Earthworld

AUTHOR

Jacqueline Rayner

PREVIOUS FORM

Well since this book she has written audio plays and other books... But that's for the future. Somewhat irrelevantly (but I'll mention it anyway) her photo appears in DWM every month. Mmm...

WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT ALFIE?

A very bizarre tale, perhaps taking the film "Westworld" as its inspiration. The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Fitz and Anji to a future Earth colony, where a new theme park (Earthworld) is about to open. A not wholly accurate representation of Earth during various eras (the 20th Century, Prehistory, Ancient Egypt) the theme park is populated by androids. More worryingly the androids are operated by the three homicidal daughters of the apathetic colony President. An odd tale, taking in King Arthur, Elvis and a bit of artificial insemination. Yes, you heard me...

THE 100 WORD REVIEW

On TV this one would probably have had a distinctive visual style, akin to the "The Happiness Patrol" or "Ghostlight". As just 'the latest in a series of books' it's much more difficult to convey a stylised or surreal feel, which is probably where the book suffers. It's hard to actually care about the President, his dead wife, or their killer daughters, and it's an odd choice for the first story after the Doctor regains his freedom. On the plus side the regulars, particularly newbie Anji, are very well-served and Anji's grief over her dead boyfriend is neatly handled.

THE C WORD

Alan Turing gets a mention (maybe the Doctor did fancy him after all).

The twentieth century zone in the theme park is an odd confusion of elements from the past - so there are War Machines who deliver the post (a distortion of the War Machines being controlled from the Post Office Tower). In respect of the King Arthur zone, the Arthurian legend by this point in the future refers to 'the Holy Grel' (obviously a perversion of the Holy Grail). The Grel are a race of creatures first sighted in the first Doctorless NA "Oh No It Isn't!" Obscure ain't in it...

In chapter 8 Fitz remembers (some of) his previous female acquaintances. Kerstin (from Dominion), Arielle (The Fall of Yquatine), Maddy (should be 'Maddie', Revolution Man), and Filippa (from Parallel 59). Filippa then puts in a 'dream sequence' appearance to convince Fitz' subconscious to do the right thing. Hmm, maybe Fitz could do a cover-version of The Beautiful South's "Song for Whoever".

Fitz spends a fair portion of the novel worrying over his artificial state (far too complicated to go into now, but basically by the end of the two-book Interference story the companion Fitz is a carbon copy of the bona fide original). He also makes sure the Doctor doesn't fully regain his memories, even when a convenient Memory Machine pops up - clearly the Doctor has no idea what happened pre-The Burning as Fitz explicity mentions Gallifrey and gets no cogent response at all. Apparently Fitz thinks that if he remembers he will be traumatised all over again, and vows at the end that he will make sure the Doctor doesn't find out.

The very last page has the Doctor and Anji sitting on a hillside inside one of the TARDIS' rooms. There are hundreds of chrysalides hanging from the flowers and plants - clearly this is the Butterfly Room (seen in Vampire Science and Seeing I) in the process of regenerating itself.


I - AM - THE - DOCTOR!

Well he does save the day I suppose, but other than that there's not a lot here to get excited about. He waffles on about this and that rather endearingly on pages 106 & 107, but to be honest he comes across as a bit of a glib-mouthed pain in the ass at times. He is very sweet with Anji though.

MONEY IN THE BANK ZILDA!

This Book: £2.50 all in from the wonder that is eBay. And it's a mint copy too. That's another £3.49 saved.
Running Score: £22.75 against RRP.