Back
in the distant age of the 1980s, a friend of mine attempted to get me
hooked on Doctor Who. His attempts were mostly
unsuccessful. I watched the episodes I watched out of a sense of duty to
my friend, and because I figured it was something I should like, and
because of the hope that it would get better. The Doctor I was
first introduced to was Tom Baker, who I felt was a little too camp for
my tastes. Eventually, my friend (and local PBS station) tried
showing me some of the older episodes with Jon Pertwee, Patrick
Troughton, and David Hartnell and I learned that I rather liked Patrick
Troughton more than his successors. I also like Stephen Baxter,
whose books I've been reading for several years, has won two Sidewise
Awards, and has sat on the Sidewise Award jury with me for the past few
years. When I learned that Baxter was going to be publishing a Doctor
Who novel, and that it would feature the Second Doctor, I decided
that it was time to pick up a Doctor Who novel, and so, I found
myself reading The Wheel of Ice.
When the TARDIS suddenly materializes within the rings of Saturn, the
Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe find themselves under bombardment by the debris
that makes up the spectacular
rings that encircle the planet. They are saved from potential
disaster by Phee Laws, a young girl whose mother is the mayor of the
colony of a space station built around the Saturnian moon Mnemosyne.1
Once they are on board the space station, which has historical ties to
the space station where the Doctor had previously picked up Zoe, the
trio are held on suspicion that they might be linked to sabotage which
is plaguing the space station.
Once the Doctor has worked their way out of prison, Baxter focuses his
attention on Zoe and the Doctor's attempt to solve the mystery of the
sabotage while Jamie finds himself in a position to give the reader a
tour of various Saturnian moons. The novel form allows Baxter to
do much more than the script form would as he is limited neither by run
time nor production costs. Instead, he is able to paint narrative
pictures of the wonders of the Saturnian system, the details of life on
the wheel, and the alien blue dolls that only the young of the wheel
appear to see. Despite not having to worry about costs, however,
Baxter keeps the cast to a small number, reminiscent of the size of the
casts of many episodes of Doctor Who.
Within
the first few pages, it becomes clear that Baxter has managed to capture
the voices of Troughton-era Doctor Who. Not only can the reader
hear Troughton, Frazier Hines, and Wendy Padbury's voices when reading
their dialogue, but the pacing of the story is similar to the shows of
that period. Baxter and his characters take their time in not only
revealing what is happening among the moons of Saturn, but the Doctor
patiently explains to the other characters what is happening as he
figures it out.
The
Wheel of Ice successfully captures the feel of a Patrick Troughton
episode of Doctor Who. In addition to the characters,
creatures, and settings, Baxter draws from other Doctor Who stories
to make references to the Silurians, T-Mats, and numerous other
adventures to further reward the fans and readers. At the same
time, Baxter assumes a certain knowledge of the Doctor's background,
that may leave readers new to Doctor Who wondering, but not
completely lost in the novel.
