Tuesday, December 27, 2016

The Well-Mannered War by: Gareth Roberts: Doctor Who and the War of the Space Turtles

The Key to Time season of Doctor Who had the Black Guardian as the villain of the final story and it seems to me that Graham Williams intended to bring him back in the future, but it never really happened.  There was also this jarring transition between the final season of Williams’s time as producer, Season 17, and the first season of John Nathan-Turner’s run as producer, Season 18.  The tone immediately shifted over from extreme overt humor to a series run on subtle humor and hard science-fiction.  Now the Virgin Missing Adventures, The Romance of Crime and The English Way of Death, by Gareth Roberts are set firmly in the Season 17 era of the show, but for the final Virgin Missing Adventure, Roberts sets The Well-Mannered War at the end of Season 17.  He means it to be the ending of the Graham Williams era and to be honest it feels like a transition.  The story itself is humorous for the first half or so, but then about halfway through it takes a turn for the dark when the villain of the story is revealed in its glory and the tension ramps up.

 

Before I can get into a lot of the positives, I want to get through the flaws of the novel first, because they are there.  First off the length of the novel is quite long for the story it is wanting to tell.  Roberts goes into depths about how the scenes are set up in the novel and the twists with the Femdroids being in control and the humans as a puppet government can be seen coming nearly at the beginning of the novel when the Femdroids are introduced.  It’s just a portion of the story that really brought down from the whole of the novel.  The length of the novel just adds to the problem by dragging everything out to the nth degree which gets tiring, which I read on long car ride.  Second the Metralubit election that allows K-9 to run for office as the premier creates a plot hole.  The point is the opposition doesn’t exist and it’s the Femdroids running things, but early on K-9 tries to save the life of the leader of the opposition.  This really isn’t explained.  Are the Femdroids keeping someone as opposition just to make it look real?  Does Rabley actually exist?  Is it the Black Guardian creating someone?  Finally, and this is really minor, the plot is a rip off of A Device of Death, but does the idea much better.

 

The plot itself is about a war where both sides of the conflict are terribly nice to each other.  Sure they fight, but they makes sure the missile strikes miss.  The leaders meet with each other over tea and a tea lady travels between both sides giving out snacks to the troops.  The story starts really by making jokes about this war while the Doctor, Romana, and K-9 are all separated from each other.  K-9 decides he’s going to run for office and much of the humor comes from the sarcastic nature of the character.  Romana thinks K-9 is doing it for self-esteem boosts, and not as he claims to help the Doctor.  K-9 is the delight of the novel and steals the show for its first half.  The villain of the Darkness, a hive mind that kills you, inhabits your body, and turns you into a zombie, actually starts to appear in these segment and inhabits Viddeas.  Viddeas goes through this spiral into madness as he slowly decomposes which has a lot of body horror which really works.  The Chelonians are featured in this novel and their leader Jaffid is the most interesting of the Chelonians.  He doesn’t think parasites (humans) are parasites and keeps up a relationship with the other side.  It is the best the Chelonians have been done and their punishment of the Web of Death and the sequence that goes along with it is hilarious to be sure. The characterization of the Doctor, especially in these scenes is excellent and Roberts encapsulates Tom Baker’s performance.

 


The second half of the novel is where things get really dark.  The Darkness becomes a much more terrifying villain as it causes paranoia.  The paranoia makes everyone want to go to war and bodies start to fall on both sides.  Communication breaks down completely and the missiles are fired.  The feeling of an actual war comes through and the danger of being in this conflict hits you like a brick and makes you wake up to how bad the situation has become in the time span of a few short hours.  Roberts makes the novel about the horrors of war and the transition to a darker tone really does work for the novel.  I feel the Darkness, as an entity, is Gareth Roberts’s writing on his opinions for war which is nuanced.  He characterizes it as something that doesn’t discriminate when it goes after people, it doesn’t pick a side and has both the humans and Chelonians killed.  Roberts keeps comic relief with returning the character of Melove Stokes from The Romance of Crime who was the best character.  His ending at the end of the novel is also amazing.  It becomes the highlight and almost makes the rest of the novel feel just a little bit boring for everything that has come before.  His interactions with Romana are also excellent as they have this chemistry with Stokes being over the top while Romana is the straight man to the comedic elements.

 

I think it’s time to talk about that ending right about now.  So after everything is solved the Darkness gets into the TARDIS with Stokes.  The scanner opens up to reveal the Black Guardian has made a deal with Stokes to seek revenge on the Doctor.  The Black Guardian only appears in this scene, but Roberts makes him an absolute evil delight for then novel.  I love the idea that he handwrites Stokes a note of thanks when he gets the Doctor.  It’s really just a funny little gag that made me laugh out loud.  The ending however is brilliant as the Doctor takes the emergency unit out, the one from The Mind Robber as a solution to the problem and to summarize my opinion can be seen in the final lines of the novel:

'Goodbye, universe,' the Doctor said sadly. 'I'll be back again, one day. Try to look after yourself. Mind out for the Daleks, keep an eye out for the Cybermen, don't let the Sontarans boss you about. Good luck.' 

The Doctor and Romana looked at each other. 

The Doctor kissed Romana quickly on the cheek. 

Together they pressed the button. 

THE END

90/100.

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