The Missing Adventures
Cold Fusion

Summary: 9 /10 The fifth and the seventh Doctors -- "and don't let anyone tell you anything different" -- bring Adric, Tegan, Nyssa, Chris, and Roz to a planet ruled by a scientific elite. A book that brings in the Doctor's past, and prepares for the future with the TV movie. Enjoyable for fans of the NAs and the series, perhaps less so for newcomers.

I had a great deal of faith in Lance Parkin, after the marvelous Just War and A History of the Universe, so I had to pick up Cold Fusion when I saw it at Visions. I was not at all disappointed.

Lance crafts an ideal Doctor Who book for a fan -- enough references to be amusing. With a couple references to the recent TV Movie, and a well hidden Inferno convention story in-joke, it's made for fans. And since it includes the NA Seventh Doctor and his companions, it's made for fans of the book series, even more than it is made for fans of the TV series. This is perhaps a pity, as a multi-Doctor story will naturally appeal to the less hardcore fans, and this may have just a few too many references for those fans. This book is also part of the lead-up to Lungbarrow, with a cameo of the "Camfield" Doctor, and more hints that the Doctor has some mysterious past -- and the start of an explanation of how someone from the sterile Gallifreyan society could be "half-human on his mother's side" and have a grandaughter. It also, therfore, helps to be familiar with Marc Platt's Gallifrey. If you havve read History of the Universe -- and if you have not, do so -- you've probably had enough of a primer to get a start on some of the references.

With five companions and two Doctors, it is the interaction -- and comparisions -- between the companions and the Doctors that are most interesting pieces. Chris, Nyssa and Tegan. Roz, concerned that she looks older than the fifth Doctor. The seventh Doctor, with Adric, aware of his fate. The primary characters read about right, and it's interesting to read how the "fifth" Doctor style, with the characters talking about past stories in the TARDIS, is contrasted with the NA style where the companions start out separated and already in the action.

The book reads quite quickly -- I finished in only a few sittings, fascinated by what Lance tries to do, putting the different Doctors (and their different styles) together in one book.

It isn't a great book for new fans, and Cold Fusion would have been inappropriate in the first New or Missing adventures, but in these dying days of Virgin's license, is quite an appropriate, and enjoyable book. 9/10

Yes, I apologize.