A Timelord walks into a bar...
Blood Harvest by Terrance Dicks
Seventh Doctor Adventures number: 28
Originally published: July 1994
Companions: Ace and Benny
"Doc's peddling bootleg liquor in an illegal speakeasy. You're carrying a gun for him, Ace - which makes you no better than any other gun-moll."
Dekker is a private eye, an honest one. But when Al Capone hires him to investigate a new joint called "Doc's", he knows this is one job he can't refuse. And just why are the Doctor and Ace selling illegal booze in a town full of murderous gangsters?
Meanwhile, Bernice has been abandoned on a vampire-infested planet outside normal space. There she meets a mysterious stranger called Romanadvoratrelundar — and discovers an ancient and malevolent power, linking 1929 Chicago with a lair of immortal evil.
The consequences of this story are inextricably linked to events in the Doctor's past.
A Doctor Who New Adventure set in the time of Prohibition - and what's more it's written by Mr Target himself, Terrance Dicks. This should be good...
And it's a really promising start. I'm a sucker for a Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett homage and this has the right ingredients in spades. Sam Spades even.
A seedy office. A down at heel ex-cop PI. A world weary first person narration. The Doctor running a secret speakeasy and brewing alcohol in the TARDIS swimming pool.
Get me a bottle of hooch from the bottom drawer and let's dive in !
It's 'The Doc' meeting Alphonse Gabrial Capone - old Scarface himself - complete with a gang of colourful hoodlums and a cameo from Eliot Ness (not to mention a nice quote from The Untouchables) - all while there's a mysterious character manipulating things in the background.
And it's all great fun. There's a real sense of effort being made to get the period details right. Sure, maybe it's a bit cliched in places, but respecting a decent cliché can be a good thing - classic Doctor Who you might even say.
Dekker is an interesting character and any chapter where he narrates the story is hugely enjoyable.
Okay, so beneath the surface it's all standard Doctor Who fare - that is, until Ace kills a goon by blowing the top of his head off !
'Cause there's no shortage of stone cold violence in this here New Adventure. Some heavy gunplay, multiple casualties and blood on the streets - this is definitely not old cuddly Uncle Tewwance !
Personally, I'd have been very happy if we'd stayed in Chicago and the threat had just been thin white dude Argonal ramping up the distrust and bloodshed amongst the gangs to feed off it.
The Doctor could defeat the villain (preferable in a night-time rooftop showdown in the rain), set time back on it’s proper path (and Al heading for a meeting with the IRS) - but Argonal escapes to cause trouble another day.
A nice historical piece with a smattering of the supernatural / SF, all wrapped up in a familiar series of tropes. Lovely.
But no, we also get a second plot strand with Benny dumped in E-Space on the planet of the vampires along with a returning Romana and a rehashed version of 'State of Decay'.
It's all very medieval and there's some nice interplay between the archaeologist and the Time Lady, but apart from building a Hammer horror atmosphere I'm not quite sure how it relates to things back in the Windy City.
And then there's a *third* thing happening, with three shadowy figures using the Time Scoop, perhaps to make a sequel to 'The Five Doctors'.
Where is all this going ?...
I'll tell you - the last 30 pages of the novel is where !
Because suddenly we've abandoned Chicago and our colourful cast of crooked characters and we're in E-space and manage to find Romana and Benny with no trouble at all.
And - oh look - the resurrected vampires are disposed of in a flash with a few bullets from Dekker's trusty gun and some mild tech tinkering from the Doctor.
And - whoosh - we're off to Gallifrey and the three scheming timelords are revealed and want to take over the universe or something but they're…defeated in a flash.
And then - here comes Rassilon to take out Argonal - in a single paragraph no less - and Borusa is back - and is redeemed and - oops no, he's gone again.
And Dekker is seriously wounded but - nope - he's all better now.
And... And... And…..
Sigh.
Did Terrance get too caught up in the 'Chicago Way', realise he was running out of space and had to wrap everything up as quickly as possible - and chuck in an obligatory plug for 'Goth Opera' at the very end for good measure ?
There are enough revelations, call-backs, plot twists and resolutions in those last few pages to fill a whole extra book.
It was all going so well, but...
What *was* he thinking ?
Don’t get me wrong - I *loved* the majority of this book.
But wow, the wrap up was a stinker. It could all have been so much better.
Still, you'd like to think that at least Dekker got a happy ending... ;)