'Rallon? Rallon!!' The Doctor rushed to the doors
of the toyshop, flung them open and raced through into...
space
He stood there, aghast. He was simply
floating, thousands of galaxies surrounding him. It was as if the
whole universe had been captured within one small area and he could see everything...'
This novel starts off quite encouragingly. Russell
seems to have captured the Fifth Doctor perfectly, including much of his
sarcasm. The initial glimpses of the Celestial Toymaker are also very
reminiscent of Michael Gough's performance. 'Divided Loyalties' is also
quite short, running to only 252 pages, which makes you think that someone has
finally seen sense, and restricted the page numbers to fit the story.
But Gary Russell's afterword rings all too
true. He seems to have been originally planning a meeting between the 6th
and 8th Doctors. Two Doctors feature in this novel too, with an episode
from the First Doctor's life to explain why he'd been expelled by the
Academy. This is quite enjoyable, although the presence of a large
furry animal gives the lie to the thought that Russell might have dropped
some of his more irritating habits. The monsters in Doctor Who were never
supposed to be cute: only the budget restrictions made them that way (like
the giant rat in The
Talons of Weng Chiang). If any era deserved a Russell novel,
then it would have to be Davison's. Doctor Who's producer at the
time, John-Nathan Turner, loved continuity even more than Russell seems to do:
'With an exaggerated sigh Tegan straightened up and smoothed down
her uniform. (Nyssa had promised to go through the TARDIS
wardrobe... so that they could both choose something new to wear instead of
forever getting the TARDIS to work its overnight magic on her lilac air hostess
outfit.) His grammar could do with some work too!
Well, at least there's only one
villain. Koschei does feature, but he's still in angelic mode. The
Toymaker does have a nasty henchman, but we can hardly take him seriously,
because he's called 'Gaylord'. In like manner, and as an internal
continuity to recent Eighth Doctor novels, Russell speculates on the nature of
the Guardians - 'The Great Old Ones'. Could these be Lawrence Miles' Time
Lords from another universe invading our own? Unfortunately, Russell
chooses to spoil their majesty by giving them some very silly names: 'Raah, Nah
and Rok, who together would one day cause the end of this Universe'.
Although this might just be another reference, this time to the televised
adventure 'The
Greatest Show in the Galaxy'.
But Russell is such a slave to continuity that he
spoils his own book. It appears that he became too concerned about the
portrayal of the Toymaker in Graham Williams' 'The
Nightmare Fair'. In this unrealized script, the Toymaker was rather
less fun than he'd been in his debut in the 1960s, so Russell dully contrives
to explain this (I mean 'dully'). By the end of 'Divided Loyalties', the
Toymaker is thus transformed into a 'Nuthink in this world can stop me now!'
type caricature. In order to explain this transformation, Russell feels
obliged to disrupt continuity by introducing new characters and events (I don't
think William Hartnell's Doctor knew of the Toymaker beforehand). The
'divided loyalties' of the story refers to the Fifth Doctor's companions, and
Russell here uses the word 'divided' to its fullest extent. Nyssa, in
particular, has a reason to be aggrieved with the Doctor, but Russell chooses
to dwell rather too long on her dilemma.
The Toymaker's games are also quite banal.
Gary Russell could have done with the helping hand of Christopher Bulis here,
in devising some really devious puzzles, just as he could learn from Lawrence
Miles the way to write a complex plot which grips you all the way.
Genre Award: 6/10.
Kevin Mahoney
