The Monsters Inside

"The sitting around, the pacing, the endless waiting were over. Now Rose sat in a shuttle cabin identical to the one she'd arrived in, only this time her mood was one of cautious optimism. On her journey to Justice Beta, only the unknown had awaited her. Now, the Doctor was waiting at the other end of the journey, and together the two of them might just stand a chance of striking out for the TARDIS-"

Writer: Stephen Cole

Format: Novel

Released: 19th May 2005

Series: NSA1.02

Featuring: Ninth Doctor, Rose

Synopsis

The TARDIS takes the Doctor and Rose to a destination in deep space - Justicia, a prison camp stretched over seven planets, where Earth colonies deal with their criminals.

While Rose finds herself locked up in a teenage borstal, the Doctor is trapped in a scientific labour camp. Each is determined to find the other, and soon both Rose and the Doctor are risking life and limb to escape in their distinctive styles.

But their dangerous plans are complicated by some old enemies. Are these creatures fellow prisoners as they claim, or staging a takeover for their own sinister purposes?

Verdict

A strong book that was an enjoyable read. I really liked how this story was the first visit to an alien planet for Rose and her reactions were great. She was extremely thrilled. And there was a sense of modesty from the Doctor, he was making his companion happy. After all, he deserves to give happiness to the ones he cares for after the Time War. The twists in this novel were great and I loved the surprise appearance of the Slitheen! They worked really cleverly in novel form and allowed for some unknown twists. The debut of the Blathereen, who turned out to be the actual villains, was fantastic. I really liked the continuity of the book in line with Series 1 with the reference to 'Bad Wolf' in a quite subtle but excellent fashion. The Justicia setting was excellent and the fact that Rose and the Doctor were separated and ended up on different planets really gave the plot some great danger! The characters in the book were all mostly good, particularly Dram, Ermenshrew and Ecktosca. Dennel's relationship with Rose was a nice touch but one that almost caused her to never reunite with the Doctor when he stopped her prison ship, heading for the Doctor, to leave. The tricks the Doctor used to get Rose the right answers in her scientific analysis was genius and extremely typical of Eccleston's Doctor. However, I didn't really like Kazta's character all that much, she was too annoying in some ways. The philosophy behind the globs was great but I just couldn't buy the premise of the Slitheen taking their skin and impersonating the small species. It just didn't work for me. On the other hand, the pages with the Doctor and Flowers escaping were quite comical! An enjoyable climax to a good book! 

Rating: 8/10