Divided Loyalties

I came into Divided Loyalties with a fair amount of foreknowledge – specifically about its controversial introduction of the Deca to the tangled web of Doctor Who canon (the implications of which are neither here nor there to me; I take the Unnatural History approach to Doctor Who canon). And yes, it certainly does that. What I didn't expect, however, is the novel's caring attention to the characterization Fifth Doctor and his companions – particularly Tegan Jovanka.

Gary Russell has written Tegan in a way that shows a deep, and profoundly compassionate, insight into her character, which I found profoundly refreshing. Tegan comes to life in Divided Loyalties, with all her strengths highlighted and her flaws sympathetically understood.

The novel itself is also some proper good fun. The Toymaker is sufficiently celestial and terrifying, and all of his game pieces are humanized just enough for it to be deeply unsettling as they are promptly dehumanized. The crew of the Little Boy II is a bit too large and too expendable for their fates to have much of an impact, but that is the fate of Doctor Who side characters; one must always have meat for the grinder, after all.

My one major issue with the novel lies in the character of Millennia. Aside from a few moments where she shows off some cursory mathematics brilliance, she is not a character with any agency. She feels largely inanimate long before she becomes a puppet, present to be in love with Rallon and to briefly provide the Toymaker leverage over the Doctor. Even her gruesome fate is more of an afterthought, overshadowed by Rallon. The Doctor does not spare a thought towards saving her, and she is given no last words. As one of only two women amongst the Deca, this feels like a rather callous position for her to be in. Though the epilogue paints her and Rallon as a pair, I feel that the greatest tragedy is all Millennia's.

Aside from that, what a topping read! Good show, eh?