Who Reviews Autonomy by DJ Forrest

Written by Daniel Blythe

For BBC Books

Published 2009

There is something very cold and unfeeling, as there is for much of the Whoniverse baddies, and none more so than the Autons. First crashing onto our screens wearing nylon shirts, a throwback of the 70s charity and thrift shop. They returned in 2005, with much more plastic and a far better wardrobe, but equally as scary.  And not even the 80s film Mannequin could convince us that you could fall in love with them.

In Autonomy by Daniel Blythe, the Nestene Consciousness is but a small green glowing blob, and it's dying. But with new support from Miss Elizabeth Devonshire, a business woman who rescued the blob about 30 years ago, the new age of Plastinol is setting its sights well and truly on Earth, starting with Hyperville - a 24 hour shopping city with theme parks for all enthusiasts.

This story brought to mind all the scary things I dreaded as a child. Walking and talking plastic dolls, with glowing eyes and repetitive speech patterns and scary ass laughter that chilled you to the core. Dolls that given as a child, were found months later in the bottom of a wardrobe buried under layers of clothing, and books and anything that would stop it from coming back into my room, scaring the b'jezus out of me.

Despite it's scariness, as with many horror films, you want to know that by the end of the story, the evil is defeated and the Time Lord is victorious. Yet, glancing around my room, my car, my neighbourhood, it wouldn't take much for the Nestene Consciousness to return to Earth, and take back control...