NA #35 Set Piece

Set Piece by Kate Orman

In Brief: The Doctor, Bernice and Ace are scattered throughout history due to a rift in time after a plan goes disastrously wrong. Each thinks the others are dead and try to carry on despite the threat of a living ship filled with giant mechanical ants.

At the end one of them leaves the Tardis for good.

(hint: it's Ace.)

Set Piece would be notable just for the fact that it (finally many would say) sees the permanent departure of the character of Ace from "current" Doctor Who after 8 years (since the character first appeared in "Dragonfire" back in 1987). However it it also turns out to be one of the highlights of the New Adventures. Kate Orman, in her first return to the series since the equally fantastic The Left-Handed Hummingbird, puts together a fantastic story of multiple time-zones and a threat to all of time and space. Set Piece is what the recently televised "A Good Man Goes to Way" *should* have been, with the narrative use of time really having an impact on the characters rather than just being in aid of empty spectacle.

And the return of time-travelling Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart from the earlier novel Transit feels like the character of River Song done right.

What made the book really enjoyable for me is how Orman uses what could be a generic sci-fi situation (characters separated through time) but uses it to really dig into how it impacts the series regulars. Orman manages, in the character's last appearance as a regular in the series, to make the fist really successful use of the New version of Ace that we've had through the majority of these books. Gone is the cartoonish "Space Bitch" of earlier novels and instead we get a fully-rounded character that brings the character we first met in 1987 full circle and ready to live on her own.

Although with a portable time-machine to help protect the earth from the rift created by events of the book (and also to allow for occasional guest appearances).



Reading Set Piece I was reminded of how Ace was such an important character for Doctor Who once upon a time. Easily the best "companion" of the 1980s (although does she really have competition?) Ace was a huge step forward in terms of quality of character for the show. Although compared to what we get today her stories may seem light on back-story and somewhat clunky (her "seduction" scene in "The Curse of Fenric" defies description) at the time it was a *huge* improvement compared to some of the rather cardboard "shriekers" that had come beforehand. And in some ways Ace is more of a strongly defined character than the likes of Rose, Martha or Amy. I couldn't imagine any of them attacking a Dalek with a baseball bat.

And as a side note one of the things that has irked me about the 2011 series so far is how poorly the characters of Amy and Rory have been realised. They're on the verge of outdoing Mel, Dodo or Peri in terms of being "Generic Companions #1 and #2". While Amy was a bit light on personality last year at least it could be explained away as being due to Steven Moffat's crack. This year it's just feeling lazy.

But despite the importance of the character in the canon of Who having her permanently leave the series was definitely over-due. By 1995 the New Adventures needed to move more away from the TV-show more and stretch the potential for Doctor Who. Set Piece feels like the culmination of the run so far, looking somewhat to the past but getting us ready to enter a fresh phase for the series.

Although still with Dr#7, it's been said that Virgin *wanted* to regenerate The Doctor at the time but weren't allowed by the BBC.

So if you couldn't tell I liked Set Piece a lot, Orman again manages to combine a terrific story with
great writing style and a fantastic grasp of character. Who'd (hah!) have ever thought that a time would come that I'd get more enjoyment out of literary Doctor Who than what was being shown on TV? I say someone needs to head over to Australia and get her writing for the show proper!

But really, sorry to keep harping on about it but this season on TV is feeling rushed and a bit lacking, as if the strain of writing half of the episodes and running the show is proving to be a bit too much for Steven Moffat. TBH I wouldn't mind a bit less of his input.