| FIRST FRONTIER by David A. McIntee |
| Story 30 Synopsis: The Doctor takes Ace and Bernice to New Mexico, 1957, where they witness a UFO crash. Strange things are happening at Holloman AFB, whilst the mysterious Major Kreer is working to his own plans at Corman AFB. The Doctor soon realises the Tzun Confederacy are at work, with a plan to devastate the human race. He sends Ace and Bernice to prevent the launch of a nuclear bomb in Washington DC, whilst he tries to prevent the Tzun attacking the air bases. After defusing the bomb, Ace and Bernice trail some Tzun to a submarine, where they find Kreer - or as Ace recognises, the Master, who has been using the Tzun to restore his DNA imbalance to normal. Restored from his Trakenite imbalance to his true genetic heritage, the Master ups the ante, double-crossing the Tzun to ensure they cannot use his DNA record for their own benefit. The Doctor is unable to prevent him destroying the Tzun, but he thwarts an attempt to explode nuclear warheads in Washington and Moscow. |
| Review:- McIntee's 2nd New Adventure is another pseudo-historical, but this time more of a space opera than White Darkness was, having a good go at flying saucers in mid-1950's New Mexico. But this is also the first signs of two of his subsequent traits... The first of these is the Tzun-Veltrochni war. Here, we meet the Tzun, a formidable race of bio-geneticists, who accidentally found nemesis when they blunderingly destroyed a Veltrochni breeding ground, and got their heads kicked in in return. The Veltrochni would appear in later McIntee tomes, but never prove as interesting as McIntee seems to presume (and neither are the Tzun). Rather more interesting, though, is his on-off usage of the character of the Master. Here, returning for the first time since Survival, the arch-manipulator is appearing to help the Tzun bring Earth into their impressive Confederacy. In fact, he is simply stringing them along until they can cure his corrupted DNA (as the Cheetah Virus has proven so dangerous to his Trakenite body). His revealed presence, 2/3 of the way through the book, provides a boost when the story seems to be flagging somewhat, but is nevertheless a well-timed moment, akin to a cliffhanger on television. Whilst I got more sense that this was the Delgado incarnation than Ainley, the effect is still formidable. If anything, though, the use of the Master is almost in the role of anti-hero, leaving the Doctor to chase around like a fool, keeping the Tzun at bay and preventing the human race suffering a catclysmic nuclear mistake. In this, Ace and Bernice also fall pretty surplus to requirements, though helping to pad the book out mightily with their antics in Washington, and aboard the SS Jessup. Whilst Bernice proves knowledgeable about the Tzun (a cunning authorial wheeze to give them more cred), she is often quite wrong in her assumptions about the 20th century, which is where Ace comes in. Though Ace's all-action piloting and later contraband-exploding shows her the same dull super-soldier seen before, her guilt over the hapless Manco, and later ruminations that she ought to stop acting the hero for the Doctor are pointers to her exit, a few books later on. Once the Master has his prize, and blasts the retreating Tzun out of the skies (cf. The Christmas Invasion), his subsequent hi-jinks with the 2nd warhead on its way to Moscow seem like a glib attempt to put the onus back on him as a villain. It doesn't exactly work, though it's clear he gets his way more than the Doctor does. On the whole, an engaging plot once it gets going, replete with useful character trails for Stoker, Finney and Marion Davison, provides a worthwhile adventure for the readers, especially if they can stomach the bad guy saving the day. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy of this book. |