Ok so are we in for
another snore fest of a novel that works off standard Doctor Who tropes without
giving us anything new? Well actually The Scales of Injustice while acting as
a sequel to Doctor Who and the Silurians
doesn’t become a The Hungry Earth/Cold
Blood style rehash of that story.
Instead it takes the standard Doctor and companion try to negotiate with
the Earth Reptiles, but they also have to deal with C19 and of course the
Glasshouse. It’s actually closer to a
Craig Hinton novel than a Gary Russell novel as it does quite a lot of
referencing Season Seven, but without Hinton’s intrusive habit of shoving every
little detail into a story. Instead he
introduces the UNIT Vault, where through the Glasshouse experiments are going
on using technology from previous stories and creating hybrids on willing and
not so willing participants. There’s
also the third plot of the novel exploring of course Liz Shaw deciding to exit
UNIT and return to Cambridge. This is
the plot that Russell writes extremely well as for the majority of the novel he
focuses on Liz Shaw who is the one investigating the Glasshouse and getting
herself into danger while the Doctor is stuck in the Silurian shelter, after
finding them abducting a teenager and experimenting on him.
The plotline with Liz is
the main plot of the story as the Silurian plotline actually doesn’t end in
tragedy this time so really there’s no reason to go back down into the Silurian
plotline and we focus on Liz. A quote
from the Doctor at the end of the novel states:
“At last. At last, I'm seeing the real
Elizabeth Shaw. It's taken until now, but she's there…You, Liz. Not the
detached scientist. Not the calm, collected and efficient UNIT Doctor Shaw. You
referred to Marc as a "teenaged male". You talked in professional
terms. Upset you may have been, but you were still holding back. Then you
finally called him a kid. You even swore. I've not heard that before.”
This is a story that
forces Liz to think about herself and who she is as a person and it is great
having most of the book be from her perspective gives us that sense that it is
her that has changed. It is subtle on
screen, but in the written word it is there and it is done brilliantly by Gary
Russell. It’s interesting as the villain
of the story is a man who worked for International Electromatics and is almost
a foil for the always professional Liz Shaw.
He has had his personality put into a cybernetic body and doesn’t care
if people die and is just brutal. He has
created human-Auton hybrids and has people cryogenically frozen which is just
terrifying for the novel. This is the
engaging part of the story while the Silurian stuff really is in the background
with a Myrka thrown in for no reason.
The other plotline is
giving some characterization to the rest of UNIT as the Brigadier is trying to
pick out who he wants for his new captain.
Corporal Bell appears in this novel and not only gets to help the
Brigadier throw ideas on how to proceed, but also gets to carry a gun and shoot
down attacking Silurians. She and
Corporal Masie Hawke get to do stuff in this novel except just be telephone
girls which really makes them feel like fully fleshed out characters. Mike Yates gets some stuff to do in the novel
as he is promoted to captain by the end, but it’s actually Brigadier Lethebridge-Stewart
who gets to have the most character development in this novel. Several scenes detail the fall of his
marriage to his wife Fiona and separation from his daughter Kate as he kept his
UNIT job a secret from his wife and daughter, who think he works at an office
with John Benton and Mike Yates, being the cofounders of his business. It’s the secrecy which causes his downfall with
his wife as after being interrupted at a dinner out with his wife and having to
go back to UNIT to deal with the Silurians.
Outside of the situation with his family the Brigadier also gets
redeemed for his actions in Doctor Who
and the Silurians, by making the Doctor and the Brigadier work to keep the
peace. It explains just what he was
thinking when he blew up the Silurian base and explains just how scared he was
at the virus getting out again and the antidote not able to stop it this time
around. It’s great and gives the Doctor
something to do in the novel.
To summarize, The Scales of Injustice shows just how
good Gary Russell can be at writing Doctor Who.
It knows just what sort of fanservice to insert into the novel without
being too intrusive and uses its length to tell a good story and not be worried
with anything but telling just that good story.
The character are engaging and the plot moves along at a great pace
while not getting to dragged down by the three storylines. The only problem is how much is lifted from Doctor Who and the Silurians and as a
prequel to Warriors of the Deep. 90/100
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