No witches? None at all? Whatever could have given you such a preposterous idea?

[chicafrom3]

We continue.

The First Doctor, Barbara, Ian, and Susan, in 1690s Massachusetts - just in time for the Salem Witch Trials.

Lyons uses a few red herrings pretty cleverly, both for Team TARDIS and for the readers. Due to confusion over the calendar, our travelers initially think they've landed in Salem too early for the trials and are therefore safe to experience Puritan New England while the Doctor finishes some repairs on the ship...only to see the full impact of the hysteria and paranoia explode in their faces. As tensions build, both the travelers and the reader (er, me) wonder if there might not be alien influence fueling things (hey, it's Doctor Who), but the only aliens around are the Doctor and Susan, and while Susan's not-quite-controlled psychic abilities aren't helping matters they certainly aren't causing the problem.

The tension is built up beautifully. And horrifyingly. It's really, really upsetting to experience Susan's treatment at certain points. When she's manipulated into calling Barbara a witch? Gut punch moment. The real people of the book -- the 'witches' of Salem -- are treated with sympathy by the narrative, going so far as to somewhat break Who canon (such as it is) in order to grant Rebecca Nurse a little dignity real life denied her. Can the first Doctor steer the TARDIS that well? No. Is it worth it for that scene? It was for me.

On a slightly lighter note, we are also granted a full book of Barbara and Ian impersonating a married couple and playing mom-and-dad to Susan, which is very sweet and gives us lots of very shippy moments for my OTP.

But one of my favorite scenes was between the Doctor and Susan:

'Why can't I?' She squared up to him, defying him to deny her needs again. Couldn't he see how important this was to her? 'What's the point in being able to travel in time if we can't change anything?'

'What has happened is in the past. We must not alter it. We cannot. You know that, child.' He was agitated now, clearly keen to end the discussion. Normally, Susan would have acceded to his wishes, but this had been too long in coming. It was time he stopped treating her like a little girl.

'What do you mean, "the past"? Whose past? Not ours.'

'But somebody's.'

'When we went to Marinus we were in somebody's past, but it didn't stop us fighting the Voord. We changed everything on Skaro. I don't understand, Grandfather/ Why can't we just do the same thing again? Why can't we help?'

A sob caught in her throat and she looked away, her resolve fading, the angry words left hanging between them. She wiped hot tears on to her sleeve.

'I'm sorry, Susan. I should never have brought you here. I was simply trying to instruct you in a chapter of Earth's history. I should have considered the effect it might have upon you. Can you forgive a careless old man this one lapse?'

She didn't want to, but her reaction to his love was automatic. Her stubbornness melted and a weak smile forced its way through the tears. She took his proffered hand and allowed him to envelop her in his arms. He guided her back towards the shadowed alcove in which they had left the TARDIS.

But he didn't answer her question.

The Seventh Doctor and Ace, in a sequel to The Awakening.

This was an interesting one, in that I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it.

There's a lot to like about it. Ace's pseudo-companion, Steven Chen, is great, and she's got a great dynamic with him. Many of the supporting characters are intriguing. The Doctor spends most of the plot on the wrong foot, playing catch-up, which is an interesting characterization choice for Seven.

The plot never quite caught for me, and I was frustrated that the Doctor and Ace spent pretty much the entire book separated. Up until the last third or so of the book, Ace feels aimless -- she doesn't know what's going on and she's just kind of drifting; the Doctor's told her to look into Hexen Bridge but she doesn't know what, specifically, to look at or what to do. It's interesting to have Ultimate Chessmaster Seven so off-guard and confused by what's going on but it also means that he spends most of his pagetime playing 20 questions and it starts feeling like the plot is spinning wheels until we get to the climax.

I just also wasn't really ever enthused by the whole Hexen Bridge thing. Everyone's related to each other and everyone's kind of awful and what's going on with the handwriting and I thiiink at the end we're supposed to take Bob and Joanna Matson reconciling as proof that without Jerak/Jack's influence everyone's going to be a little bit better, but there's no evidence that Bob isn't still a racist asshole?

This sounds more critical than I mean it to. It's not a bad novel, and it's got some very good moments in it. It's just not one of my favorites so far.

One of those very good moments, between the Doctor and one of the men of Hexen Bridge:

"When you were six," said the Doctor, slumping into a leather armchair, "I visited the school with Nyssa. You sat on my knee and told me you wanted to be an astronaut. Do you remember?"

"Yes," said Winstone. "You told me a story about an astronaut who wanted to be in space so he could see the face of God..."

"But when he got there, he couldn't see anything but space," continued the Doctor. "Do you remember the moral of the story?"

"No." There was an almost innocent curiosity in Trevor's voice now.

"The moral was," began the Doctor slowly, "that sometimes we do the right thing for the wrong reason, and sometimes we do the wrong thing for the right reason. But that right and wrong are always involved."

"The money Matthew made from brokering the arms deals, and all his other projects, goes to an infertility clinic," said Trevor suddenly. "I don't know why I'm telling you this."

"Because you want to," said the Doctor.

On a fan continuity note, there's a mention of Barbara and Ian's son John, under his stage name Johnny Chester, and his band the Star Jumpers, and his marriage to 'that Australian bird' (Tegan). Yes, I am keeping track of these things.