We move into a new decade, I become a teenager, and an album featuring the *other* composer with the initials JW becomes my favourite of the year...
1980:
The trivia:
The Rhinoceros Party were one of the most famous satirical political movements in Canadian history. It was founded in 1963 and became particularly well-known in the 1970s and 1980s for its absurd campaigns. They often ran candidates who promised to resign if elected. In the 1980 federal election, they received over 1% of the popular vote, despite promising to: repeal the laws of gravity, build taller schools to provide 'higher' education, count the 'Thousand Islands' to see if the Americans stole any, and tear down the Rocky Mountains so Albertans could see the Pacific sunset.
Photographer Robert Landsburg spent many weeks photographing the Mount St. Helens volcano in the lead up to it's catastrophic eruption. When the mountain exploded on 18th May, it unleashed a massive ash blast moving at hundreds of miles per hour. Landsburg was only a few miles from the summit and realised that he would never escape the rapidly advancing cloud. Winding his camera film back into it's case to protect the images he had already taken, he placed it into his backpack and then lay on top of it in attempt to protect the contents from the intense heat. Seventeen days later his body was found buried in the volcanic ash. Remarkably the film was recovered and successfully developed, and the images provided valuable scientific insight into the eruption and its immediate effects.
In 1980, IBM introduced the first ever hard drive with a capacity of 1 gigabyte. It weighed an astonishing 226 kilograms, was the size of a refrigerator and cost nearly £ 18,000 (around £80,000 when adjusted for todays inflation). It used a large cabinet and required special cooling and power systems. For comparison, a modern microSD card costing less than £50 can hold 1 terabyte (1,000 GB), weighs less than a gram and fits in your pocket.
The memory: Sky 2
No, not the now-defunct television channel from the Murdoch media empire, but the second album from the quintessential classical / prog-rock "supergroup".
Sky were formed by the coming together of five musicians at the top of their game:
John Williams - one of the most acclaimed classical guitarists in the world, probably most famous for "Cavatina" - the theme from the movie "The Deer Hunter".
Herbie Flowers - former member of "T. Rex" and recognised by many as one of the best bass players in the world. He appeared on albums with Elton John, David Bowie, Cat Stevens and Paul McCartney, and also played the prominent bass line on Lou Reed's "Walk On The Wild Side". Plus he worked with Jeff Wayne on his musical version of "War Of The Worlds".
Tristan Fry - a drummer and percussionist on (amongst many other things) the Beatles "A Day In The Life" and the timpanist for the "Academy of St Martins in the Fields" chamber orchestra. He also played at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Kevin Peek - an Australian guitarist who for many years was part of Cliff Richard's regular backing band, alongside session work for Manfred Mann, Lulu, Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey He also played on many film soundtracks.
Francis Monkman - founder member of pioneering psychedelic band "Curved Air". He was an accomplished harpsichord player and a fan of free-form musical composition techniques.
Williams, Fry and Flowers had been friends since the early 70s when they had performed together (along with others) on Williams' non-classical release "Changes". They stayed in touch over the years and when Francis Monkman joined them on the 1978 album "Travelling", they realised that they wanted to set up their own full-time cross-genre band, combining pop, classical and rock elements. Recruiting Kevin Peek (fresh from working with David Bowie), the quintet was complete, and Sky released their first self-titled album in 1979. It combined versions of well known classical pieces along with original compositions by Monkman and Flowers. With much critical acclaim, it quickly reached gold record status and sell out concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and the Dominion Theatre followed.
With their mix of genres, styles and instruments (they were the first to combine acoustic and electronic instruments in such a way), Sky appealed to a wide breadth of music fans. People who traditionally would not listen to classical music found themselves drawn in by the rock interpretations. Classical enthusiasts attracted by the Williams name enjoyed the more free-form original material.
I was completely unaware of this success though. While I had a growing interest in pop music, I also really enjoyed instrumental albums. The disco-style versions of classic film and TV science fiction themes by Geoff Love were some of my favourites. Plus as I've already documented, Jeff Wayne's "War of the Worlds" was a passion, and hardly off my turntable since it's release. However, I had been too young for the peak years of the prog rock explosion - and as for classical music? Well up til now, 99% of that left me cold, as it seemed to be the stuff for ancient granddads who liked listening to the eternally dull BBC Radio 3.
Then, on an episode of "Top of the Pops" in May 1980, I saw Sky perform the track that became their most well-known and successful single - "Toccata". This was an arrangement of Bach's famous "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor", but with the usual organ and orchestra replaced by synthesizers, frantic drums and electric guitars. Now this was classical music I could get into to! They also seemed to be having a lot of fun, perhaps hardly able to believe that they were on the BBC's flagship pop music show with a single that eventually reached number five in the charts. See for yourself:
Intrigued by the performance, I ambled along to my local record store in search of more music by the band, and there, still in the top 10 was their second album "Sky 2" - a double LP no less. Thankfully I had enough money saved up from doing odd jobs around the house that I could afford to buy it. I took it home eagerly, opened the gatefold sleeve and placed the first vinyl record on the turntable. And now my musical education really began...
The first record is made up of original Sky compositions - and some lengthy ones at that. Jeff Wayne aside (and that's a special case I think), I was more used to the more traditional three or four minute pop / novelty songs of my early childhood. The jaunty "Dance of the Little Fairies" was fairly brief, but two tracks ("Hotta" and the Arabic-influenced "Sahara") were around seven or eight minutes long. What's more, the fourth, "FIFO" - a four movement ode to computer programming no less - took up the entire B side, effectively one seventeen minute prog rock opus. That was my first real exposure to this kind of thing, and I immediately fell in love with it.
The second LP began with live novelty favourite "Tuba Smarties", showcasing Herbie Flowers and his brass instrument. I'm sure I recall seeing Herbie perform this on later occasions, dressed as a kind of gnome, his tuba bedecked in multi-coloured fairy lights. Following that were several fairly traditional versions of classical pieces from Praetorius, Rameau and Vivaldi, before Mr. Fry had his own turn with the percussion focused "Tristan's Magic Garden" ( I particularly like the use of the vibraphone) and John Williams worked his Spanish folk magic on "El Cielo". The final side saw Sky's own take on the Curved Air barnstormer "Vivaldi" before the wonderful twelve minute "Scipio", that allowed everyone to get in on the action. The closing track was of course "Toccata".
Okay, so maybe it's true that the music was not going to set the world alight or create a cultural revolution - and maybe it's true the five members (apart from Monkman with his long hair) looked like the kind of respectable people your grandma might approve of, but for some reason their music really spoke to me. Millions of others obviously agreed because "Sky 2" was immensely popular, topping the charts - and the band made regular appearances on television. I had friends at secondary school who were also into the band, and we regularly talked about our favourite tracks.
The other thing that made the album stand out was the fact that it had liner notes from all the members of the band (another first for me), talking about the pieces and the music they had written. These were written in a jokey style, gentle taking the mickey out of each other and it really felt like Sky were connecting with the audience. On weekends I read these brief notes while I played the two LP's over and over again at as loud a volume as my parents would allow.
Sky's popularity continued to grow and their 1981 tour culminated with the first ever rock concert performed at Westminster Abbey in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Amnesty International. It was recorded and shown later as a special programme on BBC1, and I remember watching the show, as it was the first time I had seen Sky live in proper concert mode, instead of on something like "The Val Doonican Show".
By this point Francis Monkman had left the band, after becoming unhappy with the direction the music was going in (and is on record as being particularly acerbic about my much-loved “Scipio” on “Sky 2”, refusing to ever play it live). He was replaced by Steve Gray, a very active and well-regarded session musician pianist and arranger. He would go on to play a big part in the band’s future endeavours.
The Westminster Abbey concert was also the first time that many tracks from the new third album were played to the public - and Grays involvement moved them away from the more psychedelic sound of some of the music on the first two albums. A tour of the UK, Europe and Australia supported the release. I’m pretty sure I bought "Sky 3" as soon as it came out and there are some great compositions - the barnstorming “Moonroof” and ”Westwind” are particular favourites. I did play it regularly, but for some reason it just didn't feel quite as important to me. It seemed that my brief passion for the band was beginning to fade.
Amazingly Sky kept going until 1995 through various line-up changes, but they never repeated the kind of mainstream success of their early years, and I never bought any of the subsequent LPs. I think part of it might have been that my tastes were expanding and changing - and I had discovered the electronic musical genius of Jean-Michel Jarre when a friend lent me his copy of "Magnetic Fields".
But that's another story...
Honourable mentions:
The Adventure Game - The immensely popular 'science fiction' game show where celebrities had to solve a series of puzzles to get back to Earth, and clearly the inspiration behind "The Crystal Maze". Most people now seem to remember it for the "Vortex" game at the end where contestants could be evaporated - which actually didn't come in til series 2. I personally liked the more cerebral tasks such as figuring out which of the "Drogna" shapes could be stood on based on a scientific mnemonic, the backwards talking Argonds ("Doogy Rev") or having to use a creaky BBC Micro to negotiate a pitch black maze. The "Den of Geek" website has a lovely look back at the series here. Wonderful stuff which finally got a DVD release in 2017.
Flash Gordon - As much as I adore the black and white Buster Crabbe serials that were endlessly shown on early morning television during school holidays, the 1980 Dino De Laurentiis rightly sits there alongside them. Yes it's tongue in cheek, but pretty much everything is perfect - the casting, the visuals and not forgetting the Queen soundtrack. It's cheesiness it part of the charm. Brian Blessed has spent the rest of his career bellowing two words at the world with great relish and try and find a heterosexual teenage boy who didn't have indecent thoughts about Onella Muti as Princess Aurora...
Cosmos - By rights this ground-breaking science series should have run away with my personal memory top spot for 1980. It's thirteen peerless episodes affected me in ways that have reverberated down the decades and I learnt so much from Carl Sagan that I wish I had had the chance to meet him and thank him for all that he did for me. When we talk about personal heroes, Carl Sagan's name is in the top three. The amazing journeys into outer space echoed the wonder I felt the first time I saw "Cosmic Zoom" - and that was without the electronic beauty of the music of Vangelis. I've bought the music soundtrack, the accompanying book, the original and "special edition" VHS videos, and the DVD's (twice). I never get tired of watching it and Sagan's opening narration is ingrained on my brain forever. So why isn't it up there instead of "Sky 2"? Well partly that's because, as I've stated before, I'm trying to pick things that are slightly different, and partly because "Cosmos" is *so* important both personally and culturally that it deserves much more space devoted to it. It'll probably have to wait til much, much later, but I want to look back at each episode separately and in detail. Something to look forward to then...
A very famous name gets his first shot at a Doctor Who story....
Damaged Goods by Russell T Davies
Seventh Doctor Adventures number: 55
Originally published: October 1996
Companions: Roz & Chris
"Wherever this cocaine has travelled, it hasn't gone alone. Death has been its attendant. Death in a remarkably violent and inelegant form."
The Seventh Doctor, Chris and Roz, arrive at the Quadrant, a troubled council block in Thatcher's Britain. There's a new drug on the streets, a drug that's killing to a plan. Somehow, the very ordinary people of the Quadrant are involved. And so, amidst the growing chaos, a bizarre trio moves into number 43.
The year is 1987: a dead drug dealer has risen from the grave, and an ancient weapon is concealed beneath human tragedy. But the Doctor soon discovers that the things people do for their children can be every bit as deadly as any alien menace - as he uncovers the link between a special child, an obsessive woman, and a desperate bargain made one dark Christmas Eve.
So this is one of the important ones. The only 'New Adventure' by Russell The Davies - the big man himself.
This is a Russell who is post 'Dark Seasons' but before 'The Grand' - and crucially before he became a household name for edgy, provocative, and astonishing drama with 'Queer as Folk'. This is a man who has *loved* Doctor Who since forever - and probably, for 1996, this may have been his dream gig. So what does the future showrunner have to say ? And are the seeds of his vision for the TV show planted here ?
Well, yes,… and no.
So we get a family of Tylers. An inner city housing estate. A loud mother. Broken relationships. A huge set piece finale with an alien creature stomping through the city. There is kitchen sink drama, a large cast of well rounded down-to-earth characters, and the Doctor being in as alien an environment as any exotic planet.
So far, so New Series then.
I've talked a lot before in these reviews about supporting characters - and how a good author can make you care and a…"less good" one makes them utterly forgettable. And as you would expect from Russell's other works, he's one of the former.
Every person lives and breathes on the page. The man can write *great* characters. There simply isn't a single badly written one in the whole book. Ordinary people can be just as desperate and flawed and unpleasant and monstrous as any alien menace - and Russell knows this. He also knows the love a mother has for her children. And the power of friendship. How we hide things, even from ourselves. And how the best of intentions can have unforeseen consequences.
It's wonderful storytelling.
But, beneath the humour and the bickering and the struggles of everyday life in 'The Quadrant', there is an all pervasive sense of dread. Of things waiting. Or terror and violence just around the corner. It oozes from the page. Every character is subliminally aware of it.
And you'd better not get too attached to any of those characters - because the body count in this book is off the charts.
Boy this a bleak and grim and bloody story. We get prostitution. And drugs. And violence. And self harm. And not buckets but frankly *swimming pools* of gore. And sadly, death.
This is Doctor Who with the gloves well and truly off. An 18 rated version, where a man sets fire to himself, someone is cut in half diagonally and anothers head falls off. Where a commuter train crashes and thousands die - with more ripped apart by the "monster".
All that, and the suggestion that the Doctor's male companions gets (at the very least) a blowjob in the back of a car.
Oh and lest I forget - the Doctor shoots someone point blank in the face.
Frankly, I didn’t need all of that stuff. The human story was compelling enough without the blood-soaked shocks.
I'm not sure we even needed the super-weapon from Gallifrey's past war against the vampires in the mix either - I'd have just been happy if it had been a story about telepathic separated twins and the anguish that caused.
Eva Jericho was enough of a villain. Driven to buy things to fill the void in her life, including someone else's child - and driven mad by the reanimated calcified corpse of her own lost baby. It was both terrifying and heart-breaking. Especially when you realised that her delusions all stemmed from something so small in her childhood.
Certainly the speedy finale, with it's Quadrant smashing and the bait-and switch of who was in control of the N-Form, felt a bit like there had to be spectacle just for the sake of it.
Amongst the carnage it was the little things I enjoyed most:
The difficult relationship between Harry and David.
RTD's seeming obsession with cramming in as many 80s references as possible, from Neil Tennant to Wogan, Why Don’t You' , Mortan Harket and 2000 AD.
The mention of Marie's Crisis Café in New York with it's musical singalongs. Check out Overtures in Soho for the UK equivalent.
Roz's realisation that you never really leave the Doctor.
Chris thinking that a "friend of Dorothy" meant that Ace might be appearing!
Lines like "the voice of a man standing at the heart of an empty cathedral".
Don’t get me wrong - it's a great book. It's a superbly written tragedy wrapped up in a science fiction overcoat. Just like RTD's later works, it's full of heart and passion - and maybe a bit of an overblown ending.
You wanted stories' too broad and deep for the small screen' ?
You can't deny this is certainly a prime example, even if personally I wish it had been toned down just a bit.
A book by possibly the worlds' most famous science fiction author gets the top spot - but mainly because of a very special place in the South Indian ocean...
1979: The trivia:
Elvita Adams, a 29-year-old woman from the Bronx, was facing severe personal hardship. She had recently lost her job and was surviving on welfare, her landlord was threatening eviction, and she was struggling to support her 10-year-old son. In a state of deep despair, she made her way to the Empire State Building and jumped from the 86th-floor observation deck. Miraculously, instead of falling to the street below, a freak gust of wind blew her sideways, causing her to land on a narrow ledge just one story down. She was rescued by security guards and taken to Bellevue Hospital, having suffered only a fractured pelvis.
On 14th June 1979, Anna Williams, a 63-year-old widow, received a package in the mail containing some of her personal items which she thought had been taken in a break-in a few months earlier. Accompanying the valuables was a bizarre poem titled “Oh, Anna, Why Didn’t You Appear”. It was deeply unsettling - full of menace, and lamenting the fact that she had not been home on the night of 28th April. It turned out to be from the notorious "BTK" serial killer, Dennis Radar, who had broken into her home, disabled the phone lines, and waited in her bedroom wardrobe for hours - before abandoning his murder attempt.
NASA’s exploratory craft Voyager 1 reached Jupiter in March 1979, capturing nearly 19,000 images of the planet, its complex cloud systems, and its many moons. Among the most surprising discoveries was the detection of a faint ring system, a phenomenon previously thought to be exclusive to Saturn. In addition, when specialists noticed an unusual plume on Io, Jupiter’s largest innermost moon, it ultimately revealed the presence of hundreds of volcanoes.
The memory: The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke
In the 22nd century, structural engineer Vannevar Morgan dreams of building the world's first "space elevator" - a giant tower rising from Earth and tethered via a 'hyperfilament' cable to a structure in geostationary orbit 22,000 miles above the surface. Vehicles will be able to "climb" the cable to take payloads to orbit without the need for expensive rockets - greatly speeding up the colonisation of space. The only problem is, the one suitable point for the base station of the elevator is at the top of Sri Kanda - a mountain on the equatorial island of Taprobane, which is home to an ancient order of Buddhist monks. They are one of the few holy orders left on the planet, after contact with an robotic alien probe known as "Starglider" several decades ago shook the foundations of all religious faith - and they do *not* want to move.
Morgan's struggles with the engineering, political and religious obstacles to his 'Orbital Tower' are contrasted with the story of Taprobane's ancient monarch, Kalidasa. Two thousand years ago the king built his immense palace on the nearby mountain of Yakkagala. Setting himself up as a god he adorned the peak with beautiful images and constructed a vast garden full of fountains - feats that were centuries ahead of their time. The monks of Sri Kanda were vehemently opposed to Kalidasa's works, seeing them as an affront to their philosophy - and they have the same strong outrage towards Morgan and his project. Both men were / are trying to "challenge the gods".
To demonstrate that his technology works, Morgan attempts to run a thin cable from orbit down to ground level on Taprobane , but the test is disrupted by one of the monks (the Venerable Parakarma) , who hijacks a weather-control satellite to create an artificial hurricane in the area. Unfortunately although the sabotage succeeds, it also has the side effect of sweeping huge numbers of butterflies to the top of the mountain - thus fulfilling an ancient Buddhist prophecy - and the monks have no choice but to abandon their monastery.
The novel then subsequently deals with the construction of the base tower on Sri Panda and the initial trials of the space elevator, which proceed well until an accident strands a group several hundred miles up. Despite failing health, Morgan makes a one man trip up the cable to provide emergency supplies and oxygen until they can be rescued. On the way back down he has a vision of a series of interconnected orbital stations all serviced by elevators - with Earth as the hub of a gigantic "wheel" in space. But before he can return to Earth and tell others of his ideas and guarantee his place in the history of space engineering, Morgan suffers a heart attack and dies.
Far in the future, the builders of "Starglider" arrive at Earth and admire the construction of the artificial wheel surrounding the planet. Morgan's vision has come to pass - but in a twist of fate he is not the one immortalised, but his engineering antecedent - the marvel of the space elevator is known as "Kalidasa's Tower "...
That's the cover of my copy of the book up there - a fabulously moody shot of the entrance to Kalidasa's palace by Chris Moore. From the first page I was fascinated by it's contents. Not only because of the all too real idea of the space elevator (as with much of Clarke's work, the science is often based on plausible and achievable concepts), but also because of the parallel tale of the ancient king of Taprobane. The novel is part scientific journal, part adventure story and part historical fiction. However, the thing that really grabbed my attention was the author's note at the back.
You see, many of the places that Clarke describes in his book are real. Taprobane really exists - it's the historical name for his beloved Sri Lanka (albeit the island's position has been moved for story purposes). King Kalidasa? Well the name may be taken from a 5th Century Sanskrit writer, but the monarch himself ruled between 477 and 495 A.D. as Kashyapa I of Anuradhapura. His fabulous frescoed palace full of painted maidens on a mountain surrounded by gardens and fountains? Yes that's also a genuine locale - and halfway up he built a grand entrance in the shape of a lion - just like the one in the cover above. The mountain is not named "Yakkagala" though. In the island language of Sinhalese it’s called "Sigiriya" - literally "Lion Rock"... As for the Buddhist temple on the mountain of "Sri Kanda" - you guessed it - Clarke also drew on what he knew about the holy sites of his adopted home. In central Sri Lanka lies "Sri Pada", the 'Butterfly Mountain' which has long been considered a very important religious region, mainly due to the monastery halfway up - and most importantly the shrine near the summit which contains a large rock formation. This is held to be the footprint of Buddha (or the Hindu god Shiva or the Islamic / Christian "first man" Adam). It’s therefore also known as "Adam's Peak". The existence of all these locations outside the fictional construct of the novel blew my mind. For several years afterwards I dreamt of travelling to Sri Lanka and climbing Adam's Peak to see the sunrise from the top and gaze upon the footprint. Of walking up the steps of Sigirya through the lion's mouth. Of stepping through history but at the same time imagining myself in the future... But as with many dreams, it fell by the wayside as everyday life took hold. School work, exams, work, relationships, getting married, children, divorce - the time went by in a virtual blur and before I knew it twenty-odd years had passed - and dreams of visiting a teardrop-shaped island more than 5,000 miles away were a distant memory. Then in the early years of the 21st Century, I found myself in a new relationship and engaged to be married for the second time. Talking to my bride-to be about our honeymoon plans, I asked her where on the globe she would like to go. "Well, there was always one place I wanted to visit, after reading about it in a book by Arthur C. Clarke..." she said. Fate really had dealt in my favour! Here was possibly one of the few other people in the world who shared that dream of going to Sri Lanka. It was meant to be ! So that's how in early September of 2004 we found ourselves flying across the oceans for eleven hours and then on a ten day tour around the most fascinating parts of the island in a minibus. There were two other couples and a single guy on his own with us, plus the tour guide Dharmin, the driver and a young man acting as general "Passepartout". Starting and ending in the capital Colombo (no sign of dear Arthur C. sadly), we travelled over 1,000 kilometres (620+ miles) through some of the most beautiful scenery known to man. Along the way we fed baby elephants at a special orphanage in Pinnawala, gazed in awe at 2,700 year old paintings in the Golden Temple caves of Dhambulla, experienced fire walking and the temple of the sacred tooth of Buddha in Kandy, drank tea in the mountainous plantations of Nuwara Eliya, and came face to face with a leopard in the Yala National park - I could write a whole series of posts about the tour and the numerous wonderful parts of a very special holiday. But of course the highlight was a visit to Sigiriya - the "Lion Rock". As you approach the site and walk through the endless series of lush gardens with their still working fountains, the rock starts to loom larger and larger. It looks impressive, but it's not until you get much closer that you realise the sheer size of this outcrop and the manpower that would have been needed to build the Sky Palace on the summit.
Approaching the foot of the mountain, we reached the Bolder Gardens, where the steps were relatively easy to climb. Vast shapes may look like they are falling together, but were used carefully to create spaces for contemplation.
Then things started to become more difficult. The stairs through the Terraced Gardens were wide, but as we began to climb the grand zig-zag up to the next level, the going became much steeper. Hugging the side of the cliff face, we reached the Mirror Wall. Once this had been painted a glowing white, so polished that you could see your reflection. Now it was a glorious orange, the surface pitted and marked with the graffiti of travellers from millennia ago.
From here we ascended a very narrow spiral staircase to a sheltered indentation in the rock. Here are the only surviving examples of the painted frescoes that once covered the face of Sigiriya. The graffiti on the Mirror Wall suggests that there may have been over five hundred at one point. Bare breasted with golden skin and elaborate headpieces, our guide told us that they may have been members of the harem of Kashyapa and were painted to show the opulence and grandeur of the home of the god-king.
Descending back down the spiral to the Mirror Wall we continued our trek. The marble stairs at this point were very steep and it took a good 20 minutes before we reached the first half-way plateau - and the part I had been looking forward to the most. This was the start of the Lion Staircase!
At one point there *was* a colossal gatehouse here in the form of a crouching lion, which you had to pass through to gain access to the private sanctum of the king. Unlike that memorable image on the front cover of "The Fountains of Paradise", the stairs did not go through the mouth of the beast, but via a hidden set of doors in the chest, which then went back and forth inside the head before emerging at the back.
The ravages of time have not been kind to the once magnificent beast however, and all that remain are the paws and the staircase. As you can see from the picture below (and yes, that is me standing at the foot of the steps), the giant feet give you an idea of the scale of what was once there. It must truly have been magnificent. At last, years after I had read about it, there I was walking in the footsteps of the real King Kashyapa - and the fictional King Kalidasa upon his mountain of Yakkagala. It was a spine-tingling moment
The final climb to the ruins of the Sky Palace was via a set of vertiginous narrow metal walkways that grip onto the side of the rock face. The original steps had long since vanished, but I could see the grooves carved into the rock surface where the builders had set the foundations. We had to wait for a few tense minutes before starting, because there was a large hornets next fixed to the wall and our guide had to determine if it was safe to creep past. This was definitely not an ascent to make if you were scared of heights!
At last we reached the top and the remains of the Sky Palace were all around us. It was thankfully quite cool after the hard climb and the view across the countryside and down to the Fountains of Paradise in the garden far below was spectacular. It was a journey which I will never forget.
But what about that other important location from Arthur C. Clarke' novel - the holy mountain of "Sri Pada" or "Adam's Peak"? Well sadly as wide ranging as our tour was, it didn't go close enough for us to visit the site, let alone make the pilgrimage to the top. In reality it is over 100 miles from Sigiriya, and the closest we got was a view from the distance while on the road to Ratnapura. Apparently you have to start at 2 am to get to the temple in time for the sunrise. It was a shame that we couldn't do it, but I fully intend to go back to Sri Lanka again, so one day...
It's incredible to think that a mere two hundred-odd page science fiction story led to me visiting one of the most amazing countries in the world. Who knows where the next book I read will take me?
Honourable mentions:
Not The Nine O'Clock News - The first comedy show that I really got into, having missed the whole thing about "Monty Python". It felt like I’d discovered something grown-up - sharp, fast, and just the right side of outrageous. I loved the satirical solo pieces, the fake news reports, the anarchic sarcasm and of course the songs and sketches. Who can forget "Gerald the Gorilla", "Constable Savage", "The Ayatollah Song ", the "TV closedown" sketch, "Nice Video Shame About The Song", the drunk darts players, "I Like Trucking", etc, etc. etc. I had all the BBC LP compilations and listened to them so much I could recite the sketches verbatim. It wasn’t just funny. It was formative. It taught me that comedy could be smart and subversive - and in Pamela Stephenson, Mel Smith, Griff Rhys Jones and especially Rowan Atkinson, I found my first comedy heroes.
Tornado - Another short lived companion comic to 2000 AD, most memorable for artist Dave Gibbons posing as superhero editor "Big E". It was an eclectic mix of strips - from World War II escape thrillers to pulp detectives, from swaggering secret agents to Highland wild boys with a mysterious past. When it was cancelled after a mere 22 issues, only retooled Nubian slave turned alien gladiator "Blackhawk" and teenager with psi-powers "Wolfie Smith" made the transition to 2000 AD. Okay so “Captain Klep” moved too, but that was a one page joke. It’s a shame as I do have fond memories of Martian rebellion story "The Angry Planet" - with art from the always brilliant Massimo Bellardinelli.
Sapphire And Steel - The adventures of the inter-dimensional agents who battled strange occurrences throughout time (which itself was a malignant force) was one of the best SF / fantasy TV shows of the era. I avidly watched each week, even if I didn't always understand what was going on. What made "Sapphire and Steel" so compelling wasn’t just the eerie atmosphere - it was the sense that anything could happen, and often did, in ways that defied conventional storytelling. The show had a dreamlike quality, and the performances by Joanna Lumley and David McCallum were perfectly pitched - cool, enigmatic, and just a little unsettling. I remember being fascinated by these mysterious figures and their element friends. The stories lingered in the mind long after the credits rolled - especially "Assignment Two", set in an old railway station, which still gives me chills (although it didn't help that an industrial strike caused ITV to go off air for several weeks mid-way through). For some reason I missed the final story with the infamous cliffhanger on first transmission, and didn't get to see it until years later when I bought the box set on DVD. I was struck then by how well the whole show holds up as a genuinely bold and original piece of television. It’s a shame it ended so abruptly, but maybe that’s part of its longevity. Hopefully, Sapphire and Steel are still out there somewhere, suspended in time, waiting to come back...
Micronauts - outside of 2000 AD, this is probably one of the most important and personal comics series I own. Sure I'd dabbled in the Marvel universe before, mainly through back issues of the UK black and white reprints found at jumble sales - and odd random US colour issues found in seaside newsagents (back when that was a real thing). But after stumbling across issue 4 while on holiday, I was immediately hooked. The "Micronauts" name was familiar to me from the toys that had started appearing a couple of years earlier, but here was a comic that took the basic ideas and characters and spun them into a whole incredible cosmic universe of their own. It helped that the stories were by industry legends Bill Mantlo and Michael Golden, two masters of their craft. I was so captivated that I spent the rest of the two-week trip scouring every corner shop, and dusty rack I could find, desperately searching for the earlier issues. My determination to collect the whole series also led me to dedicated comics shops - and a whole new world of titles opened up to me. Along with "Rom: Spaceknight" and "Shogun Warriors" (also based on toy lines), this was the title that made me a collector rather than just a reader. I still have every issue, and although thousands of other comics have come and gone over the intervening decades, I can't imagine I'll ever part with them.
When it came down to picking something for this year, there was just one LP I keep returning to again and again and again...
1978:
The trivia:
In 1936, facing religious persecution, Karp Lykov fled with his wife and two children into the remote regions of southern Siberia. Over time, they had two more children, all born and raised in isolation. For over four decades, the family survived with no contact from the outside world, living a log cabin, growing their own food, and surviving off the land. They had no access to modern medicine, electricity, or even basic news - so were unaware of World War II, the moon landing, or any major global events. In 1978, a team of Soviet geologists surveying the region by helicopter spotted their cultivated land. Despite initial hesitation, the Lykovs welcomed the visitors and slowly began to learn about the modern world. Tragically, within a few years of contact, three of the children died, possibly due to exposure to unfamiliar viruses. Only the youngest daughter survived, and continues to live in the wilderness to this day.
Kurt Gödel was one of the most brilliant logicians of the 20th century, whose work fundamentally changed the way we understand mathematics. He was also a close friend of Albert Einstein. However, despite his towering intellect, Gödel struggled with severe anxiety and paranoia. He was particularly afraid of being poisoned, a fear that grew more intense as he aged. Because of this, he refused to eat any food unless it was prepared by his wife, Adele. When she was hospitalised for six months, Gödel, unable to trust anyone else, stopped eating. He died of starvation in January 1978, weighing just 65 pounds.
The French created their own 1970s version of the internet called "Mintel", where you could shop, chat to friends, send mail and check stock prices. It was an interactive videotex system developed by France Télécom, accessed via small terminals connected to telephone lines. The French government distributed millions of these devices for free to encourage adoption - and it was a huge success. There were still over 800,000 terminals in use when it was finally shut down for good in 2012.
The memory: Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War Of The Worlds "No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space. No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinised, as someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered the possibility of life on other planets and yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes and slowly and surely, they drew their plans against us..."
How many versions of this incredible album have I bought now? The double LP (twice), the cassette, the CD (the first thing I ever bought in that format), the 7-disc Collector's Edition, the DVD of the live stage performance. The list goes on and on - and it’s never enough. Across 95 minutes, Jeff Wayne manages to tell the classic H.G. Wells story of Martian invasion through music and song in a way that has never been equalled.
Like most people I guess, I first came across the album via the song "Forever Autumn", which was released as a single and reached number five in the UK charts in August 1978. Justin Hayward's haunting vocals were perfect and as the presenters of "Top of the Pops" announced that it was from a musical version of "War of the Worlds", my ears pricked up even more. I'm sure I had read the original book by this point (I went through a phase at around age ten of borrowing all the "classics" from the library - Ivanhoe, Treasure Island, The Three Musketeers, etc).
I persuaded my parents to buy the record for me as a Christmas present and once the usual festivities were over and the relatives had all gone home, I was allowed to listen to it. I may have been familiar with the story, but what I wasn't expecting was the surprise of that opening narration from the superb Richard Burton and then those first few crashing chords. I was hooked instantly.
This was (and continues to be) a truly immersive audio experience. The thumping bass guitars, fabulous repeated themes and melodies, and extended sequences of prog-rock-esque music swept me away to Victorian London and the strangeness that was to come as a cylinder from outer space landed on Horsell Common. The sound design was just perfect - no-one can forget the noise of the cylinder unscrewing or the ear-shattering "ULLA" cry of the Martians as the tripod war machines rose above the terrified onlookers.
To help with the visualisation, the original LP version was accompanied by a 16 page booklet featuring several paintings by artists Peter Goodfellow, Geoff Taylor and Michael Trim. From that classic cover as a war machine attacks the warship Thunderchild, to the creeping of the Red Weed across the English countryside, to the crows picking at the dead flesh of the aliens after they are defeated - the images reinforced the power of the story. I used to pour over the details for hours.
Richard Burton of course is responsible for much of the heavy-lifting of the narrative in between the music and the songs. His sonorous Welsh tones drive everything forward and if you listen to the out-takes (available in the Collector's Edition) you can hear how much he was enjoying getting his lips round the various passages of text, many lifted directly from the novel. I particularly like his reading of the description of the hideous Martian creature, as it prepares to dispense death from the heat ray:
“Its lipless mouth quivered and slavered - and snake-like tentacles writhed as the clumsy body heaved and pulsated.” There were other versions of the narration recorded for overseas language markets, including one featuring Anthony Quinn, but nothing can supplant Mr. Burton in my memory. He is as intrinsic to the success of the production as the music and lyrics.
He's not the only excellent voice on the album though. Jeff Wayne fills out the rest of his cast with some highly talented vocalists, many of whom were / would go on to become musical legends. The previously mentioned Justin Hayward (The Moody Blues), Julie Covington, Chris Thompson (Manfred Mann's Earth Band), Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy) as Parson Nathaniel and not forgetting David Essex as the "The Artilleryman". Each voice adds something special to the story. Essex is steadfast at first as the loyal soldier and then increasingly deranged as he wants to rebuild the world underground. Lynott is perfect as the poor religious man who finds himself doubting his own faith in the face of the Martian's overwhelming alien superiority and believing that they are heralds from Satan.
I must have listened to the record over and over and over again in those first few weeks, the headphones glued almost permanently to my ears. If this was my introduction to the idea of the "concept album" then I couldn't have picked a better one! Yes it deviated from the source novel in a few areas, but I didn't care.
As time went by "War of the Worlds" was a constant companion and then in the early-80s, the music impinged on my other burgeoning interest - computer games. I was a big devotee of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum - a primitive machine by today's standards but with it's 48K of memory and 256 colours it was a revolutionary and ridiculously successful product at the time - spawning an entire industry of software houses and home programmers. In 1984, CRL released a Spectrum version of "War of the Worlds". I bought it of course, but to be honest it was a pretty poor graphical adventure. I just kept wandering around various locations looking for the Martian base and dying of hunger. After a few days of getting nowhere (and I always considered myself pretty good at these kind of games) it was abandoned. I've found out since that you had to visit the locations in the same order as they were on the album, but even so, it's not something I have any desire to revisit.
In 1989 there was a resurgence of interest in the album when Ben Liebrand released a remixed version of the classic first track "The Eve of the War" and it got to number three in the singles charts. I still have the 12" around here somewhere. This led to other alternative mixes and eventually a double CD full of them in 2000 known as "ULLAdubULLA - The Remix Album". I think I borrowed a copy from somewhere but a few of the alterations were too extreme and it was veering into the club / dance genre - really not my thing. They re-released it in 2006 with even more versions but to me they are an interesting curio, nothing more.
2005 / 2006 was also the time when Jeff Wayne really began to ramp up his use of the material in the new century, partly to capitalise on the release of the Spielberg film starring Tom Cruise. First there was the 2-disc 5.1 Suround Sound Hybrid Super Audio CD set. This was then included in the 7-disc collectors set, along with a hardbound version of the booklet and 80 pages of behind the scenes photographs . Plus the best of the remixes, hours of out-takes and rare unused tracks and songs (most never heard before) and a "making of" DVD. It truly was the best set a fan could hope for and I quickly snapped up a copy. Just thinking about it makes me want to pull it down from the shelf and listen to everything again.
Jeff's next trick was a live stadium tour of the full work, complete with 48-piece string section and rock band. The centrepieces were a 11 foot high 'virtual' Richard Burton, which via image projection and lip-syncing moved along with the words of the Journalist, and a giant Martian fighting machine appearing on stage complete with heat ray. Some of the original musicians and cast returned as well - and various other singing roles were taken by performers such as tenor Russell Watson, ex-pop star Jason Donovan and a host of former reality TV singers.The tour was so successful that it went to Australia and New Zealand and mainland Europe - and continued in one form or another right through to 2011. I never got to go sadly, but I do have the DVD of the 2006 Wembley Arena show. It's a great set of performances, even if the images they used of Burton for the huge virtual head were of his younger self rather than the craggier, older looking man I remembered from his later career.
During a break from touring, Wayne worked on a *new* version of the album. Dubbed "The New Generation". it 'allowed the composer to re-interpret his music and 'use more modern production techniques'. All the major roles were recast and in a moment of absolute sacrilege (at least to this listener), Burton was dropped in favour of Irish actor Liam Neeson. "Kaiser Chiefs" frontman Ricky Wilson became the Artilleryman and "Take That"'s Gary Barlow provided vocals for the sung thoughts of the Journalist. Soul singer Joss Stone was also cast as Beth. So big question - was it any good?
Despite his film pedigree, Liam Neeson just couldn't compete with the golden voice and gravitas of Burton. It came across as more of an flat "audio book" performance rather than an acting one. He got quite a bit of new dialogue too, but I can't think of one line that felt like an essential addition. Gary Barlow and Ricky Wilson did actually make reasonable stabs at their roles, "Forever Autumn" was actually pretty good, if a bit less orchestral, while Wilson was no David Essex, but I quite liked his Artilleryman. Elsewhere though Joss Stone could certainly sing, but definitely NOT act. Parson Nathaniel was here played by Maverick Sabre (yes I had no idea who he was either) and the problem was a total lack of chemistry between the two, which made "Spirit of Man" just a bit of a damp squib. There were also a few bits taken from a 1998 PC strategy game (I had to look that up) including, would you believe a couple of lines of Martian dialogue.
It was all still recognisably "War of the Worlds" with the brilliant songs and themes from before but to be perfectly frank it's been "tinkered with" a bit too much. Wayne had added lots of sound effects and extra "whoosh" noises and drumbeats - and they all stood out at right angles from the original score. It's a bit like the "updated" versions of the original "Star Wars" trilogy - the core is still there but the digital frippery around the edges detracts rather than adds to the experience - and like those CGI creatures, I think these additions will date very quickly. What was once a timeless classic became something...less.
Don't get my wrong, anyone who came to this for the first time would still be blown away by the power, excitement and vibrancy of Wayne's vision, but for those of us who grew up listening endlessly to the 1978 version, the "New Generation" recording just reinforced how good that really was. Who knows, maybe it did introduce a host of younger people to the music - personally I would have just handed them a copy of the original...
This new take on the album also went on tour under the sub-title "Alive on Stage!" between 2012 and 2013 with some of the cast repeating their roles and Liam Neeson appearing via much improved holographics. Former pop stars Marti Pellow, Brian McFadden and Shayne Ward also popped up during various iterations of the round the country performances. There was more new material in the live shows which was not present on the CD (including new scenes), plus enhanced pyrotechnics and special effects. At one point they even had actor Callum O'Neill on stage as author H.G. Wells across three ages of his life. Again I did not go to any of these shows , but bearing in mind my less than high opinion of the "New Generation" in the first place, I don't think I even considered it, nor did I get the eventual DVD.
Then in late 2014 there was a one month "Final Arena Tour". This featured the addition of Carrie's father as a new character and lyrics to "Life Begins Again". A prologue was performed as a pre-show segment with the characters performing among the audience rather than on stage.
In late 2015 it was announced that Jeff would be debuting a full theatrical "re-imagined" production in London's West End for a very limited run, conducted live on stage by the man himself. As well as the virtual Liam Neeson (no Burton sadly), the cast was to include Jimmy Nail as Parson Nathaniel, Heidi Range (Sugarbabes) as Beth, Daniel Bedingfield as the Artilleryman and "Robin of Sherwood" star Michael Praed as "George Herbert". Most interesting of all was the news that David Essex would be returning to the Victorian era for the first time in over 35 years! I looked at my wife (also a big fan) and she looked at me - "We have to go!" we said almost simultaneously.
So on a cold Saturday in March 2016 we found ourselves in the fourth row of the Dominion Theatre, eagerly looking forward to a night of revisiting the greatest concept album ever made. Surrounding us were hundreds of other people of a similar age, and as the curtain rose and Mr. Neeson spoke those opening words, there was a ripple of excitement the air...
Hmmm. Perhaps I'd been too excited and expected too much. It was more than the previous "live on stage" shows I'd seen on DVD, that was for sure, but less than a full blown musical, so it fell somewhere in between, into a realm that was all a bit...odd. That's not to say the production team didn't throw everything at the wall. There were flame-throwers, lasers, alien tentacles, back projections of Victorian London, a full height Martian fighting machine clomping on and off stage at various moments, Liam Neeson popping in and out from all directions, diminutive Jeff Wayne sliding backwards and forwards on his podium as he conducted his heart out - and lots and lots of people running around.
Michael Praed looked and sounded great, but when most of his lines were given to holo-Liam, he ended up spending a lot of the time just staring up at a screen. They should just have dumped the pre-recordings and let Michael do the whole lot live. Jimmy Nail was suitably boggle-eyed and raspy as the Parson experiencing a crisis of faith and Heidi Range could hold the high notes - but the biggest surprise for me was Daniel Beddingfield, who had a really excellent voice and belted out the songs originally performed by David Essex.
David himself had the more undefined role as the "Voice of Humanity" so didn't do a huge amount of solo singing, but his croaky fading voice probably wouldn't have been up to it anyway - after all he was 69 years old - and let's be fair - his name was really there to draw in the punters. My least favorite part of the second half was the interpretative dance sequence, where red-clad ballet enthusiasts rolled around pretending to be the Red Weed. It seemed to go on for ever. I know that it's a long sequence of purely instrumental music, but maybe they could have been more ambitious.
Despite these flaws it was still an enjoyable show, and there was a deserving standing ovation for Jeff and the cast as they took their bows, The truth was, it didn't matter how much spectacle you threw at it - the main attraction was clearly the music. Even though it was the less-preferred "New Generation" version (with added bells and whooshes), it was hard to deny the thrill of hearing it played live and at full volume. It took me right back to that Christmas in 1978...
Since that big event, Jeff has continued to tour the album - in 2018, 2021/2022 and most recently in the spring of 2025. However, there have also been two other expansions to the franchise. Firstly in 2018 there was a five-hour audiobook "rendition" released via Audible.com. With more new story and musical content, the cast included Michael Sheen as the journalist, Taron Egerton as the artilleryman, Ade Edmondson as Ogilvy, Theo James as Parson Nathaniel and Jeff Wayne's daughter Anna Marie Wayne as Carrie.
Lastly, in May 2019, "Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds: The Immersive Experience" opened to the public in London, just a stone's throw from where I work. Set across 22,000 sq. feet, the nearly two-hour production combines music from the album, immersive theatre, virtual reality, holograms and a cast of twelve actors. As of October 2025, it's still running and has proved to be enormously popular.
It's been a long and winding journey across the decades. There are still rumours of a full film version and despite his age Wayne shows no signs of slowing down. The power of the story and the music has been captivating listeners and audiences for more than forty-five years now - and I have no doubt that I'll be listening to it for the rest of my life.
ULLA !!
does last a long time - which for those who aren't a fan of the impressive interpretive dance Honourable Mentions:
The Wild Geese - My second Richard Burton starring vehicle and what a film. What a cast. Richard Harris, Roger Moore, Stewart Granger, Frank Finlay. Hardy Kruger. The list goes on. I love the old ensemble war films like "The Guns of Navarone" and "Where Eagles Dare" and this has a similar feel, but with a darker and more modern edge. It tells the story of a bunch of ageing mercenaries contracted to rescue an Mandela-like African leader from imprisonment, with unexpected and deadly results. It’s gritty, violent, cynical and surprisingly emotional. The cast are perfect - Burton’s weary gravitas, Moore’s suave charm and Harris’s tortured intensity are supported by an ensemble of rounded and complex characters. Maybe on first viewing I didn’t grasp the politics or the moral ambiguity, but I understood the themes of loyalty and sacrifice. It’s a film that made war stories feel personal and I've lost count how many times I've seen it. Without any doubt - an absolute classic.
Blakes' 7 - After "Doctor Who" my second favourite British SF show and I’ll be honest, during its four series run, it held the top spot. A programme that was allowed to be clever, camp and character driven - and dared to say sometimes the heroes don’t win. There’s just so much to love - the stirring theme music, the amazing design (I’ll fight anyone who dares to tell me that the ‘Liberator’ is not the most beautiful spaceship in SF), the morally messy characters. Rebellion wasn’t easy. Heroes were flawed, villains were sometimes right and people died. It was silly and over the top and grim - and ultimately tragic. Okay, so some of the effects were a bit ropey. Maybe the performances veered towards pantomime. I didn’t care. I loved every character, every moment of adventure - even that astonishing, shocking ending. I made my own teleport bracelets out of plastic bottles and an ORAC computer out of cardboard, all so my friends and I could create our own adventures. Over the decades my love has never waned and the show’s legend has lived on, through comics, novels and full-cast audio adventures. One day I’ll write much more about it. But let’s be honest, as much as Blake was the good guy, we all wanted to be Avon…didn't we?
Superman - Before superhero movies were brooding or ironic, there was the one that dared to make you believe a man could fly. Christopher Reeve didn’t just wear the cape, he *was* the character - that perfect balance of bumbling charm as Clark Kent and quiet strength as the Man of Steel. It's a portrayal and a film that has become so iconic that it has influenced all subsequent versions - even the comics. Maybe Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor is not quite how I think of Superman's arch nemesis, but the other performances are so strong that it papers over any cracks. More modern interpretations may have better special effects or delve deeper into the lore of the character - and I appreciate them all in various ways - but I think my heart will always belong to the original. Knowing what Reeve faced later in life off-screen, my appreciation of the man continued to grow. He wasn’t just Superman by donning the costume, he was a superman in spirit too.
Centennial - The 70s saw the rise of the historical blockbuster TV mini-series, which my parents and I greatly enjoyed. Prestige “events”, mostly based on best-selling novels and stripped across the week. They had all-star casts, and a budget to match. First in 1974 there was the Burt Lancaster starring "Moses the Lawgiver". Then in 1977 there was "Roots" and "Jesus of Nazareth". But the most ambitious of these (and the one I have the most fond memories of) was "Centennial" - the 12-part, 26-hour history of a fictional town in Colorado between 1795 and the then present day. Part Western, part family saga, part history lesson, it starred almost every well-known TV actor of the time - including Richard Chamberlain, Raymond Burr and Lynn Redgrave. Its stories were of Native Americans, fur trappers, ranchers, immigrants and outlaws. The word "epic" doesn't begin to do it justice. Each episode felt like a movie, and I learned more about US history by watching than from any reference book. The series doesn’t get talked about much these days, but it paved the way for miniseries like North and South, Lonesome Dove, and Band of Brothers. What’s even better is that when I found a copy on DVD many years later, it was still just as powerful and moving.
Starlord - 2000 AD's more colourful, short-lived sister comic - most notable for giving the world "Strontium Dog" and "Ro-Busters". Lasting a mere 22 issues its legacy is huge. But as good as those famous strips are, there are other stories which were just as interesting and sadly now seem to have been forgotten. In the early issues a favourite was “TimeQuake”. It had everything an SF obsessed kid could want: time travel, green frog-like aliens, Nazis, Aztecs in spaceships - and in former tramp steamer captain James Blocker, a hero who looked like he’d be more at home in a pub brawl. It featured some stunning full-colour work from Ian Kennedy and others. But my own top strip was "Mind Wars" - a complex space opera by Alan Hebden and Jesus Redondo featuring psychic twins fighting against an alien empire. It was surprisingly mature, with some high-concept storytelling, clever twists and characters with emotional depth. - paired with gorgeous art from a real master. It needs a prestige collected edition, so others can discover its wonders.
Lawrence Miles seems to have an excess of ideas....
Christmas On A Rational Planet by Lawrence Miles
Seventh Doctor Adventures number: 52
Originally published: July 1996
Companions: Roz & Chris
"An end to history. An end to certainty. Is that too much to ask?"
December, 1799. Europe is recovering from the Age of Reason, the Vatican is learning to live with Napoleon, and America is celebrating a new era of independence. But in New York State, something is spreading its own brand of madness through the streets. Secret societies are crawling from the woodwork, and there's a Satanic conspiracy around every corner.
Roz Forrester is stranded in a town where festive cheer and random violence go hand-in-hand. Chris Cwej is trapped on board the TARDIS with someone who's been trained to kill him. And when Reason itself breaks down, even the Doctor can't be sure who or what he's fighting for.
Christmas is coming to town, and the end of civilisation is following close behind...
Ah - another Lawrence Miles book. My first since reviewing "Alien Bodies" way back in part one of this strand. But this time, it's his first Seventh Doctor story - and apparently his first ever published novel. Will I start to see the genius that apparently everyone else does ?
Well let's get the bad news out of the way first.
This is a book about Order versus Chaos. Or Reason versus Superstition. Or Faith versus Science. Or Man versus Woman. It has big themes and strong metaphors. It has opinions and Larry *wants* you to know what he thinks - so you'd better listen, because he's going to keep telling you, over and over and over again, until it sinks in.
That's all very well and good - I don't mind a healthy dose of subtext. The problem is, some of it's all a bit…clumsy, and other elements are just, well, dare I say it, slightly dodgy.
I don't buy this "men are the architects, women are the chaotic ones" concept one little bit. I don't mind the gynoids - 'female' robots that aren't created but 'just are' , sure that's an interesting idea - but the fact that by being female they are less rational - nah, I'm not having that. In an infinite universe are there really only two genders - and men are the important builders ?
Sexist? Quite possibly.
The first half of the book is also confusing to the point of being incomprehensible. Maybe its deliberate. Maybe it's first novel jitters. Maybe I'm just stupid. But Miles seems to have the concentration span of a gnat.
He flits between scenes faster than a Weeping Angel - so much so that you've had no chance to digest what is going on before - zip - its onto the next thing. It's like literary whiplash. I only just managed to keep up, and that was only after going back a few pages because I thought I'd missed something.
Then there's the Amaranth - the most maguffiniest of macguffins, without which large sections of the story just wouldn’t work. Sure, anyone can make things up to get their story going. That's fiction. But it take a special kind of Lawrence to write yourself a "rational" device which can warp reality and solve any knotty plot corners you might get yourself into.
Okay, maybe I'm being a trifle unfair.
Lastly, Don't ask me to name any of the supporting characters. Apart from the guy who was so tightly wound he might explode, none of them were even the slightest bit memorable. And if I had to read the word "cacophony" one more time, I think I would have screamed out loud and frightened my fellow train passengers.
But after all that moaning, what *did* I like ? Lot's of bits and pieces actually - and despite my criticisms, the book does all start to come together in the second half.
The Carnival Queen was an intriguing villain, stemming from Time Lord pre-history and supposedly a representation of all their irrationality. Who knows if the tale she told was actually real or not - it could have all been a deception.
As we know from "Alien Bodies", Miles likes wrestling with Doctor Who mythology and twisting it into new weird shapes - and it's no different in this book. So here, along with the origins of the "Watchmakers", we also have the first mention of "Grandfather Paradox", a bottle universe. *and* Time Lord biodata possibly being played with,
Then there's the peculiar, if slightly disturbing idea of the game "Eighth Man Bound" - played as a way for bored young Timelords to get a glimpse into their own future. Of course the Doctor is one of the only Time-teens to see his Eighth incarnation - foreshadowing much ?
All that and a possible explanation as to why the Third Doctor had a tattoo.
It's all good fun, and you can clearly see Miles putting the building blocks in place for the kind of stories he wants to tell in the future.
I also enjoyed his consideration that the Doctor is defined by his companions and needs them to give his existence meaning - something that the new series has picked up on several times.
That along with his excellent grand speech summing up why the Doctor does things - "Reasons. Principles, truth , love and harmony. Peace and goodwill. The best of intentions". Lovely.
It all makes me think that Miles *does* understand the core character of the Doctor. Underneath all the radical concepts and challenging prose he gets it. In fact, based on the two novels of his I've read so far, I'd say he's more in tune with the Seventh Doctor than the Eighth.
The companions don't suffer too badly either. Both Roz and Chris get a bit of backstory - Roz perhaps more so - which is good for someone like me who is reading their stories out of order.
Roz is also the more competent of the two. I can't see her fiddling with things she doesn’t understand and accidently destabilising the TARDIS !
Speaking of which, the whole concept of the "Interface" and how it manifests on the TARDIS walls was a lot of fun - as were the various rooms and corridors Chris encountered on his travels. I particular enjoyed the fact that the TARDIS library's copy of "A Passage To India" contains a series of dimensional portals, each leading to a different location.
On a more sombre note, Woodwicke’s witch hunt (and it's very….localised apocalypse) is definitely a reflection of some of the paranoia, conspiracy theories and hatred for "the other" that was prevalent in the 80s and 90s. Sadly the same distasteful behaviours and cult-like ideas can be seen in the society of today, with the current persecution of ethnic minorities and those in the LGBTQIA+ community.
It seems we are always doomed to repeat the mistakes and the hatred of the past, whether in literary form or the real world…
Finally, I read that there is a fan theory that this book contains references to every Doctor Who TV story. I've no idea if that is true - but I did spot a few obvious ones, such as Chris mentioning that "We can’t change history. Not one line" and nods to Quarks, Invisible Daleks, Morbius, the Taran Wood Beast and a bit of Venusian Akido.
Haiiii !!!!!
So, okay Mr Miles, I think you won me over with this one. A few annoyances but in the end a pretty intelligent and original first story
