| THE PIRATE LOOP by Simon Guerrier |
| Story 20 Synopsis: The Doctor agrees to Martha's wish to uncover the mystery of the lost ship Brilliant. When they arrive, they find it has an experimental drive that causes it to shift reality as it travels. When a pirate ship attacked, the drive was started too early, causing a big time loop. The Doctor slowly works out how to solve the problem with help from the TARDIS, whilst Martha works on persuading the pirates that there are better schemes than piracy. After the Doctor breaks the loop, the rest of the pirates attack, destroying the Brilliant. The Doctor tries to persuade the pirates' captain, Florence, of the futility of their plan, but fails. Instead, he extends the time loop to cover the pirates' ship as well, and the pirates are invited onto the Brilliant to help spend eternity in one long party. |
| Review:- A curious mystery of causality as badger-like pirates are taught that there's more to life... This is a tricky book. At times, it's painfully irritating, and at times, it's really dramatic. It starts badly, not only with the ghastly Grace Kelly being eulogised as a great song (it isn't), before the story set-up is about a spaceship with an unlikely name, that mysteriously disappeared, like the Marie Celeste. Having already dealt with that one in The Chase, the Doctor happily takes Martha to check out the Brilliant, and soon works out what happened. But then the mysteries began to pile up, and so does the drama, and the book begins to improve. Separating Martha from the Doctor allows a twin narrative, then and now, showing first the effect and then the cause. So, the Doctor finds Martha missing and assumes she's dead, and then realises that she isn't, and why she's not returned yet. So the titular loop covers big events like death, but also small ones like the reappearing nibbles. It's odd, really, that the pirates should come around to the idea of so-called civilisation, just as the Balumin should try to be less snobbish. The class commentary in this book is extraordinarily trite - yes, let's all be middle-class, wouldn't the Universe be so much nicer? The Doctor gets Martha onto the bridge, where they find that the staff are oblivious both to the plight of their passengers, and uncaring anyway - the experimental drive mattering more. When the Doctor puts them in hock, it just adds another group of people who don't realise there's a better way. When he returns to the TARDIS and fixes the loop, he appears to have made things even worse, and when Martha is taken to the pirate leader, the fearsome Florence, who destroys the Brilliant, then the stakes continue to rise. Luckily, the Doctor has already left the ship and fixed the whole story, but he gives Florence a chance to prove she doesn't need it. Sadly, she fails, but in doing so, provides the final victory to the Doctor, who's fixed the loop a second time, allowing the pirates into the party. So, happiness finally wins out, and everyone lives eternally ever after, in one long cosmic party. A very strange ending to the book, though perhaps a fitting one. The return of Grace Kelly at the end is another nod to loops, I guess. Despite its clunking attitudes to ideology, the drama is undeniable, and the characters are all developed into people that the reader cares about. This is shown best when Archibald is killed by Florence, and all his journey to happiness appears to be for nothing. Perhaps the resurrections make mockery of the Doctor's usual stance on accepting consequences, but then the new series has taken a slacker attitude to that than has been the case before. So, it's annoying yet apt. On the whole, it's good and bad in places. |
| Disclaimer: I've read the book. |