| THE DEVIL GOBLINS FROM NEPTUNE by Keith Topping & Martin Day |
| Story ? Synopsis: Earth, 1970. Covert forces in the USSR and USA are making plans for the Doctor. At a rock festival in the UK, a light show signals the arrivals of creatures from outer space. Benton is driving the Doctor to check out some tracking station when they are attacked by Russians, whom the Doctor drives off. The Brigadier insists the Doctor needs an armed guard. But when he goes to the Progressive Club without one, he's kidnapped by Russians. He manages to escape, and gets back in touch with UNIT. The Brigadier now insists the Doctor is accompanied by Yates or Benton at all times. They attend a party, where the Russians try again. This time, they are trapped by UNIT, where their leader, Captain Shuskin of Soviet UNIT, is forced to explain that they were trying to get help from the Doctor because of a mysterious plot going on in Siberia, and that they received blocking from UNIT HQ in Geneva. The Doctor and Liz travel with Shuskin to Siberia, and find swarms of strange little aliens attacking their craft. Benton is nearly blown up by a bomb planted in the Doctor's lab. The Brigadier heads to Geneva to try and find out what's what, and is set up. He is given a clue, then escorted out of the building. He heads for a warehouse. Yates slowly realises that the new guy from America wasn't from UNIT at all, and planted the bomb. The Doctor manages to commune with one of the aliens, called a Waro, from Triton. It nearly kills him. He creates a dampener, but is almost drained of blood during a Waro attack. He finds the Siberian operation is just a blind, leading him back to England. The Brigadier realises he's been set up, and so makes contact with the man he was sent to kill. He is ultimately taken to Nevada, where the action is. The Waro have been lured to Earth to attack a race called the Nedenah, whom the CIA have been holding hostage. The Doctor helps the Nedenah escape. The Brigadier decides to watch out for the CIA in future, as they resent UNIT's attitude to aliens. |
| Review:- So, back in 1997, the BBC stepped into Virgin's shoes, and launched the EDA and PDA ranges. The latter started with this, the tale of East meeting West, of good aliens and bad aliens. I recently heard it said that this book was written in tribute to Jon Pertwee, who died the year before it was published. Reading it with that thought in mind does mitigate some of the more outlandish sections of the book, where Topping & Day seem to treat the Doctor as some completely superhuman hero, regardless of whether that might be true to the character. You can't fault this book for scope. It takes the reader from England to Russia, to Switzerland, and to the USA, all the while telling a quite solid story of counter-espionage and aliens. It is rather amusing that the Yanks turn out to be the xenophobic bad guys, whilst the Russians are actually fairly decent. Of course, to have said that in 1970 might have been eyebrow-raising, in a 1997 version of 1970, it just seems a bit smug. UNIT are stretched, and there is some intrigue during the Brigadier's quest to find the truth. The aliens and their cobalt mission afford interest, although the fact that the Russian excursion winds up being a red herring is a little silly. But the denouement is where it all falls apart. The realisation that the whole bluff with Viscount Rose and the Waro is merely a way to introduce new nasties the CIA is a little tedious. The final destruction of the Waro, and the Nedenah's attempts to escape make for a very unsatisfying end. On the whole, fairly well-written and with much to sustain interest, only letdown towards the end. |
| Disclaimer: I've read a copy. |