The Suns of Caresh

The planet Caresh is in trouble. A woman named Troy Game finds herself on Earth with no real memories of why she is there, only that she is lost and her world, Caresh, faces disaster. A man named Lord Roche holds the key to Caresh's salvation but she does not know where he is. The Doctor and Jo Grant cross paths with Troy Game while investigating what the Doctor initially believes to be a simple matter of small temporal anomaly, but as Troy Game's memories clear and the Doctor's investigation broadens it appears that the events on both worlds are connected, and that while Earth's problems are minor, Caresh itself it at risk of destruction. 

I'm going to start with an observation about the cover. The Doctor and Jo have shaved heads, which is not something that happens on the televised series at all. Given that the novel is set sometime shortly after the Doctor is freed by the Time Lords it would imply that there is a big gap - a couple years potentially - between the events of The Suns of Caresh and the next televised episode where the Doctor and Jo would appear with full heads of hair. Interesting that - and fertile ground for the Doctor and Jo to go off and do all sorts of things together while their hair grows back in. Unless some fan wanker is going to suggest that they just wear wigs for the next little while. I'll go with my own theory, so this would be a great spot to drop any further third Doctor and Jo tales unless they have some pretty specific references to television.

And now the story itself. Paul Saint wrote it with far more intelligence than was the norm for the BBC Books range, which is not to say that this was a more complicated story or that it was hard to follow - it just feels like someone put a lot of work into detailing it. The fact that the type font is so small indicates that someone editing the range felt that rather than slice the narrative to make the page count might have chosen a way to get more content on the page (although my eyes... oh my eyes). The storytelling doesn't blurt out a lot of detail and there are implications used in dialogue instead. There's also the matter of the planet Caresh and the cultural norms that Troy Game mentions from time to time, usually to contrast against what she sees among the people of Earth.

There's also a bit of Time Lord content added in which is handled well. After all, so far the only other Time Lords we have seen have either been evil (the Monk, the Master), stuffy (the Time Lords at the Doctor's trial), slightly mad (Iris Wildthyme) and... well.. Susan. How refreshing to have other Time Lords in the story and not have it be all about their plans to kill the Doctor or nag him or pester him. I speak of Roche and a Time Lady called Solenti - Roche is in it up to his eyeballs with what's going on with Caresh and the snooty Solenti knows a lot more than she lets on and it all drives the Doctor nuts to have to sort out their business. But neither of these characters goes over the top as other Time Lords have in past, which is good to see. Although "over the top" was never said about Susan. Ever.

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