Doctor Who - Arc of Infinity by Terrance Dicks

Published: October 1983

Edition read: Target first reprint, 1984

Coolest Cover: I’ll go with Alister Pearson here- there’s something very dull about a cut-out of the Doctor and Hedin. Always go with the monster design, that’s what I say.

The TARDIS materialises with..."a wheezing groaning sound". Omega’s materialises with a strange wheezing, groaning sound.

...and dematerialises with..."the familiar wheezing, groaning sound".

Childhood Recollections: My Grandma’s friend Kay gave me a hardback copy of this from her local library- battered to hell, but hey, it was free and I never needed the paperback until now.

Ramblings: There’s a crucial problem which Terrance Dicks faced in adapting ‘Arc of Infinity’; given that the story was supposedly written specifically for the Amsterdam location, Dicks has to attempt to recreate the atmosphere of the location filming with none of the visual cues. This might not have been a problem with a more substantial story, however ‘Arc of Infinity’ is one of those stories whose central premise can be summed up in a sentence, and not a very complicated one at that. Omega tries to break through into our universe and in an attempt to prevent this, the Time Lords are forced to order the Doctor’s execution. There you go- one conjuction and not even a subordinate clause to be seen. It’s perhaps not surprising, then, that this weighs in at a mere 117 pages compared to ‘Terminus’ at 150+. Being fair to Dicks, it’s a faithful if slender adaptation of a story which relied more on visuals and a few good supporting performances to carry it, and shorn of the Amsterdam filming and the always-watchable Michael Gough, it’s a watertight story but nothing more. In an ideal world, it would have had colour photos from the filming in the middle, but such things being beyond Target, we’re stuck with Terrance Dicks trying to evoke a sense of place, which isn’t his strong point. I’m not convinced there’s a great deal more to be said about the book- as an adaptation of the script it’s fine, but as a rendition of the televised story it’s very limited indeed.