The plot involves the
Doctor and Ace meeting up with an archeological dig on the planet Menaxus where
they meet up with Benny and investigate the mysteries of the great theatre
which remains in ruin after the civilization was destroyed overnight. There is also a machine that projects plays
and the discovery of The Good Soldiers
which is a missing play that its discovery would be as if more missing episodes
of Doctor Who were discovered, even with the reactions when the play is actually
discovered. And then you get to the
twist of the novel which I’ll get to in a bit, but first I think I should go
over just how odd this story feels. Okay
so in Legacy Benny went off to Phaester Osiris on Mars with some Ice Warriors,
apparently to return a few novels later, except she appears again. I feel like that is mainly Gary Russell’s
fault as according to some information on the audio adaptation’s extras Virgin
had always intended to keep Benny on without a leave of absence. This novel’s plot is also close to a
traditional six part story of the classic series as the first two ‘Acts’
dealing with the story on Menaxus and Benny at the Braxiatel Collection where
the final ‘Act’ involves confronting the Helatian empire and revealing
Braxiatel’s true plan along with the conclusion of the story. Yet the story feels very much like it wouldn’t
be done on TV just because of how expansive Richards makes his set pieces. The theatre on Menaxus, even though in ruins,
has the description of the largest ornate painting, the theatrical play’s
projected sets are vividly detailed about things, then there is the Braxiatel
Collection which is a replica at the palace of Versailles, except on a bigger
scale. This allows the plot to seem
almost bigger than it actually is.
Now let’s go onto the
characters starting with the Doctor and Ace who are almost side-lined for most
of the novel as Benny works out the mystery.
By the end they get some great stuff, but the Doctor knows what’s going
on from the beginning and is manipulating the events, and Ace suffers from her
more standoffish personality. Benny gets
a lot more attention as we get more of an exploration of her archeological side
as she studies the ruins and researches information. We also see how she fits in with high
society, not very well as she is taken aback by the Braxiatel Collection and its
manipulative head but doesn’t really fit in with it. The story opens from her point of view and
whenever it cuts back to her my interest in the novel suddenly rose. Richards really understands Benny’s character
as she has some great lines and actually figures out the oddities of the
theatre. Now the villain of the piece is
the Executive of the Helatian Empire who is an extremely boring villain as he is
simply power mad with no real pizazz to the character. He is easily manipulated by the Doctor and
Braxiatel into his own demise. Yes
Braxiatel, Time Lord and owner of the Braxiatel Collection makes his first appearance
in this novel and the big twist is that he is the one pulling all the strings
and not the Doctor, who is trying to get everything to work out. Now this is an interesting dynamic but it is
barely explored, still Braxiatel is an interesting character as he interacts
with Benny throughout the novel. The supporting
cast are all a bit one note, but they have enough character to distinguish
themselves from the others.
My biggest problems with
the novel are its pacing and the ending.
The pacing starts out strong, slows down a lot, but then speeds and
slows at intervals as the plot progresses.
The ending is also a problem as Richards tries to put in a big twist
which really doesn’t amount to any change in the characters, but feels like a
set up for other novels.
To summarize Theatre of
War has one of the most traditional but one of the most engaging plots going by
a method that isn’t broken so doesn’t need to be fixed. It has some great characters yet Ace and the
Doctor are suffering from being in the background with an alright supporting
cast save for Irving Braxiatel who seems like he may be a formidable opponent
for the Doctor. Richards doesn’t do as
much as he could have to make the story stand out. I can definitely see why this story was
picked to be adapted for an audio as it is interesting. 72/100
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