| PARALLEL 59 by Natalie Dallaire & Stephen Cole |
| Story 29 Synopsis: The TARDIS lands aboard a secret space station, and the Doctor, Fitz and Compassion are separated from it. Whilst the Doctor and Compassion head down to the planet Skale, Fitz finds himself in Mechta, a peaceful utopia for convalescence. The Doctor is assumed to be a spy working for Skale's enemy, Haltiel. He finds the planet riven by suspicion and divided into Parallels. 59 have created the Bastions, the space stations where he landed, to house the unwanted members of society, who are testing a huge mental environment - Mechta. The Doctor eventually manages to use a missile to take he and Compassion back to the Bastion, just as Haltiel finally attacks. He is only able to rescue 6 people from the Bastion, with Fitz, and re-enter the TARDIS. Haltiel is soon repulsed by Skale, but Mechta is lost. Skale begins to put its differences aside, after narrowly avoiding destruction. |
| Review:- A compelling shock opening splits up the regulars, and places them all in danger... Within the ongoing story of Compassion's arc, and the mysterious future War, this tale feels like a pause for breath, as the insular struggles of one small planet create enough action and intrigue to keep things ticking. Usefully cutting Fitz off in his own side-story, the Doctor and Compassion fall into suspicious hands, and are accused of being spies. When Compassion escapes with the help of an actual spy, the Doctor is left to try and stay alive whilst working out what Skale's problems really are, let alone the nonsensical divisions that the Parallels form. The downside is that the plot, whilst standalone for once, is pretty dull. The idea of a planet trying to reach space, yet fearing the planet of Haltiel they know is there, is wrapped inside a dreary piece of nonsense where the reader doesn't even get the satisfaction of seeing the threat come from elsewhere on the planet! It's all about 59, and their prisoner relocation programme: Mechta. Fitz understandably learns to love Mechta, which is perhaps not surprising when he falls for 3 separate women there. Oddly, at no point does he suspect the untruth of the place, even at the end when it chronically falls apart, he doesn't twig. Also, given his tendency to get romantic subplots in most books, there's no reason to believe that Filippa is any more special than any of the others. It's fun to compare Mechta with the scenarios in Forest Of The Dead. The intention is presumably to make a moral point about the way these prisoners have been treated, but it makes absolutely no impact. Compassion doesn't really dwell on her changes, although her unicardial system causing trouble is an amusing inversion. She only really gets a chance to shine at the end when communicating with the Bastion, and even then she's clear that she's doing it out of sufferance, rather than a genuine desire to help. The Doctor has his work cut out, sorting out the double crosses. The doomed Narkompros is reminiscent of the later Halpin in Planet Of The Ood, trusting in docile servants and paying the price. Whilst Jessen is easily spottable, it is Terma who comes to the fore at the wrong moment, by which time the reader starts to get a bit bored with it all. The final showing of the Haltiel Presence seems like a superfluous cherry on the top. Sadly, the denouement is appropriate to a dreary book which doesn't try to arouse interest in its readers, and consequently bores them to tears. The Doctor's sudden lucky saving of the day, albeit just a handful of the 600 people on the Bastion he intended to save, is given no impact at all, and if the intention was to create anything other than a dystopian vision where nobody really wins, it fails, and even if it was, it wasn't worth it. Tacked on with one of the few EDA covers to depict the Doctor's face, presumably to reassure the reader that it is a Dr Who story, this whole book is just one big waste of time. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |