| HAPPY ENDINGS by Paul Cornell |
| Story 50 Synopsis: The Doctor books Bernice & Jason's wedding for Cheldon Bonniface, April 2010, and brings together many old friends. But bride and groom have doubts, and Ace thinks Jason is unfaithful. At the church, the Master reveals himself to be responsible, having created a clone of Jason. He has been trying to experiment with a stolen Gallifreyan device and a buried head. He has created a huge monster, which threatens to destroy all and sundry. The Doctor persuades the Timewyrm inside Ishtar Hutchings to stop the creature, which she does. The Time Lords think they've taken the Master away, but he has escaped. Bernice and Jason do wed, and his clone leaves with Ace. They leave the Doctor to travel on with Chris and Roz. |
| Review:- Coinciding with their 5th anniversary (roughly), the NA line clocked up its 50th tale with this one-off celebration of the range, as one of its most successful and popular creations, Bernice, ended her travels by getting married. Or, less politely, someone thought there was material for a comic, light-hearted, self-reflective book that showed the scope of the range. It certainly is the epitome of the NAs... unfortunately. As Jason was only introduced in the previous book, Death And Diplomacy, Cornell makes some effort to familiarise readers with him more, and show why Bernice should want to marry him. Sadly, whilst doing this, he also has to make her feel she's making a mistake. As the book is promoted as featuring a wedding and the cover has a wedding photograph, the point seems lost. There are supposed to be references to all the preceding 49 stories, some more deeply than others. As the writer of 4 previous tales, Cornell has a head start on the task, though he is less sure with characters from other books. He compensates by adding in new shtick involving Silurian parodies of characters from Round The Horne (as you do), and a ludicrous plot involving the Master. Whether he felt that this was a suitable villain for the occasion, who knows. Some fans are often adamant that any genre or format can be done in Doctor Who, and here we have wedding/farce. It doesn't really work, because it isn't nearly funny enough (though it clearly thinks it is more than enough). The subplots vary, too. Chris falls for Ishtar, much as he fell for Dep in The Also People, and to the same end. Roz pals up with Sherlock Holmes, because she's a cop, and has nothing else to contribute. Ace thinks Jason's unfaithful. The Doctor suspects trouble but can't find any. The locals fear the aliens. And so on... The less said about the cricket match the better. If this was meant to be a loving homage, it fails. Though not as badly as some of the little descriptions that give away the writer's ignorance. Ace, the supposed tough marine, blithely identifies Nixon Trabelle as a holoporn star, as if she was meeting Jenna Jameson in the high street. Precisely nobody else cares (except Keri, sadly). And the less said about the nudie-romp Handfasting the better. If this were meant as a sympathetic demonstration of the validity of other beliefs, it doesn't work. In the end, the Master interrupts the wedding, Jason's clone is exposed as Ace's squeeze, and a big monster is unleashed for a few lines, and then zapped by the Timewyrm, because the Doctor has no other plan handy. Call that a celebration? Because I don't. Given this book was published in the same month that the TV Movie was screened, it's ironic that it brought the good-time ethos, which led to this book, to and end. Virgin lost the rights, and self-indulgent garbage like this got the heave (and was replaced by other kinds of self-indulgent garbage). Bernice's marriage didn't last, either, though she did survive into her own spin-off range of books and audios. So maybe there was a happy ending after all. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy of this book. |