| STORM HARVEST by Robert Perry & Mike Tucker |
| Story ? Synopsis: The TARDIS lands on a beach, on the oceanic planet of Coralee. Ace hopes to get a holiday, but the Doctor has soon stumbled across a problem. Meanwhile, a seabase has been viciously attacked, its crew almost all dead. The Doctor soon realises that the Krill are present under the sea, in huge numbers, and almost unstoppable - except through an ancient weapon. But this is stolen by base security chief Garrett, who is actually a Cythosi operative under deep cover. The Cythosi invade, nominally to provide help to the colonists who are under attack from a huge storm, but mainly to get the weapon. The Doctor manages to transport the Krill up onto the Cythosi fleet, where they break out. The Cythosi keep humans as slaves, and the Doctor helps them when they revolt. The weapon is damaged beyond repair, so the Doctor pilots the ships into the path of meteors, whilst the Cythosi escape, and the humans use an escape pod to reach Coralee's surface. The Doctor uses a Krill shell to protect himself on re-entry. The colony weathers the storm. |
| Review:- Marine menaces in space, as two alien nemeses threaten a peaceful colony world... Perry & Tucker continue their "unofficial Season 27" (ho ho) with a more straightforward adventure romp, with aliens and everything. The Krill get another outing (this is presumably set before Dust Breeding), and the Cythosi and Dreekans are both fairly workable new alien races of differing interest. But the action is where the Doctor and Ace are. She shacks up with some bloke, and he cons his way into a scientific institute. So far, so bland. But he comes through well in the quest for the ancient Krill-destroying weapon, and she gets attacked a couple of times, and nearly beheaded. Fair do's. The plot comes in stages. First, what has befallen the crew of the Hyperion Dawn? Krill attack. What can be done to stop the Krill? Use an ancient bio-weapon. What are the Cythosi doing on Coralee? Trying to nick the weapon and use the Krill against their enemies. What is the Dreekan's angle? Some of them are religious nuts who make the big mistake of worshipping a psychopath by mistake. How will the Doctor get the Krill off Coralee? Use teleport/transmat. And so on, and so on, with the human uprising and Ace's relationship thrown in, plus both sides of the Cetacean debate. So, it's a pretty by-numbers story, but well told anyway, if a bit bland. Setting up the ferocious all-conquering Krill is all very well, but pointing out the only defence against them is some silly McGuffin rather shreds any credibility that they may have. Suddenly, the many fallibilities of Daleks, Cybermen et al seem quite sensible by comparison. The scope of the story goes beyond what might have been managed on screen (quite apart from the huuuuuuge death toll, and the thousands of Krill costumes, and the conviction of the 4-armed Dreekans, the titular storm would have been a struggle in 1990. But then, none of that is really the point. Apparently, the writers were glad that Mark Morris' Deep Blue meant they had to come up with a title that used neither of those words, despite the temptation. That is something that benefits the book. On the whole, it's a pretty straightforward book that won't frighten the horses, or tax their minds. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |