| ICEBERG by David Banks |
| Story 18 Synopsis: Earth, 2006. At the Snowcap Tracking Station, General Pam Cutler arrives to supervise the delayed FLIPback Project which is intended to deal with a reversing of Earth's magnetic field. Meanwhile, the SS Elysium is on a round-the-world voyage that brings it into Antarctic seas as Christmas nears. On board is Sunday Seeker reporter Ruby Duvall, reporting on the ship's maiden voyage. She has suspicions about celebrity sculptor Mike Brack, who is aboard as a gimmick to create sculptures from icebergs. At STS, Cutler gets the Project completed in time. The TARDIS lands in the engine room of the Elysium, where Ruby finds him. He is alarmed when he learns the year and location, and hops across to STS in the TARDIS, taking Ruby with him. Whilst he talks to Cutler about her late father, Ruby investigates a secret passage, and finds a strange storage of human parts, and the Cybermen are present. She is found and placed in cold storage. The Doctor rescues her, and together they learn the Cybermen have used one of STS' missing staff members as a body for the Cyber-Coordinator machine to inhabit. They have hypnotised the STS staff to thwart the FLIPback project, will take the passengers from the Elysium to make new Cybermen, and have a bomb under the STS base, too. The Doctor gets Ruby to activate FLIPback early, confusing the Cybermen. The new Cyber Controller has a mental breakdown, recalling its past life as a Mondan. The bomb is placed in the Cyberbase, exploding it. The passengers awake from their hypnosis. Brack turns out to have been innocent of collusion with the Cybermen. |
| Review:- The first major monsters to turn up in the New Adventures came in a story by the man who played Cybermen on screen, and wrote a definitive book about them. And his story certainly takes in an impressive scope. Acting in some ways as a sequel to The Tenth Planet, the Cybermen have a busy new plan to exact revenge on Earth, and ensure their own survival. The story is set at the same time as Birthright, which explains where Bernice and Ace are, and gives an excuse for the Jade Pagoda version of the TARDIS. Oddly for this, the Doctor barely features in the first half of the book, which Banks uses to set up his story, with the background of STS, and Ruby Duvall's experiences on the Elysium. The Cybermen are also absent for the same length of time, echoing their early appearances in the series when they wouldn't turn up until the half-way mark. Their plan is quite impressive. They intend that the reversal of Earth's magnetic field should not be rescued by FLIPback, that they can move their Co-ordinator machine into a new mobile housing, and to turn the Elysium passengers into new Cybermen. Arguably, it would have been better to do 1 thing at once, but that's the multi-tasking theory for you. Ruby makes for a worthwhile heroine in the early stages, trying to discern Mike Brack's shady secret, as well as writing the inside tale of the ship's golden voyage. Her background is not too ladled on, although Banks is subtle in not giving any hint that the Faceless Biker will later return to face the music. The nods to both Tenth Planet and The Invasion, give a workable depth to the story, which is something not always bothered with in Earth stories, especially ones set in the near future. It's both sobering and silly to consider this book now, with its setting having passed. Some of Banks' claims have been borne out, but some others remain just fantasy - possibly for the better. The Doctor is distracted initially, but any worthwhile interaction with the STS staff, particularly General Cutler, is cut drastically short when Ruby wanders off. Similarly, when he and the Cybermen do turn up, the previous slow build-up seems utterly lost as a frenetic rush to the finish begins. The Cyber-attack on the Elysium reads like an aside from the more important business of their business under the ice. Whether that's intentional, I can't tell. But the change of pace is not to the book's credit. There is also the question of the loose ends. Ruby's new holo-camera is made by a company called ElysiuMatics. Is that meant to suggest IE, or is it irrelevant? Why was Brack so secretive about his 'arms'? What was Straker's angle? Did Brack know the iceberg he chose for the sculpture of Straker would contain Cybermen? And so on. Generally, it's a thoughtful and engaging book, albeit one rather too in love with its created star (cf The Suns Of Caresh, The Sleep Of Reason). It gives the Cybermen a fair chance, but ultimately doesn't quite do itself justice. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy of this book. |