| THE MURDER GAME by Steve Lyons |
| Story ? Synopsis: The Doctor receives a distress call from the Hotel Galaxian, 2136, orbiting Earth. When he arrives with Ben and Polly, they become part of a murder mystery weekend. One of the other attendees is found murdered in a lift. The Doctor tries to investigate, but the guests won't stay together for safety. Ben is knocked out, and taken to the medical centre. Alison Hayes, supposedly representative of World Corps, the hotel owners, turns out to be a government agent tracking two guests, the Adlers, who are pretending to be writers, but actually are computer specialist weapons experts, come to barter a new weapon with the Selachians, whose craft the Doctor detected in close orbit. The Selachians become impatient, and board the Galaxian, looking for the weapon, located on 2 discs. Despite efforts to delay them, they get the discs. The Doctor deduces the weapon can use computer systems to kill someone, thus making all computers potentially deadly, and enabling the killer to operate from far away. The Selachians use the weapon as a demonstration of their might, and Ben is its chosen victim. He survives an attack, when another of the guests keeps hold of him - the program being specific, is not meant to harm indiscriminately. The Selachians lock the Doctor and other guests in a holding room, then return to their craft, taking Polly with them. The Doctor manages to break them all free, and gets them to the TARDIS, Ben narrowly evading attempts to kill him. The Selachians leave, and the Galaxian's decaying orbit finally causes it to crash down to Earth. The Doctor lands the TARDIS on the Selachian craft, but underwater. Polly manages to get help from a nearby Police ship, but when it boards, the Selachians kill the crew. Polly escapes with the discs, just as the Doctor and Ben arrive. The Doctor and Polly manage to board the Police ship, but Ben is almost killed by the computer program again. Back on the Selachian ship, he manages to fight his way back down to the TARDIS, and initiates dematerialisation. The program, thinking Ben is on the Selachian craft, sends the ship into meltdown, and it blows up. The TARDIS rematerialises, and the Doctor is able to reboard. Ben recuperates from his ordeal. The Doctor presumes the program will think Ben is dead, and its order will be cancelled. |
| Review:- What at first seems to be a harmless murder mystery pastiche takes a turn for the serious when aliens arrive, and the hunt for a deadly new weapon becomes a race against time. Lyons got the 2nd slot of the new BBC range of Past Doctor Adventures, and spins a decent tale of deception and intrigue. The title ostensibly refers to the murder mystery weekend, but the game soon becomes all too real, and the Doctor has a hard job trying to keep everyone, especially his companions, alive. The book works in two halves, with the Selachians turning up to bring a little colour to the last 1/3 of the book. Sadly, despite Lyons' obvious care and attention, they seem as boring as most of the characters we've already met. The whole marine aspect allows for some dramatic scenes set underwater, but this is capsized (hah!) by landing the TARDIS underwater and treating it seriously. As for the participants is the mystery weekend, almost all of them are playing a different game to the one they're supposed to be, which rather weakens the set-up. Clearly, the set-up is not meant to last all the way through, but it's carelessly whittled away, leaving a sense of irritation. The regulars don't do well, either. Polly and Ben take the whole book to realise they do have feelings for each other, inbetween her fitful attempts to play the game, and later problems as a prisoner. This at least gives her some depth, sadly lacking elsewhere (though that's a long-standing defect of the character). Ben gets a proper subplot, as Terri's unwitten cover, and eventual victim to the nefarious computer program. The Doctor, however, is at the centre of the mystery, so why Lyons feels the need to get some laughs out of imagining him in drag is anyone's guess. He soon dispenses with it, and tries to contact the person whose distress call he answered. He then tries to co-operate with the agent trying to save the day, as well as holding off the Selachians, and saving the hotel from crashing into Earth. Well, he mostly fails on all of these, and it's hardly his effort that stops the Selachians, either. He can't even punish Dorothy Adler. So, what's the use? The back cover blurb says this is set in 2146, too, but that's not Lyons' fault. And this story gets a semi-sequel with The Final Sanction, which explores the Selachians in more detail. On the whole, whilst a fairly pleasant read, it's not a murder mystery with little mystery, and contains little drama, and a lot of characters who do not hold interest. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |