Lethbridge Stewart - The Schizoid Earth

Colonel Lethbridge Stewart was supposed to be headed to Tibet on a mission but instead is found to be investigating what appeared to be crashed spaceships in the English countryside. While this sort of thing looks to be the start of routine work for him, he is still working with the nagging suspicion that he is forgetting things, he has headaches, and the world around him seems slightly different to what he feels it should be. Meanwhile as more of the same space capsules are discovered, people from other periods of time are also found including pockets of German and British soldiers from the first world war. Professor Travers and his daughter Anne are recruited to help out in a scientific capacity but the one big mystery hanging over everyone is where Colonel Lethbridge Stewart has gone; despite being on the case himself, nobody knows where he is.

As with The Dark Path here we have another one written by David A. McIntee with his clever and effective science fiction prose style giving the story some interesting twists. He starts out slowly with it though; given that the guidelines of this series are to develop Lethbridge Stewart's involvement with the unusual and not just drop him right into it; he still needs to remain a skeptic by the time he comes into contact with the Doctor once again. The science tech is kept to a minimum and the heavier aspects that do come into play are given to Travers and Anne to handle; their involvement in the series in this capacity allows them to be, in effect, the Doctor. And while the Doctor is not there himself, elements from the present and future series are, loaning a bit of foreshadowing in some occasions, and in others just a bit of a fanboy snarf here and there. Still, as the novel heads towards its conclusion I found myself a bit more aware of how more fantastical things were becoming, and I couldn't help but feel that things got a sudden push towards their conclusion. That's my only real concern with this one.

As with The Forgotten Son some of the Doctor Who references come from episodes which from the perspective of theses spin off stories have not yet happened. Schizoid Earth has its premise and indeed some of its setting loaned from the upcoming episode Inferno and from far future episodes Rise of the Cybermen and The Age of Steel. But the tales are not all linked as such to their parent series; we're only two stories in but the continuity of Lethbridge Stewart's past and his childhood continues to be brought up; he has been surrounded by the unusual all his life but he himself cannot see all the connections just yet, nor will he ever as this immersion really started with the Doctor himself in the future and tangentially touched Lethbridge Stewart's past. All the spin off series so far have been about what came after, but as I said on the last review, here we get to see the before... even if the after is playing heavily into it.

Terry Molloy reads the episode as he did before and while maintaining his skills for voicing Lethbridge Stewart himself manages to do a very good impression of Travers as well - mostly derived from watching The Web of Fear I should imagine, as he mimics the professor's bluster and slight stammer very well. Looking ahead and seeing that he is going to be the voice reading the other two episodes as well is good news: with one reader for the series we'll get the same cadance and storytelling style across all of them, making the Lethbridge Stewart universe a more complete experience. It's just too bad there are only four on audio right now and my personal trip into Lethbridge Stewart's past for this blog will end soon; logistically getting hold of all the material is a challenge as the books do not have North American distribution as such. Yeah there's ordering online as well but the amount of material would really just delay the main focus of my blog here. This sample of other lore is good enough in this size I think.

NEXT EPISODE: THE BLACK HOLE

The Dark Path

In the far future Earth's empire has folded, and the planet has joined the Galactic Federation as an influential member. When a lost Imperial colony is discovered in the shadow of a red giant a repatriation taskforce is dispatched to welcome them into the new order, but the former Imperials are not exactly keen to join. Fresh from their adventures on Vortis, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria also arrive on scene with the TARDIS being drawn to some kind of space-time interference, and the Doctor becomes convinced that the Imperials are hiding something. But the Doctor isn't the only time traveller to arrive; one of his own people is there as well, a man named Kosechi, and the events about to unfold will change his destiny.

The Dark Path was published as the second last novel in the Missing Adventures range by Virgin Publishing, by which time the range had established its own continuity within itself, and a lot of the elements of that time come together in the story. Earth's rising and declining empire were mentioned here and there in the televised series as was its eventual membership in the Federation (no relation to Star Trek) and The Dark Path pulls those elements together to illustrate part of the transitional era between the two, at least from the perspective of three hundred and fifty years after the fact. By and large all hostility between Earth and former warring species has been forgotten and the alien life within the Federation is diverse, including Alpha Centaurans, Draconians and Terileptils and a new species, the Veltroch (the....thing on the cover). Virgin's line also established the existence of the order of the Adjudicators, who were effectively the police force of the Empire, and they are here in force (indeed in the New Adventures range two of their order became companions of the seventh Doctor) to provide a rich backdrop of series continuity. It's almost as if author David A. McIntee was told to just throw it all in the pot for this novel given it would be one of the last of the range,

That notion would also explain why the story was treated as an origin tale for the Master.

The Doctor and the Master have been locked in conflict throughout the series since the evil Time Lord first made his appearance in 1971 and their dynamic has been the subject of many of the New and Missing Adventures, not to mention the odd BBC Book as well. The new series on television brought him into the narrative as well giving its own take on his origins (and a rather idiotic sell out moment where he regenerated into a woman) but it doesn't necessarily collide with what was written in this tale. Not much. But I don't really buy this one, to be honest. I don't know a lot of evil people, like really truly evil people, but having seen the Master's deeds over the years I don't really think that the events of The Dark Path are enough to tip him over the edge when they do happen. Sure he's pissed off and he's already a dangerous individual with a bit of a cold side to him, but universal domination as a goal afterwards? Nah. The new series just writes his issues off to madness from seeing into the time vortex at a young age, so maybe the two can work together as his eventual reason for going off the deep end and wanting everyone either under his control or dead. Or in future stories, both. It's pretty clear that the temptation to write a Master origin tale was just too great - just the same as everyone else who has tried to be the first to introduce the sonic screwdriver in a novel before it appears on screen - and given that the range was almost ended with the BBC not renewing the license the powers that be decided to do what they wanted.

And speaking of foreshadowing (sort of) The Dark Path grabs hold of the notion presented in Twilight of the Gods that Victoria is really not doing well as a companion. She's a wreck. The horrors have come left and right ever since she met the Doctor and Jamie, and although they seem to be able to shake it off and just do what needs to be done, she's not able to do so. Her perpetually confused state makes her easy prey for Kosechi's hypnotic influence, and when she is herself she is constantly wondering how much more of this she is going to be able to take. On screen in what episodes do exist the cumulative effect of the adventures is not entirely made clear; its only in print that we get those moments of Victoria's introspection, much as was done for Dodo in The Man With The Velvet Mask. Victoria is fast approaching status of the second companion to be diagnosed with Post Doctor Stress Disorder. What's more distressing aside from her own turmoil is that the Doctor and Jamie can't see it, and her brave front is accepted as her being able to cope. When it all comes to a head it's not going to be good for anyone involved.

The rest of the book... well you can tell that McIntee is a Star Wars fan with how he plays out the space battle scenes between the Imperials and the Federation ships. I couldn't quite hear a John Williams soundtrack as I read it, but it was close.

NEXT EPISODE: LETHBRIDGE-STEWART - THE SCHIZOID EARTH

Lethbridge-Stewart - The Forgotten Son

With the plans of the Great Intelligence foiled and the Earth saved, the Doctor has taken his companions and left, dusting off his hands and chalking up another victory over evil. But the mess that is left behind had to be cleaned up, and Colonel Lethbridge Stewart is appointed the task of managing the aftermath of what has been called the London Event. The city must be cleaned of all evidence of the attempted invasion and made ready for the return of its citizens, but just as things start to get on track, the dead start to walk and large shaggy creatures appear elsewhere in the country. If the Intelligence is back this soon, it's going to be up to Lethbridge Stewart and the army to stop it on their own.

Spin offs from any series are sometimes a gamble; you have to pick the right aspect of the series to craft into the focus, be it a character or a situation, and then develop it to make it into its own property rather than just a pause where one waits for the original series elements to return. Doctor Who has several spin off franchises already, starting with the one off K9 and Company, a short lived Target novel series The Companions of Doctor Who, and the successful Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventures. The greatest success was with the latter two series, both of them taking a popular companion character and asking the question "Is there life after the Doctor?" The Lethbridge Stewart series looks at the life of Colonel Lethbridge Stewart in his early years, between his first and second meetings with the Doctor, transforming him from skeptical army Colonel into the eventual head of an entire taskforce under the direct control of the United Nations.

Lethbridge Stewart is tired from the battles with the Yeti, and he is still somewhat confused by the Doctor (although for copyright reasons the Doctor's name is never mentioned), but he's got very little time to rest and sort thing out before he has to take on the Yeti once more. This time, though, it's personal, and it looks like the Intelligence is attacking Lethbridge Stewart himself, dragging his mother into the events and making him return to the town he was born in before he and his mother left. Coming home is not always easy, especially when the ones you leave behind have changed as well, and there are personal demons to lay to rest as well as those from outer space.

The Intelligence itself is tired, because this is not the Intelligence direct from the Underground tunnels but the Intelligence from far in the future on a mission of revenge. Without giving too much away it's a bit of a continuity bombshell springing from events in a 2013 episode The Name of the Doctor, and from this perspective if someone were following the episodes as I am blogging them here it wouldn't mean a great deal. In hindsight, of course it does, but what can be said is the Intelligence hates the Doctor, for obvious reasons, and it wants revenge, and the Doctor's allies would also be a part of that revenge. Especially one as vital to the Doctor's future as Lethbridge Stewart.

So bravo to Candy Jar Books for taking this one on and doing well with it. The stories are published in print and are available direct from their website and are well worth a read, but if like me you like an audio version the first four have been created as audiobooks read by Terry Molloy who does a great job at recreating the precise clipped tones of the late Nicholas Courtney. Those can be found here. What will be interesting to see will be how they immerse Lethbridge Stewart into situations involving aliens and still keep him from becoming jaded by it all; the majority of the stories will take place within the year between The Web of Fear and Invasion and the challenge will be to balance out the "unknown" elements. Of course, delving into Lethbridge Stewart's personal life is one way of doing it, so I expect to see him rise through the ranks to Brigadier eventually and see where his secret office romance is going to take him.

Meanwhile....

NEXT EPISODE: THE DARK PATH

Twilight of the Gods

The TARDIS makes a bumpy landing on a lush world with vast flower forests and plentiful insect life. Upon exiting the ship the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria are separated due to the military clash between two rival factions of the Rhumon species as they claim the planet for themselves. The Rhumons are divided by beliefs; one side is a fanatical religious order and the other devoted to the pursuit of science, and between them they have subjugated the peaceful natives of the planet - the Menoptera. The Doctor realizes that this is Vortis, many generations after its liberation from the Animus, and the planet has strayed from its previous location in space and become embroiled in this conflict - but there is still a dark power operating behind the scenes of the conflict, something else which is a danger to everyone on Vortis as its power grows and spreads.

As one of the Missing Adventures line from Virgin, Twilight of the Gods goes into the tempting realm of revisiting previous story locations and letting authors toss their own take onto classic tales. It's not secret that the giant ant Zarbi of the original Web Planet were being groomed to rival the Daleks in popularity so to see them again on page is just fulfilling that destiny to a point, although they themselves are hardly in Twilight. No longer the controlled foot soldiers of the Animus the Zarbi have fallen back to secondary species status behind the Menoptera and Optera (the latter of which have yet to evolve up to be able to fly) and they appear on maybe four pages of the whole book. What we have here in simple terms is a tale of colonization and of course the age old division between religious fanaticism and devotion to science driving the factions doing the colonizing. The Menoperta, however, are no strangers to this sort of thing and are not taking it laying down, preparing their own resistance and readying to fight back as they did generations before.  When their previous saviour returns to help them once more, their own prayers are answered.

I suppose author Christopher Bulis felt this was a surefire hit, and the editors at Virgin backed him, but there seems to me a bit too much happening for the story, and a result it's just a mediocre result, at least to me. The whole collision between the Rhumon people is meaty enough to be a story all on its own without this diversion into colonialism and the mild commentary on how bad it is to impose one's religious views upon other peoples; Combat Rock did this so much better but had the benefit of being written after this one and having more leeway with its graphic content to really push home the horrific. As for the premise of the return to Vortis, it's not like it's not an interesting notion and worthy of exploration, but look the Menoptera are victims again, they're being enslaved again, they're getting ready to strike back but aren't ready... again. It's a return alright, right back to the same plot elements as before. But, you ask, surely not everything? Not the Animus?

Spoiler alert: that's back too.

The only new thing that has been added here is Bulis throwing his own spin on the peoples of Vortis, which is probably not what Bill Strutton had in mind at all when he wrote The Web Planet. Was it his intention for Vortis to be revealed as nothing more than a galactic ant farm? I doubt it. I do so dislike authors who do this sort of thing, and unfortunately there's a lot of that in Doctor Who when it comes to the expanded universe (and on TV ever since 2010 but that's just sheer vanity and arrogance on the part of the executive producer). The temptation to go back and revisit older things and "answer the questions" is dangling there like a transparent carrot (thank you, Alanis) and Bulis, like so many others, bit it. He even goes as far as to make reference to the a sonic modulator device of the Doctor's which he muses he must remember to carry more often, which is the famous sonic screwdriver which made its debut in Fury From The Deep. Bulis isn't the first one to do this; so far there have been two other references to the device in expanded universe lore where authors want to be the first to either reference or reveal the device for nothing more than their own glory.

The only place Bulis really succeeds here is with Victoria. He did Barbara proud when writing for her in The Sorcerer's Apprentice and here again the stronger female character gets some good innings, this time going undercover and disguising herself as a Menoptera to try and rescue the Doctor and Jamie despite the fact that she is scared stiff and is finding herself once more terrified and out of her depth. The seeds of her departure are being sewn here on page, but I'm not particular about that so much as it's an obvious reveal; Victoria has been thrown into some terribly dangerous situations since entering the TARDIS and it's going to become too much for her one day.

That day is out there, but not just yet.

NEXT EPISODE: LETHBRIDGE STEWART - THE FORGOTTEN SON

The Web of Fear

Years after his frightening adventures in Tibet, Professor Travers senses danger and tries to dispose of the inert Yeti he brought back with him. He is unable to get it away from a collector and it comes to life, its form altered into a more ferocious beast than before. The TARDIS comes to Earth after being snagged in a web in space and the Doctor along with Victoria and Jamie finds London deserted and the Underground infested with hoards of Yeti intent on spreading a web fungus through the tunnels. The British army are unable to stop this menace as it claims more and more of London, and the Doctor realizes that the Great Intelligence is once more making an attempt to gain a foothold on Earth and gain a corporeal form...

Tossing the Yeti back into the mix in a sequel set over 30 years after their debut is an interesting move; normally monsters have to wait a year before they get a second appearance. And to redesign them into more monstrous things is also a pricey move from a production point of view; using the same ones as before would have been a cost effective way to do the sequel. But the new look is better if you ask me; the first ones were a bit too fluffy for my liking. These new ones just look mean, and coming at the camera out of the darkness of the Underground tunnels - this is indeed the stuff of nightmares. Like the Daleks, they get scarier when they are seen in the familiar settings of the modern world, in this case being 1968 London streets and fantastically well designed Underground station and tunnel sets.

Of course the Yeti are not really the enemy here, they are just its tools; the Great Intelligence is at work once more and this time it has a plan to get revenge on the Doctor for its defeat in Tibet at Det-Sen. It never comes across as particularly malevolent, at least not when it speaks in whispers. Last time in The Abominable Snowmen it was a harsher voice, this one sounds a bit less fanatical but it still doesn't care who it kills or hurts to get at the Doctor. This includes almost all the soldiers the Army can throw at it, which brings the body count for The Web of Fear up rather high.

And Travers is back! Aged suitably to show the passage of time Jack Watling takes on the role for a second time, and this time Travers has his scientist daughter, Anne, at his side to assist him. As the foremost authority on the Yeti menace the Army have press-ganged him into their service as an adviser, but he willingly relinquishes that role when the Doctor turns up on the scene. The Web of Fear also introduces the audience to one Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart - a man who is going to be a major player in the Doctor's personal future in years to come. Separated from his own unit, Lethbridge-Stewart connects with the group lead by Captain Knight and is suspicious of the Doctor for most of his time with him, only granting him his trust as he sees the Doctor combat the Intelligence and succeed where military might has failed.

Like The Enemy of the World before it, Web only existed in the form of episode one and the full audio version on CD making it a bit of a jigsaw to enjoy. The Target novelization by Terrance Dicks was always there but by the time the audio came out I didn't really remember much of it, and then when four more of the episodes were found along with Enemy back in 2013 I got to see (almost all of) it for the first time; only episode three is still missing out there, reportedly it was with the rest when they were found but it was missing by the time an arrangement was made to take the episodes back to the UK from where they were found in Nigeria. The BBC didn't waste any time in chucking the story out into the world making it a bestseller on iTunes and then on DVD a few months later. The speculation that there may have been even more episodes recovered with this one has of yet born no fruit, but a fanboy can dream.

Out of the terror of the London Underground the TARDIS would take the travellers to their next on screen adventure, Fury From The Deep, where Victoria would be pushed to the limits of terror, but before that there are a couple side trips to take in other media, starting with something from Virgin's Missing Adventures range...

NEXT EPISODE: THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS