It's a sign of the times that 60's hippies are now being viewed by popular culture as dangerous and crazy. 20 years ago the hippies would have been the sympathetic characters in this novel. Now that the children of the hippies have grown up (and are writing novels), the rose-colored glasses have been removed, only to be replaced with cynicism.

While I don't think this quite attains the same degree of socio-cultural accuracy as, say, 'Salvation', or the tightly-plotted multi-layered intricacy of, for example, 'Warmonger', 'Revolution Man' does let us in on the 8th Doctor's secret plan for Sam, that was cruelly curtailed by her departure later in the year.

Consider the scene where the Doctor sends Sam to Italy by plane using a false passport. What's the name she travels under - 'Evelyn Smith'. I doubt anyone would have picked up on this at the time but with hindsight we can see it's a veiled reference to forthcoming 6th Doctor companion Evelyn Smythe.

We know from 'Instruments of Darkness' and just about all her audios that Evelyn was the Doctor's one true love, the greatest of all his companions, the very reason for his existence. Her forthcoming tragic departure (where it's revealed that all along she's been an alien symbiote trying to take over her body, a plot inspired by the Tomorrow People classic 'The Living Skins') must have taken its toll on the 6th Doctor and so he spends his next couple of lives plotting to recreate another companion in her image!

Sam is the first suitable candidate. He starts out subtly by getting her to adopt some close to his ex-companions name. Gradually he encourages her to 'dress frumpy'. He starts getting her interested in making cakes. He accidentally pushes her into a time-vortex-magnetron that ages her by about 40 years (after his first attempt at abandoning her for a few years didn't have any effect whatsoever).

How long would it have been - if she hadn't got wise to his plans in 'Interference' and legged it - before he'd be messing about in history trying to establish her Tudor ancestry? We need to be told!

So is the plot of your upcoming novel, Daniel, or having you just been hitting the crack pipe a little too hard? ;-)

I think it's a terrible sign of what can happen to an otherwise sane* human when they read Revolution Man. Let it be a warning to us all.

*OK, it's Daniel - so not THAT sane.

Unfortunately I believe Gary Russell won't let anyone use Evelyn (or Charlie) in the books so that's another idea vetoed...

On the plus side this book is written using a large font and has a relatively short number of pages. On the down side it's written by Paul Leonard, an author whose ability to continue getting published bewilders me. Characters are merely sketched, the plot is merely an excuse to string together a few set pieces and it has a huge Star Trek style ending that is never mentioned again.

It's Jim Mortimore lite - a very poor copy of a poor original.

At least Paul Leonard has occasionally managed to produce a good book. (Not including this one, obviously.) Which is more than one can say for most of the authors who got recommissioned this year.

I don't suppose you could actually name a good Paul Leonard book?

Oh. Um. Well...I really enjoyed Dry Pilgrimage. But then I heard somewhere that Nick Walters wrote it all, and Paul Leonard only put his name on it to get it accepted. So that just leaves...ah...the first third of The Turing Test.

OK, it has to be said, not a great record.

There's a rather weird (and not just cos it LIKES the book) review of Revolution Man in DWM:

'Taking on America has moved the goalposts; can anything post-McGann now be considered too big for Doctor Who?' - what are you talking about? There was nothing revolutionary about visiting modern-day America in the telemovie, any more than there was when we visited modern-day America in The Chase. It's hardly a justification for Fitz spending three years getting brainwashed in China.

'An encounter with Tibetan monks that, with misplaced imagination and BBC Books' earlier obsession with the returning foe, cannot help but suggest the possibility of the Revolution Man being revealed as a ten-foot rug wielding a Web Gun' - god, IF ONLY.

'I've contributed quite a few complications around this period in Earth's history. I don't think the vortex will take much more' - really? I have the feeling Earth's history's gonna get ONE HELL of a lot more screwed-up without the Vortex collapsing.

'I was in Havana for Castro's funeral, you know. They all loved him again by then' - I'm, um, not sure they DID.

'The Doctor...was cradling his coffee cup in his hands a if it were a kitten' - this Doctor doesn't cradle kittens. He ABANDONS them.

'Surprisingly, he was drinking his wine' - how would Fitz know that the Doctor doesn't usually drink? DOES the Eighth Doctor not usually drink? He's not MATT.

'We need to find the next incident. It should be today. The best place to look will be on TV. The ITN news, I think' - odd that watching-the-next-alien-incursion-on-TV seemed such a brand new idea to Eccy in Aliens of London. Also odd that the Doctor would turn to ITN instead of the BBC.

The Doctor has many false passports? He also has a lot of the right money for Sam to fly around the place even though he had none of the right money for the tube earlier?

Sam had 'begun to understand the meaning of the phrase "institutionalised sexism" in a way they'd never taught her at school' - blimey, did they teach about institutionalised sexism in 1990s British schools?

'The Doctor never seemed to have a problem with [money]' thinks Fitz, the guy who had to whip out a ten-shilling note when the Doctor had a problem with money.

'The Doctor's infinite-seeming bank accounts, investments, platinum credit cards. Perhaps he secretly held the whole world's economy together, subtly directed it, kept it going' - um, what IS this sudden obsession with the Doctor's hitherto-unsuspected capitalist tendencies?

'"I've seen miracles," the Doctor went on, "and this isn't one"' - but you said in Pandorica Opens that you'd never seen a miracle!

'The man could almost have been a Sontaran from one of the Doctor's holiday pics' - THE DOCTOR HAS HOLIDAY PICS OF SONTARANS?!

'Sam wanted to ask what had happened, where Pippa had lost faith in persuasion' - um, when did Pippa ever have faith in persuasion? Which bit of 'Oh, you have to use violence' did Sam somehow not understand?

'He had too many memories, he decided. They overwhelmed him, forcibly taking him away from the present, immersing him in the past...There was nothing anyone could do. It was just middle age' - um, since when? Also, how did the SPOILERS FOR THE TIMELESS CHILDREN Timeless Children cope with presumably a LOT more memories?

Why not just hypnotise the truth out of the Brothers Sunshine?

Calling the Dalai Lama the 'Dali Lama' once may be accounted a misfortune, to do so twice...

So, the Doctor's got a card with a button you can press to summon the TARDIS?!

'"But he's on our side?" asked Haystacks. Sam met his eyes. "Oh, yes," she said. "He's on your side."' - 'your' is something of a Freudian slip and yet the paranoid anarchist rebels don't even notice...?

Pretty stupid of the Doctor to turn up at the paranoid anarchist rebel house within moments of Sam phoning him, did he REALLY not think it would arouse suspicions?

'"Is there any way we can search -" He interrupted her question by shaking his head. "Sorry, Sam. Can't be done, or I'd be doing it now. Tibet is huge, China is even bigger. We've no idea where Fitz is, and no way of tracing him without the card"' - for heaven's sake, use Sexy's telepathic circuits! Hell, trace some Fitzy shed skin-particles with whatever-that-switch-you-used-in-Paradise-of-Death.

'I'll look myself, if you'll take me there' - is Maddie INSANE?

'"It's in a state of chaos, being ruled over by an old dictator with more egoism than sense." A pause. "Of course, I suppose I could ask him to -" He shook his head. "He'd never believe me. Not now. He got paranoid in his old age...Shame, really. He started out with some good ideas. But he couldn't see that people aren't simple machines, and don't follow simple rules...Knew [him]. In a previous - well, a long time ago. When he was still...Before he lost...oh well"' - yeah, you know what else Mao didn't realise? That if you don't let people grow food THEY - WILL - STARVE. Look, it's not your fault that Pertwee just had to open his big gob about his great chum Tse-Tung, but you'd probably do better to ignore the hell out of it like it's half-human than to make these pathetic attempts to justify a friendship with a man who was literally as bad as Adolf Hitler.

'Then she took a look at Maddie's stomach' - No one thought to check over Maddie's wound SOONER? She's in agony. She doesn't know whether she's been shot or stabbed!

Mind you, Sam's also in pain after her near-suffocation experience and the Doctor doesn't offer her any painkillers, not to mention checking her over for brain-damage from the oxygen starvation.

'Sounds like a number sixty-seven to me' - um, no, that's leaving notes in the same place every week until you have something to say, then leave the note in a different place. (Er...why?) Whereas THIS is Maddie saying she'd leave a message in the county library if she found out anything useful.

'The slow chant of the Lord's Prayer could be heard on the radio' - I don't remember THAT ever being mentioned in all those plans for how the outbreak of World War Three would be announced?

'"That house?" said the old lady. "Oh, they were youngsters. A bad lot. Untidy, noisy." She peered over her spectacles, smiled at them. A ginger cat appeared and wound itself around her ankles, purring' - OK, I am REALLY not getting a 'We are now counting down the minutes to the Third World War' vibe.

Why did the Communists chuck Fitz out of a plane? Why did they sent him to Britain with a bomb in exchange for the drug when even the book points out what a stupid pointless attempted-exchange this is?

blimey, did they teach about institutionalised sexism in 1990s British schools?

Are they teaching it in TODAY's British schools?

Not that I've ever heard of. Admittedly I tend to concentrate on the whole THEY DON'T EVEN TEACH READING PROPERLY aspect of schools, but certainly there's considerable evidence that they haven't even managed to convey the basic concept of CONSENT, let alone tackled any other aspect of misogyny.

Actually, come to think of it, I did hear about one primary school that gave the kids small tasks to do, paid them afterwards, and gave the girls less because they're girls, and when ALL the children were bewildered and outraged, told 'em to hang on to that feeling when they entered the workplace...

What's the point of having Fitz brainwashed if all it takes is a joke about Chairman Mao to unbrainwash him?

Well, to be fair, History 101 mentions 'the anti-Soviet propaganda instilled in him years ago resurfacing' which I'm guessing refers to Revolution Man - Mao presumably going through one of his kill-anyone-who-approves-of-the-Soviet-Union phases rather than one of his kill-anyone-who-disapproves-of-the-Soviet-Union phases - but it's pretty weird that the only lasting effect of three years of pro-Communist propaganda is to make him hate a Communist country... (OK, so he also calls Anji a capitalist pig but let's face it, we ALL call Anji a capitalist pig...)

History 101?

Another bloody EDA that I've just suffered through (but haven't quite got round to typing all my notes up for yet).

OK, so where's the Brig? (Colonel. Whatever.) Given that Schizoid Earth and Beast of Fang Rock have him investigating Ed Hill for WEEKS...(I'd assume the Brig thought 'Nuclear war? Sure, whatever' if he hadn't just taken such exception to the prospect of nuclear war in Mutually Assured Domination...)

I got through this one quicker than I usually do. I found it an interesting concept which doesn't quite hold together.

I wasn't impressed with Fitz in his first two appearances. For the first half of this one I liked him a lot better. Then the guy manages to get brainwashed into working for Chairman Mao. Then seems to get out of that spell all too easily. Then in the end he clearly wants to leave the TARDIS.

And while I don't mind Sam as much as most readers seem to, I don't get her argument at the end that Fitz is at fault for forcing the Doctor to kill someone. Considering the circumstances at the time, I fail to see what other solution was possible. What would Sam have done if she'd had the opportunity? Did she have a better way?
Besides, it's not as if the Doctor hasn't had to kill before, but perhaps she doesn't know about such victims as Shockeye.

I liked Maddie, but her ending was depressing. Really, if Fitz's brainwashing was cured so easily, couldn't Maddie's have been as well? Instead we get a coda explaining that she kept the cult going and dies a few years later. I know she was a one-shot character, but I think she deserved a better conclusion to her story.

Pippa had the potential for being an interesting character as well, but then it was like Paul Leonard forgot about her in the last few chapters. I'm assuming she was at Wembley Stadium. Where did she end up. The other anarchists as well, of course, but she was the one we got to know the best.

As for nitpicks, explain this sentence from page 177: "It was a moment before Maddie decided it must a real person." I think a word got left out.

On page 211, Maddie says, "There's a Chinese secret agent on the hovercraft. He's come to get the Om-Tsor." Shortly after, Sam asks her what the Chinese are getting in return and then realizes it's Om-Tsor. Well, considering Maddie just said as much! Since when is Sam deaf?

So on the good side, it was a fairly quick read. On the down side, it could have been a hell of a lot better than it was.

But at least the cat wasn't harmed!

I wasn't impressed with Fitz in his first two appearances. For the first half of this one I liked him a lot better. Then the guy manages to get brainwashed into working for Chairman Mao. Then seems to get out of that spell all too easily. Then in the end he clearly wants to leave the TARDIS.

Ah. Well. Fitz is the kind of concept that just...grows on you.

And while I don't mind Sam as much as most readers seem to, I don't get her argument at the end that Fitz is at fault for forcing the Doctor to kill someone. Considering the circumstances at the time, I fail to see what other solution was possible. What would Sam have done if she'd had the opportunity? Did she have a better way?
Besides, it's not as if the Doctor hasn't had to kill before, but perhaps she doesn't know about such victims as Shockeye.

She's killed herself...er, I mean, she herself has killed...(Genocide, I think? And isn't this the book she confesses this in front of the Doctor? *Checks* Ah yes, I discuss this in the Companions: Novels: Samantha Angeline Jones section.)

Since when is Sam deaf?

To be honest, if you spend much time with the Doctor you probably develop selective hearing quite quickly...

But at least the cat wasn't harmed!

Yeah, but the second Ginger got introduced I spent the rest of the book paranoid that something WOULD happen to Ickle Precious...