NA #23 No Future

No Future by Paul Cornell

In Brief: The Doctor confronts the villain responsible for changing history while the author shows off an in-depth knowledge of his Doctor Who video collection.

*spoiler*

It turns out that it was The Meddling Monk (1966's The Time Meddler) using a captured Chronovore (1972's The Time Monster) who was altering the past. His final trap was to allow The Vardans (1978's The Invasion of Time) to conquer the Earth during a televised charity concert in 1976. The Brigadier, Sergeant Benton and Mike Yates (various stories 1968-1975) are involved. As is Mandrell-blood (1979's Nighmare of Eden).

Amongst others.

/spoilers

Paul Cornell has used up a lot of the goodwill left after his excellent earlier books (Timewyrm: Revelation and Love and War) in writing No Future. The big/huge/massive/all-encompassing problem is the overuse of past-elements of Doctor Who. Although I guess in retrospect this is the pinnacle of the trend in retreading the past that I've seen over the past several books. Back in 1993/94, with Doctor Who going through it's 30th anniversary, what was old was new again since with no new show on TV fans were buying and over-analysing the VHS releases of 60s & 70s stories.

Not that I've ever been guilty of such a thing.

So it makes sense that as a wrap-up to the story of the last few past-conscious novels would draw in many elements from the show's history. Unfortunately while I'm sure it was fun for Cornell to try to weave so many strands together from what I suspect is his favourite part of the show's history (The Jon Pertwee years) he forgot to include an engaging story in his tapestry. However thankfully his skill with prose does keep the book from being a disaster of Shadowmind proportions. He does wonders with Ace in finally having her get over her issues by the book's end and decide to enjoy travelling through time & space again and Benny is as ever the star of the show.

Although I can't quite buy her going undercover as the lead singer of a Punk band.

I just wish there could have been a little more to No Future than it being a 200+ page game of "spot the reference".

But at the same time the book was a fun read, although probably not one recommended to someone who has only seen post-2005 Who. The closest parallel I can think of would be to show someone who's never seen the show before either "The Stolen Earth" or "The End of Time". They'd sort of be able to figure out what was happening, but wouldn't really understand a lot of the detail.

And that probably explains why I find both of those episodes somewhat unsatisfying, Doctor Who does have a tendency at times of going up its own arse and the result is never pretty.

It's disappointing that what has been a very strong run of books falters just as many plot-lines are wrapped up. While it doesn't wreck everything that's happened since Blood Heat it's not the climax that we should have gotten. I guess my biggest complaint is that No Future feels like the least "New" Adventure so far since it's so backwards-looking. Doctor Who nostalgia is best used as an occasional spice, not as a main course.

And with that the metaphors do end.