Head Games by: Steve Lyons: Into the Woods You Go Again

Sequels are rarely ever as good as the stories they follow and as much as I hate to admit it, Head Games has quite a few moments in it that cause its quality to diminish in comparison to Conundrum.  Luckily the few moments are quite literally a few which I will get out quite quickly.  First the subplot with Detrios, while eventually serving as a way for Mel to have first-hand experience with what the Doctor has become, doesn’t go anywhere interesting quickly enough to keep things moving at a good pace.  It does give Chris some more things to do in sequences which show how Lyons is great at Chris’ character and building an alien society, but nothing else.  Second let’s just say that the sheer amount of references to Millennial Rites are excruciatingly bad as while they do get me to want to read that novel (which wouldn’t have been published when people read this novel) it takes me out of this story as I want to find out what happened to Mel in 1999.  Luckily the rest of the story is great with some amazing writing as Steve Lyons knows how to keep your attention and some great characters.

 

The plot sees Doctor Who and his new companion Jason going after his doppelganger, the Doctor and his five previous companions.  They are going to lock them up in Galactic Prison, go to Earth in 2001 and depose the Queen so they can make the Earth a better place.  Now the plot is extremely simple which really helps bring out the characters which of course Steve Lyons is great at portraying as the story is used to comment on the Virgin New Adventures and what it really means for the Seventh Doctor and what he has become.  We also get closure for where the Sixth Doctor’s portion of the Doctor’s mind was in Timewyrm: Revelation in what is a brilliant cameo from the Sixth Doctor.  Lyons of course does the traditional Virgin New Adventures route of taking the Seventh Doctor and pushing him into the background for most of the novel which really works here as it isn’t throughout the entire novel.  There are points where the Doctor takes the center stage with some great character moments with Mel to reflect on what he has become.  The idea that the Doctor has lost his way and almost become the villain in his own story is of course great as that is basically what has been happening with the Seventh Doctor.  The man has manipulated those he thought of as friends, committed genocide more than once and turned his closest friend into changing into a hardened soldier.  Mel’s outburst on what he has become is completely accurate as Mel represents the innocent portions of the Seventh Doctor’s life.  Lyons nails the characterization of Mel here as she is far from the screamer seen in Season 24, but still remains the optimist.  The Doctor crushes her spirits now and her reactions to the new companions just make her go in disgust.  The only person she seems to approve of is Benny because Benny doesn’t put up with any of the Doctor’s bullshit.  It really feels like Bonnie Langford could portray this older Mel.

 

The current companions of the Doctor are also portrayed in a brilliant way by Lyons.  While Benny doesn’t get much to do later on in the novel except to sympathize with Mel, she does shine in the early portions of Head Games as she is trapped in a comic book style plot with the White Knight from Conundrum which just has some amazing moments and sees Benny against basically the Riddler from Batman.  It allows Lyons a chance to write Benny as the snarky archeologist we know and love.  Lyons also succeeds on capturing Roz whose highlighted as the soldier who will follow the Doctor implicitly which is basically who she is.  She is able to repress not only her own emotions, but also Chris’s rather emotional side, but still cares enough about the universe to see it put to rights.  Chris is a different story.  Oh Chris Cwej how much the emotional rookie you are.  You refuse to allow the Doctor to sacrifice a planet even though it is interfering with the Web of Time.  Lyons is great at making him sympathetic even if his actions are extremely irrational and Roz has to be the one to snap him out of his delusions.  He gets to spend most of the novel with the villains which is great as it allows them to become a bit more relatable.

 

Now this novel isn’t just famous for the return of Mel, as it also features the return of another companion who we haven’t seen since a rather good Kate Orman novel set in Anceint Egypt.  Yes Chapter 13: The Bitch is Back heralds the return of Dorothy “Ace” McShane for one story only and while that chapter title is apt if this was during the later Ace run of Virgin New Adventures, Lyons actually has Ace be similar to the older version of the character seen in the Big Finish run of audios featuring her and Hex.  It is honestly a breath of fresh air as Ace feels like the character I originally fell in love with on television and she along with Benny actually get to sympathize with Mel who is of course distraught with the Doctor’s actions.  Moving on to the actual villains of the piece with Dr. Who and Jason.  While Dr. Who is just an amalgamation of Jason’s wishes to travel space and time fighting evil and green things he looks like the Seventh Doctor as seen in Season 26 where he wore the question mark jacket, he seems like it was meant to be Peter Cushing’s Dr. Who from Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks: Invasion Earth, 2150 A.D.  This is mainly due to some of the comments made by Dr. Who which just sound better in Cushing’s voice but it still works as a parody of McCoy’s Doctor.  Jason is also another of the villains in this story returning from Conundrum and he is honestly sympathetic as he wants to help people but can’t.  On one final note Brigadier Bambara returns from Battlefield which is a nice bit of continuity.

 

To summarize, Head Games is a novel that is difficult to briefly sum up as it is the culmination of many different character arcs in a piece of brilliance.  It is a celebration and analysis of the Seventh Doctor and his previous adventures as seen through the lens of an innocent in the form of Mel Bush.  There are a couple of problems with a subplot not really being that engaging and annoying continuity references that really aren’t needed but it is still pretty good.  90/100