The Turing Test by: Paul Leonard

 

The Eighth Doctor on Earth arc has been continually proving that it was just the shake up the Eighth Doctor Adventures.  Paul Leonard provides the best installment thus far with The Turing Test, setting the Doctor right near the end of World War II, Alan Turing having cracked the German codes and Bletchley getting ready for the end of the war when other code signals its way through.  The Doctor comes to investigate and get to the bottom of aliens infiltrating a situation already thick with espionage.  This description may be a standard Doctor Who story, but Paul Leonard’s book is told from a first person perspective, formatted as three different documents, put together potentially by the Doctor to explain just what he was doing in World War II.  The first half of the book is from Turing’s perspective and it is some of the most emotional writing in the range.  Leonard does not shy away from showing Turing’s homosexuality and the problems that caused for the man.  While it isn’t outright said he is in love with the Doctor, the lyrical prose is only something one would use with a romantic partner and the Doctor clearly is returning those affections, even if he doesn’t quite know who he is at the moment.  The Doctor is convinced Turing might be able to fix the TARDIS, which is still just an empty police box standing in the corner of an inn.  People immediately flag the Doctor as an outsider and a danger, possibly a homosexual, as a time where that is illegal, Turing eventually being chemically castrated for his homosexuality and committing suicide with a poisoned apple.  Getting inside Turing’s head is absolutely fascinating, as we see a man being incredibly careful in some things to ensure, but that burden is something that leaks right out.

 

The other two sections of the book are from the perspectives of Graham Greene and Joseph Heller (author of Catch-22).  Greene in particular has scathing derision towards Turing and what he believes to be complete degeneracy, and deserving, which makes such a tonal shift that the reader is just shocked.  You’ve already fallen in love at this point with Turing and being told from after his suicide at this point, as well as with the section from Heller’s point of view which tries to find meaning in Turing’s suicide.  There’s discussion of the symbolism present in Turing’s suicide, the apple implying a knowledge of Christianity’s idea of the fall of man which leaves the reader speechless.  This also allows us to go away from the European front of the war, meaning that there is an explanation to what the aliens are without Turing there, as the Doctor essentially has to abandon him to history because he still knows who he is and what happens and happens.  The aliens here also aren’t evil per say, but they are infiltrators which is almost worst and there is this angelic imagery, all tying back to Turing’s sexuality which makes for a fitting end.  This is one of the very few Leonard books which does not fall flat at the ending, but focuses in right on the characters.

 

Overall, The Turing Test is a book which needs to be experienced for its beautiful characterization of the Doctor and Alan Turing.  There is a relationship that needs to be read to be understood.  There isn’t a sugar coating and the Doctor falls in love and has to let history play its course, while still trying to understand just what it means to be the Doctor.  There’s a brief return to the manipulations but only because it’s a necessary diversion.  It’s a contender for the best of the EDAs.  10/10.