| A STORM OF ANGELS by Marc Platt |
| Story ? Synopsis: The Doctor and Susan are on the run in a TARDIS, pursued by special agent Zeuro. Taking drastic action, the Doctor shakes him off, but at the expense of the TARDIS crashing, powerless, near Earth. They are picked by the Golden Hind, a spaceship commanded by Sir Francis Drake, heading back to Earth with a tribute of jewels for Queen Elizabeth. Zeuro's ship is also brought on board, but the agent is stunned to see Lady President Susan is the Doctor's accomplice. The Doctor believes himself to be in a parallel universe, but Zeuro insists it is the real one, and the Doctor has changed history - and Earth is about to be destroyed. The jewels take over one of the ship's crew, but the Doctor and Zeuro eject it into space. Zeuro becomes infected, and taken over. Renamed Moses by John Dee, the Queen's astrologer, Zeuro/Moses entrances the Queen when shown into her presence, but the Doctor tries to prevent a takeover. The strange jewels infect more and more of the ship's crew, and people at Court. When the ailing Susan slips into slumber, her double appears - the real President Susan. The fake was created by the Doctor to accompany him on his travels, but with power short, her life is almost up. President Susan attempts to make the Doctor see reason - but he tries to make her understand that he must stop the jewels taking over Earth. Realising that the show-stone, which he took from Dee, attracts all the other jewels, he gets it aboard the Golden Hind, tasking Drake with leading it away from Earth. By this stage, the Queen has come along too, eager to see more of the wonders of space. The fake Susan goes back to Gallifrey, whilst the real one stays with the Doctor - since she helped change history, she is as much a renegade as he is. |
| Review:- Following on from Auld Mortality, this story concerns the renegade Doctor on his travels with Susan, but hotly pursued by Gallifrey. History has been changed, and the consequences are terrible... Whilst I was not impressed by the first encounter, this is a great improvement, possibly due to a more interesting premise and historical locale. The Doctor's meddling has led the human race into the stars, and into a trap... which he struggles to save them from. One key improvement is the levels of the plot, with the rescue of the TARDIS leading to the trouble on the Golden Hind, then all the craziness at Nonsuch Palace, and the final resolution. Whilst the Doctor tries to keep his freedom, he has to prevent further calamity for mankind in its own avarice... aware that his own selfish greed has brought him to this state anyway. Such a vast setting for a story means that a few corners have to be cut, so Drake, John Dee and Queen Elizabeth are all fairly understandable from the off, and even in their slightly alternate versions here, their basic human frailties are things most people would follow. Even the Doctor's own desire for freedom, and keeping Susan's company is an appreciable idea, whilst characters like Fettiplace, Raju and even Zeuro all have straightforward motivations. This helps when trying to grasp the idea that the space race came nearly half a millennium too soon, and that the apparent marvel of the jewels hides a deadly design for humanity. There is much value in the soundscape, for instance the theme heard repeatedly at Nonsuch Palace, which the Doctor finally points out, perhaps to the listener, is getting irritating (forestalling an inevitable criticism, though I didn't mind it). The ideas that form the background to Elizabeth's less-than-total dominion give greater depth to the overall struggle, as the effects of the Doctor's meddling are emphasised over and over. Zeuro's arrival on the Golden Hind leads to him eventual subsumation by the jewels, as his plans are taken from him and replaced. It is to the author's credit that instead of having Elizabeth also taken over, the story takes a different track, with the reveal of the real Susan leading into the final showdown, as the Doctor proves once again why he can't help interfering, hoping for the best. The idea that the show-stone is attracting all the jewels, which are in fact asteroids (!?), leads to the solution, and the rescue of Earth - though not its return to normal. Luckily this being an Unbound story, there's no fall-out from this, besides it giving Susan a reason to join her grandfather in exile after all. Possibly the major letdown is the ending comes so out of the blue that it seems too curt to settle all that had gone before. But leaving Drake and Elizabeth out in space perhaps was enough. Or perhaps the Doctor and Susan later changed things even more so? Who can say? On the whole, this apparent last gasp for the Unbound range saw it finish on a definite high. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |