The Pirate Loop

"These lot don't die when you kill them."

Writer: Simon Guerrier
Format: Novel
Released: December 2007
Series: NSA 20

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Martha

Synopsis

The Doctor's been everywhere and everywhen in the whole of the universe and seems to know all the answers. But ask him what happened to the Starship Brilliant and he hasn't the first idea. Did it fall into a sun or black hole? Was it shot down in the first moments of the galactic war? And what's this about a secret experimental drive?

The Doctor is skittish, but if Martha is so keen to find out he'll land the TARDIS on the Brilliant, a few days before it vanishes. Then they can see for themselves...

Soon the Doctor learns the awful truth. And Martha learns that you need to be careful what you wish for. She certainly wasn't hoping for mayhem, death, and badger-faced space pirates.

Verdict

The Pirate Loop was a pretty decent and rather unique novel! It was unlike anything I've ever read before and was certainly a wacky story. It had badger-faced pirates and people who just rolled their eyes when they died. It was pretty bonkers but one thing I have to give it credit for is its pace. It was full throttle and we even read the end of an interesting sounding adventure for the Doctor and Martha in Milky-Pink City. Sadly, we did not get to know the full details of what happened there but it led to Martha wanting to know all about the Starship Brilliant and she pushed the Doctor, against his best wishes, into going there to see what happened. The challenge of not changing history was very prominent in this novel and I really liked how Martha realised she had asked too much of the Doctor when it seemed like they would not be able to escape their predicament. I thought the initial three badger pirates who invaded the Brilliant were terrific and whilst I wasn't the biggest fan to begin with, I really loved how they came around to the Doctor's way of thinking. Martha helped a lot with that as she tried to get one of them drunk but her reaction to Archie's apparent demise at the hands of Florence was shock horror. Thankfully, the loop was still in place and he wasn't gone for good. The whole concept of the loop was a little confusing with the break it had in it but it meant that dying and coming back to life was a common occurrence. Martha would be one to experience it in a fantastic chapter ending and reading her thoughts of remembering dying was quite emotional. I did hope that was followed up on more but once her scar was gone, it was kind of forgotten about. She also seemed to forgive her murderer a little too easily for my liking. I thought the writing of the Tenth Doctor was pretty good in this novel with a decent capturing of David Tennant's likeness but it also could have been improved upon. I really loved the reference to Wishing Well and I also liked how Martha applied her thoughts of Shakespeare from The Shakespeare Code into where she was visiting and how she would be viewed. The Monoids getting a mention was also lovely. This story had a lot going on but with the loop, there was a danger of repetition and with some chapters not taking place simultaneously with the Doctor and Martha, not everything was as coherent as it perhaps should have been. Mrs Wingsworth was a humorous character but as a whole I thought the book was relying on silliness a tad too much. The analogies were actually wonderful but I was not a fan of the whole scrambled egg naming of the stuff in the cracks of time. Overall though, still a good read!

Rating: 7/10