I felt the first nuclear showdown was so great and climactic, so well-paced, that the book should have ended there. Unfortunetaly, it didn't.
Yes, but at least there's plenty going on afterwards - like another nuclear count-down. This rather sharply contrasts with System Shock, where the climax is followed by...150 pages of running down corridors.
Hang on... does the plot make any sense at all? It all seems to hinge on political decisions being made over the course of one or two days even though they'd look incredible if they'd taken place over the space of months. I can't imagine even the most liberal president handing authority of Station Nine over to the UN, let alone have a new UN commander installed on the station in hours. If Silver's group has a large number of members why does Kellerman have to assassinate Ferrer himself? What if the generlals had - when asked directly by the president - if Station Nine existed - told the truth, wouldn't that have completely thrown Silver's plan? And what if Station Nine had been disguised as a known installation on US soil - Silver doesn't know where it is until the missiles are launched about halfway through the book! - and not a space station - they'd hardly hand that over to a non-US body and commander!
But then I imagine there must be a lot of improvisation going on, given that it's only the arrival of the TARDIS and the artron energy drain that activates the alien inheritance. How fortunate that all of the group's descendants are in immediately useful places for this sudden spontaenous plan! Don't get me started on the perspective problems with Lord Meacher's Clump.
Still, at least I was completely wrong in my suspicion that Mrs Silver would turn out to be the ringleader... 
And another thing - why is there no mention of what happens in Kerjikistan after Station Nine is used to destroy the missiles? Surely there'd be some sort of retaliatory follow-up by the US, intervention by the UN or the Russians, or at least a full military investigation? Because if there is we don't hear about it!
In fact, Silver's plan isn't to cause a global nuclear war but to ensure that his immediate area in England is irradiated enough to power the Philosopher's Stone and regenerate the aliens. But... in that case, and given that he's got contacts at the Kerjikistan missile base, why doesn't he just have Roskov fire the missiles at his location in the UK? The business with Station Nine and the US political scene wouldn't need to come into it at all!
What, you mean investigate the President just because he authorized an illegal military strike on a foriegn power, based on falsified intelligence? That's unAmerican! ;-)
Actually, I was talking more about the Kerjikistan side of things! Once the Roskov's have been killed and Station Nine has intercepted the missiles, the whole thing is never mentioned again. You'd think there'd be some sort of follow-up and the fact that there isn't just makes it feel like an author discarding a now-exhausted plot device.
Very true, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity for the Bush joke.
Tut tut Mike, if you're not careful the CIA will be dragging you off to Guantanamo Bay as a threat to national security. Then we'll have to start a 'Free the Nitcentral One!' campaign.
How come Justin Richards got away with an epilogue in which Sam was revealed to have survived her travels with the Doctor, and gone back to her own space and time? Doesn't that remove some of the tension of future novels - especially as, given Sam's general level of unpopularity amongst Who readers, many of them would probably have only been hanging on in the hope of seeing her hideously murdered?
But it's no worse than the novelisation of Pyramids of Mars surely?
I've just seen the DWM article with the only known pictures of Sam. There are two of them - one by Lee Sullivan and one by Colin Howard. She looks completely different in both...
Novelisations aren't canon! God, the next thing you'll be telling me is that Ian bumped into Doctor Who's granddaughter Susan English on Barnes Common. It doesn't matter what nonsense Terrance Dicks bungs in at the end of Pyramids, especially as a) Sarah spent half her time with the Doctor in her own space and time anyway, she could have looked the Priory Fire up then (or did it specifically say 'after her travels with the Doctor were over'? It's been a while since I've read this, to put it mildly) and b) By the time the book was published we all probably knew what had happened to Sarah anyway (again, this is a complete guess as I've no idea how long it took to produce novelisations).
Still, respect to Kate Orman and Paul Cornell for incorporating that ludicrous Curse of Fenric novelisation ending into Ace's real fate.
Why should they get kudos for that? If it's ludicrous then they would better deserve kudos for IGNORING it. But they didn't.
Oh, continuity! How do I hate thee, let me count the ways...
Erm, where did Paul Cornell have a hand in Ace's fate in 'Set Piece'? (And Ian Briggs, as Ace's creator, should have some leeway in how he wrote her out). Don't tell me you prefer to see her being squashed to death by a giant flea as in DWM's 'Ground Zero'...?
The novelisation of Pyramids of Mars was first published in December 1976, about a month or so after Sarah's on-screen departure.
Daniel - Kate Orman dumped Ace in a non-Fenric-contradicting place n'time at the end of Set Piece, but Paul was the one who had her shacking up with this Count Sorin person in Happy Endings. (Actually, to be more accurate, he had Count Sorin dumping her and fleeing in terror )
Luke - of course I would have been quite happy for them to have totally ignored the novelisation (which is non-canonical even though it's obviously not as non-canonical as those comic strip nonsenses, in my opinion) but I rather liked the way they managed to incorporate the sickening 'Ace falls in lurve and decides to get married' ending and turn it on its head. And I've nothing against accepting bits and pieces of novelisations as truth, providing they explain/expand on what happens on-screen without contradicting it in any way. I've been told that the only way to understand what happens at the end of The Daemons (unless you just want to accept that this race has a tendency to self-destruct on contact with thick blondes) is to read the novelisation, though obviously I'm not going to even TRY, reading 'Doctor Who was a happy man' was MORE than enough of that nonsense, thank you.
Well Set Piece has her hanging around in late 19th century France and calling herself Dorothee - which is an obvious set-up for meeting Count Sorin if I ever heard one!
Justin Richards in DWM: 'Originally, it was going to be the first Eighth Doctor story after The Eight Doctors, but it got shelved - it explained why he was half-human, all that sort of thing' - WHAT! Well, HOW was it gonna explain this??
'It was also a werewolf story, but it got rescheduled to come after Kursaal, so the werewolves went.' - I think I'm starting to realise why Option Lock felt a bit pointless. There wasn't much LEFT.
I can't imagine even the most liberal president handing authority of Station Nine over to the UN
Though such a concept IS sounding considerably less stupid after Britain handed its nuclear weapons over to the UN for no readily apparent reason.
I've just seen the DWM article with the only known pictures of Sam. There are two of them - one by Lee Sullivan and one by Colin Howard. She looks completely different in both...
I don't suppose one of 'em is Dark Sam from Unnatural History...?