| Product: |
Doctor Who: The Deviant Strain - Justin Richards |
| Date: |
19/08/08 (73 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: Good action, full on action
Disadvantages: Silly, limited scope
There is one thing that fiction has over TV and film that they will never be able to emulate and that is imagination. Even if you are Spielberg at some point you are going to run out of money needed and you will have to compromise your vision. This is not the case in fiction as the budget for a book is the same no matter if it is about a quiet meeting between two people in a dingy flat or a space battle that spans ten years. This is why science fiction works so well on the page as authors can truly put down what they want and never have to stop for reshoots or special effects budgets. I find that the biggest gap is between TV shows and their tie ins. Budget restraints are tightest on TV so many sci fi shows end up limiting sets and action to save money. However, the same shows put onto the page are often vastly different allowing the heroes to explore vast worlds and alien cultures. This is no truer than in Dr Who a show that has improved recently, but still suffers from limitations. Could the tie in books fill the void for fans of expensive and epic sci fi?
The Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack land in the near future Russia were a remote village seems to be in danger. Over the years people have gone missing never to be found and now the number of incidents has increased. With a set of standing stones as the only mysterious thing The Doctor must uncover the truth behind the disappearing people before things get worse. As usual things are not as they seem under the surface and their must be a reason why the local science lab is still running with a skeleton crew. A skeleton crew that for all intents and purposes should be skeletons as they are rather old! Can the Dr save the day once more; that's easier said than done when you come under attack from blue glowy slug things!
'The Deviant Strain' is an uncomplicated, but fun, thriller in the Dr Who cannon. There is no particular character development, but what you do get is a fun B movie type adventure that feels a little like 'The Thing'. You do notice early on that the set up is different from that found in the series. Setting a book in a near future Russia gives the story a darker and slightly grimmer feel as the people are poor and feel abandoned. This sense of abandonment is what gives the book its level of chills as you realise that The Dr and company are trapped in a ghost town.
The B movie feel is also found in the choice of bad guys on offer here. Dr Who has given the world countless enemies and most of them communicate via voice and are humanoid in nature. Seeing this is a book author Richards has taken the opportunity to explore a different type of enemy and 'Deviant Strain' gives us strange glowing slug things! I thought that were a great enemy as they seem unstoppable. There is no way that The Dr is going to sweet talk his way out of this situation as the creatures have no mouths or ears! Seeing as there is no budget as such Richards has been free to have as many slugs as wishes and he uses them to great effect in several of the action set pieces ranging from an epic battle overland to a tense escape in the confines of a submarine.
It should be noted that this is Christopher Eccleston's Doctor so is slightly dated now. IMO having it as Eccleston really works for the novel as he was a sterner Doctor than the current Dr, Tennant. Although there are laughs in this book Richards chooses to make it bleaker and sell the tension instead. As a rule it is a simple chase novel as the creatures draw closer and the heroes have fewer places to be. The book has a good conclusion as the tension is impressively increased towards the end.
'The Deviant Strain' is for completeists only as it offers nothing dynamic or new in terms or story or character. What you get instead is a rather interesting action thriller that offers more explosions, death and tension than the show usually allows. Rose and Captain Jack are not overly used here and even The Dr plays a smaller role. It is the creatures and the environment that sit centre stage and both these elements are well written. I enjoyed 'The Deviant Strain' whilst it lasted and as a quick read you could do a lot worse.
Author: Justin Richards
Year: 2005
Price: amazon uk - £5.24
Summary: A decent novel for Who fans
|
|
