| THE TURING TEST by Paul Leonard |
| Story 38 Synopsis: England, 1944. Codebreaker Alan Turing meets a stranger called the Doctor, at Oxford, shortly before being called back in to work on a new code being transmitted from Dresden. The Doctor helps him crack it, and both men are taken to Paris. The Doctor suspects the Allies have bad intentions, and they suspect he is also up to no good. He determines to reach Dresden, and persuades Turing to go with him. Meanwhile, the Allies, in the person of Elgar and Graham Greene, are also trying to reach Dresden. Greene realises Elgar is one of the aliens who were transmitting a distress message from Dresden. He believes the Doctor to be his enemy, and when the bombing of the city begins, and Elgar's life seems forfeit, Greene shoots the Doctor, then tries to help Elgar finish his mission. But the Doctor only feigned being shot, and with Turing, and a US pilot, Joseph Heller, he manages to dispose of Elgar, allowing the other aliens to leave. But he is distraught when they leave without him, as he expected to go with them. With Dresden burning, he tells Turing, Greene and Heller that they have work to do. |
| Review:- First-person narratives are rare in Dr Who books, especially when told through three voices, and those being the voices of people like Alan Turing, Graham Greene and Joseph Heller. The structure of the book suits each amanuensis, with Turing's book-ish opening 1/3 explaining how the Doctor got himself involved in the mystery of the alien code. Then, Greene's section expands the story of the aliens, showing their earlier actions in Africa, and why Greene took his stance against the Doctor. Heller's final section recounts some of the same ground, picking up on Turing's tale, and showing events in Dresden from a second viewpoint, basically allowing the reader to learn the truth, which Greene was not aware of. This sort of narrative trick would only really work with subjective first-person accounts. Fortunately, the plot is intriguing, so the gimmickry works. The amnesiac Doctor seems to have worked out he does not belong on Earth, and when he learns of others who have a similar problem, he sets out to help them, hoping to join them. But he seems to be alone in realising he is not the same as them, either, and his efforts come to naught. He proves adept at egging Turing on, and exploiting the help of Greene, but is unable to entirely keep control of the situation. His rescue of Heller could be construed as anti-heroic, as he allows the pilot to exchange one madness for another. Setting the denouement amidst the nightmarish chaos of the Dresden firestorm is a credible way to assert the high stakes without cheapening the effect of the rest of the War. Greene's revelation to Turing about the Holocaust ties in with the rather mechanistic aliens, leading Turing towards his infamous judgement of the "Turing Test" as a way to distinguish humans from robots. The desensitising effects of war, of which Heller is a useful example, also play heavy with that theme. Ultimately, the aliens are saved, and the Doctor finds himself left behind, to his dismay. His anguish seems to show that perhaps his earlier actions were not so selfless as they might have seemed, and that Greene's rather negative opinion of him did have some justification. But he soon seems to get over it, organising the others to help clear up the mess in the city. Overall, it's an enjoyable little thriller, helped by its gimmick, and yet taking its setting seriously. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |