We're All Stories In the End 11 - Casualties of War

No companions. No memory. No TARDIS. But still the Doctor....

Casualties of War by Steve Emmerson

Eighth Doctor Adventures number: 38

Originally published: September 2000

Companions: None

1918. The world is at war. A terrible raging conflict that has left no one untouched.

In the North Yorkshire village of Hawkswick, it seems that the dead won't stay down. There are reports of horrifically wounded soldiers on manoeuvres in the night. Pets have gone missing, and now livestock is found slaughtered in the fields.

Suspicion naturally falls on nearby Hawkswick Hall, a psychiatric hospital for shell-shocked soldiers, where Private Daniel Corey senses a gathering evil.

As events escalate, a stranger arrives on the scene. Can this Man from the Ministry solve the mystery of Hawkswick? And can Hawkswick solve the mystery that is this Man from the Ministry?.

Another month and another Eighth Doctor novel - and another new setup for our favourite Timelord.

This time he's somehow become an amnesiac with no access to the TARDIS - but you know that really doesn’t matter. Even without his memories, at the core he is still the same person with the same inquisitiveness and passion for the unusual. His personality breaks through and his determination is clear,

Okay so the plot could probably be summarised as "golem-like dead soldier's rising from the mud to attack an innocent village, all under the thrall of an unseen psychic intelligence". So far, so Doctor Who you might think. But the novel's greatest strength is the fact that the story is told in a way that’s just so damn creepy...

There really are some atmospheric and disturbing scenes -

• The Doctor sifting through chucks of dead bodies in the middle of a field.
• The poacher discovering a tree full of the severed heads of dead animals - and then putting a bullet through his own brain when he is surrounded by the walking dead.
• A mute soldier taking out his pain and rage on a humanoid clay figure during a bizarre therapy session.
• Farmer Cromby setting his own barn on fire and watching the blazing bodies of dead soldiers crumble to earth.
• And of course the scenes in the "clay room" where Mary finds a book with Latin text and woodcuts of horrific demons - only for the door to slam shut, trapping her in the darkness and absorbing her into the ooze. It may be a slight cliché, but it's still incredibly effective.

And although the Doctor is front and centre in the story it's actually the supporting characters that really shine here. The intelligent, caring Mary Minnett and the elderly, world weary Constable Briggs are essentially pseudo-companions for the  Doctor and the story is all the better for it.

Mary's playful relationship with the mysterious "Man from the Ministry" builds nicely over the course of the novel and you almost want them to get together - and at one point the Doctor even seems to consider it. Plus while Albert Briggs might be totally out of his comfort zone here, that doesn’t stop his dogged loyalty and the care he has for his little community

If I had criticisms  - well perhaps there were a few too many trips back and forth to Banham's hospital for angry confrontations before its revealed (quite obviously) that he was the villain of the piece.

I did like that Banham used pagan "Dark Forces" to release his patients’ psychic potential and manifest the madness of the Great War - and that it ultimately was too much for him to control. But I could have done without a trip to a metaphysical netherworld where the Doctor used his strength of will to turn said Dark Forces against themselves.

Maybe I'm quibbling. Overall it's a genuinely enjoyable novel that isn’t afraid to examine the horrors of war with some psychological depth, a few good scares and some excellent descriptive prose.

We may not be in the trenches, but you can feel the mud and the stench and the terror.

Sometimes the worst horrors are close to home...