| DARK PROGENY by Steve Emmerson |
| Story 47 Synopsis: Anji and the TARDIS appear infected by a strange disease, and the Doctor struggles to help either of them. He and Fitz land on Ceres Alpha, to try and find help. Fitz is shot in the leg, and left to wait. The Doctor and Anji are scooped by a huge city-making machine, and he is mistaken for a Dr Domecq, allowing him to get a search party out for Fitz. They find the TARDIS, but nothing more. Fitz is found elsewhere. Anji recovers. The Doctor meets Gaskill Tyran, the big cheese, and puts his back up. When learning of the strange alien children, and the impending destruction of an ancient archaeological dig, the Doctor starts to investigate. He slowly realises the children were the creation of a huge psychic cry from the planet, which also affected the TARDIS, and Anji. The planned resettlement of Ceres Alpha must be stopped. Fitz manages to find his way to the TARDIS, in time for the Doctor to arrive with the stolen children. Though they seem dead, by transporting them back to the soil, they recover. Tyran is stopped, and finds the archaeologist he despised is really his own long-lost father. |
| Review:- A complex tale of humanity's continuing exploration of space and the need for new homes. But building on someone else's land causes all sorts of trouble. The weird prologue with the shocking birth trauma and the concurrent chaos in the TARDIS sets things up a little bit, though it's the loss of Fitz and gradual involvement of the Doctor in the drive for Ceres Alpha that really move things along. Whilst the hissable bad lot Gaskill Tyran (surname almost tyrant, whoa!) and dogged-but-frustrated Danyal Bains are soon understandable, people like Pryce, Foley and Peron are also given some degree of depth, which helps keep the reader interested when some characters sometimes disappear for long stretches, all the while other things are going on. Later, Ayla Damsk and the thuggish Jorgan are brought in with the same skill, and when Fitz, Anji and the Doctor all continue on separate journeys to the same point, the story is always at the heart of things. Fortunately, it's a story with a simple idea at heart: children. Undeniably alien children have somehow been born to 12 ordinary mothers, and kept hidden by military doctors, trying to deduce how they came to be. But at least 1 couple see past the official story that their child is dead, and become a random element in the mix. Taking the pragmatic but risky route of assuming a false identity, the Doctor is able to stabilise Anji, recover the TARDIS, and begin to appreciate the mystery of the children. When he learns of Bains' studies, the pieces begin to fall into place, but at the same time, he struggles to keep free with Tyran aware of his duplicity and danger. Anji recovers and Fitz is found, which help take the story off in fresh directions, which all come together. It's perhaps a bit of a tall order to suppose that the psychic former inhabitants of the planet should create 12 children, as well as put the kybosh on the TARDIS and also affect Anji. But no less tall an order than that Tyran should have built his whole life on being abandoned as a child, unaware that the archaeologist he is obstructing, is his own missing father (or possibly he does know, and that partly explains his motivation - at the end of the book, explanations are a bit hit and miss). This is a quick-paced and enthralling book that keeps a reader interested and guessing throughout, with a strong cast of credible characters to push its message home. Worth reading. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |