The Face of the Enemy

While the Doctor and Jo are off in the TARDIS, the Brigadier finds himself faced with a series of robberies and raids and a mysterious aircraft crash. Without his scientific adviser, the Brigadier looks further afield and recruits science lecturer Ian Chesterton and his wife, Barbara, to assist with the crisis. As former associates of the Doctor they have experience like no-one else but as the mystery deepens the Brigadier realizes he has little choice than to consult the Master in his prison cell. The Brigadier is no fool and knows that the Master cannot be trusted, but with what seems like an alien incursion underway and the Master himself a target of the enemy, he realizes that the enemy of his enemy may have to become an ally.

Brace yourselves for this one because it is a major continuity buffet with threads from all over the series coming together to form a fast paced and well executed narrative by David A. McIntee. Craftily plunked in the absence of the Doctor while on Peladon, Face looks at the inevitible moment when the Doctor is not around to help out and how the people around him will have to cope without his help. The angle itself has been worked effectively in the new series, particularly in crossover episodes with spin-off series Torchwood, but as it is here, written in 1998, there is only the UNIT family and a few others who can band together to combat the menace. Like so many other expanded universe novels set during the UNIT era there are references galore to the televised series in an effort to link them properly in time and put the whole debate about UNIT as a 1980s vs 1970s setting to rest; and of course with the power of retcon the 1970s is winning even if things like the Mars Probes launched by the British Space Agency are still years away by our own current technological capabilities. UNIT is once again linked with the Intrusion Countermeasures Group (eventually to become the Countermeasures series from Big Finish) which will not actually feature on the series at all save for its "genesis" if you will in Remembrance of the Daleks in 1988, and it is that organization which is credited with looking after Ian and Barbara after their return to Earth following The Chase.

One of the most fun things here is the future of Ian and Barbara; a lot of the expanded universe material through the various novels and the Big Finish line made a point of steering them closer together than they were on television, having them fall in love and get married and raise children, but as far as who did it first this is where it happened (and had they made their cameo at the end of The War Machines as was originally planned this would somehow be even more poignant). And their connections with the Doctor have certainly greased the wheels where their employment futures are concerned; despite their flimsy story of doing charity work in Africa they were eventually reinstated as teachers and went on to raise a son, John. Being consulted by UNIT isn't really something they are used to but once they realize that the Doctor is peripherally involved they rejoin the fight on his behalf. Barbara had hoped this was all behind her, but Ian shows little hesitation in getting involved, almost as if he is enjoying himself.

The Master comes across once again as one of the most stylish villains of the series, taking everything around him in stride and dispatching his own enemies without a moment's hesitation. Yes, Face is a very violent novel with a body count unlike any others, but that's what one comes to expect from McIntee. But in among the slaughter is also the Master's cold scientific side coming to the surface as he steps into the Doctor's place to aid UNIT against this mysterious enemy who look less and less like an alien force and more like something homegrown, just with slightly edgier technology and even access to limited time travel capabilities. This suits the Master fine; at this point he is still imprisoned and is looking for a way to escape once he recovers his TARDIS. Unlike in Harvest of Time (which was written some time after this one) the Master is in a more comfortable prison setting, treated more like a permanent guest than a prisoner, but he's no-one's prisoner and has the place running to his design and could walk out any time he felt like it.

The men and women of UNIT (well, single woman - Corporal Bell) are forced to up their game with the Doctor gone and with the Brigadier's leadership they do excel eventually. McIntee can't resist the lure of retcon, though, and uses his novel to give insight into why Corporal Carol Bell was never seen again after Day of the Daleks, as well as offering an introduction to future companion Surgeon-Lieutenant Harry Sullivan. Normally I get annoyed at this sort of thing, writing it off to the ego of the author, but here McIntee makes it make sense and captures Harry perfectly on page, and there is just enough of him to make it worthwhile; Harry is not immersed in the action so deep that he would not be taken aback when the day comes for him to finally enter the TARDIS.

And I would love to say how brilliant the whole reveal is of the real enemy and where they came from and what they are doing, but it's a mega spoiler and all McIntee's careful build up would just be for nothing. By the time the truth does come out though the reader would be almost there anyways, picking up the breadcrumbs scattered through the narrative. And it's not a cop-out at all; it all makes sense, such perfect beautiful sense. And in the end it's a bit of a reveal about how UNIT will cope without the Doctor when the day comes for him to actually leave the planet and start travelling again; his exile will not last forever and UNIT, indeed the Earth as a whole, will need to be ready.

NEXT EPISODE: THE SWITCHING