Review – Option Lock – Justin Richards
This week I returned to my comfort read through of the BBC Doctor Who Eighth Doctor Adventures with the next in the series, Option Lock by Justin Richards.
For those not aware of these series, there was a time when Doctor Who was not on television and following the mixed reactions to Paul McGann’s TV movie representation of the Eighth Doctor his adventures primarily took place in the novels. There are 73 novels in the 8th Doctor series that were released over roughly eight years between 1997 and the relaunch of the TV series in 2005. (The BBC also released 76 books of “Past Doctor Adventures” over the same period.
One of the most beautiful parts of the Doctor Who series is the ability for the narrative, and the characters, to move cross genre. While it is of course primarily a science fiction concept, The Doctor frequently strays into the realms of Science Fantasy and (almost) every Doctor Who features The Doctor unraveling a mystery in the way of a detective. Whereas some of the other entries in this series pick a box to sit in, Justin Richards decides in Option Lock to make the most of this and blends the story across multiple genres.
Unlike other series, you have to start any description of Doctor Who with explaining the time and place of the story. This one takes the age-old Doctor Who tradition of having a whole universe and timeline to explore, and strangely enough landing precisely in England in the current day, (just ask John Pertwee.) By modern day I of course mean 1998, but it’s close enough.
Option Lock explorers a military and political aspect, bordering at times on being a straight modern-times thriller, while weaving this thread through with the pseudo-science of hypnosis and alchemy, and the straight science fiction of an alien threat invading the Earth. It would barely count as Doctor Who if a planet was not in peril at some point. The Science Fiction/Alien aspect is actually fairly light-touch in this outing, providing the inciting incidents and motivations rather than propelling the narrative itself.
The Doctor himself is on his usual form, being several steps ahead of others at times, but interestingly does not have an awful lot to do with actually resolving the world-ending crisis himself. Rather the actual climax and resolution of the story is from his companion, Sam Jones, and one-off Option Lock introduced characters. There is also a certain argument to be made that the whole situation would have been considerably better off without The Doctor or Sam appearing at all!
Overall, another good entry in the series. These novels are never going to be winning the Booker Prize, or even making a top-ten list, but they are thoroughly enjoyable light reads and at times compelling. I burned through this book in two evenings this week, a testament to how much of a page turner and an easy read it is. If you’re looking for a quick fix of enjoyable time-travel, science-fiction, military thriller, alchemy and hypnotism, nonsense then this is definitely worth picking up. If you’re not set on the alchemy or hypnotism, then the same could be said for any entry in the series!
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