NA #55 Damaged Goods

Damaged Goods by Russell T. Davies

Yes, *that* Russell T. Davies

In Brief: The Doctor, Chris and Roz travel to a council estate known as The Quadrant in Summer 1987 trying to track down a dangerous alien being contained within a batch of cocaine. Meanwhile, the secrets of local resident Winnie Tyler and her family threaten to destroy the world.

Damaged Goods is the book I've most been looking forward to revisiting since I started the re-read of the New Adventures. The reasons are fairly obvious reasons considering Russell T. Davies is the man who did the impossible and brought Doctor Who back from the dead. With some striking similarities between the novels of other post-2005 writers such as Paul Cornell and Mark Gatiss and their respective TV-episodes (oh, and Gareth Roberts, although I've not really found a lot to link together his books with his TV-episodes) what connections would I find in the only novel written by Mr. Davies?

The answer is "quite a lot", although not in the way one would initially think. Although the council-estate setting and use a family of Tylers would be a huge part of the revived show the difference in tone are striking. The Quadrant, and in fact the book itself, is as bleak as bleak can be, where the poor and hopeless live out their lives in a depressing housing project. Drugs, crime and prostitution are a part of every day life, far removed from the rather idealised version seen in the TV-series proper. It's striking to see this dark version of Doctor Who come from Davies after the optimism of what was to come, although it does fit well with the more adult aims of the New Adventures. Damaged Goods is definitely more Transit than "Aliens of London".

So while Damaged Goods isn't really a sign of what was almost to come there are still huge similarities to Davies future input. In particular in how he'd end up doing almost a cut-and-paste of several parts of this book into future episodes. The structure of the plot is strikingly similar to "Army of Ghosts" and "The End of Time", with the initial menace being pushed aside by a truly apocalyptic threat that wants to pull itself to Earth from another dimension. The show-down between The Doctor and the insane Mrs. Jericho, who through her strength of will gains control of the multi-dimensional N-Form is ported (complete with some of the dialogue) into the climax of "The Next Doctor". There are also disembodied heads killing with metal spikes and characters driven mad by a constant drumming in the head. Even Chris, 30th-century pretty boy of action, ends up rather more pan-sexual than of late and becomes a proto-Jack Harkness.

While it's true I'm not commenting on Damaged Goods purely on its own merits, which are many, it's almost impossible to do so. While the tone is much darker than anything on the show proper, the juxtaposition of the mundane with the extraordinary seen here is what would become (and remains) the key-stone of the show itself. The comparisons really are unavoidable. Also I don't tend to review media as much as comment on my reaction to it, although what critic doesn't?

So what we have in Damaged Goods is a potential alternative to what appeared on-air in 2005. It's close enough to be recognisable as what was to come, but in many ways shares more in tone and execution with the better bits of Torchwood. This is Davies allowing his darker impulses to flourish, as in "Torchwood: Children of Earth" (another story where secrets of the past come back to exact a toll on the present).

But, I should try to discuss the novel itself somewhat. Even if Russell T. Davies had had no further connection to the world of Doctor Who this book would still stand out. His writing skill is intense and unforgettable. His characters are memorable (and memorably flawed) and he doesn't pull his punches. People suffer horrifically in this book, including children. It's a book about how secrets, when kept too long, will always damage a person.

Also notable is the book's use of gay characters. While some could complain that having a closeted-gay homophobe isn't the most positive of images to present, and that gay life as seen in the book is rather depressing, it rings true to what was reality in Thatcher's Britain. While accusations can be made that Davies is ironically incapable of developing a well-adjusted gay character the truth is that *everyone* in his writing is equally messed up. I suspect that it's his reaction to the "angelic sexless gay" stereotype that was (and still is) so prevalent in the media. It's the same warts and all view that would give the world Queer As Folk 3 years later (the good one, not that American rubbish).

Even without the thematic and situational links to post-2005 Doctor Who this is an entry in the New Adventures that is like no other. It's adult in a way that televised Doctor Who never is, with The Doctor being truly out of his element in the "real world". He's a character used to dealing with kings and emperors, not families on the benefit. It's this aspect of bringing the character "down to earth" that is most notable.

While Damaged Goods is a great book I'm glad that it's tone wasn't the way forward for the show when it came back. It proved even to be a one-off in the book series itself as even at the end we're heading back into the future as The Doctor returns Chris and Roz to the 30th-century to chase down the reason for the N-Form's appearance. If there's a complaint it's that the story is perhaps almost *too* bleak and depressing. This is not what Doctor Who should be on a permanent basis, and thankfully Davies was smart enough to realise that fact when it mattered most. However, that doesn't detract that Damaged Goods is one of the must-reads of the New Adventures.