| NIGHTSHADE by Mark Gatiss |
| Story 8 Synopsis: The Doctor is feeling gloomy, and takes Ace to the sleepy Yorkshire village of Crook Marsham, just before Christmas, 1968. He asks if she wants to settle down, and heads off to a monastery to think. She smuggles herself inside the grounds of a radio telescope. Two people go missing, and none of the phones in the village are working. The Doctor learns there were rumours of ghostly goings-on at Marsham Castle, on which site the telescope was later built. He goes to the telescope, where he backs up Ace. People begin dying after seeing loved ones return to life. There seems a barrier around the area stopping people escape. A coach party taking residents from the old folks home crashes, and the occupants are taken to the monastery, where they all are attacked and die. Ace is trapped there with Robin, a local lad she has befriended. The Doctor struggles to keep track, tying reports the telescope is receiving with the force that seems to be killing people. He arrives at the monastery, and is faced with an illusion of his own. He tries to communicate with the creature, but fails. He reaches Ace and Robin. She sets off two bombs to create a diversion, during which they escape down a rope. The bombs give the creature more energy, and it continues to grow and feed from the villagers. Subsidence near the telescope reveals a paleolithic dig, wherein the Doctor again tries to communicate with the creature, and again fails. Finally, at the telescope, a star going nova inspires him to trick the creature into leaving Earth to feed off the nova. The nova becomes a supernova, and eventually a black hole, trapping it. Ace plans to settle down with Robin, but the Doctor tricks her into going with him instead. |
| Review:- With the initial Timewyrm and Cat's Cradle series over, the NAs came down to Earth with an old-fashioned tale of a distant village cut off from the world and faced with an unfathomable monster. At the time, Gatiss was a little-known theatre actor, but has since gone on to achieve comedy legend status with the League of Gentlemen, as well as act in other series (including Doctor Who). His book is an affectionate tribute to the old series, and takes a lot of inspiration from it. The monastery, the radio telescope, the pub... by keeping to a few easily understandable locales, the story is improved dramatically. The Doctor seems distant and defeatist at first, trying to take a sabbatical. This is, of course, impossible for him, and arguably his initial reluctance means the later tragedy gets far worse than it otherwise would. As for Ace, she finds love, not for the last time in the NAs, and gets to show off her knowledge of space as well as her gift for explosives and climbing down ropes. It's an all-action experience. The title comes from Professor Nightshade, a 1950's TV series starring Edmund Trevithick, local resident in Crook Marsham. He is one of the many characters who are plagued by the return of figures from their past - in his case, monsters from his show. This at least allows for the physical presence of monsters in a story that's working on a more cerebral level than simple terror of monstrosity. Of course, Nightshade is partly a spoof on Quatermass, but whilst the use of a character who is an actor is often dodgy, here it works because Trevithick is all too real. Gatiss takes pains to include some great action sequences, such as Trevithick's desperate and slightly unrealistic escapade in a lift, moments of horror such as when the residents of the old folks' home find no salvation at the monastery, and even pseudo-cliffhangers, as when the Doctor is confronted by a face from his past - Susan. One quirk is spotting elements from here which have turned up in the New Series: a desperate group sheltering in a church, where attackers are after the oldest person there, comes back in Father's Day - similarly, an old entity that the Earth formed around, returned in The Runaway Bride. Of course, it's not as if either of those ideas was original in this book, either. The conclusion allows the Doctor to not quite renounce his previous reluctance, but use science to save the day. He also pulls a fast one with Ace, but at the risk of damaging their friendship. A friendship about to be sorely tested anyway... It's a tidy little thriller that works to create a skilful homage, and the silly need to name characters after people is clearer in retrospect than it was originally (Dyson, Pemberton & Shearsmith, for example, not to mention Messingham). But it's still worth reading. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |