NA #9 Love and War

Love and War by Paul Cornell

In brief: Ace leaves the Tardis. In her place enters 26th-Century "Professor" Bernice Summerfield (Benny) of dubious accreditations, sardonic personality, less-than-static sexuality, an over-love of the alcoholic beverage and fan of maintaining a diary which includes copious amendments and foot-notes (so basically a blog).

Yes, the Doctor will now travelling with the social make-up that *is* a typical Doctor Who fan.


Something that is becoming clear, now that I'm nine books into the series, is that for the most part the authors seem to be fitting into one of two camps. The first type are those authors who are writing what I would deem to be Novelisations, basically meaning that if given a big enough budget what has been written could be fairly accurately translated into being a tv-show/movie. Very clear examples include the first three Timewyrm books and Nightshade.

The other type of author are those who are actually writing Novels which are more character-centric and deal more in metaphor and allegory. Their books would have to be substantially altered in order to even come close to having the same sort of impact if visualised since the narrative POV is so important. Warhead and Revelation are the clearest illustrations of this sort of writing so far, with the latter in particular being practically 'unfilmable'.

However, Paul Cornell with his 2nd New Adventures seems to have managed the almost impossible task of bridging the two camps. Love and War has both an interesting and exiting story as well as a depth of character which has often been missing in the more "action-oriented" books (or whatever it was that Witch Mark was trying to be). As such the climax doesn't matter just for what it means to "the plot" but the impact it will have on the characters. It's all much more involving as a result.

Another point in favour of this book is that while the body-count is just as high as in Nightshade here no character feels superfluous or wasted As I said when reviewing Nightshade I was annoyed at how so many characters would pop up seemingly with the sole purpose of meeting a nasty end. Indeed every death now has a massive impact on all of the other characters to the point that by the end the stakes truly feel epic and far-reaching. In fact so immense that by the end Ace has become traumatised to the point that she runs away from the Doctor.

Also, it's here that the New Adventures version of the 7th Doctor really crystallises. Following the trend started in the last televised season we have the Doctor as master-manipulator with a constant view of The Big Picture (and the problems that creates). I suspect that many of the authors, what with it being the early-90s and all, must have been fans of Watchmen since it struck me how at times the Doctor almost turned into a less-blue version of Doctor Manhattan. Rather than simply being "a traveller in Time-and-Space" the character here becomes Time's Champion, with Time (and Death) becoming a potentially real character in the Whoniverse. It's an aspect of the Doctor I actually saw re-emerge recently in the episode Amy's Choice with the "Dream Lord" character (needless to say really liked that episode).

So besides being a very-good-book-indeed Love and War has the difficult task of introducing a new "companion" for the Doctor. I think it says something of the bravery of the publishers (or perhaps just the fact that nobody at the BBC really cared at the time) that rather than go forward with Ace (who was starting to become a bit stale, remember she'd been around as part of the series since 1987) they introduced a completely new character to travel with the Doctor. It also shows that these books were *definitely* being aimed at an older audience in that rather than again have a 16-20 year old we get the 30ish Benny.

A more mature regular is something I'd love to again see in the actual show (akin to Leela/Barbara/Romana II) since I was reminded in the interaction between Benny and the Doctor of what a different dynamic it gives a story. I'd hoped that Donna would have the same sort of vibe but unfortunately that dream was torpedoed by the casting of Catherine Tate (The horror...the horror...). Rather than the angst-ridden and petulant Ace, Benny shows her worth as being almost an equal of the Doctor. However this may be why such a character is now avoided in the show, since with only 45-minutes of airtime we need someone to ask all of the silly (plot-based) questions. I do hope that at some point Steven Moffat will allow Ms. Summerfield to exist "for real".

Although perhaps River Song is his approximation? Maybe she *is* Benny? Or something. WHY CAN'T THEY SHOW NEW EPISODES NOW NOW NOW??! I VANT TO KNOW!!!!

Anyhow, to wrap this up I have to say that Paul Cornell again scores a hit and demonstrates that he's definitely the best author of the range so far. It's easy to see why his association with the show continues to this day.