Transit

Ben Aaronovitch

for the defence: Remembrance of the Daleks (TV/Target) and Battlefield (TV); The Also People (NA)

Oh, and he also wrote some episodes of a thing called Jupiter Moon, although I don't expect anybody's ever heard

of that...

for the prosecution: Impressively, nothing. Although he seems to have a relaxed and carefree attitude to deadlines (I think it was Douglas Adams who once said "I love deadlines - I like the whoosing noise they make as they go past") that's probably more of an annoyance to his agent and his publishers/producers, rather than anybody else. And to be honest with you, anybody who can use "My mother-in-law put a voodoo curse on me" as an excuse for a script being late, is beyond reproach in my book.

Rather than rely on all that dreary faffing about with spaceships and the like, the planets of the solar system are linked by a Transit system (a bit like the London underground, but with large sections of hyperspace in it). Unfortunately not only has the Transit system started to develop a personality of its own, it's also been invaded...

Like Orman and Cornell, Ben Aaronovitch takes no prisoners in his writing style, forcing the reader to (try to) keep up with a time and place that hits the ground running. It probably suffers from being a first novel - he often seems more interested in his own characters than in the Doctor, and some judicious editing would have improved the flow and reduced the page count without damaging the story at all. And the swearing and the sex reads like an author misunderstanding the guideline 'more adult'. For all that, though, an interesting novel well worth a read (or two).

Or at least the F-word! If for no other reason, this book is legendary as the one and only time that Virgin (how appropriate!) used the F-word. Curiously enough, from my memories of reading the book in 1993, I thought the word only appeared once, but reading it again I find that it in fact appears on pages 41, 45 and 70.

And 83 and 99.

117, 202, 212.

And 219

Although the F-ing probably takes the edge off it, there's also a good deal of "shit" in this story. Mind you, it's hardly the first Doctor Who story of which that has been said

And, on the shock-o-meter, there's also a sex scene (and for those of you who can't be bothered wading through the whole book, page 132) between two of the characters. Neither of which is the Doctor, in case you were wondering.

In terms of references to TV stories, Ace gets mentioned a lot, as do the Cheetah People, the Daleks, the Cybermen, and even the cuddly old Yeti. Reference is made to the Doctor's exile on Earth, although it is specified as being a five-year period - presumably Aaronovitch was confusing the period of exile with the total length of the Pertwee era. The Doctor also makes the passing comment that he has visited "all three Atlantises" which either resolves or intensifies (I'm not sure which) the age-old The Underwater Menace/The Daemons/The Time Monster debate. Oh, and at one point the Doctor finds himself watching a hologram of what can only be an opera version of Battlefield. I don't remember any fat Italians in the 1989 version (but then, I've never seen the extended video release).

As regards other novels, as well as picking up on references to previous novels Love and War (Heaven, the Hoothi, and the curiously arousing image of Benny on horseback), Warhead (the house in Kent and the Butler Institute) and Time's Crucible (the wretched Pythia pops up more than once as does that silver kitten) I can confidently report that the reawakening of the Ice Warriors which is kick-started in this book, and other references to the war with 'the Greenies' and their attack on Paris, are all things that are picked up on and used as a basis for GodEngine, published some four years later.

The character of Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart later reappears in Set Piece and The Also People and even gets a mention at the start of The Dying Days. She has monitored the Doctor's presence via reports from various historical events over the centuries, so that she is fully aware of him even though she's never (until now) met him. With that in mind, if it weren't for the fact that Kadiatu is a descendant of Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart (I'm guessing Kadiatu takes more after her mother's side of the family) I would swear that her great-great grandfather was a guy called Clive...

Aaronovitch was the first TV writer to script for the darker, more manipulative seventh Doctor of seasons 25 & 26, and this more sombre, pre-planning version of the Doctor is clearly in evidence here. A perfect example is in chapter 8 where the Doctor has gaffa taped an X on the floor, so that he knows exactly where to stand when the artron energy hits.

At the same time, though, Aaronovitch is at pains to reinforce the Doctor's almost infinite compassion. When he arrives, the Doctor saves Kadiatu from the creature in the tunnels, but fails to rescue an anonymous ticket inspector - yet despite not even knowing who he was there is "a spasm of real pain" in the Doctor at the loss of a life, any life.

The Doctor interprets the situation later in the book in terms of an orchestra and the playing of jazz - as well as fitting neatly with his love of jazz in Silver Nemesis the comment that jazz "is all about improvisation around a central theme" puts one (well, me anyway) in mind of the similar "high drama is like comedy" speech from Battlefield (the TV show that is, not the opera).

We also get to see the Doctor from the viewpoint of various other characters, which is if nothing else enlightening. Benny views him as "something monstrous crammed down into a parody of human form" - although, she has just been possessed by a malevolent alien intelligence, so she's probably feeling a bit p****d when she says that. The Doctor is also compared to a Thunder God.

But most tellingly, and rather unusually (and certainly this early in the NA range, when it was something expressly forbidden by the writers' guidelines!) we get to see the Doctor's own thoughts about himself, specifically the following gem from page 96: "In his darker moments he often considered the possibility that his subconscious was in some respect not his own. That it belonged to some other, vaster, more complex personality." This could be said to prefigure the revelation that he is the reincarnation of Gallifrey's mystical 'other', as we eventually learn in the final seventh Doctor NA, Lungbarrow. Or it could just be old Ben A being arty-farty and a bit up himself. Whichever.

On a lighter note, the Doctor gets drunk in chapter 2, speaks 8th century Japanese in chapter 4, and most delightfully of all, in chapter 8 he gets to surfboard through the virtual reality environment of the Transit system. What a marvellous image - I can just imagine old Sly McCoy doing that. If you thought he looked good on a bike in Delta and the Bannermen, just imagine him on a board...

That Was Then... A grubby, unpleasant, confusing book with a Doctor it's hard to take to. 3/10 (in 1993)

...This Is Now It is grubby and in places very unpleasant; and there are some parts where it's not obvious what the author is actually trying to convey... but the Doctor is in fact on fine form, I was completely wrong there. 6/10 (in 2005)