White Darkness

Summary: 8/10 Doctor Who and the Zombies? The Doctor, Benny and Ace go to early 20th century Haiti before the American invasion in order to fight unnameable terrors from the old time. An enjoyable Doctor Who story.

When I was growing up, one of the first James Bond movies I remember seeing on TV was the broadcast of Live and Let Die. This movie was quite intense for someone who had to be under ten, and Haiti feels like a natural location for a Doctor Who story when you give it some thought.

In White Darkness David A McIntee is able to capture both the historical feel of early 20th century Haiti and use the vodoun culture as a natural backdrop to a Doctor Who story, as well as mixing in a good deal of H.P. Lovecraft as well.

White Darkness also works well as being primarily a historical, the enemies are throughout the book primarily human, and it builds as the story goes along. Like many other traditional Who stories, we have a story where the Big Baddies don't need to be seen running all over the place, but can rely on their agents.

Most of the characters work well -- I'm not terribly fond of the Ace of this period, as I don't think the "leather bound chicks with guns" is a good idea in Doctor Who. However, this book treats her as well as can be done -- a solider, and this can be portrayed well against the cultural norms of the time. Benny's role in the story didn't particularly stand out in the book for me, either for good or ill.

There are a number of good seventh Doctor scenes in this novel -- one, of my favorites is when the Doctor is being challenged by his interegators, and he tells them to draw a Tarot card, in response to their request for his identity. It feels like a natural seventh Doctor scene -- but one that would only work for him.

White Darkness isn't one of the "must read" Virgin Doctor Who stories; if you are looking for the core Virgin books this isn't one of them. On the other hand, this is better than many of them (I'd say something like "Deceit" is a must-read, even though it is rubbish) -- this is a fun book, and definitely worth reading if you come across it.