| PSI-ENCE FICTION by Chris Boucher |
| Story ? Synopsis: The TARDIS lands in a wood near the University of East Wessex, where parapsychology experiments are being done. Leela fears evil, but the Doctor dismisses this as her usual paranoia. But free water samples begin to change his attitude. Leela causes trouble in the canteen, and tries to return to the TARDIS. She experiences a panic attack in the wood. On returning to the campus, she finds the person she believes to be responsible for the attack, and is nearly driven to death on a busy motorway. The Doctor investigates the water, and finds a link to Professor Finer, who has been manipulating the parapsychology department's head to get hold of Josh Randall, a gifted student. Finer killed his daughter 6 years before, and wants to build a time machine to go back and stop himself. The Doctor fails to convince him of the danger involved. The TARDIS dampens the catastrophic effects of Finer's experiment, changing history slightly. |
| Review:- Chris Boucher returns to the team he is most associated with, for his 6th run-out, and giving Leela her first taste of Earth. Wittily, he brings the savage to a university, but there's a haunted wood nearby, some dangerous experiments - or maybe there's something in the water? Whether it's the Earth setting or what, but Boucher seems to present a more humourous and warm book than some he has written before. The frailties and foibles of human relations come across time and again, with the Doctor and Leela bemused observers for the most part. The heart of the story turns out to be Professor Finer's guilt for the daughter he murdered 6 years before. But this mystery is skilfully kept back for the conclusion, allowing only the intrigue over Professor Hitchens' desperate attempts to prove parapsychology with the help of a small band of students of varying abilities. With a bit of red-herring-or-not about bottled water thrown in. The haunted Norswood proves a vital place for the TARDIS to land, and Leela finds it dangerous at any time of day. This is one of many simple narrative devices that nevertheless work well, as does the midnight seance in the graveyard, and the mishap in the laboratory with the flotation tank. The Doctor finds plenty that's odd, from the bottled water to the ineffective security guard at the university. By showing us the action that the police would actually take, Boucher has a simple blockage to keep the Doctor delayed from cracking the case. Leela is well written, as you'd expect from her creator, and her reactions to life on Earth give a skewed but absorbing take on things. She unfortunately suffers the main disappointment in the book, when she mysteriously winds up on a motorway that gives rise to the otherwise-irrelevant front cover. The conclusion, with all roads leading to Finer, and his futile but understandable efforts to travel back in time, is fitting, and the Doctor's frustration at being unable to convince Finer of the truth mirrors his earlier frustration to convince anyone else of the danger. Indeed, only Leela believes in him, and she too is almost his only sure point of reference. In this instance, they make an ideal team. And their other ally, the TARDIS, plays a useful if barely explained part in the resolution, which amusingly settles things by rewriting history for the better. Presumably in such a small scale situation, this is preferable to letting things go on as they were, but it's not a resolution you would see used all that often. A good book, and probably Boucher's best PDA. |
| Disclaimer: I've read the book. |