| FEAR ITSELF by Nick Wallace |
| Story ? Synopsis: At the start of the 23rd century, the TARDIS lands on Mars. In a cafe, two men go berserk, giving Anji a concussion. The Doctor and Fitz investigate, and trace the men back to Farside Station, near Jupiter, leaving Anji in medical care. Soon after, there is an accident at Farside, and the Doctor and Fitz are believed dead, leaving Anji stranded. 4 years later, she arrives at Farside, where some of the staff also believed dead are in fact alive. Initial enquiries suggest the station was attacked as part of a war, but Anji knows this can't be true. There is a plan to help the survivors escape, but Anji suspects it won't work. The aliens they fear outside finally break in, and Anji finally succumbs to the virus she didn't realise she was infected with. The Doctor regains his memory, having spent the last four years reprogrammed as a super-soldier. He manages to get all the survivors into a spaceship, finding Fitz on the way, and thwarting Anji's efforts to stop them. He devises an antidote to the virus, restoring Anji to health. He shuts down the super-soldier program. He, Fitz and Anji return to the TARDIS. |
| Review:- So, one of the last of the PDAs features the 8th Doctor, Fitz and Anji. As if 8 years of having this Doctor as the lead of the EDAs, someone thought it would be a great idea to put in another one, just because the EDAs finished. This tells its own story, really. The main narrative device here is to show us the story unfold from three time perspectives: events now, events 4 years ago, and brief events between then and now. This covers the way for Wallace's other narrative trick - to let the reader ask where the Doctor and Fitz are, and show that the Doctor, at least, has been with the action all the time. Sadly, this was just as silly when done back in The Face-Eater, and leaves the reader feeling cheated. It's also a bit too risky to give a book a title like this, as it points out that Fear is likely to be a major factor in the story (see Fear of the Dark, also). Having made that point, I suppose I should say that it's not too bad a story. The characters are mostly well written, with the people whom Anji finds after four years on Farside that come across best, shattered by the failure of their environment, and the sense that they're fighting a losing battle. The baddies are less convincing, as their motivation is too banal to matter. An arms race with immoral usage of guinea-pigs is rightly terrible, and the Doctor does at least get the chance to express his anger at it, but there's no sense in justice for this. Though the Doctor deals with MacNamara and gets the Professional program stopped, the price he had to pay is arguably higher (and he only seems to dwell on it superficially). One aim of the book seems to have been to make Anji seem a more likeable character. Sadly, this fails for a few reasons - her last appearance in a book being in The Gallifrey Chronicles, where she was still unpleasant, that she later turns out to have been possessed and is the mouthpiece for the Fear virus (or Loathing, I forget), and ultimately, it's pointless to rehabilitate a character who will almost certainly never appear in a book like this again. Still, it's not my fault. Fitz comes over a lot better, but then he usually does. Whilst understanding that his cover as an auditor is precarious, he compensates by letting his natural talent come through, and he makes friends of Robertson, and shows the other side of Farside station. The fact that he has spent the missing 4 years in stasis seems a little bit of a shame, but in a tight story like this, that's a price to pay. The sci-fi feel to the book is at least well considered, and will suit those who bemoan the preponderance of Dr Who fiction to be situated solely on Earth. This may still be in the same solar system, but the whole 200-years-from-now aspect is given much credence. Even the conclusion in Venice is forgivable, as it seems germane to Valletti's exit, and not just desperate narrow thinking. The idea that the nebulous entities that cause all the trouble (dubbed Fear and Loathing) might be the remainder of an arms dump is worthy of some praise, as it deals with a major issue in a subtle way. On the whole, it's a fine story, marred by the tricks mentioned earlier. For every good point, there is one bad, and vice-versa. Quite why it has received what seems OTT praise is beyond me. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy of this book. |