16 - Shadowmind

When you cross Doctor Who with a hivemind of gerbils, an toddling planetoid, and an offbeat police procedural, you get Shadowmind: a silly but entertaining adventure that would fit right in as a NuWho two-parter.  This book is nothing groundbreaking, but I found it to be far from deserving of its reputation as a snoozefest.

After escaping the tumultuous shores of 20th century Haiti, the Doctor attempts another doomed holiday, this time to celebrate Ace’s birthday on the colony planet of Tairngaire.  But after Ace witnesses a murder, she sees a small animal crawl out of the dead man’s body, and it soon becomes clear that the planet is being invaded by a force of biological doppelgangers.  The dead man, Gerry Ostman, had recently returned from the planet Arden, and the Doctor learns that all other duplicates had visited the planet as well and cancelled their medical examinations.  However, he is hesitant to act because the small animals piloting the duplicates seem to be unintelligent and die quickly when extracted, implying that they are controlled by some kind of hivemind.  There is a particularly exciting scene in which the Doctor accuses the wrong councillor of being a duplicate, so that the real impostor is caught off guard and can be captured.

Like The Ark, the story is divided into two by a journey through space, after which a wildly different plot begins.  Here, Ace’s life is saved by one of the hiveminds of furry creatures (called Shenn), while the Doctor and Benny are attacked by a black warship.  The plots converge when Ace learns that one nest of Shenn is under the influence of a shadowy entity known as Umbra, which is a sentient asteroid made of pure carbon.  I’ll admit that this half of the book started to drag, and the explanation of Umbra’s origins is particularly ludicrous; the asteroid developed electrical activity due to its geostationary orbit, and somehow gained sentience and psychic abilities as a result.  The explanation does allow for a neat ending, however; all it takes to kill Umbra and save the day is to eclipse the sun, throwing it into darkness and neutralizing the electric potentials.

I do recommend Shadowmind, but by enjoying it I seem to be in the minority.  Luckily, it’s not an essential read, so if you’re not having fun it’s very skippable.  Next time: Birthright and Iceberg, in which the Doctor and his companions get split custody of the reader!