Combat Rock

The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria to a distant planet with a ghoulish past based on tribal warfare and cannibalism. Such days are long gone, though, and the planet has been conquered by the equivalent of Christian missionaries to raise the savages and make them better people. And then there are the tourists, come to take pictures of the indiginous tribes and partake of the local customs, and the local prostitutes. Rumour of a resurgance of the cannibal ways prompts the Doctor to investigate, dragging Jamie and Victoria and a couple of local whores along with him to an island steeped in evil. Somewhere else nearby, a group of elite troops (called the Dogs) are methodically moving through the jungles killing everyone they encounter, from tribesmen, lost tourists, and the occasional hooker, at the behest of the non-elected president of the planet.

Jamie cavorting with hookers. Victoria being scared and bullied again. The hookers fighting with each other like it's an episode of COPS. And the Dogs all characteriszed to be such individuals that they become mere charicatures of crazed mercenary killers, especially the nasty leader, Pan, and his misogynistic ways. Oh and what would it be without one of the killers being a haughty bisexual named Pretty Boy, who wears leather and lace and is consumed with his own appearance. The Doctor is portrayed at the extremes of his character, spending more time cowering and acting afraid than thinking and acting. And why oh why does author Mick Lewis figure he will be one of the special writers to tackles Jamie's Scottish accent and actually hook himself on phonetics for the novel? Granted it is not as overwhelming as the novelization for Trainspotting (parts of which I had to read three times before I got the gist of what was being said) but why bother? Jamie's accent in the series is not as gutteral as Lewis presents it on page, and there are few other authors who attempt to use it to distinguish Jamie from otehr characters.

The big problem with this book is excessiveness. Excessive gore. Excessive use of the minor shades of our regular characters, with Victoria throwing her dignity all over the place in a manner she rarely does on screen. And once we add the whole cannibal aspect and the brutal slayings... it's just too much. Even the parallels between the Indoni people and the British conquest of India back in the days of the Empire are just too blatant to miss, but no, we have to have Victoria herself, a product of that age, remind us again and again about it. Overkill, Mr Lewis, just like his first effort into the series, Rags. Which also suffered from the same problems.

Let's return to the televised series now. And pray Mick Lewis doesn't write another book, or, worse, write a script for the next season of the televised series.

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