to take over our universe. In amongst all this is the bungling Scientifica, and Medford representing the imbecilic Unitatus, convinced the Doctor is the advance guard of an alien invasion. The scariness comes from Medford the idiot having the power of life and death, and abusing that power. The death of the Patient is a stark moment as the book comes to its conclusion, although the sudden return of the other Doctor begs the question why the Patient had to die. Smug storytelling seems the only reason. Pairing up companions allows us the amusement of the unlikeable Adric working with the unlikeable Roz. Though the 7th Doctor is aware that Adric dies, he doesn't yet know that Roz dies, too, which is a little treat for readers to spot. The naive Nyssa and Chris prove a surprisingly good team, too. Tegan shows resilience, and bravado, but mostly seems a hotheaded ninny. The suggestion that the Patient is the Doctor's wife doesn't quite work, although the addition of her to the story does at least make the padding in the middle of the book seem quite diverting. The other trick is where Roz appears in the early scenes trying to hijack the train, but is not identified until later on. There are no indications that she is this person at the time. The dispatch of the Ferutu is a bit thin, as is the resolution to the drama of the Machine heading for Gallifrey. It's no wonder the 5th Doctor calls foul on it. On the whole, though, this book presents a credible depiction of a human colony in the future, of law enforcement officers trying to do their best even when not realising how incapable they actually are, and a look at the implications of time travel in the past, present and future. Worth reading, however rare it might be. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |