| MILLENNIUM SHOCK by Justin Richards |
| Story ? Synopsis: The TARDIS arrives in the offices of Condef. The Doctor feels something is amiss, and from the security section, witnesses a raid. George, an IT worker finds him there, and they check out the factory. The Doctor raises the alarm, scaring the intruders off. He puts George in touch with Harry, working for MI5. George is nearly killed in his own home. The Doctor and Harry investigate further, ostensibly to protect George. A firm called Silver Bullet are offering a way to ensure Y2K-compliancy for computer systems. When there is a raid at another company, Ashley Chapel Logistics, Harry learns ACL bought a lot of software from I^2. He and the Doctor deduce the Voracians are still active, and up to something. The Doctor and Harry think the army, led by General Randall, are plotting a coup, but when they meet Randall, he is clearly innocent. Harry's house is blown up, his car is blown up, and he realises there are Voracians working within the British Government. Harry is framed for the murder of the Defence Secretary, and the Doctor is branded a terrorist. The Russians have been sold technology by the UK government to help them combat the Millennium bug, but the tech is deliberately flawed, and will prompt the Russians to think the UK set them up, and so launch a nuclear assault. The PM, with Voracian help, is framing Randall as planning a military coup, in order to cut Defence spending down the line. The Voracians will use the Millenium bug chaos to unleash Voractyll on the world. The Doctor manages to con the PM into confessing this via satellite link-up, to the House of Commons, the Russian Premier, and the US President. The PM's aide, Bryant, tries to kill the PM before he can reveal where the Voracians have their base ready for launch. But he fails, and the PM says they've gone to Chequers. The Doctor and Harry go to Chequers, with Harry causing a diversion whilst the Doctor gets inside. He meets a programmer, Hedges, whom the Voracians altered. He is soon discovered, and Harry is brought in to witness the final onslaught of Voractyll. But the Doctor reveals that whilst chatting to Hedges, he put the Millennium bug into the system, so that Voractyll will break down. It soon does, and the Voracians are destroyed. The PM resigns in disgrace. |
| Review:- A few months before 2000, this book was published. I believe it was partly a short-term cover for a book gap created when another book wasn't ready. Richards returns to the themes and characters of his earlier book, System Shock, to produce a computer thriller exploring the impact of the Millennium bug. The Voracians return, intending to top their previous attempt at taking over Earth via computers. This time, the Doctor stumbles on trouble quite accidentally, and brings Harry into the fray. Before long, Harry is dodging attempts on his life, and they find a deadly conspiracy that goes right to the top of the political tree... There are a few obvious problems with the story. As a thriller about the Millennium bug, it only really had a limited shelf-life as a zeitgeist thriller. Worse, the actual Millennium bug caused very little trouble at all, which runs counter to the apocalyptic message foretold here. But putting those concerns to one side, it still stands up as a tidy little tale, spicing a part-rerun for the Voracians of their previous invasion with the political machinations of a double-dealing PM. The notion of discussing politics in Doctor Who generally shies away from the top names. We get the odd Ecology Minister, or friends in Whitehall, but usually the main players are well off the stage. Here, for once, we get names, with Terry Brooks, a thinly-disguised satire on Tony Blair, whose big scheme is to declare martial law, and somehow in the confusion craft a mandate for cutting defence spending. Sadly, this kind of storyline is very hard to get right in a range like this, and pretty much loses the book a lot of credibility. Apart from anything else, the real government at the time were more organised, and more scrupulous. But it does gives us a chance for the big ending at Chequers. The Voracians deserve their return, being quite competent and well-considered monsters, though tying them to the Voractyll plot rather limits their potential. I'm not sure there's any chance of a 3rd instalment anyway. Harry shows what a competent professional he actually is, as he did in the preceding story. Most of the story is concerned with his day-to-day struggles with investigating from the human end, whilst the Doctor is kept concerned with the Silver Bullet chips. The Time Lord has plenty of action too, whether paying a visit to the Voracian HQ, or driving a tank through London. His relationship with George Gardner is also worth noting, as he shows more concern for the man than might usually be expected. He is sharp enough to expose Brooks in the optimum way, and still show kindness to the unfortunate Dave Hedges. The scene where he and Harry exchange Christmas presents could easily have been mawkish, but instead becomes joyous. The pacing is pretty nifty, with constant background references to Christmas and the impending New Year deadline. This keeps a sense of escalating drama counterpointing the narrative. Since the original book concluded with the Doctor devising a new Voractyll, there needed a new solution here, and it turns out to be the Millennium bug. Again, this loses some drama because the bug wasn't that troublesome. Then again, perhaps that's a good thing. Despite the faults that lose it any sense of timelessness, it's still worth reading. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |