The Fifth Doctor has one
real catch in this story as we dive deep into Gallifreyean history as the
Doctor meets his, or possibly the Other’s wife, Patience. Patience is an interesting character as she
forces the exploration of The Brain of
Morbius with the whole mind competition and positing that she was the wife
of the Other as played by Douglas Camfield.
These scenes however are only left in ambiguity which is for the
best. The Cartmel Masterplan was only
ever meant to be put more mystery back into the Doctor, which Parkin fulfills
here by suggesting that Patience might be going a little bit loopy or the
Doctor may be having false memories because of contact with Patience. We do know two very specific things. First, the Doctor and Patience are both Time
Lords. Second, the Doctor and Patience
have different genetic makeup, with the Doctor having his altered roughly 750
to 800 years previous. Now this may be
the suggestion that he is a reincarnation of the Other, but nothing is really
concrete about this entire plot thread which is something that Parkin pulls off
remarkably. It is something that could
have divided fans completely, but it doesn’t because there is plausible
deniability. Patience could just have
been altered differently as she was from the past and her memories are at fault
as is suggested by the text.
There are too many
characters to name so I’m going to keep everything simple by going over the
basic highlights and main characters.
The highlights of the story are the setting, which is an ice planet that
really feels like the cold is intruding on everything which allows for a very
tense story to build up throughout the novels 300 pages. Second is the villains of the Adjudicator
Guild which really comes into play and helps set up the psi powers arc of New
Adventures. They are a definite threat
for the story and keep everything moving nicely along at a good pace. The experiments they are running are horrible
of course and it makes them feel like a credible threat. The other big highlight is that Lance Parkin
actually manages to make Adric a likeable character in this novel. This may be because Adric is written in the
style of the character from Season 18 or the child like nature of the character
is played up, but by pairing him off with Roz for most of the novel you get to
have quite a lot of fun with a bad character.
Roz of course does a lot of good here as she plays the tough to get
Adjudicator and Parkin is actually able to keep the mystery of where she’s
hiding a good mystery for the novel as she doesn’t meet up with Adric until one
third of the way through the story. She
and Adric are both really good at working together as Roz almost becomes a
mentor figure for Adric which is really interesting. Tegan, Nyssa, and Chris actually is how
Parkin decides to group together these three characters in a story arc which
really has a lot of interesting moments.
Early in the novel Nyssa and Tegan check into a hotel where Chris is
staying under the name Bruce Jovanka with a false Australian accent. He tries to romance Tegan and Nyssa
individually, Nyssa sees him stark naked, and they’re all abducted by the
Adjudicators. It’s a series of sequences
that really emphasizes humor and the three characters are all great together. Chris has one of his best stories and Tegan
doesn’t take any of his shit which really emphasizes their differences. Nyssa’s also very naïve of a character which
keeps everything working for the novel.
To summarize, Cold Fusion is a perfect Virgin Missing
Adventure that does a multi Doctor story that breaks away from the formula of
other multi Doctor stories. The two
Doctors are great together and everything allows us to go deep into their
characters with some villains that pose a real threat from an alternate timeline
which breaks new ground for Doctor Who while staying true to the Fifth Doctor’s
era. 100/100
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