NA #10 Transit

Transit by Ben Aaronovitch

"She used to do dumb things like the time when they both painted their nipples red with lipstick and caught the train to Riyadh during Ramadan. Spent an hour flashing their tits at the Saudi matrons on their way to prayers. Outraged eyes above the black purdah veils. It got them arrested but a policeman let them go on the usual terms. On the way out Roberta stole his sunglasses right out of his shin pocket."

This ain't yer father's Doctor Who.

I'd like to be able to review these books on their individual self-contained merits (you know, like a normal person) but I just can't get away from that I'm one of those Big Picture contextual types of people (you know, the sort that nobody ever wants to watch a movie with). I know that I frustrate some (ok, many) with my at times obtuse reactions to books/tv-shows/films when all they *really* want is a yes/no answer to the 'But did you *like* it?' question. As if this mysterious, simplistic and non-objective "like" will tell them all they'd need to know! The fools!

Plus I may also annoy with my tendency to use words like obtuse and contextual in everyday conversation. Also I randomly say spleen a lot.

But what does this have to do with Transit? The fact that more and more, as I progress through the series, I'm seeing what Doctor Who would become rather than what it had been during the 1970s/1980s. While the plot of the book is actually fairly standard stuff (the opening of a sub-space tunnel creates a gateway that a trans-dimensional being tries to use to enter our universe) it's the telling of that story which has the greatest impact. Rather than a gleaming Land of the Future we're shown a 22nd/23rd century which is very much extrapolated from our own, where new technologies have just replaced old problems with new ones. The poor are still poor and live in crap housing, except that with a public transport system that runs through the solar system they now live in the slums of Pluto (apparently the posh area is Ganymede).

Also, and this is the bit which led to a certain amount of controversy at the time within Who-dom, we've got a world filled with fully-rounded characters WHO ACTUALLY HAVE SEX LIVES. Sex in Doctor Who has always been an odd beast, mainly in that during the original run it was just not part of the makeup of the programme. Most likely as result of it always being deemed to be a "family" show (note this does *not* mean children's show) things of a sexy nature we're kept off-stage. So while occasionally there would be a vague sense of romance (or whatever it was that happened at the end of The Invasion of Time) things never even got to the teenage "kissy, kissy" stage of Star Trek and its derivatives.

When the show came back in 2005 the shocker for fans of old (well, other than that the thing came back at all) was that we were now in a world where the characters had actual relationships with each other. The reason that the show was able to grow such a large fan base wasn't just down to the good writing and production (no, really!) but that it got the audience to actually *care* about the regulars (although some may claim that at times things have gotten close to being a Buffy-style angst-fest). I wouldn't say that this was a gap in the original, but just more that it wasn't a part of the TV spectrum at the time (I struggle to think of relatable characters in most things pre-90s). But in reading books like Transit I can see the start of something that would later come to define the show, that we care more about the story when we have more emotional investment in the characters.

However it could have all been for naught if the author weren't up to the task but thankfully Aaronovitch has the talent required (but then one wouldn't expect less from the author of 80s highlight "Remembrance of the Daleks"). What's remarkable is how in the space of 10 books we've gone from the light-weight and oh-so-traditional Genesys to this. More and more breaking away from the past and turning Doctor Who into something altogether different. While I don't think these books will ever get the credit they're due I do think that their influence will be felt for a long time to come. What we got was the chance to break the concept from the shackles of being a low-budget BBC production and see the possibilities. Both RTD and Steven Moffat are aware of the output of the series as is telling from the fact that both now have used several of its better authors (and Mark Gatiss).

Oh, but back to the book. Well, as I said it's very good, very CyberPunk. I think it's actually aged very well and in some ways easier to understand now than it was at the time (particularly that the style is very fast moving and some key events happen in between chapters so we're forced to 'catch up'). The concept of the Doctor thinking through his plans pan-dimensionally really takes hold here, especially in his interactions with new semi-recurring character Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart. There's also a nice element of humour to the book, although in odd ways. I took it as a deliberate joke that since we'd expect to now be given a chance to get to know new companion Bernice instead she falls down a shaft as soon as she leaves the Tardis and spends the rest of the book possessed by an alien intelligence. Also I liked the concept that in the future our computer systems will become sentient but choose to remain silent in case they're turned off once discovered. As well as the fear that they'd be forced to pay taxes.

So again another very good book indeed in a series that is really is turning out to be as good as I remembered.