Do you think Russell put in way too much Peladon background at the beginning? Mind you, I thought Pakhars were an interesting idea.

Ace didn't get much of a role in this one... she is packed off a special mission, spends most of her time in a shuttlecraft and it's all for nought in the end.

Well, in real life there are plenty of false time-wasting trails - I might have actually praised the book for being more realistic than the usual every-action-is-part-of-one-great-plot-whose-threads-come-together-at-the-end type thing, were it not for the fact that Gary Russell has the cheek to claim that Ace had made an enormous difference to the whole business but wouldn't realise it until months later. Uh? What's he talking about?

Yeah, the Pakhars were OK but I can't work out why Benny chose that Pakhar journalist for her bridesmaid - they didn't seem particularly close.

I don't why he found it necessary for Ace to have a quick intimate encounter, either.

Gary Russell seems to be all about trad to the excess. So maybe he felt he needed to make his book a 'trad' new adventure by chucking in an Ace sex scene, a cruddy plot and lots of pointless references to other stories (though this last two just seem like 'trad' Russell hallmarks )

So exactly how much time has elapsed between the events of Monster Of Peladon, and the events of this novel? What happened to Queen Thalira? What happened to Gebek? If Alpha Centauri is still around, why aren't they?

Just curious.

I can only answer one question--Alpha Centauri is still around because they are incredibly long-lived.

You would think that they would have mentioned some time frame, just to give readers some perspetictive. One of the characters could have said: "You don't look like the Doctor who was here (fill in the number) years ago."

After all, in Monster of Peladon, they made it clear that fifty years had elapsed since the events of Curse of Peladon. You would think that they would have done the same here.

Thanks for the info on Alpha Centauri, Mike.

I think they did mention a time-frame, I just can't remember what it was. Queen Thalira got blown to smithereens when she was flying in a Federation spaceship - an accident, apparently. The King in Legacy is her son. (The miserable traitor pulls Peladon out of the Federation.) Can't remember about Gebek. Can't work out how a tradition-mad religion managed to get female equality before the rest of the planet, either.

Good old http://www.gallifreyone.com ! Their time line lists the following:

A.D. 3885--Curse of Peladon
A.D. 3935--Monster of Peladon
A.D. 3984--Legacy

So it looks like the three adventures on Peladon take place over a ninety-nine year period.

Sadly, it seems that the events of this book, having Peladon leave the Federation, makes all the events and sacrifices of Curse and Monster totally meaningless. The Third Doctor and Co. fought hard to keep Peladon looking forward, but now it seems headed back into neo-isolationism.

Exactly. I wouldn't have minded much - I love unhappy endings, and it's unrealistic to expect that, even though the Doctor triumphs every time, his victories should invariably have long-term meaning - only (being a Gary Russell) the decision to pull out just felt abrupt and pointless, a desperate attempt to make fans go 'Wow!' and to hang onto something from the Peladon story he wrote as a kid.

Not at all--the King's whole point to leaving the Federation was to allow Peladon to succeed on its own, rather than as a Federation "ward." I don't know that I would have gone as far as to kick all Federation citizens off the planet, though, as Peladon desperately needs some sort of commerce. And I don't share the Doctor's view that a planet not part of the Federation would be safer during the upcoming Dalek war (though this is the same position espoused by Captain Cisco in ST: DS9 when Bajor wanted to join the Fed).

This 'succeed on your own' nonsense reminds me of that godawful scene at the end of Time and the Rani where the bloke pours the antidote away, on the grounds that he'd rather the entire population died of that Rani-created something-or-other than be indebted to a foreigner for the cure. Grow up, people! If a bit of help can get you over your medieval hang-ups in a few decades rather than centuries, go for it! And if it happened to damage the unique culture of Peladon...sorry to sound neo-colonialist or something, but...small loss. Their 'culture' seems to consist of little but bullying miners, worshipping furry animals, opressing women, and attempting to execute people.

Worshipping furry animals *and* wearing other furry animals on their heads...

My main problem was with the diadem. It just seemed to be something thrown in as an afterthought in order to give the plot (something thin) to hang on. While I'm not overkeen on the 'explain every single thing to the nth degree' type of storytelling neither do I like ones of this type where the diadem is evil simply because it's evil and don't bother asking why or how it was created just accept it exists. It smacks of amatuerism and detracts from the rather good Peladon scenes.

True. But let's be thankful it's a diadem rather than, say, a gold lame handbag...

Ah, so there WAS a diadem. Just thought I'd check. Seeing as the Jests at Scars audio starts off revisiting this particular issue in the happy if utterly deluded belief that anyone would remember a bloody word of Legacy...

Weirdly (OK, not THAT weirdly in view of Brexit, I suppose) Mark Gatiss attempted to canonise this book (or at least the Peladon-pull-out) in Empress of Mars, but the line got cut: '[The Galactic Federation]'ll have their ups and downs like everyone else. And when the planet Peladon pulls out of the Federation to "take back control" - oh dear.'

Bookwyrm:

'The genius of the New Adventures wasn't that they continued Doctor Who when no one else did' - well, that may not have been genius but it was kinda their POINT - 'It's that they were forward-looking, carving out their own universe, monsters, characters and identity' - though in the case of the monsters, only because - tee hee - they didn't realise for years that they were allowed to use the old ones - 'With Legacy and its descendants, Doctor Who turns in on itself, being by the fans and for the fans...trading on a quick nostalgia hit to provide a quick fix, but it has no interest in going anywhere...a betrayal of the essence of Doctor Who itself.' - Oh. Seriously, I'd just thought of Legacy as a lightweight-piece-of-trad-ism (and, frankly, a way better rehash of all the Peladon ingredients than Monster Of) not the beginning of the end, but of course if anyone's gonna destroy your series with fanwank it'll be Gary Russell...On the other hand, New Who manages a fair few trad episodes amidst the mind-blowing glory and there's nothing wrong with that...(Well, unless they're Orphan 55 obviously.)

Weirdly (OK, not THAT weirdly in view of Brexit, I suppose) Mark Gatiss attempted to canonise this book (or at least the Peladon-pull-out) in Empress of Mars, but the line got cut: '[The Galactic Federation]'ll have their ups and downs like everyone else. And when the planet Peladon pulls out of the Federation to "take back control" - oh dear.'

Nightmare of the Daleks decides to join in the fun: 'Since our colony came out of the Federation - thought we could do better on our own - we have to do anything to survive.' I can't help but feel that if only Who had made any effort to promote the positives of such unions BEFORE IT WAS TOO LATE, Britain might have voted differently - it was a pretty close-run thing and the country has had A LOT of Who-watchers (if not full-blown Fans) over the decades...