Dancing the Code

"Sweet sweet good good honey dancing to be dancing."

Writer: Paul Leonard

Format: Novel

Released: April 1995

Series: Missing Adventures 09

Featuring: Third Doctor, Jo

Synopsis

"The Brigadier is going to shoot you, Jo, and then he's going to shoot me. Both of us are going to die."

The Doctor builds a machine designed to predict the future. It shows the Brigadier murdering him and Jo in cold blood. Unable to tell where or when this event is destined to occur, the Doctor and Jo decided that they must stay apart.

Jo is sent on a top-secret mission to the war-torn Arab nation of Kebiria. But upon arrival, she is immediately arrested and consigned to a brutal political prison. The Kebirians have something to hide: deep in the North African desert, an alien infestation is rapidly growing. And the Doctor and UNIT soon discover that unless stopped, the alien presence will spread to overrun the entire world.

Verdict

Dancing the Code was an excellent Missing Adventures novel! I thought this was an excellent read from start to finish and the contemporary setting and political climate worked together really well. I loved the premise that was set early on with the mystery of dancing the code and the sweet honey statement that would feature on numerous occasions throughout the book, as well as the Doctor's machine predicting the future and the sight showing that the Brigadier was going to shoot him and Jo dead in cold blood! That was an incredible premise and taking precautions to avoid that coming into fruition was obviously logical and absolutely something that should be avoided. The Doctor seemed quite calm about the situation which was infuriating for the Brigadier and Jo and his simple statements of how it was over 99% likely to happen was madness! It was nothing less than I expected from the Doctor though, with the third incarnation brilliantly characterised in the book. This one really did feel right at home in its era which is a big compliment and the political aspect with everything that was going on in Kebiria and the FMGL was fantastic. Political tension is never going to go away and the use of human killings on a vast scale was superb with Jo describing how her experiences in the TARDIS and all the death she saw at the likes of Autons, Daleks and Axons was one thing, but humanity inflicting such suffering in front of her was difficult for her to handle and comprehend. I really enjoyed that element because it felt so real. Catriona was a standout character as a reporter and that added another realistic aspect to the story. There was always going to be news coverage of something like the situation in Kebiria and her efforts to cover it and record tapes on non-existent records were terrific. I really did think she was great. Her horrified reaction to having to kill a guard in her escape and take a dead person's shoes was just brilliant and I loved how she was stunned by fake Jo's claim of not knowing her when it came to the plane takeoff. The whole duplication process of the aliens as they were simply referred to throughout was intriguing and the later plan of Zalloua to gain peace was to duplicate everyone and replace them. Now that's audacious! The vision of the Brig shooting Jo and the Doctor dead came to fruition in excellent fashion at the end of book two with it turning out to be the alien duplicates that fell victim, albeit on a temporary basis. The use of insects and communication by scent was good and the honey perfume smell that accompanied the aliens and their duplicates was very good. I thought the Xarax as helicopter-like species were intriguing and the image of them in the sky was amusing. They worked well though. The Brigadier going against direct orders when it came to government officials ordering Jo to be handed over with her accused of murder was fantastic, and it was really good to see how the whole ordeal of killing Jo and the Doctor was impacting him. The deaths of Catriona and Vincent were very sudden, with the former in particular taking me back because it pretty much came out of nowhere. Akram was another great but short-lived character and the scale of death in the book really was uncharted territory. It was really powerful and just real. Benari as the Prime Minister was good and I liked how he was controlling aliens. That's quite the political manoeuvre! His death was another sudden one and at one point I really was wondering who was going to survive. The Doctor's plan of cancelling out the pheromones of the queen was excellent and I liked how that came into effect quite simply, with the final threat of the American missile strike on the nest forcing a last moment of danger. The way the defences were taken control of was good and I liked that we had an exciting finish. By the end, the politics remained which was an important point to finish on and it was nice that Jo still wanted to do something about it. Overall, a fantastic read! 

Rating: 9/10