| THE JANUS CONJUNCTION by Trevor Baxendale |
| Story 16 Synopsis: The TARDIS lands on Janus Prime, where the Doctor and Sam get separated. He travels through the Link to Menda, whilst Sam is taken prisoner. Having learnt of the mad Gustav Zemler, who is based on Janus Prime, the Doctor returns there, and is able to rescue Sam. He realises that the Link between the planets is just a byproduct of a huge planetary weapon, which Zemler is planning to use, to catastrophic effect. But he fails to convince the Mendans of it. He returns to Janus Prime to try and stop Zemler, but is too late. As the Mendans try to counter by using the other half of the weapon, Zemler is killed, and the Doctor watched the Link fade. The self-sacrifice of one of Zemler's men by entering, and destroying, the Link, stabilises the connection of the two planets. The Doctor uses the TARDIS to create a cure for the radiation sickness caused by the sands of Janus Prime, and which restores Sam to health. |
| Review:- The first Dr Who book from Trevor Baxendale is a hearty sci-fi romp mixing planets, deadly radiation, giant spiders, gruesome mutations and a memorably nasty villain. Janus Prime and Menda are simple enough places, one lovely, the other dreadful. Whilst humans have happily colonised Menda, Janus Prime kills them. The problematic Gustav Zemler's frustrated plans provide his motivation for investigation, a greed that causes a horrid process of reduction for him and his men, a sickness that later puts Sam in great danger, and provides a helpful 'ticking clock' of drama, with a time limit on how long and how often the Mendans can go there. The staggeringly nasty deaths that befall these victims also stick in the mind of a reader. Then there are the giant spiders, natives of Janus Prime, and misunderstood through terror, by the Mendan colonists. Their resistance to the radiation proves just a sideline to their involvement in the overall doomsday weapon structure of the plot, but they do provide some obvious, and genuine, scary moments. In amongst this are the dopey and hidebound citizens of Menda, who are content to sit on their hands and wait for Zemler to kill himself, little realising his ambitions will extend to revenge. This counterpoints the relationship between Lunder and Julya, which blends the personal and the professional. It is a nice moment when Lunder moves from cynical distrust of the Doctor, to grudging admiration and willingness to help. Presumably he would become a much-valued member of Mendan society. Sam goes through agonies here, left behind on Janus Prime when the Doctor escapes, used as a decoy by Zemler's men to find the TARDIS, infected with the radiation, and slowly decaying. She is used by Lunder to provide the distraction that sets the Doctor free, and clings to her belief in the Doctor even when in great pain. She gets the rare distinction of a proper death, but the Doctor's Temporal Orbit cheat, as in the TVM, allows him to bring her back to life before his eyes. What a guy. The Doctor wins Julya over very quickly, frees a couple of spidroids, puts the Janusian point of view across, defines the problem of the fixed moon in terms of what it actually isn't, tries to save Zemler, tries to save Big Henrietta, and ultimately has to let Moslei take the fall. And then comes up with the radiation antidote. Quite a full charter of work, and really the backbone of a thrilling and imaginative book, a good debut from Baxendale. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy of the book. |