Today I review the 1992 Doctor Who
novel, Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible by Marc Platt.
A mishap in the time vortex causes the
Doctor's TARDIS to collide with another ship, but not just any ship:
a primitive Gallifreyan time machine (a Time Scaphe) from before the
age of the Time Lords. The incident catapults both crews into a
nightmarish world where Time has broken down. Abandoned by the
Doctor, Ace must team up with the suspicious other crew to discover
what's happened.
Marc Platt is best known in Doctor
Who circles for writing the 1989 TV story Ghost Light, a
Victorian adventure notorious for its balls-out surreality and
sketchy, seemingly random plotting. For some, it's a tribute to just
how successful the Andrew Cartmel template could be in the right
hands. For others, it demonstrates just how dismal Doctor Who
had become in its final televised years, as straight-forward
storytelling is sacrificed for pretentious faux-intellectualism.
I'd count myself firmly in the former
camp. I think Ghost Light is a classic, but I understand why a
lot of people hate it and its style. Unsurprisingly, Time's
Crucible has a similarly controversial relationship with fans,
especially on the Doctor Who Ratings Guide. Unbound by the constraints of shooting a
TV series, Platt lets his imagination run riot on the page. It's a
fantastic read if you're in the mood, but only if you're in
the mood. Otherwise it can leave the reader surly with themselves for
bothering to read it.
This review comes after
my second reading of Time's Crucible.
The first time, I was impressed by Platt's imagination and the
shameless manner he exploits the print format to create a story that
could never have been realised on TV. However, I found his
characterisation rather poor except for Ace. I was also lukewarm
towards the Gallifreyan backstory; while I understand the temptation
to want to explore the mysteries of the Times Lords, I felt this was
something that was best left to the imagination. Like the Doctor's
own backstory, there are some things about the Doctor Who
mythos that are just better left
in the dark.
I
came away from the second reading enjoying the story far more. For
one thing, knowing the basic plotline meant I wasn't as overwhelmed
by the surreality of Platt's concept and could better appreciate it.
I also enjoyed the Gallifreyan parts of the book, to my pleasant
surprise. I still won't insist that Platt's vision of Time Scaphes,
ancient fortunetellers and inferitility curses should be the “canon”
version of Gallifrey (Doctor Who tends
to be more enjoyable when its mythology is open to debate), but I
thought the execution was intriguing and made the backstory
worthwhile.
The plot is actually fairly simple when
all the surreal aspects are stripped away. The 7th Doctor
is for once in a fairly vulnerable position for much of the book; he
fails to protect the TARDIS in the beginning, and is genuinely at a
loss for much of the story as to what is going on. This almost feels
like an attempt to counterbalance the usual super-powered 7th
Doctor we usually see. Platt captures the character beautifully. One
of my favourite moments occurs early on when the Doctor and Ace are
sitting in a diner in Perivale, and the Doctor can clearly sense
something amiss, but can't put his finger on it. The contrast between
a mundane setting and the cryptic Doctor is a striking way to open
the story.
Granted, the characterisation goes a
little askew midway through the book when the Doctor loses his
memory, and has to spend a good chunk of the book catching up with
himself. The problem with memory loss in fiction – especially if
involves character we already know – is that the reader doesn't
learn anything new about the character in the process, because so
much of the character's “arc” feels more like a character “loop”
because ultimately, the character is only coming back to where they
were at the start of the story.
This was my impression of the Doctor
here the first time I read this book. On a second reading, I found
that the Doctor does change a little throughout the story (in that he
realises the full significance of the Time Scaphe and its crew, and
the implications this has for him as a Gallifreyan). However, this
could have worked just as well without the memory loss. It comes
across like an extreme attempt to counter the 7th Doctor's
usual all-powerfullness. While I appreciate the intention, I don't
think Platt had to go quite as far as wiping his memory completely.
Thankfully, Ace remains a fairly
straightforward protagonist. This is still very much TV Ace before
her development takes a sudden swerve in Love & War.
Platt does a great job of getting across her brashness as well
as her uncertainty. Platt shows his grasp of the two characters'
relationship, with Ace torn between her distrust of the Doctor's
manipulative ways, and her genuine affection for him.
Another benefit of a second read was
that I came to appreciate the secondary characters more. We're not
given much backstory on the Time Scaphe crew or their personalities,
but their grappling with their horrifying future did make for an
engaging plotline. The breaking down of Time brings the crew
face-to-face with their own futures, allowing the story to explore
themes of fate and predestination. To be honest, I can't say how well
the book covers these themes (what with the general insanity of the
concept), but I was at least
more involved with the Time Scaphe crew the second time around. I
can't stress enough that this is a book that needs to be read
repeatedly to try to appreciate it.
Our villains are a
bit of a mixed-bag. The most prominent is Vael, the sixth member of
the Time Scaphe crew. We first see him on Gallifrey as a student with
pyrotechnic powers (that are never really explained), and ambitions
of breaking out of Gallifreyan society and attaining some grand
destiny for himself.
Vael
is an example of one of my least favourite villainous archetypes: the
power-hungry schemer. He's so obsessed with his own perceived
specialness that he becomes insufferable. There aren't any layers to
his morality or character; he's just a straight-up bastard who screws
everyone over just because. Even worse, the Doctor seems to agree
that Vael is a greater
threat than anyone he's ever faced (Worse than Sutekh the Destroyer?
Don't make me laugh!) when really he's just another weedy
collaborator we've seen a hundred times. On a second reading, I
wonder if Platt was trying to tease the reader that Vael could be the
origin of the Master (another villain who I'm not too fond of).
Our
next villain is the Process, who is certainly more interesting than
Vael, if only because of the sheer weirdness of its concept: an
enormous sentient leech with two mouths on each end of its body, who
also has an older and younger self (who co-exist due to the Time
breaking down) vying for power. The Process is fun to read just for
the fact that you know Doctor Who could
never have done this on TV with the budget they had.
There are a few
issues here as well, however. Where does the Process get its name?
Where did it actually come from? Was it a Chronovore in the Time
Vortex? That seems to be implied but Platt could have done us the
courtesy of making that clear.
Also,
its dialogue is pretty cliched villainous affair. The Process spends
much of its time boasting of its impending victory, or else demanding
the Doctor's destruction. The time paradoxes also mean it speaks in
mangled present tenses, which can get a little tiresome. As a
character the Process is weak, but conceptually, its one of the most
inventive creations I've ever seen from Doctor Who.
Our final villain
is the Pythia, and this takes us into one of the more controversial
aspects of the book. Time's Crucible delves into Gallifreyan
history and the Time Lords' origins to an extent Doctor Who hadn't
done since The Deadly Assassin. Like that story, this has
caused quite a rift in the fandom. Some people find Platt's vision of
Gallifrey's past uninteresting, whereas others argue that the very
act of exploring Gallfrey's past is a mistake, as it demystifies the
Time Lords.
I can sympathise
with the latter viewpoint having felt the same way after my first
reading. On a second reading, I came to appreciate Platt's intention
more. The Pythia symbolizes the old guard of superstition, whereas
Rassilon and his followers represent progress and iconoclasm. The
Pythia's curse shows that even progress can have a terrible price.
Rassilon himself
also gets an interesting depiction here. Here we see Rassilon before
he became the ruler of the High Council, when he was an idealistic
and inexperienced student. Platt wisely doesn't delve too much into
Rassilon's own lifestory, but we see enough of him to get a sense of
who he is as a character.
I can understand
completely why so many people dislike Time's Crucible ,
especially since this business of ancient curses and cults of
prophets is too much like high fantasy to be recognisable as Doctor
Who. I personally don't mind when the series does fantasy as long
as the story is good, which I felt was the case here, but I can see
why the book has such a controversial reputation.
Whether you'll like
Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible depends on what you want out of
Doctor Who. If you want fun, irreverant stories or in-depth
character studies, you're bound to be disappointed. If you prefer
general mindscrewiness, time paradoxes and obsessions with the show's
mythos, I'd say you'll like this book or at least be fascinated by
it.
Oh, and it even has
a moon that turns out to be a giant egg.
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