| THE LAST DODO by Jacqueline Rayner |
| Story 14 Synopsis: When Martha asks to go to the zoo, the Doctor is frosty. When she suggests meeting a dodo, they come to the Museum of the Last Ones, which holds in suspended animation the last surviving example of every living creature. But artefacts are going missing. The Doctor puts he and Martha above suspicion by claiming they are police. They soon find the missing creatures are being sold either for medical purposes, or fashion, or even scientific curiosity. He deduces the culprit, but doesn't reckon on the Museum curator, Eve, realising that as Last of the Time Lords, he belongs as an exhibit. Martha finds herself in danger, but she escapes, rescuing the Doctor. But she releases all the other exhibits, too. The Doctor is able to send them all back with the TARDIS, but is unable to grant them any longer life. On Earth, they find multiple dodos, a sabre-tooth tiger and a dinosaur causing trouble. Eve has instigated a plan to use cloned dodos to plant bombs all over Earth, destroying it, to preserve the sanctity of her Museum. The Doctor finds she is an android, and stops the launch. When checking up, they find a creature called a Hr'oln, whom mistakenly set Eve off on her mission, and has itself been in suspended animation for thousands of years. The Doctor helps it to a new mission with the remainder of the cloned creatures. |
| Review:- Issues time! Zoos are here reclassified as museums of life, and as such another target for the moral crusader that is the Doctor. But whilst exploring some of the issues on either side of the argument, the book does at least avoid sanctimoniousness, which is a blessing. One of the great assets of this book is surprise. Whereas in Rayner's previous NSA, The Stone Rose, surprise turned out to be an unwelcome distraction from a poor book, this time it is a welcome distraction from an average book, and it makes all the difference. As if her story wasn't simple enough, it's padded out through the I-Spyder sections, listing facts about some of the creatures Martha gets to spot, as well as point scores for each, some of which actually tally with the list shown. Also, a fair bit of the book is told through Martha's first-person narrative. Whilst written well, the question does arise as to whom this account is narratively for - at least the diary format, much overused, is a credible storage facility. Martha appears to be talking to the reader, and that's a real, creative no-no. Inbetween times, though, we get small vignettes explaining why rare creatures might be bought up, and sadly, how difficult it can be to prevent the extinction of some species. But none of this can sustain the whole book, so after the Doctor has identified the thief, about halfway through, the reader is treated to a brief interlude with the Doctor in a cage. Luckily, Martha soon saves him, and leads us to the next chunk of plot, allowing a silly runaround in a supermarket, and a mysterious profligacy of dodos. It seems that far from just being a flippant example of extinction to hang the book on, our baddies have been using dodos as bomb-transporters. Well, would you credit it? Though Eve's rather low-key defeat leads into the just-as-bland payback for Frank, the thief, the reader is left to wonder why a succession of minor resolutions seems so underwhelming. The final, final finish with Hr'oln gives a genuine bit of closure, although arguably better plotting wouldn't have left the book feeling quite so bitty. Arguably, this book and indeed the new series itself can be summed up by the Doctor's classic line: "Martha, this is the future! Just accept that they can do things." Don't just do me a favour - do the audience a favour - talk up to it, not down. |
| Disclaimer: I've read the book. |