| HALFLIFE by Mark Michalowski |
| Story 68 Synopsis: The TARDIS lands on Espero in response to a distress call. The Doctor and Fitz go off to deal with it, leaving Trix alone. When she sets off to catch them, she finds Fitz has lost most of his memory. The Doctor, meanwhile, is similarly afflicted, and hooks up with a girl named Calamee. She takes him to see Father Roberto, who suggests he contact Madame Xing. She finds his memory has been afected many times. She restores his most recent loss, which galvanises him into action. Meanwhile, Fitz and Trix come to the same town, and are nearly killed by a marauding beast. Fitz is spirited away by Princess Sensimi, whilst Trix goes to help a young boy named Reo. He tempts her with a device to change his shape, but it is a trick, and Reo, the device, takes over her mind. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Calamee are still looking for Fitz and Trix. Fitz and Sensimi are in the palace. Trix arrives there with a pass from Sensimi. The Doctor and Calamee arrive in the palace via the TARDIS. There they confront a man named Trove, who has promised the Imperator immortality in return for help in his quest. A huge mysterious wave is headed for the city. The Doctor, Fitz, Calamee and Sensimi head out to deal with it. The Doctor and Fitz find it is a plant-like creature named Tain. It was responsible for their memory loss. It was used for centuries as a killing machine, but it has rebelled and escaped. Trove is working for the Oon to get it back, whilst Reo is a Maker, who is also after Tain. Trove is killed. Trix arrives, and Reo separates from her, leaving her close to death. As Reo attempts to consume Tain, Fitz gets Tain to create Calamee's pet mokey, Nessus. Tain escapes into Nessus, and the Doctor uses Trove's mind-erasing weapon to zap Reo. Tain saves Trix, and then leaves Espero, after restoring the Doctor and Fitz to the way they were. |
| Review:- So the EDAs continue without Sabbath, and with a story predominantly concerned with memories and the past. Specifically, the Doctor, who already lost all his significant memories back in The Ancestor Cell, loses them again, briefly, and when he has them restored, he's acting a bit like Fitz. Fitz, who was never the most relaxed guy, and has also had memory problems, gets to share the Doctor's memory loss, and it improves his standing in the book. Trix seems to help Fitz focus, but when they split up, she is soon possessed by a malevolent machine. Which nearly kills her. Hohum. The central set-up of Espero as an abandoned Earth colony with a Catholic predominance is largely just a foundation for a story of conflicting aliens struggling to recover a mysterious weapon. The overall tone I got from this book was that it was like a New Adventure. When it didn't echo the post-arc feel of Earthworld, or even the nature of Mark's previous book, Relative Dementias, it was a rather slight tale of escpaed super-weapons, and I am reminded of it resembling SLEEPY, too. The niggle is the frequent discussion of the Doctor's lost memories - the ones from before he destroyed Gallifrey. Considering the slightness of the central tale, it is easy to take that it is just a disguise for some heavy-handed "look, readers, he ain't getting his memories back because I say so" comments. It would be acceptable to present the Doctor as a man shedding his past, with friend Fitz as the keeper of the memories, if it wasn't such a stupid idea in the first place, or wasn't so repeatedly brought up just to be slapped down. Sadly, Mark's book is diminished by this dreadful device, and I cannot recommend this book really. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |