Read between 19th of February 2018 and 20th February 2018
Read for the second time between 29th of March 2018 to 31st March 2018
Edition Details:
Format : Paperback
Page Count: 192
Publisher: BBC Books
Series : Doctor Who Library (Target) Series #4
ISBN:9781849904766
First Sentence:
Out among the remotest planets, in faithful orbit through the solar system, the great satellite revolved slowly in the glimmer of brilliant distant suns, reflecting their faint light from it’s cold and silent surfaces.
The Terra Nova was supposed to be the safe haven that the survivors of devastated future earth had created for themselves.The solar flares had destroyed all forms of life on earth and made earth inhabitable. It would have taken thousand of years for earth to be in a condition so as to support life again. So the plan was to be in a state of suspended animation till the proper time has arrived. The cryogenic facilities were used for preserving all the life forms and chosen humans. They would have been woken when Earth would have become liveable again.
But when Doctor,Sarah and Harry arrive at the Terra Nova. They find there is someone else apart from them living in the Terra Nova. That someone else has planned something sinister for the humans.
Who was this creature? What had it planned? How were Doctor and his friends going to stop him? What were the challenges they would be facing? And why were the humans not aware of the attack?
Main Characters:
Doctor Who: A space traveller who keeps moving in time and space
Harry Suvillan: He’s a surgeon and is appointed as UNIT’s medical officer. He was fourth Doctor’s Companion
Sarah James Smith: A reporter and Doctor’s companion for this story.
Vira – First Medtech of Terra Nova
Noah – Commandar of Terra Nova
Libri- A technop that was woken up
Lycett and Rogin – Two technops
Doctor who and the ark in space was an enjoyable read for me.
The book is set in the future and this time we find Doctor who and his companions in a seemingly abandoned satellite. They soon discover it’s not so and the satellite is like a storage pod for all the life that was once present in the earth. And, an alien species called Wirrrn, are planning to take the control of the satellite.
The book is fast paced and has elements of horror in it. I’m have been watching fringe these days and although it’s a sci-fi show but some episodes or scenes could easily be defined as horror. I felt the same while reading some of the scenes of this book. These were the scenes i enjoyed the most in the book.
As the story is set in future it as fun reading about the people of the future. We are taken to the society where humans had to choose among themselves whom they would like to save so that they could re-populate the earth when the proper time came. Now, if this scenario becomes reality and we have to choose the best among ourselves then whom would we choose. This was something that i kept thinking upon while reading the book.
In the novel i think they have chosen people who looked a certain way physcially and were best in the work they were assigned to do. But these people seemed to lack compassion (At least the way Vira and Noah carried themselves initially i thought so.) And then there were people they had marked as regressives and these were the people that were left to die.
(There was a small reference to a certain unit which was marked as such. I would have loved to read
a novel set in the time when this segregation was going on. It would be a fun read i’m sure of that.)
Noah describes Doctor who and his companions as such regressives. We are not given the reason why he does so but i think it was related to their physical appearance and how they carried themselves.
I thought that was not the right way to choose people if you are thinking about repopulating the earth. These robotic people would be efficient no doubt but would they make the earth a better place. I don’t think so. If there comes a choice, then the people who are compassionate,who can nurture, should be the ones that should have been given priority.. What do you think? If you have to choose people what would be the qualities that you’d give priority to? Do comment what are your thoughts regarding this?
This book had an interesting mix of characters.
The companions and Doctor are main characters of the the book.I guess this was the first time that Harry has been on an adventure with Doctor and it’s visible in the chemistry between them. The Doctor and Sarah on the other hand seemed to me more familiar with each other and shared a rapport that was missing between Harry and Doctor. I would like to read the other adventures featuring these companions to see how their characters evolve with passing time.
We don’t get to see much of the people from the future. There were a couple of characters that had prominent role in the story. Initially, i didn’t like Vira. She seemed standoffish and i thought lacked emotions. But as the story progresses we see changes in her and that warmed me towards her. Noah was the same. Rogin was one of the technops that was woken up. I liked him from the start. He seemed normal and more human then the other two.
The story’s main antagonist is Wirrrn which is an alien life form that’s parasitic in nature. It was scary to read about them. But then we are told the reason why the Wirrrn queen did what she did and i think i could get it’s perspective. This is the thing that i like about this series. The way it portrays aliens is not one dimensional. We get to see their side of the story and sometimes we can understand why they are doing what they are doing.
I have seen two or three seasons of Doctor who and this is my third book that i have read and i love this thing about him. He values life and it doesn’t matters whether it’s human or some alien. He has said a lot of times that humans are his favourite but he always looks for the middle way. He always tries to ensure there is no loss of life and the conflicting species find a way to co-exist together. He tires this in this one too.And i think this is the best thing about this character. It teaches us to co-exist in spite of our differences and to value life no matter how small it is.
The only issue i had with the book was that i had sometimes difficulty in visualising the technical things that were being described. The technical jargon was interrupting with my visualisation of the scene. I have not seen the Doctor who episode on which it was based and so i believe, if i had already seen the episode i would have been able to enjoy reading it more. Also, if there would have been illustrations in the book then that would also have been great. The previous novels that i read i think had illustrations too. Maybe now i’ll watch the episode and will read the novel again.
If you are looking for a good sci-fi adventure with some horror elements then you should give it a try. I think you’d like it.
If you have read it then do tell me what did you think of it.
If you are interested then you can get the book from the following links:
Paperback
Kindle
