The ending of a story arc should make those experiencing
it feel something about the conclusion, be it character focused, plot focused,
or even a mystery box like the ones Steven Moffat is oh so fond of. The Eighth Doctor on Earth arc while having
interconnected stories, has been driven forward by the character development of
the amnesiac Eighth Doctor as he’s forced to live through 200 years
sequentially on Earth and it ends in the early days of the 21st century. The Doctor finally has to meet Fitz in St.
Louis, here it being confirmed that it was Compassion who set up the meeting
meaning we get a very unexpected but welcome cameo. Escape Velocity is the first novel by
Colin Brake who had already contributed a short story to the third Decalog
collection. Having a first time writer
to close out the entire arc is an interesting, if risky decision, instead of an
experienced writer and Escape Velocity shows many of the issues with
that. It is very much a first time writer,
with Brake penning a fairly standard alien invasion story where competing
scientists are racing to reach escape velocity and get off the planet Earth,
with the eventual goal of establishing space hotels. Pierre-Yves Dudoin and Arthur Tyler III are
incredibly fun upon their introduction, but by the time the reader gets to the
halfway point a large issue of the book becomes apparent. Mainly that many of the interesting ideas
just find themselves running out of steam so Brake attempts to keep things
moving by inserting alien characters from an ambassador to a war fleet coming to
threaten the planet Earth, but none of it ends up finding enough energy to
sustain a book.
This does not mean that Escape Velocity is
terrible, it isn’t, it’s perfectly fine as a book and there are plenty of
things to like. Fitz’s reintroduction
for instance is brilliant with Brake making him shine throughout the book, and
the reader remembers why Fitz is such a good character and how much his
presence has been missed in the range.
Brake writes him as at least partially self-aware at the weirdness and
amounts of coincidences necessary for Compassion to get the Doctor and the
TARDIS back together, that is the original TARDIS. St. Louis is not the city in Missouri, but a
bar that was originally science fiction themed until it was mysteriously bought
out and made into an American themed bar.
It’s silly and slightly disappointing that this book isn’t set in the
Untied States, but it makes for a fun setting because Fitz is aware of how weird
it is. There’s also enough time spent
with Fitz while the Doctor is off doing other things (and Compassion dropping
him off early).
Fitz could be our main character as he gets embroiled
in an alien mystery and the kidnapping in Belgium of Dave Young, boyfriend of
Anji Kapoor. Anji is setup as the new
companion, but honestly isn’t that interesting of a character here. It’s nice to see a person of color as a
companion, yet there isn’t a lot of characterization here. She’s essentially an everywoman character,
not too nerdy, driven, but not a whole lot of interesting
characterization. It feels like she just
needs to be here because the editors of the range have determined there needs
to be a new companion who is a girl from modern day Earth. There could be something interesting with
grief and the character going forward, but nothing is done in Escape
Velocity to explore this. The Doctor,
Fitz, and the TARDIS reuniting is also a lot of fun, with the Doctor not
getting his memories back completely but knowing enough to understand who he is
at the core and what the TARDIS is. This
means that he becomes exuberant at Fitz coming back and coming to travel again
with him at the end and he is allowed to be a romantic. Interestingly, Brake sidelines the Doctor for
much of the first half of the novel which is fine, but when he does show up it
feels like Brake didn’t quite know how to characterize the Eighth Doctor, just
making him vaguely a hopeless romantic.
Overall, Escape Velocity is a fine, if slightly
disappointing ending to the Eighth Doctor on Earth arc. There are several missed opportunities which
could have made the novel something great but quite a lot of it is just standard
Doctor Who, especially the characterization of the Doctor himself. A new companion is introduced but there is a
slightly worrying lack of characterization here giving some fear of a
similarity to Sam Jones. It’s just a
perfectly average book about an alien invasion and some misunderstandings and
just a little bit of hubris from humanity but not much else. 5/10.
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