📝8/10

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time! 

This time: Steam, Treasure & Space Babies

MY SCATTERED AND TOTALLY IRRELEVANT NOTES:

The steam-powered planet of Starfall, with its enigmatic owner, McCavity, provides a fascinating setting. I also enjoyed the pirate elements, including the mythical Captain Hemlock Glint, the black shadow that claims many victims, the treasure, and the spaceship designs inspired by pirate ships.

Bobb, Jimm, and Silver Sally are fun supporting characters—at least until our perception of them shifts later in the story.

Justin Richards leans a bit too heavily on Ten's quirky traits, and I don’t think he fully captures the Doctor’s mannerisms. However, considering the limited reference material available to him at the time, I can overlook this. His portrayal of Ten is still stronger than his characterisation of Nine in The Clockwise Man.

The chatty, reluctant monster Kevin, who’s forced to act as a contract killer, felt a bit too comical for the tone of the story. His sarcastic, almost muppet-like personality seemed out of place. However, his true nature, revealed later in the book, redeems him somewhat. Strangely, I kept picturing him as Blue from the movie IF (2024).

It’s enjoyable to see the Doctor lead an expedition to track down Hemlock Glint, complete with a robotic crew and a ship of his own.

One of the more striking twists involves Sally, who has replaced her broken robotic parts with human ones, rather than the other way around. While the reveal that Glint's old crew has essentially become the Doctor's robotic crew is a bit predictable, Sally still stands out as one of the more compelling villains in the New Series Adventures (NSA) range. Her clear motives, unrepentant vileness, and grim fate make her memorable.

Unfortunately, the story devolves into a standard chase narrative by the halfway mark, failing to make full use of its intriguing concepts. For instance, Starfall and the space sharks could have been explored in greater depth.

McCavity, the grief-stricken madman seeking salvation through the Resurrection Casket, emerges as a compelling figure. His gradual shift from ally to antagonist is engaging, and his ultimate fate—reminiscent of Benton’s experience in The Time Monster—is satisfying.

The climactic action sequence, where Kevin tries to attack the Doctor while they simultaneously attempt to solve Kevin’s unfinished crossword puzzle, is a highlight. The creative use of the psychic paper here is also a nice touch.

The story loses some momentum toward the end. We never truly meet Glint (or at least not in the expected way), and the Resurrection Casket turns out to be a machine that de-ages people—similar to the TOMTIT device in The Time Monster. However, the final twists were surprising and enjoyable.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

• The use of human body parts to repair robotic components bears some resemblance to the events in The Girl in the Fireplace.