| VERDIGRIS by Paul Magrs |
| Story ? Synopsis: Iris Wildthyme decides to cheer up her somewhat reluctant travelling companion Tom, by bringing him to Earth to visit her exiled friend, the Doctor, who is just taking charge of Jo for a week's holiday at his home in the country. The Doctor is not too pleased to see Iris, and Tom gets a surprise visitation from mysterious teenagers warning him about the Doctor. A funny phone call sees them finding a railway carriage in a field, full of people apparently from works of literature. But they rapidly crumble into a grey-green dust. Another carriage turns up at the seaside, where the Brigadier appears. The Doctor and Iris are transported to the place the carriages came from - a spaceship in orbit, where the Meercock race are trying their big plan to find a new homeworld. Iris' handbag causes consternation, and many of the Meercocks worship it. The Doctor learns the Meercocks' ridiculous plan was inspired by a green man, and he returns to Earth in an escape pod - along with Iris, who reclaimed her handbag. The Brigadier is revealed to be the Master in disguise, and he takes Jo back to the Doctor's house, where Tom is puzzled by the antics of the teenagers - Destiny's Children. They are trying to frame the Doctor as a bad guy, though Tom doubts it. The Master is also revealed to be a disguise - for Verdigris, the green man who advised the Meercocks. Destiny's Children believe that the Doctor is preventing Earth taking its proper role in the Galactic Federation by claiming to meet nasty aliens. But the Federation turns out to be inside a mountain in Wales, and another of Verdigris' shams. He admits he did it all because Iris was upset that the Doctor was exiled to Earth by the Time Lords. The Doctor gets Verdigris to correct the effects of his schemes, and he gets his exile lifted soon after. |
| Review:- A strange tale of magic and aliens, with different worlds clashing, and a crazy scheme behind it... Paul Magrs is quite popular. So is his uber-creation, Iris Wildthyme. Magrs proudly boasts of his job as Professor of Creative Writing. Ergo, he really knows how a book should tick. I didn't like this book. I've been annoyed and irritated by many books over the years, but this is one of the few times I wonder why a book was even published. It has no merits at all. Neither the Doctor nor Jo sound or act like themselves, but then, this isn't really a Past Doctor Adventure at all - it's an Iris Wildthyme Adventure, and everyone else is secondary, whether they be childish and futile attacks on The Tomorrow People, or the regulars from UNIT, who also get a pasting. Where to begin? The idea of aliens invading Earth by pretending to be characters from fiction could actually have worked as a dramatic idea, but Magrs isn't interested in that, he'd rather have a laugh (he should be writing for the New Series). So this whole sideshow with the Meercocks fulfills no purpose other than to waste the time of the reader. The Children of Destiny are little better (Beyonce should have sued). For those with a knowledge of The Tomorrow People, this heartless demolition is a graduated insult, and for those without such knowledge, the characters are paper-thin and achieve nothing, except to again waste time. Verdigris is a bit more interesting, as a seemingly omnipotent being who goes to great lengths to achieve really quite small ends. His impersonation of the Master (and revealed thrall to the real Master) provide some diversion, but his motivation is tied up with Iris, which devalues him completely. If she were able to conjure up a being of such power, would she really be so small-minded as to set him a task like this? It doesn't do her credit if she is. Jo does at least undergo the spectacle of having her faith in UNIT attacked, via the implication that everyone involved is acting, and the Doctor is a master illusionist. Presumably the intention of this motif is to make the reader realise how amazing the Doctor and UNIT really are, but the in-jokes of how fake the Daleks seem is rather too clever for a book as mirthless as this. So what of the Doctor? Well, despite being persistently belittled, he tries his usual best, though he is understandably irate when he learns the point of Verdigris' actions, and the selfishness of Iris' behaviour. I would believe this was deliberate, were it not for the fact that that would suggest that Iris is the real bogey of the book, and I can't credit that being Magrs' intention. Despite having said this book has no merits, it is short, and it is easy to read. But that's all. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |