Original Sin
[Special thanks to Steve Traylen for lending me this book as well. I guess it didn't take me that long to finish them!]
Summary: 9 /10 The Doctor and Bernice visit the 30th century, shortly before the fall of the Earth Empire (see The Mutants). They'll encounter the Adjudicators Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej, who suspect them of murder. And someone has recognized and stolen the TARDIS.
I'm going to try to split this review into two parts; the first will try to avoid any major spoilers, and another that will. There will be a gap before the spoilers.
There are really two types of New Adventures that I can think of. There are those that work independently, where the background mythology of the series enhances the work, but don't require a Doctorate in Whology in order to understand, follow, and work through. There are also those that are entirely for long time, serious fans of the program, those that can recognize names like Solos, WOTAN, Kettlewell, and Borusa. Andy Lane's Original Sin is the second kind of New Adventure, and it's a great example of how this style of New Adventure should be done.
For me, the best part of the book was trying to find out who the old enemy was. It rewarded and played off my memory of the program -- who is the figure behind the scenes? I pieced together the clues, and I was fairly sure who it was before the enemy was revealed, just as the Doctor was doing so himself. It kept me reading, and I tried to pick up some of the possible clues as I went along, troubled by ones that didn't match the theory I had, or ones that appeared different for some reason.
However, I recognize that this thrill means I couldn't recommend it to a casual fan of the series, unless I knew very well which stories the potential reader was familiar with.
The Earth of the 30th century was played well in it's more corrupt state. It's been years since I've seen The Mutants, which also takes place at this time, but it was nice to see Earth farther out into the future than we normally see in the program, and certainly in more detail than would be possible otherwise.
The story also has some interesting scenery, the constructed planet of Purgatory, the prison planet of Dis, both planets well suited towards there names. The primary alien race, the Hith, were an interesting one, one suitably different than others we've seen, with a description very much like something you'd expect the Third Doctor to have encountered. Their names were effective, a constant reminder that Earth is not always on the receiving side of an invasion. The body-bepple, which allows people to remake their body into interesting (and exotic) shapes struck me as an interesting continuation of people's modern habit of body-piercing and tattoing. Each chapter of the book started with the start of a news clip, which was an effective way to show what's going on in the universe [and Earth] in a broad fashion.
There were a few interesting nods throughout the book. The Adjudicators reminded me a little of the Judges from Judge Dredd, but perhaps that's because the memory of the movie is still fresh in my mind. Super-criminal Zebulon Pryce added a Silence Of The Lambs type feel.
The two new companions, Chris and Roz, weren't really in "companion-mode" for most of the book. One of the interesting developments in the NA's is that the companions have run on the older side. Chris was somewhat on the more traditional age for companions, but both Roz and Bernice are among the oldest human companions the Doctor has had on the show. It's a fairly interesting point, but I don't know what it says.
While I was pleased that the Doctor didn't talk one of the robots to explode, but stuck in a loop instead but he's still lucky that the machine wasn't able to run multiple processes. Sometime I'd like to see the Doctor [or a companion] give an "insolvable" problem to a computer and have the machine still continuing to be a threat. Much like the Dalek's levitating after the Doctor in Rememberance.
Now, I've said about all I can say without ruining the big surprise of the book, so if you're not ready and willing, look away, because...
Well, good thing The Invasion came out recently, isn't it? In retrospect, it isn't surprising to have Tobias Vaughn survive that story, and while he didn't come to mind until after Lane revealed that the enemy had lived a thousand years. There were lots of good clues, his age, recognizing the police box as a police box, making an alien less likely. I gave some thought that it could be someone from The War Machines or Green Death. I gave a little thought to either of the super-capitalists Sil or the Gatherer, but the time periods weren't appropriate, and it was more and more apparent that the enemy was originally human.
I had some doubts, after all, Vaughn didn't see the TARDIS in the Invasion. But of course, I had forgotten about the Cybermen giving Vaughn their files on the Doctor, and what someone with Vaughn's technical skill could certainly pick up more information. And of course, to have Vaughn claim involvement in the creation of BOSS, the K1 Robot, was rather interesting.
There was one thought that struck me, however. Did Vaughn ever interact with Zoe? After all, her entire life would have been somewhere in there, and assuming her mind was successfully wiped by the Time Lords, with no recollection of her original encounter with Vaughn. He'd have a chance for some very interesting time manipulation as well, and he was certainly around at the time, since he mentioned the adventure. It isn't a hole, but it's something to think about. [Perhaps there should be a Doctor-less Decalog.] And I can't help but wonder if Vaughn has stock in Microsoft.
None the less, I thought Vaughn was very authentically scripted. I could see Kevin Stoney, droopy eye and all. It was a delight. A nice expansion on where he could have gone, less human, still paying the price for being a traitor to the Cybermen. Doing what he thought was best for humanity, and for a change, he was actually successful in being a very powerful force on Earth, an economic giant, saving the Earth multiple times, according to his claims.
All and all, quite a worthwhile book, with a nice mystery that will appeal to long time serious Doctor Who fans. 9/10