Just finished this- the joys of being a-non library reliant Englishman! Anyway, quite good, very similar to Frontier Worlds ( I suspect Peter A deserves a little more than an acknowledgement for his help).
But I'd better not spoil it.
What's the similarity with Frontier Worlds (other than a naked Doctor, that is)? In FW the Doctor and co confront an evil multi-national company and a planet-eating alien plant, and save the day. In Parallel 59 they confront a bunch of military dictatorships and an alien invasion, and fail to prevent the deaths of billions.
Did you not notice the very similar styles? Especially the Fitz first person bits.
Being a bit of a philistine, I seldom notice styles, unless it's Dave Stone or some similar author who shoves their style straight in your face.
The Fitz first person bits were completely different. Well, vaguely different. In Parallel 59 they were a bit embarrassing - Fitz suddenly decides to keep a diary. No reason (that I can recall) and I don't remember it giving any real insights that we couldn't have gained from third-person text - unlike Benny's diary. Whereas I really loved the Fitz first person stuff in Frontier Worlds. OK, the excuse given was a little pathetic - was he _really_ narrating it all to the Doctor? But who cares - it was just such fun.
Well, I think Steve Cole probably panicked, and dashed to the phone. "Hello, Peter, no, no probs so far. Oh, you've finished Frontier Worlds, excellent. just wondered if you'd give me, erm... some *advice*, that's the word we'll use, *advice*... I'll remember you in the dedication!"
Any one else get the feeling that the whole thing would have been better without the aliens appearing and almost destroying Skale? It just seemed a bit tacked on as if there had to be a massive finale where the paranoid military get their just desserts. Shame, really, as up until that point it had been quite good.
Oh, I dunno. My memories are a bit hazy, but I think I enjoyed the planet getting wiped out. (What can I say? I'm obviously a genocidal maniac.) Given how often Who places planets in jeopardy, this sort of thing happens remarkably seldom, with the obvious exception of Logopolis. (OK, so Earth gets destroyed a few times too, but that's in the immensely far future so who cares.)
Still, it could easily be seen as a cheap attempt to spice up a mediocre book. Like the way some of the REALLY bad PDAs (Psi-ence Fiction, Instruments of Darkness) suddenly announce that the entire UNIVERSE is in danger in a pathetic attempt to make us care.
So what, exactly, is the POINT of claiming that Fitz is in lurve with Filippa? He couldn't stay faithful to her for two minutes! Wasn't it something of a coincidence that she was one of a pitiful handful of survivors? Why did Fitz leave if he was in lurve? Why didn't he ask her to come with him? Why didn't SHE ask to come with him? Why did he barely give her a second thought during all subsequent books...especially when he fell in lurve with Trix?
Any one else get the feeling that the whole thing would have been better without the aliens appearing and almost destroying Skale?
YES.
The destruction of Skale I have no problem with, but there's absolutely no reason it couldn't be the result of all those paranoid dictatorships rather than a sudden invasion a few pages from the end by an exterior force. (Albeit an exterior force that's apparently only after 'em BECAUSE of all that paranoid dictatorship stuff, but still...)
And it's not as if there was TIME to develop the alien invaders at all. In fact, they're so underdeveloped they use the same name for themselves that the Parallels gave them *shakes head despairingly and has unfortunate flashbacks to phrases like 'Our Sea Devil brothers'*
So what, exactly, is the POINT of claiming that Fitz is in lurve with Filippa?
All these years I've been wronging Parallel 59 and thinking that nonsense is ITS fault. Whereas it turns out this book didn't say anything of the sort - it was all Shadows of Avalon retconning the relationship into something more important than it actually WAS.
'It was as if something in the life capsule had responded to his panic...he'd felt a sickening lurch as the vessel launched itself on an apparently preset course, and had panicked even more' - this is THE DOCTOR. He doesn't go in for PANIC. Well, except Troughton, and that's almost certainly an act to put his enemies off-guard...
Why drag the Facility Head out of bed to tell him about an emergency that happened LAST NIGHT but which they didn't want to drag him out of bed for...
'The Facility was a secret installation, undeclared, contravening the spirit of at least ten treaties' - but not the letter? What kind of treaties did these guys WRITE?
'"They're from Haltiel. They have to be from Haltiel." "We should kill them now." The Doctor decided he'd better close his eyes again.' - Really? Cos I'm thinking this would be a great time for the Doc to open his eyes and start arguing for his life.
'The remaining guards held him easily' - is Eight no good at unarmed combat, then?
Skale people all have two hearts? Leaving aside Tragedy Day's claim that practically NO species has two hearts...how likely would a race be to evolve that way? After all, it sounds as if Rassilon genetically engineered that second heart for the Time Lords...
'Perhaps Skale had no satellite. No helpful stopping-off point on the way to the stars, no means of getting such juvenile trophy-winning out of their systems' - surely the Doc's more the 'Going to the moon! What a fabulous, indomitable human achievement!' type than the sour-grapes 'juvenile trophy-winning' kind?
'The grumbling of old men dragged all this way for nothing' - oh I'm SORRY if meeting an alien in general and THE DOCTOR in particular wasn't SPECIAL enough for them...
'The Doctor directed a highly complex, self-calculating algorithm that should temporarily snarl up all terminals other than his own' - whatever happened to 'He'd just have to patch things up as best he could and hope that would win enough of these people's trust to find Compassion...'? How can you possibly expect this totalitarian regime to just NOT NOTICE you - oh. THEY DIDN'T.
If Karron's such a coward, how come she's in the Resistance?
These people have long since accepted the idea of life on their nearest planet, Haltiel - why doesn't it occur to any of 'em that there may be aliens from OTHER worlds?
To be continued...
'We put our week's notice to good use...dangerous, leaving jaded tech-heads around all those computers' - er, QUITE. the totalitarian government shuts down one of its scientific projects...and is so considerate it gives more notice than plenty of companies do in our democracies?
'Soon, the Project - and the Facility, the saboteurs and the terrorists alongside it - would be history. And a secret history; the full truth of whatever occurred here would never get back to the rest of 59. Like everyone else, she'd be looked after by the Government, fitted up with some other position...' - how generous the dictatorship must be with the failed members of a beyond-top-secret project...
'And what happens when a harnessed mind is exhausted?' - how does the Doctor know the minds get exhausted? Why DO they?
'I checked out our source very thoroughly. More thoroughly than her employers did, obviously.' 'She comes from a whole family of dissidents' - great. Now the paranoid totalitarian regime can't even be bothered to check out the background of people entrusted with its space-race.
The Doctor tickles answers out of Jessen? I find that hard to believe. Also embarrassing.
'The Doctor cursed under his breath' - he always seems to be doing that in the novels (well, either under his breath or in Ancient High Gallifreyan). But never on-screen, for some reason.
'Their world's not real, it's all meaningless. They're being used, used horribly' - er, yes, but shouldn't the fact IT'S KILLING THEM be the Doctor's main problem with Mechta? I mean, meaninglessness is a fairly common human condition.
'You're going to Mechta' - Terma to Dam. Without even being tortured for information about his supposed treachery first? What sort of dictatorship IS this!
There's a squad of thirty BEFORE one of their transports gets blown to smithereens. After which...there's a squad of AT LEAST thirty.
'They hadn't thought to take his communicator from him. Amateurs' - sorry to be repetitive, but I'm SO not buying the idea that this grossly incompetent dictatorship could have lasted five minutes. (The authors are obviously aware of the problem and keep yelling 'CUTBACKS!' at us every five minutes. Not good enough.)
Why does Fitz suddenly stop mentioning the hunger and thirst when they must have been getting even worse?
'Frantically he manipulated the controls. "Jedkah was right all along. I have to warn Terma, warn the whole planet!" he shouted to the ruined controller. "Haltiel is taking control of Mechta!"' - yeah, and...so what? Why is the Doc getting so over-excited? Who cares if Haltiel or the Parallels are in charge of Mechta or indeed the whole of Skale?
Plus, said planet is grossly incompetent and wouldn't believe the Doctor anyway. HE'S the one on the spot plus the saver of worlds (pre-amnesia, too, which is something I keep forgetting - there's not an enormous difference). HE should save Mechta/Skale/whatever, since he's so concerned.
'If he simply destroyed the Machtan program, the forces of Haltiel would be unable to gain control, but the people trapped within its parameters would all die. And if he didn't succeed, Mechta would be taken over, and all Skale would be at Haltiel's mercy' - and again - SO WHAT? You're SERIOUSLY balancing those godawful Parallels against FITZ'S LIFE?
Why not use the brilliant virtual reality techniques perfected for Mechta for the ridiculously basic interrogation machine? What kind of self-respecting tyranny doesn't put INTERROGATION top of its priorities?
One minute there are six survivors from this Bastion, the next it's Fitz and six OTHER people.
'He had no idea if the bulkheads would've had time to open or not before the power died completely' - why the hell didn't you open 'em EARLIER, moron?
So relentlessly, tediously action-adventury.
Skale people all have two hearts? Leaving aside Tragedy Day's claim that practically NO species has two hearts...how likely would a race be to evolve that way? After all, it sounds as if Rassilon genetically engineered that second heart for the Time Lords...
Well the Doc didn't seem to think it was particularly rare in The Girl Who Waited...
'The Doctor cursed under his breath' - he always seems to be doing that in the novels (well, either under his breath or in Ancient High Gallifreyan). But never on-screen, for some reason.
To be fair, we've had 'River I could bloody kiss you'...
'Their world's not real, it's all meaningless. They're being used, used horribly' - er, yes, but shouldn't the fact IT'S KILLING THEM be the Doctor's main problem with Mechta? I mean, meaninglessness is a fairly common human condition.
And an EVEN MORE common Time Lord condition. Eternally. (Blimey, the Doc didn't even THINK of pocketing the Matrix when she the place blown to smithereens, did she. Still, I suppose I can't complain about the Time Lords being pointlessly dragged on past their sell-by date AND about them finally being put out of their misery simultaneously, even if rather-unsuccessful-Eight did manage to download the entire Matrix into his brain in Gallifrey's last moments in a way the infinitely-superior JODIE! totally failed to do...as far as we know, anyway...)
'The Doctor cursed under his breath' - he always seems to be doing that in the novels (well, either under his breath or in Ancient High Gallifreyan). But never on-screen, for some reason.
To be fair, we've had 'River I could bloody kiss you'...
...And now the only words we HAVE for our Fifteenth (!!) Doctor are 'What the hell is going on'...