| THE PRICE OF PARADISE by Colin Brake |
| Story 12 Synopsis: The TARDIS lands on a lush planet called Laylora. The locals are primitives who worship the planet as a deity. Explorers have come to Laylora, but crash on the way down. The Doctor and Rose follow the smoke from the crash, to offer help. Whilst examening a temple, the Doctor is stunned by survivors from the crash, who take him back to their ship. Rose meets Rez, a human living on Laylora since arriving as an orphan. The other Laylorans are menaced by huge four-armed beasts, the Witiku, but Rose accidentally learns the local jinnen plant has an adverse effect on them. The Doctor manages to persuade his captors to release him. They are explorers, on a quest to find Laylora, believing it to have vital trisilicate stores. He finds the Witiku are altered Layloran villagers, and deduces they act only to keep the planet in balance. The only remedy is to persuade the new arrivals to leave, and after a struggle for their lives, this is done. Rez leaves with them, as his presence has also had a negative effect on Laylora. With outsiders gone, the planet will survive a while longer. |
| Review:- Eco-politics, as the idyll of Laylora is menaced in an unusual way... The Doctor and Rose are drawn in by a cry for help, and then motivated to respond to the crash of a spaceship. But they're soon drawn into the local way, where a concern about strangers has valid depth to it. The jungle setting is hardly new ground for Doctor Who, nor are crashed spaceships, or primitive civilisations, or wonder crops, or indeed most of the aspects of this book. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. And Brake writes his story well, keeping things moving, and making characters believable and familiar. Quests are a recurring theme, both Professor Shulough's search for Laylora, or the mystery of the Witiku. Rose and the Doctor are soon split up, both giving an overview of the two sides in the issue - the explorers and the villagers. The mystery over Rez' background provides a running subplot, as he is more pleased to see that Rose is human like him, than the natives are. I must say I expected him to be Shulough's long-lost son, but if that was the case, it was left open-ended. Rose also has to deal with the jinnera and the trisilicate crop. Whereas the Doctor has to convince a sceptical band of explorers that he isn't out to queer their pitch, merely to ask whether they might be better off leaving well alone. And with the Witiku being transformed Laylorans, the evidence soon points clearly enough in that direction. Arguably, this central plot is pretty slight. After all, does it really need hundreds of pages to get home the message that some cultures would be best left alone and not plundered by exterior forces? I did sense some similarity with The Art Of Destruction, but this has a markedly different slant on progress than that book. Brake seems to be one of those writers whom people either hate or love. I have enjoyed his other books, and this is no exception. Undemanding, maybe, but at least it doesn't belittle its audience. |
| Disclaimer: I've read the book. |