| THE STORY OF MARTHA by Dan Abnett* *with David Roden, Steve Lockley & Paul Lewis, Robert Shearman and Simon Jowett |
| Story 27 Synopsis: With the Master running the Earth, Martha has a year to spread the message about the Doctor. Meanwhile, an elite team try to track her down. When she reaches Japan, she realises something odd is going on. A race called the Drast had been taking over before the Master arrived, and are now using slaves to try and find a safe way for them to leave. When the Master is alerted, he uses the Toclafane to wreak revenge. Martha escapes in time, to complete her mission. |
| Review:- When announced, this premise seemed a new low in boredom thresholds. Martha, never the most interesting companion, travelling the Earth to spread the all-important message? For a whole book?! Boring. However, it actually works better because it's a framework to feature 4 short stories which feature the Doctor in action, thus shortening Martha's journey. Those stories vary, but all are fair enough, and it's good to have Rob Shearman back on board. The framing story feels a bit too formulaic, until things hot up in Japan. Whilst the idea of Martha finding more trouble on Earth than she expects makes a welcome surprise, the fact that it's Japan which becomes the black spot in the Master's grid feels rather too much like political uncorrectness, for want of a better phrase. Besides Martha, who is only slightly improved from her on-screen antics by not mooning over the Doctor and hearing about Rose every 5 seconds, the only other character involved for any length of time is Griffin, the dogged pursuer who meets an unfortunate but undeniably welcome end in Japan. Since he pretty much takes the heroic risks that Martha won't, his death has to be viewed with some dismay. So, on the whole, better than expected, and an experiment that would probably be worth repeating, if a good enough excuse presented itself. |
| Disclaimer: I've read the book. |