TITLE

Camera Obscura

AUTHOR

Lloyd Rose

PREVIOUS FORM

for the defence: The City of the Dead

for the prosecution: Nope, still nothing.

WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT ALFIE?

Fans of The Talons of Weng-Chiang and The Unquiet Dead will be pleased to hear there are yet more shady shenanigans a-transpirin' in Victorian England. There's a dodgy time machine out there being used for dodgy purposes by dodgy person or persons unknown, and the Doctor has to stop it happening before the end of the world. Oh, Sabbath helps - and he's dodgy too!

Just as with Lloyd Rose's first novel, this is a good solid read. The plot of a single individual split either mentally or physically into different people fits well alongside the theme of the Doctor and Sabbath being inextricably joined by the Doctor's "stolen" heart. If I'm honest, a more ruthless editor might have removed several sections that add nothing to the story - the Doctor's journey into death is arguably key to the Doctor and Sabbath's relationship, but in plot terms it's contrived and, even worse, pointless - but nevertheless a rewarding, satisfying read, with a surprisingly upbeat ending. Well, ish.

There are various links to the past - original EDA companion Sam gets a mention, as does Fitz' Mum (who appeared in The Taint). Fitz' less-than-comprehensive knowledge of Timelord biodata is exhibited, briefly (he gained what understanding he has during Unnatural History). There's also what I take to be a sly reference to TV conundrum Ghostlight, when the Doctor sees a real one in a theatre, but wonders how he knows what to call it!

Although he can't remember how he knows, the Doctor claims on page 97 that time travel used to be restricted - suggesting that with Gallifrey no longer having existed, everyone and his mother is out there making time machines. Including Sabbath of course, who has a far more substantial role in this novel after his recent cameo appearances. His time-travelling ship, Jonah, is mentioned, into which he retires at the end of the story to the sound of chattering apes. His drowning initiation is also referred to, although we are still none the wiser as to how he managed to survive that. Maybe his ego kept him afloat.

After learning that Anji is clued up on Catatonia in the previous book, here we learn that she likes to watch Absolutely Fabulous - what a modern young thing she is!

We also discover that, by his calculations at least, Fitz turned 33 while he was in Guernica during History 101. As well as making him my age (and also the age of some bloke called David Tennant) this realisation triggers a midlife crisis of sorts, which is introduced here along with the character of George Williamson and his proposed expedition to Siberia. The next book in the series (Time Zero) details Fitz' adventures on the expedition, so Stay Tuned!

Finally, there are some nice references to literature and music of (approximately) the time period in which this story is set - as well as several references to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes (chapter seventeen is absolutely besotted with The Hound of the Baskervilles, and the Giant Rat of Sumatra also gets a look-in) the Doctor quotes Lewis Carroll's "The Walrus and the Carpenter" (page 170) and paraphrases "Patience" by Gilbert & Sullivan when he refers to walking down Piccadilly with a lily in his hand (page 16).

I - AM - THE - DOCTOR!

The saga of the Doctor's missing heart more or less resolves itself here, although whether it does so to any real satisfaction is a matter of opinion. Firstly, the book depends on the notion that while one of his hearts is still beating in Sabbath's chest, he (the Doctor) cannot be killed - so that when for example his chest is literally caved in, and later on when he is stabbed through his one remaining heart, he still lives to tell the tale. Personally, I've had to put that on an admittedly very small list of things that I just cannot believe in Doctor Who - other things on the same list include Crayford's eye patch in The Android Invasion and just how awful The Chase is.

At the end of the book, Sabbath removes the stolen heart - he seems to literally thrust his hand into his own chest and pull it out, in just as simple and inexplicable a manner as he removed it from the Doctor in the first place. The heart is blackened and 'dead', so the Doctor pickles it and gives it over to be an exhibit in a freak show. At the same time, he observes that he is growing himself a new one! OK then...

The comparative weakness which the Doctor feels in the absence of a heart is reiterated right from the start of the book, and amongst other things he is unsure whether he can metabolise drugs the same way as he once could (a problem he encountered in Hope also). From comments on page 80 (during one of rather too many dream sequences for my tastes) he is unaware of his (presumably still present) ability to regenerate - and he is thus baffled when in the climax on pages 268/9 he is confronted by mirror images of various of his previous incarnations.

Sabbath is scathing about the Doctor's interest in women ("he's practically a monk"), and the Doctor's phobia about being locked up (developed in Seeing I, when he was, er, locked up) is also made much of. We even get a bit of swearing from the generally even-tempered Timelord - "Son of a bitch" on page 81, and "wankerish" on page 114. Although in his defence, I don't think that second one is actually a word...

The Doctor's violence again appears, in his escape from the wine cellar on page 179, where he is more than necessarily vicious to his would-be captor, slamming an iron gate into the creature again and again, and again. It does make for somewhat unpleasant reading, I have to admit.

Most interesting, though, are some serious attempts to get at the Doctor's psyche. There is a discussion between him and Sabbath on pages 203/4, where Sabbath points out how fundamentally unjust life and the universe is, and so therefore by trying to make things good, the Doctor is in effect disrupting the natural order of things, rather than restoring it. The Doctor responds: "I don't, won't accept it. I don't approve. Injustice is the rule, but I want justice. Suffering is the rule, but I want to end it. Despair accords with reality, but I insist on hope. I don't accept it because it is unacceptable." It's a sterling defence, and yet one has to admit that Sabbath has a point - and it's in that sense very reminiscent of the discussion between the fifth Doctor and Davros in Resurrection of the Daleks.

The Doctor is also presented as an elemental force whose arrival into any given situation makes "the wave function collapse". As far as I understand it, this is a reference to that old chestnut, Schrodinger's Cat, so beloved of sci-fi writers these days, and which basically has a cat either dead or alive in a box, but you don't know which until you look. So until you look (or until the Doctor arrives) the cat is effectively both alive and dead. Having already started it, I feel certain that this representation of the Doctor will be pursued in Time Zero!

This Book: That lovely Simon Hart sold me this one, for £2.90, making another super smashing saving of £3.09.

Running Score: £82.66 against RRP to date.