| A DEVICE OF DEATH by Christopher Bulis |
| Story ? Synopsis: The Doctor, Sarah and Harry are on their way back from Skaro, when the Time Lords intercept their progress. The Doctor wakes up in Deepcity, an underground weapons testing facility, run by people fighting a war against Averon. He agrees to help them. Harry finds himself in a warzone, and proves his medical ability, and becomes respected by the Jand leader, Chell'lak. Sarah becomes a prisoner of the Averon Union, working as a slave. Harry helps the Jand to borrow a Landoran spaceship. There is a disturbance at Sarah's camp, and she finds a way to escape. The Doctor remains friendly to the people of Deepcity, but is suspicious. By pretending to be a robot, Sarah is loaded onto a spaceship, where she finds another damaged robot, whom she names Max. It learns reason from her. Harry and the Jand happen upon their spaceship, and save Sarah from oxygen starvation. They then travel on to the world where Deepcity is situated. The Doctor finds out that the people running Deepcity are perpetrating a huge lie. The Averon War ended years before, and Landor has been rebuilt. But the weapons creations of Deepcity were seen as too vital to stop. The Director, Kambril, frames the Doctor for murder, and then sends him out into the Valley, where the weapons are tested. He meets Harry and Sarah, and realises the escape pod he landed in must be the TARDIS. They all rush back to get to it, but the Doctor realises it's a new TARDIS, not his. Nevertheless, he gets everyone safely on board, then goes to collect hard evidence of Kambril's mass deception. Then, he returns to Deepcity in disguise. There is a struggle, during which the Jand are able to operate a transmitter, allowing the Doctor to speak to the people of Deepcity, exposing the truth. But Kambril launches the latest weapon, MICA, to kill everyone except he and his followers. The Doctor is able to thwart this by getting everyone to wear a mask resembling those who are deemed to not be targets. Max decides to lead newly-reprogrammed robots like himself, in a bid to ensure the same sort of war cannot happen again. The Doctor is told by a Time Lord, that Max's force will eventually deal with the Daleks forever. He sends the Doctor, Sarah and Harry on their way back to Nerva Beacon... |
| Review:- There's trouble with a space war again, and this time, the Doctor and his friends face huge odds to stay alive, find each other and save the day... One of the problems with the Missing Adventures was finding a feasible gap to set a story. However, that didn't stop determined people making gaps where there seemed no room. The Key To Time adventures are one example, this book is another. Bulis suggests the Time Lords nudge the Doctor, Sarah and Harry off course between Skaro and Nerva Beacon. This sets up a dashing space opera as all three travellers find themselves seeing war from all sides... The Doctor is best placed in Deepcity. He has the technical knowhow to fit in with other scientists, as well as start to work out the problem, and seek the truth. His observation of pentatholene, and rumbling of Malf are good moves that show his skills. Harry does well to show his medical training for once. With this, he wins over the Jand, and finds himself a useful part of their hijacking plan, even though it rapidly gets out of control. Sarah gets the short stick. Her position as a prisoner puts her far lower down the scale than her companions, although presumably the fact that she is resourceful enough to find a way to escape is meant to alleviate this possible sexism. It also allows her to team up with Max, in what must count as a deliberate nod to Robot, which was supposedly only a few stories before this. Arguably given the importance of his new instructions, then she is the best of the three characters to start his process with, although there is acknowledgement that he learns from Harry and the Doctor, too. Her rescue by Harry and the Jand at least keeps the story trickling along nicely, whilst the Doctor works out the problems of Deepcity. In fact, the story reads very well, and moves at a tidy pace, which is good. It is quirky that about 3/4 of the way in, the good guys appear to step out of the story in the TARDIS, but only to find the evidence they need, and to get their plan of attack together. The Doctor making a public address seems unusual, but perhaps it's the most credible way. The baddies are pretty inexcusable, shades of black rather than grey. But perhaps that makes their actions all the more abhorrent. Despite this being the latest of his many books, Bulis shows no signs of fatigue, indeed providing a fresh impetus of narrative action. This is an enjoyable book told through one of the series' best teams. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |