Relative Dementias by: Mark Michalowski

 

Relative Dementias is an odd title.  It’s clearly a take on Relative Dimensions as in Time and Relative Dimension in Space, and with a title like that for Mark Michalowski’s Doctor Who novel debut is an interestingly reflective one.  It takes unseen elements from the Doctor’s time at UNIT, a Dr. Joyce Brunner and her son Matthew are our most well rounded secondary characters, the former investigating an Alzheimer’s care facility in the year 2012 while the later has gone AWOL from UNIT and undergoing his own turmoil and loss in sense of identity.  This is especially in regards to UNIT, its purpose as a whole, and the role the Doctor in general has played in the affairs of Earth.  While the reflection is on the Third Doctor’s actions, this is a novel set with the Seventh Doctor and Ace travelling with each other, though not a continuation of the BBC Books Tucker/Perry Seventh Doctor post-Survival sequence of Illegal Alien, Matrix, Storm Harvest, Prime Time, Heritage, and Loving the Alien.  This placement also means that Michalowski is writing for a Seventh Doctor and Ace that are in the middle of their development so the reflective nature of the story looks on where they have come from while also noting where they might be going.  The reflective nature of the novel is perhaps where the story really ends up shining, the first half is quite slow and contemplative, with the mystery of where Joyce has disappeared to being the main thrust for the Doctor and Ace.

 

Michalowski uses setting perhaps to be one of the more interesting aspects of the novel.  The Doctor and Ace first appear to be going to Earth in the then near future of 2012, mainly to show Ace the sites of her future.  Michalowski while vague, uses these scenes to bring down the classic mid-20^th century view of the early 21^st century as fantastic and almost whimsical with its visions of flying cars.  This future really only looks like the 1980s with some different cars.  There is this relatively minor character here of Countess Gallowglass, a woman who runs a way station for lost aliens and to whom the Doctor has sent at least some of his mail in the past.  Her only purpose is to give the Doctor the letter that becomes the inciting incident of the novel, but there is something utterly wonderful about this woman that she kind of worms her way into the reader’s mind.  It feels like a reflection of the off-kilter nature of the rest of the novel. Off-kilter may not be the best description for what Michalowski does to reflect on Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in general, but there is a wonderful style of prose used so the reader can understand the trauma that those with dementia undergo at the center of the novel while also not forgetting the difficulties associated with those patients leave behind.  Graystairs, the main setting for the first half of the novel, is a memory care facility where you can tell that at least some of the patients are being abused, though subtly as to not arouse suspicion.  The abuse is psychological and extends to the families of the patients who have to chalk it up to the issues of living with dementia.  The melancholic tone is first planted in the mind of the reader due to the cover and made explicit by the prose and examination of the characters, especially Joyce and Matthew.  This becomes an issue when the second half of the novel devolves back into a standard Doctor Who story and it leaves me wanting more in a bad way.  While it is where much of Matthew’s plot takes focus and center stage the standard evil alien plot just falls flat for me and holds the book back.

 

Overall, Relative Dementias is a novel of two halves.  The first is an incredible reflection on losing one’s sense of identity and being lost in a healthcare or military system while examining the relationship of the Doctor and Ace before the rest of the expanded universe evolved it to a conclusion.  The second is a standard Doctor Who story that lets down the fact the first half is doing something different and innovative.  It’s still a great book overall despite lost potential as there are pieces of the second half that forward the ideas of the first.  8/10.