The plot sees the Doctor,
Benny, Chris and Roz land on Zamper, a business planet where things have been
falling apart as the Management of Zamper has been dying. The planet is doing business dealings with
the Chelonians, aka Cyborg Space Turtles which are basically the shining light
for this novel because Hermaphrodite Cyborg Space Turtles. The Chelonian Empire is falling and the novel’s
plot involves the Doctor and company freeing an enslaved native race in what
could be an allegory for Britain’s subjugation of Indians and Africans in what
is a really confusing metaphor to follow.
The plot for the rather short novel runs very thinly over the pages
which really doesn’t help the case of the novel. The stuff Roberts does to explore the
Chelonians and their waning empire is quite interesting as there are quite a
few things to enjoy about the sections dedicated to them. Roberts also characterizes the specific
Chelonians well as they have to overcome biases against humans whom they of
course regard as parasite. Their name
for the Doctor is also pretty apt as he is described as an interfering idiot.
Speaking of
characterization, a problem in the novel is that for about the first half of
the novel Chris and Roz really don’t get much to do in the story and don’t have
much character. By the end we do get
some more insight into Roz’s mind and how she almost views the Doctor as an old
friend which is interesting at the expense of Chris who gets no
characterization whatsoever. This is
really a problem as Original Sin and Sky Pirates! did enough to equal them
both out as here Roberts seems only able to deal with two companions. Yes two companions as Benny portrayed here is
also in quite a good manner as Roberts uses the novel to reflect on her
character development along the long course of Virgin New Adventures. She originally started travelling with the
Doctor to have some thrills and those first few adventures were full of thrills
and surprises, but once Ace came back and they had to deal with IMC and the
Monk, something changed making the adventures almost less fun. She found the last few outings to have
breathed new life into the Doctor which Benny is extremely happy for as they
have new people to talk to who aren’t suffering from Ace’s baggage. It’s also a clever way for Roberts to comment
on the rest of the range which allows for some nice satirical sections added in
with Roberts’s already comedic writing style.
The distinctive style is
seen in the characterization of the Doctor who seems to be a lot more relaxed
in this story and is actually having the chance to enjoy himself for once in
this incarnation which is something that has been sorely missing from the other
stories in some of the novel range. The
comedy in this story ranges from tongue and cheek satire to laugh out loud
punchlines and even quite a few puns that really come out of nowhere and catch
you off guard with their humor. The
novel does suffer from being badly paced with some passages flowing rather
nicely while others are extremely bland as we have to deal with a lot of
supporting characters with the motivation of simply being evil businessmen which
has been done better in other stories.
To summarize, Zamper has a lot of potential to be a
comedic story in a lot of aspects as Gareth Roberts knows how to write for
Doctor Who, but through very weak characterization of supporting cast, a bland
version of Chris Cwej and a cookie cutter plot that could come from any real
story, there isn’t much here to enjoy.
The Chelonians and the characterization of Benny, Roz and even the
Doctor do provide a few saving graces from keeping this story to be a bad
story, but that doesn’t make it good.
50/100
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