DOCTOR
WHO

The Murder Game by Steve Lyons

By pure coincidence, I discovered the perfect circumstances under which to read this book. If you're an early riser and you're going to a convention in the near future, take this with you. Get up early, bring The Murder Game down to the hotel lounge at 6 a m, when it's completely deserted, and started reading. This is what I did at Nexus '97 in Bristol (the event at which Richard Biggs of Babylon 5 proposed to his intended) and imagine, if you can, my delight when I discovered that the majority of the book is set on a deserted hotel, floating in space!

The hotel is being used by a small group of people as the venue for a murder weekend. A chance for some innocent fun before the hotel is finally shut down. Unfortunately, some of the guests aren't so innocent and one or two are taking things rather too literally.

Three guests who are, of course, entirely innocent, are the Doctor, Ben and Polly. Arriving at the hotel, they are brought into the game to fill the spaces left open by some people who've dropped out at the last minute. This leads to some wonderfully comic moments when it emerges that the character the Doctor has been called upon to replace is a middle-aged woman (British readers of this review may wish to amuse themselves at this point by imagining Patrick Troughton playing a pantomime dame!).

It isn't long before the body count is mounting, everyone is suspicious of everyone and the reader is being bombarded with red herrings from all directions.

Red herrings. Fish! And therein lies a clue to the nature of the vengeful alien race waiting in the wings, eager to use the game as a cover for a transfer of technology. The Selachians are a superb creation. An entirely new race with carefully fleshed out motivations, origins and technology, the Selachians are the highlight of The Murder Game. That they seem to have little in the way of individual character is a side effect of the Selachians in the book belonging to a highly disciplined military squad and in any case, the inclusion of such diversity would detract from their dramatic impact.

Individual character. Ah, yes. A little clue to help you cut through the red herrings. The less individuality a character has in this novel, the less likely it is that they are what they seem to be. If, from this, you infer that Ben and Polly are very well characterised indeed, then you're absolutely correct. In particular, I appreciated the uncertainty each has about the other's feelings and Polly's jealousy as one of the other characters appears to form an attachment to Ben.

The ever elusive characterisation of Troughton's Doctor is almost there, largely helped by the strong characterisation of his companions. He is never as convincing away from them as he is when they are together in the same scene.

The book as a whole is refreshingly clear of indulgent continuity references and is one of the few Doctor Who novels ever published that can honestly claim to be accessible to people who've never even heard of the programme.

Recommended.

© Tim Farr, 2006