| PEACEMAKER by James Swallow |
| Story 21 Synopsis: The Doctor fails to take Martha to the cinema, so compensates by taking her to the real Old West. The town of Redwater has recently been stricken by smallpox, but miraculously saved by Alvin Q. Godlove, a travelling healer. Two spooky longriders turn up asking after Godlove, but when the townsfolk refuse to talk, they shoot a few people and burn some buildings. The Doctor and Martha head for Ironhill, where Godlove was reported to be heading. When they get there, he fears they're the law, and he heads out of town to an old abandoned mine. The longriders reach Ironhill, where the Doctor has realised they're Clades, sentient weapons who rebelled against their creators when they made war unnecessary. The longriders seek their leader, whom Godlove has taken. They shoot Martha, forcing the Doctor to lead them to Godlove. But they find Godlove merged with his Clade-weapon, and almost dead. The machine merges with the Doctor to allow him to save Martha. But he is able to over-ride its desire for bloodshed, and freeing himself from its control. The longriders reach them, and he throws the weapon down a hole, before leading a restored Martha away to safety. In the process, the mine collapses, burying the Clades underneath. The Doctor and Martha ride back to Redwater to collect the TARDIS. |
| Review:- Into the west, and plenty of strangers in town... The opening with a family brutally killed by two seeking strangers sets up the plot quite simply. It's a shame that the whole "Planet Hollywood" bit is deemed necessary to excuse the Doctor and Martha heading off for a Western of their own. This is just a side-effect of a TARDIS that doesn't travel at random any more, but scenes like this show that this works both ways. Redwater is a broadly stereotypical frontier town, and the Doctor and Martha are lucky to stumble on someone sympathetic immediately, rather than have to go through the whole "we don't like strangers round here, pardner" cliche. That just comes later. Godlove's cure of smallpox provides the puzzle, though not as much as the fact that Ironhill also happen to be suffering exactly the same outbreak, allowing him to make exactly the same gains. I was expecting that the smallpox would also somehow be tied with the mystery, but that just seems to be a plot contrivance, and a rather shoddy one at that. Still, once the Doctor has been proven innocent by deed, when the longriders come to town, it takes a few deaths before he's got the locals eating out of his hand. After all, the main event is tracking down Godlove. When the Doctor and Martha find him in Ironhill, he walks into a showdown which is nicely set up but tiresomely played out. Obviously, the unarmed Doctor wouldn't be able to out-draw without a gun, but once again the "magic wand" (Sonic) comes to his aid. Zzz. But the journey's not over by this point, and Godlove's escape leads the longriders to place Martha in danger, and give the Doctor the dilemma, especially when he realises their true origin. Clades is a rather humdrum name, reminsicent of the Klade, who were connected in some way to the Daleks. Still, the EDAs were riddled with Hoth, Omnethoth etc, so this is a small matter. That the conclusion should be played out in a mine is another cliche, but this is a book that uses cliches with a new spirit, and so doesn't seem jaded for that reason. Godlove's subsumation owes a bit to the film Videodrome, and it's inevitable when the gun decides that it will save Martha, if the Doctor gives it a new body first. Perhaps the whole "lucky I'm a Time Lord and can out-think the Clade" finish, and collapsing a hillside on top of the bad guys is a mite convenient, but by this point, the book has enough gas in the tank to reach the finishing line. The saga of poor Nathan Blaine provides a useful counterpoint to the action, with the law of the west contrasted with the lawlessness of space war, and the Clades. I guess if Martha had to provide support to the Doctor, then her direct connection is forgivable, if a wee bit tedious. The title proves relevant both to the guns of the time, and the Clades themselves. The dividing line between war and peace can be fragile at times. Overall, this is a warm and entertaining book, and the best of this latest set of 3 NSAs. |
| Disclaimer: I've read the book. |