| EARTHWORLD by Jacqueline Rayner |
| Story 42 Synopsis: The TARDIS seems to have landed in prehistoric times on Earth. The Doctor finds a strange energy barrier, gets Fitz through it, and then he and Anji are arrested. Fitz finds himself a captive of three triplet princesses who make androids and are kept locked up in a castle. He tells them he is Fitz Fortune, and they make him put on a concert. Meanwhile, Anji is accused of connections to a terrorist group called ANJI who object to the building of EarthWorld on their home of New Jupiter. The Doctor manages to escape, and meets android copies of the triplets. He realises they're not going to help, and manages to find their father, who is President. He locked up his daughters after believing they killed their mother. But they were framed by the President's aide, Hanstrum, who was their real father, and who wants to replace the President and rule instead. Once he is exposed, the Doctor is able to restore the President's wife, who has some android grafts. Fitz and Anji are grateful to rejoin the Doctor in the TARDIS, especially when a plan by the triplets to restore the Doctor's memory doesn't come off. |
| Review:- And so Anji's quest begins, in a perplexing Earth-centric narrative which is all about family truths. Since both her time as a companion chimes in with the Doctor experience TARDIS-travel for the first time since his amnesia, there's an opportunity to throw new light on old experiences. It doesn't quite work, and Anji's e-mails to dead boyfriend Dave feel like a cheap attempt to emulate the diaries of Benny Summerfield. Fortunately, this gimmick died a death. As for the Doctor, his main problem is trying to operate his sonic screwdriver when he doesn't know what it does. The implication that his subconscious operates it feels like an attempt to retcon its usage on telly, though what for is another matter. Fitz is not forgotten in all this, as he finally becomes the rock legend he could have been - but that only leads him to the revelation that he is not the man he was. Once he conquers this, he posits himself as protector of the Doctor's memories, an unusual guardian with an unusual mission. The plot is not as interesting as the character work. The idea of theme parks is one explored by Michael Crichton, for example, is his classic Westworld, and this book is something of a homage to that, with androids with a mind of their own. What Rayner does is merely to extrapolate a park depicting the pick of a whole planet. What this allows her to do is make humour from misunderstandings about Earth, which derive from strange sayings and occurrences. However, this all has the feel of sneering mockery, as if the New Jupitans were innocent, and it's the stupid Earth people who are to blame. Which is a bit of a downer for an audience. This vitriol is matched by a tiresome schmaltz, as the nub of the plot is that the wife of an impotent President had a sort-of surrogate child, birthed crazed triplets who were then framed for murder by the President's loyal aide who has designs on usurping power. So far, so tired. The message is that better honesty and parenting can cure all ills in children. From a book with such a hostile outlook, that seems rather a forlorn hope. The ANJI terrorists provide brief amusement, with their false names and silly name for an organisation. The conclusion, in which the Doctor gets to kiss Anji, and Fitz gets the TARDIS to stop the Doctor finding his memories, is so naff that it feels like an author smacking a reader with the book and saying "he ain't getting his memories back, so stop whinging!" It didn't work, of course. Though it makes a fair fist of developing Anji's character, and indeed providing good material for the regulars, it falls down in every single other department, and as the cliche says, if length be not a merit, it hath no other. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |