Fear of the Dark

As a big fan of S21 of Classic Who the premise of this novel intrigued me. S21 has a much darker feel than the rest of Five's era. It puts the kindest and most vulnerable Doctor into increasingly dark situations where he finds being trying to be a good person more and more impossible. I think it's an approach that brings the most interesting stuff out of the character as well as the best performances from Davison and just in general across the show. From how people described this novel it seemed like it would adapt the same sort of "there should have been another way" attitude from that season and indeed it does (that line even gets used).

At the risk of the stating the obvious this book is *dark*. Just on pure tone probably one of the darkest DWU stories ever. Not one character who isn't a member of the TARDIS team makes it out of here alive, including characters who the book makes great pains to flesh out. This book is just really good at slowly building tension. It's mostly a small cast of characters in small, claustrophobic areas with that feeling of claustrophobia and tension being brilliantly and methodically built up throughout. But what takes this book up from just being a cool and creepy gothic horror story is the superb characterisation. With the side characters being killed off in order of importance it did make some feel quite disposable, but nevertheless this book had some great characters with the most notable examples being Stoker and Bunny (the death of the latter was heart wrenching, as a lot of time was dedicated to how much he just wanted to get back to his daughter). Tegan and Nyssa were also excellent, both getting active things to do in the story and acting exactly how I would expect their characters to under the circumstances. But my favourite thing about this book is how the Doctor is written. The wonderfully youthful and energetic energy Davison brought to the role comes across brilliantly here but he also has darker moments. Five is pushed to the absolute limit here and as such is forced into doing some less than ideal things. The dark is shown to be messing with his mind throughout the book but it's left ambiguous (I believe intentionally) how much the Doctor's actions are his mind being perverted vs the actions he takes in desperation. He manipulates and uses people to his advantage ala 7 but it never crosses over the boundary into outright cruelty. E.g the scene where he bribes Oldeman with Neurolectrin before revealing that he had already given it to him before he woke up. Five is still reassuring to people and you always get the sense of his actions being out of a want to help as many people as possible, even if that doesn't always mean doing the nicest things short term. That is something that the Fifth Doctor excels in and something that can be very difficult to write.

This book is not perfect however; the ending feels very rushed. The Dark has a haunting and powerful presence throughout and this is somewhat lost when it takes physical form at the end. While the way the image of a dark and twisted version of the Doctor is described is very haunting, it also serves to demystify The Dark and like it just gets defeated by being shot. The thing that caused so much misery and was so powerful is done away pretty easily when it takes physical form. Why did it even do that? Seemed much more powerful as just "ooh big scary shadows". While the story doesn't quite stick the landing though it is still excellent and one of the prime examples I would point to of how to write for the Fifth Doctor. I definitely recommend it to all but especially fans of Five. 9/10 / 4½ stars.

This is up there with the best 5th Doctor stories ever made. Which is funny because it’s another story that puts the Doctor and company into probably the most traumatic adventures they could have. Which is hilarious considering the placement of this story is straight after Tegan wanting to come back. How Tegan didn’t flat out quit here is just insane.

Tangent aside, this is another very depressing and dark story. Lots of bloody and gruesome deaths. The main draw to this story is the excellent characterization of the 5th Doctor. This is a Doctor at his most frantic and stressed. The Doctor at one point actually tries to kill himself just so he doesn’t have to face the Dark in death. It’s all so messed up but it’s really engaging. Speaking of the Dark… it was a really good threat as this force of nature throughout the story while these bloodsucker creatures are running about. I say WAS because at the end of the story has the Dark take form and gets relegated as a generic, mustache-twirling villain who wants to destroy the universe. Yeah the ending kinda loses steam a little but that doesn’t change the really messed up yet gripping journey.

Despite the weak ending, I do recommend getting this book. It’s an adventure that pushes what can be done with this Doctor and his era.