| THE SCALES OF INJUSTICE by Gary Russell |
| Story ? Synopsis: On the south coast, a faded actor dies mysteriously, a young boy goes missing, and a policewoman goes mad and starts to draw pictures on the wall. The Doctor learns of this, and realises the Silurians must be involved. Liz refuses to join him on a trip down to investigate. He finds a Silurian with the missing boy, but is taken prisoner. The boy, Marc, is experimented on, as some of the Silurians are hybrids seeking a cure before they die out. Liz is aided by a Dutch journalist, Jana, and heads for the island base of the Silurians, L'Ithe. Meanwhile, UNIT and C19 are duped to allow control of the Glasshouse to pass into the hands of the man running the Vault, a secret store of alien artefacts in the Cheviot Hills. The Doctor tries to urge the Silurians not to wage war, but he fails. Liz and Jana arrive, but the latter is a double agent, and is killed. Liz is shot. Some of the Silurian scientists decide the Doctor's talk has merit after all. Liz recovers and helps the search for a cure. The Doctor returns to the mainland, but is taken away aboard a stolen secret stealth plane. Mike Yates is able to sneak on board, and helps rescue the Doctor at their destination at the Vault. The war-hungry Silurians attack, using a Myrka. But Benton uses a bag of flares to stun it to death. UNIT arrive at the Vault to rescue the Doctor, and start clearing up the mess. Liz decides to leave UNIT, becoming part of a liaison team with the Silurians. |
| Review:- Following on from events in The Eye Of The Giant and Who Killed Kennedy, Russell writes a return for the Silurians, tied in with an attack on UNIT... As with his other PDA, Invasion of the Cat People, Russell structures the book into 7 episodes, reinforcing the idea that it comes from Season 7. And the story has two distinct plots - the infilitration of C19 and UNIT, to their detriment, and the appearance of a Silurian colony off the South Coast of England, who have a genetic problem. Tied in with these are the breakdown of the Brigadier's first marriage, and Liz questioning whether she wants to stay at UNIT any longer. Also, the Silurians are 'impure', the result of inter-breeding with the Sea Devils. Amidst all this, the Doctor is focussed mainly on efforts to save the life of a young hostage, Marc Marshall. This does at least justify his wilful recklessness in going to investigate the Silurian sighting without letting anyone know where he is going, and swearing Liz to secrecy. It's rather a shame that his efforts to make the Silurians see sense fail, and yet Liz is accepted rather quickly. The inference is that she is somehow more trustworthy than him, or maybe she proved his rhetoric, and the Silurians realised the truth of his claims. Either way, Auggi, the bloodthirsty Silurian warmonger, and the mysterious pale man from the Vault make compelling twin evils. The former are irritating in their single-bloody-mindedness, but at least they're understandable. The baddies from the Vault suffer from a silly narrative conceit that has them referred to by description rather than by name. This is one of the least realistic things I've ever seen in a Doctor Who book. It's purely a device for the writer to shroud characters in mystery, and all it does is foster irritation in the reader. Given Russell's rather dogged attempts to list anyone and everyone who has ever worked for UNIT, it's somehow wasted when he can't refer to Tobias Vaughn by name. The power games of C19 and UNIT are a rather silly subplot. UNIT is threatened with having its budget cut, despite its success rate at stopping alien invasions. C19 is undermining UNIT, and unaware that it itself is being undermined. This is not presented with any interest, and is consequently dull. The Brigadier's wife leaving him is made interesting, although it's arguable whether its presence in the novel is justified. Had Fiona or Kate been threatened by the Vault, then it would cohere, but it's just a loose thread left loose - and those are never worthwhile. The final problem with this book (besides the comical editing that has UNIT staffed by Maisie Hawke, Maisie Hawkes and Maisie Bell at various pages), is the characterisations of the Doctor and Liz. Neither convince, and the latter really is a work of the imagination! The intention seems to be to justify Liz leaving the series between Inferno and Terror of the Autons. This was in reality merely a production decision, rather than a creative one. So, whilst superficially happy and challenged on screen, Liz turns out to be pretty disgruntled and feeling like a spare part. So, she jumps at the chance to play secret agent, and then to work with the Silurians on their genetic problem. Thus, the attempt to smooth her exit becomes just as arbitrary as her exit always was. Oops. But it's slightly better than the Doctor, who gets to go through the motions in a poor retread of his previous run-in with the Silurians. He is constantly at the mercy of chance, although it doesn't help that the Silurians are rather neutralised in their representation - they're either bonkers or placid. He shows little regard for UNIT, except a few words of comfort for the Brigadier over his marital breakdown. His efforts to save Marc aside, he's not much of a protagonist. On the plus side, this is a nicely-written book, and the many character interludes that pepper the story do at least justify their inclusion. But the story itself isn't up to much, containing too many characters whom a reader doesn't care about. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |