Spiral Scratch

"No matter what universe we're from, some things take the same path, it's just the scenery that differs."

Writer: Gary Russell

Format: Novel

Released: August 2005

Series: PDA 71

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Mel

Synopsis

Carsus: the largest repository of knowledge in the universe – in any universe, for there is an infinite number of potential universes; or rather, there should be. So why are there now just 117,863? And why, eery so often, does another one just wink out of existence?

The Doctor and Mel arrive on Carsus to see the Doctor's old friend Professor Rummas – but he has been murdered. Can they solve the mystery of a contracting multiverse, and expose then murderer?

With the ties that bind the Lamprey family to the past, present and future coming unravelled around him, only the Doctor can stop the descent into temporal chaos. But he is lost on Janus 8. And Schyllus. And a twentieth-century Earth where Rome never fell. And...

Verdict

Spiral Scratch was a great novel to serve as the final chronological adventure for the Sixth Doctor! I really do love that we get a full adventure depicting the events of the Sixth Doctor's regeneration which we saw abruptly at the start of Time and the Rani and it's a fitting sacrifice that leads into that change of incarnation. Before we got there though, we had quite the adventure with a threat spanning the entire multiverse which was a concept I thoroughly enjoyed. There was a great deal going on in this book and I thought the way things started were intriguing, if not a little confusing. I am not sure I was biggest fan of all of the jumping around between different characters and settings for a number of the opening characters, but they did eventually tie in towards the end which was good. Regardless of that, I think there was probably a little too much of what wasn't actually essential to the plot and that's why I couldn't give this book a higher rating than what I got. Which was a shame because I thought the ending was absolutely outstanding. I loved the pairing of the Sixth Doctor and Mel and I really do think this is an underrated TARDIS team. They work so well together and I loved how the latter was boisterous and confident, not having any qualms about standing up to the Doctor and his ways. She was getting a little frustrated by his inability to tell the whole story and answer questions, even if they were clearly quite complicated. I thought Rummas was a fantastic character and the concept of the Doctor and Mel arriving to him to find him assassinated alongside an alternate version of the Doctor was great. The multiverse theory is something I love and I thought its presentation here was fun and there was so much going on. Jumping around different versions of the Doctor and Mel was very good and I think that should have been the focus, rather than the likes of the green children, DiVotow and Marlern. Differentiating between versions by having Mel, Melanie and Melina was very nicely done and some of the descriptions of the alternate Doctors were also fascinating, particularly that of the one with the eyepatch and scar. Mel's relationship with her alternate selves was an interesting dynamic as well and she thought of her splinter selves as quite bitchy! That was certainly unexpected but she had a point. The Lamprey connection between the family and the threat to the multiverse was very good and I thought they made for a good villain, with Monica Lamprey as the focus. She was remorseless and I thought the moment where she tricked Rummas into actually killing Sir Bertrand thinking it was her was terrific. The Doctor's reaction to that was superb and I enjoyed the characterisation of the sixth incarnation throughout. It was very well written. I thought the focus on the sixteenth birthday party was enjoyable, although I wasn't a fan of a semi-repeated chapter from the perspective of alternate versions. That was a bit of a cheat for my liking! Huu and Woltas were a good pairing alongside the professor and their guarding, if you like, of the universe – all of them – was good stuff. I liked how outraged the Doctor was at finding that Rummas knew all along about the threat and events that he sent the Doctor and Mel on in the first place, and from there he knew what was required and would sacrifice himself, all of himself from each universe, to overpower the Lamprey with chronic energy and wipe them out from existence. For good. The threat of never having existed was good to play with a concept I really enjoy, but one of the highlights for me was Mel's initial reaction to thinking the Doctor was going to sacrifice Helen before she realised he would be giving up himself. The way the final two chapters were written to lead into the Doctor's regeneration was sensational and honestly might be up there with my favourite endings of a Doctor Who novel. It was so well done and full of emotion and intensity which made it more than fitting of a regeneration. It was excellent. Overall, a great read despite some issues.

Rating: 8/10