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Sky Pirates!

(OR 'THE EYES OF THE SCHIRRON')

JULY 1995

At the risk of incurring the wrath of legions of Dave Stone devotees, I must say that I found Sky Pirates! to be an excruciatingly dull and torrid affair. Somehow though, I got through it; hell, I even got something out of it. On the whole though, this is a New Adventure that I seriously wouldn’t recommend unless you like, well, this sort of thing...

Sky Pirates! is the work of sheer, unmitigated genius. The last time that I read such vivid, detailed prose was the last time that I picked up JRR Tolkien. Unfortunately, the first half of this novel in particular presented me with the same problems that Tolkien’s Silmarillion did - I got bored. Information overload. The history of the Sloathes. Footnotes. Appendices. It’s these facets that make this book an untouchably brilliant piece of work to some, but to me, reading a few chapters before bed after a long day... my brain couldn’t hack it. I unleashed the odd laugh here and there, but after fifty pages or so I was at the point where I didn’t want to see the word ‘Sloathe’ again. It’s a shame really, because the Sloathes are demonstrably an amusing and an interesting race. I love the idea that they behave as they do because we humans expect them to.

And I have to give the author full marks for his plot, which I found not only fascinating but refreshingly original. Sky Pirates! puts forward the idea that the ancient Time Lords used their immense powers to prevent certain races - races deemed to be potentially threats - from ever existing. Given what we already know about the Time Lord from stories such as Genesis of the Daleks, these morally dubious “Time Wars” are certainly plausible.

What makes things really interesting though is the Doctor. In this novel, he’s up against a creature from a race that no longer exists - that never existed - that shouldn’t exist because of the actions of his people. Moreover, it’s ingrained into every fibre of his being that if he should ever face such a creature, he should destroy it without a thought. In this novel, the Doctor can’t even trust himself.

Stone should also be congratulated on how well he handles Chris and Roz, the two new companions. Especially with Roz, it really feels like Stone has a complete handle on the character - I love the passages where she’s effectively reduced to being a junkie. Her dry cynicism is a joy to read.

In all then, Sky Pirates! is bold, brave, innovative... rubbish. I’m all for pushing Doctor Who

in new directions, and so it’s a little churlish of me to complain when something new doesn’t agree with my taste, and so I’ll just say this: if this kind of thing is your cup of tea, then you’ll absolutely, unreservedly love it. If not, like me, you’ll be hard-pressed to even finish it.

ed Button Now.

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