The story opens with the
TARDIS going through a part of space where they get pulled into a dark star
which causes the TARDIS interior to slowly jump forward in time by about three
seconds. This causes the Doctor and
Benny to have to take the Jade Pagoda from Iceberg
to the nearest inhabitable planet for about three weeks so the TARDIS can get
through the dark star and they can continue on their journey. They end up landing in France during the
Albigensian Crusade where they get wrapped up in the time period. The Doctor plays the detective for a murder
while Benny falls in love with mercenary Guy de Carnac as they try to sneak
heretics into the Roc which will be sanctuary.
This plot would be the weakest aspect of the novel if it wasn’t for the
fact that McIntee has done so much research to make the novel feel so real on
every page and he wrote in an ending that just works like a Shakespearean
tragedy.
McIntee also excels at
writing the Doctor who just feels like he is the Doctor in this story. This time he has no master plan, no evil
deity to destroy, just people that need helping out and he is going to be the
one to do it. He is confident in Benny
now that Ace is gone and nothing is there to drag them down and they’re allowed
to be friends again. He also has become
a happier person as he loves finally finding some excitement with the dark star
being something he actually didn’t know about.
He is also great at getting himself in with the higher ups much in the
fashion of how the Second Doctor confused the jailor in The War Games by acting all important without actually having any
authority over the situation. He would
be the best part of the story if it wasn’t for Benny just being so well
written. Here she wants to stop the Spanish
Inquisition on supposed heretics as she believes in freedom of religion and
will do anything in her power to make that happen. She ends up falling in love with Guy de
Carnac in this story which McIntee paints beautifully. They don’t fall in love instantly, but let
everything develop over the course of the story.
The supporting characters
also feel very real for the time, especially Guzman who is a man aspiring to
become the next Pope. He is the real
villain of the story and McIntee is clearly having a blast writing for his character. I also have to make mention of Jeanne who isn’t
very special until she is burned alive where we actually get to see the horrors
of the Spanish Inquisition and the Church performed at this time. Hughes is another heretic who gets great
development as he is a very rational one.
The supporting character who steals the show however is Guy de
Carnac. De Carnac is a man who has
struggled with his faith after actually being with the Knights Templar who also
have a presence in the story. He disagrees
with what the Church does to the heretics who don’t agree with what they
teach. Carnac is also a soldier as he
has to take the heretics who are mainly farmers and make them an army which is
a great portion of the novel.
Now I have to talk about
that ending. It rivals The Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Eve in
how it comes out of nowhere and makes the story even better than it already
was. Everything is solved, the TARDIS is
back and the Doctor and Benny are ready to leave when they are ambushed by the
Templars who kill everyone who was good in this story. The Doctor offers to take Guy with them, but
he stays behind to fight the Templars off trying to get Benny to safety whom he
loves. He dies which causes Benny to go
into a depression as lead in to the next novel, Paul Cornell’s Human Nature.
To summarize, Sanctuary shows that the Virgin New
Adventues are on the up and up after Warlock
and Set Piece. David A. McIntee has some of his best prose
here with characters that he actually is able to work with very well making the
Doctor and Benny the best they have been in quite a while. Yes the plot is a bit weak which causes a few
problems and I couldn’t remember some of the characters, but overall it is a
great novel. 90/100
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