Written
by Justin Richards
For
BBC Books
Published
2010
A man walks towards the
bandstand during a lunch break, and dies of asphyxiation and a woman walking
her dog not across the park dies on the dark side of the moon, her pooch by her
side, and an astronaut suddenly appears in a shopping mall, right outside a
fast food restaurant.
‘Houston, we have a problem!’
This was my first
introduction to the Eleventh Doctor stories, that I read a long time ago, so it
was a nice revisit. It’s a Doctor and Amy story, and takes place on Base Diana,
on the dark side of the moon. There are illegal experiments with hardened criminals,
who are undergoing treatment to remove the bad side of their brain, and have
new memories replace them. However, nothing is ever as it seems, and before
we’re midway through the story, the Doctor has discovered the truth, along with
Amy, who at this point, has discovered that, poking your nose into things that
are out of your intelligence range, can get you into serious hot water.
The Doctor in his usual, 'must help the locals fix their quantum displacement device', does so, only to
discover that the locals up and sabotage it – why, well there’s the thing, it’s
not revealed until nearly the end of the story, but there’s plenty in the story
to keep you entertained until the big reveal.
I do enjoy the Amy Pond
companion stories, and sometimes when Rory gets involved it often brings with
it an enjoyable humour about it – but as I’ve noticed with Rory, he’s often an
afterthought.
Justin’s novel is an
enjoyable read, and there are plenty of characters involved in the story that
you’re waiting for them to become who you imagine them to be, and unless I’d
seen something similar on the television, I was still waiting for the UNIT guy
to become something more than a suit and dark glasses kind of guy.
As with all Who stories,
this one is no different. There’s some brainwashing aliens doing horrendous
stuff to humans, because their own bodies can’t sustain them in different
elements – and it’s not too difficult to picture them in your mind.
Some novels have that kind
of ‘talking down to you’ feel about them. This one, by far, does none of those
things. It’s an enjoyable read, and as you would expect from the front cover,
it’s set in America – as well as on the Moon.
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