In the mid-22nd century, the Doctor, Ace and Bernice
Summerfield travel to Project Eden, a human expedition to find
valuable minerals on the planet Lucifer. There are also rumours of
“Angels” on the planet, which some among the crew wish to make
contact with. When crewmembers start being murdered one by one, the
Doctor's investigations lead to a horrific plan for the planet, one
which Ace may be mixed up in . . .
From
that plot summary, Lucifer Rising
may sound like a very traditional Doctor Who story, but it proves so
much more than a murder mystery on another planet. This is a story
that could never have existed on TV (and even as a film it might have
suffered) and shows exactly what a Doctor Who
book series can do.
The Seventh Doctor is captured very well here, especially in his
darker, brooding moments. Unsurprisingly, he's already ahead of the
game when he arrives. Lane and Mortimore succeed in keeping him and
his motives a mystery from the reader, even when chunks of the story
are told from his perspective. He also gets some comedic moments in
there, which alleviate the story's dark tone without feeling forced.
Other, broader aspects of the Doctor are also captured well here. We
see curiosity at a new environment, a dim view of authoritarians,
compassion for the misguided, and moral outrage at the destruction of
a whole planet for personal gain.
There is one moment which might strike some people as quite
out-of-character though, which is when the Doctor shoots the main
villain at point blank range. It's a pretty bald defiance of the
character's usual distaste for violence, but personally, I felt it
was handled appropriately. In fact, I think it worked especially well
for this Doctor. The Seventh Doctor had a habit of goading villains
into destroying themselves while keeping up a facade of moral
righteousness; here the Doctor's hypocrisy is challenged and he
realises that if he's willing to manipulate Davros into blowing up
Skaro, he may as well call a spade a spade and do the deed himself.
All in all, the authors have done a fine job of capturing the Doctor
here.
Then there's Ace, who's a bit trickier given how she's changed so
much from her TV persona. There are a lot of references to her
history with the Doctor, where she got fed up of being used by him
for his moral crusades, but they add to the character and don't come
off as fanwank. Anyone reading this who's never seen on Ace on TV
shouldn't have much trouble getting a handle on her character.
Lane
and Mortimore show how Ace has become more militant since leaving the
Doctor; she's better able to give orders, keep a cool head in a bad
situation, and switch sides to preserve her own life. I feared she
would come off a bit angsty and too morose to be likeable and
interesting, but I felt the balance was struck just right. We do get
a bit of insight into how she's fared in the interim between Love
and War and Deceit,
with an especially effective anecdote about meeting the Daleks again.
It's only a short scene, but it still says a lot about Ace's mindset,
the universe of the story, and the relationship between her and
Bernice.
And
then there's Bernice Summerfield, who's in the unenviable position of
getting stuck between the Doctor and Ace. Between the former's
shadowiness and latter's bitterness, it is nice to have one character
who just likes to travel for the sake of fun and discovery. There's a
nice bit where Bernice explores the moon Moloch and notes its bizarre
wildlife. The emphasis on discovery harkens back to Doctor
Who's roots, when it was more
about exploring an unknown universe than sustaining years of
mythology. We also get some tense moments between Bernice and the
Project Eden team, which also tie in with an old Doctor Who
staple, showing how the companions deal with the people they meet.
With the Doctor and Ace on one side, and Bernice on the other, two
important aspects of the show are covered nicely here.
Then we come to the guest characters, and this I feel is where the
momentum slows down a bit. I have several issues with the characters
here, one of which there seem to be too many of them. The book is
packed with them, and most don't seem to have any attributes aside
from their names. There are glimpses of interesting stories here, but
the competition for space means none of them feel quite as developed
as they should have been.
One character, Alex Bannen, starts off as a smug scientist who cares
more about material gain from Lucifer and not the deeper
significance. We then find out about his tragic past, which gives him
more depth and the promise of better development. And then . . . he
kind of disappears from the book, only to reappear towards the end.
Then there's Adjudicator Bishop, who's introduced as a narrow-minded
bureaucratic who's obsessed with paperwork and (of course!)
suspicious of the Doctor. Then somewhere along the way, he morphs
into a pulp action hero who gives speeches about truth and justice, which he administers with his gun. I'm sorry, but where the hell
did this come from?
This technique of hinting at characters' motivations without showing
them outright works for the TARDIS crew, since the series will be
following them and the authors know they can take their time with
them. But for the one-off characters, the ones whose stories are
meant to be wrapped up in one book, it just feels like a waste. I'm
not saying Lane and Mortimore can't create interesting
characters – I would have loved to have seen Alex, Bishop and
Christine all get their own stories. It's just a shame that they get
so squashed against each other that we don't get to know them as much
as we should have done.
Another annoying habit, which is especially clear in the early
stages, is that the introductions are very clumsy. The introductory
scene is one of the worst cases of telling and not showing I've seen
in a long time. It crops up at other points as well – Bishop's past
is unknown until we get a handy paragraph explained to us. Again,
this feels more like a pitch for a fascinating character than a
proper story for one.
And then there's the really confusing choice to skip over their
introductions to the Doctor and his companions. For some reason, Lane
and Mortimore skip this part – I actually forget if the crew's
memories were modified to make them accept the time travellers or not, and the book is so dense I didn't feel like going back to check – and so, it made it hard for me to engage with the story early on.
This kind of tricksiness when it comes to plotting makes me
suspicious, or maybe I'm just sick of it being pulled by Steven
Moffat so much. Either way, I couldn't quite understand the reason
for it.
Now we come to the science fiction part, which is where I feel the
book really excels. Legion is probably one of the weirdest beings
ever created for the Doctor Who universe. You'd have to read
the book to see why as I couldn't explain it here, but all I can say
is that this could never have worked on TV at the time. It shows how
far Lane and Mortimer have taken the print format and run with it. I
also loved how Legion explains itself using a mundane analogy of a
pond, as it reminded me of the Fourth Doctor explaining
transdimensionalism to Leela using boxes.
We also get some pretty inventive death scenes towards the end, which
I also won't bother trying to put into words here. All I'll say is this is certainly not a
book for the squeamish. At this point, the story becomes pure
Lovecraftian horror of a sort that some people will surely love, but
might turn others off. I admit I enjoyed reading it at first, but I
felt like this section dragged out for too long. Going back to the
character issues, some are introduced just so they can get killed
off, which struck me as a bit of a callous move. This is one part of
the book that I'd say was gratuitous.
In keeping with the spirit of the Seventh Doctor's era, the book also
contains some heavy-handed ecological and anti-capitalist themes.
Lines like “the rape of Lucifer” will likely discourage some
people by their sheer blatantness. Personally, I'd say it was
warranted, given how these issues are even more relevant today. The
depiction of a future world that's overpopulated and polluted
certainly clashes with the upbeat philosophy we're used to seeing in
Doctor Who. But Doctor Who at its best has never been
one to shy away from harsh truths, and so I feel the metaphors work
to the book's advantage.
Lucifer Rising is by no means a perfect book, as I've said.
It's characterisation is often clumsy, the plot can drag a little and
it could have been cut down a bit. Its tone is dark throughout with
only a few spots of fun, which certainly won't be to everyone's
taste. But if you want to see the Doctor Who formula taken to
its full potential, I would highly recommend it.
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