In England a hotel worker has been turned to stone, an ancient lake has
vanished, and the inmate of a mental hospital is being terrorised by
unseen creatures. In Israel, in the shadow of Masada, an archaeological
dig unearths something that should have stayed buried.
The Doctor is sure he is dealing with a local and relatively
straightforward temporal anomaly. Troy Game, a refugee from the planet
Caresh, is not so certain. She believes the impending destruction of her
home world is somehow linked to the events on Earth, and she is pinning
her hopes on the Doctor to avert the catastrophe.
But can the Doctor interfere with a planet’s destiny? And should he risk
his new-found freedom to do it? The view on the scanner was receding at
the speed of an express train. It showed the swathe of destruction they
were leaving behind them, a ragged, police-box-shaped tunnel through the
forest.
This adventure features the Third Doctor and Jo.
Submitted:
27/8/2002
Reviewer:
Andy Kitching
Paul Saint is the lovely man behind
this fast paced Third Doctor and Jo adventure and any praise he gets his
undoubtedly deserved.
One of my main loves of this novel is that the narrative changes
regularly, which makes it easier to read and more refreshing.
The characterization of the Doctor is superb and you can easily imagine
Jon Pertwee doing this on TV, although in this novel he
does say, "Good Grief!" far too often and 'rubs the back of his neck'
that often that you start to worry he'll wear it down to the bone!
A nicely set piece is this too - on both Earth and Caresh, with some
points which did make me giggle - like the bit where the TARDIS is
moving and is straight on course to go straight through two men carrying
a pane of glass between them.
As the cover suggests it would definitely be great to have seen Pertwee
and Manning shave their heads bald if this was an original TV adventure.
Sadly it does get a bit dull and lacking in the last few chapters which
makes you think that if this had indeed been on TV it would have been
one of those long, drawn-out, six parters which were common of the early
seventies.
All in all though it is well worth checking out and here's to us hearing
from Mr Saint again!
