Invasion of the Cat People

Um. Yeah. Total b-movie title for starters, although somehow in Doctor Who it's allowable, and one can almost see it on the screen if one closes ones eyes. Unfortunatlely, I don't see Jude Law in a starring role as per Gary Russell's fantasy cast list on page 261.

But anyways.

I didn't like it.

Ben and Polly suffer the usual displacement anxiety that the early companions exhibited in the series when arriving in the future; it is 1994 and they marvel at the price of things, and have their requisite encounter with McDonald's while the Doctor tries to make some sense of time experiments in a house somewhere in the English countryside. Clever references are made throughout to the Doctor's past, and even into his future with a mention of special books from "home" - a future reference (or retroactive continuity - "ret-conning") to a fourth Doctor adventure in 1979.

Cat-People. Yep, they're cats. Cliche cats, hissing and spitting, and despising humans, and of course to make sure they're really bad cats they're all females. Another reference to cat-kind is made, this time ahead into a 1989 story. Clever cross knitting of the elements of the series, but not really enough to save the story from getting a bit tired. Oh yes, they're out to conquer the world. And invade. Hence the title.

I didn't like. Did I already say that? Well I'm saying it again. I didn't like it. There are references back to Vulcan and the Daleks again, but to be fair this book was written before The Murder Game. Yes, this is another of the fabled Missing Adventures from Virgin Publishing back in 1995, so as far as Gary Russell was concerned when he wrote it, this was the bridge novel between two televised stories and he could treat it as such, so we get a bit of a hiccup with the recaps from Vulcan, but the story gets back underway without dwelling on it. Good point on the TARDIS crew dynamic: Polly and Ben are already feeling out of place having gone into the future, and the concept of them leaving gets brought up quick. Bad moment, though: both Polly and Ben have nightmares and get night sweats, but Ben's is perhaps dewlled upon a little too much for comfort, until he arrives in the console room a sweaty stinky mess with his pyjamas "clinging to his body contours".

Jude Law and sweaty Ben in the same book. Okay Gary, welcome to this side of the closet door. Sheesh. And I can say this as a gay man myself. Shamless sexploitation of the companions? Well to be fair around the time this book was written, the New Adventures featuring the seventh Doctor and company were really pushing the envelope and breaking new ground, and there was a hot young companion always being deprived of his clothes; it just feels wierd to ret-con that new style of writing into the classic (we have to call it "classic" now because of the new series) era.

So. Done. Relatively painless. On to the next book, then we're back to televised stories, I promise.

NEXT EPISODE : WONDERLAND