The Deviant Strain

"Do you want to end up with only your memories to make up for the loss of your faculties?"

Writer: Justin Richards

Format: Novel

Released: September 2005

Series: NSA 9.04

Featuring: Ninth Doctor, Rose, Captain Jack

Synopsis 

The Novrosk Peninsula: the Soviet naval base has been abandoned, the nuclear submarines are rusting and rotting. Cold, isolated, forgotten.

Until the Russian Special Forces arrive - and discover that the Doctor and his companions are here too. But there is something else in Novrosk. Something that predates even the stone circle on the cliff top. Something that is at last waking, hunting, killing...

Can the Doctor and his friends stay alive long enough to learn the truth? With time running out, they must discover who is really responsible for the Deviant Strain...

Verdict 

The Deviant Strain was a very good and enjoyable read and with me reading nearly a decade after its release (it's crazy to think that Christopher Eccleston's tenure as the Doctor was a decade ago already!) it was nice and refreshing to have a brand new story, from my perspective anyway, featuring a pretty rare TARDIS team. We did see the Ninth Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack on screen together in five episodes but really I would argue that we only had the one proper episode and that was Boom Town. The double episode prior to that introduced Jack so I wouldn't consider him a companion until the very end of that episode whilst the two parter that follows the aforementioned episode was the finale that saw Jack get left behind and the regeneration of the Ninth Doctor. So the scenes in the TARDIS at the start of the novel were much welcomed because I got to read some more about what it was like on board the TARDIS with these three people. It seemed a friendly atmosphere as I would have expected and I was intrigued how Jack was at the controls. His action though would lead us nicely into the events of the adventure we would be about to read. I loved the humorous references between the Doctor and Jack surrounding the latter's actions in responding to the distress signal the TARDIS picked up but I loved the twist surrounding the event much later on with Jack's response actually saving Valeria's life, a women with who he shared a brilliant relationship throughout the novel. After her unfortunate events at the stone circle, with much of her life being drained from her, the 19-year-old was aged and wrinkled. But she was also left in a vegetative state. I adored how he made looking after and saving her his duty, something her own father failed to do, despite the fact that she was incapable of knowing what was going on and oblivious to the fact that Jack, and later Rose, both massively risked their lives for her survival. She wouldn't be able to show any appreciation though, that is until the very last page of the novel where Jack kissed her goodbye and she responded by giving him a huge hug. I thought that was a lovely touch to finish on. It was an interesting read having Jack travelling with the Ninth Doctor prior to The Parting of the Ways because he actually can die. He's not immortal so the threat of death was very much a good one against our time agent captain! That was a nice contrast to have. The portrayal of the Ninth Doctor was fantastic, if you'll excuse the pun. So intended. All of the traits were there and the witty humour between him and Jack was excellent. Of course, he was also softer when talking with Rose and the relationship they have is just wonderful. Jack adds to that brilliantly making this rare TARDIS trio of just five episodes (and as I mentioned, that stat is debatable) absolutely terrific. The modern day Russian setting of Novrosk was very good and I loved the idea of it being simply a village seemingly cut off from the rest of the country. Isolated. But something was coming. The tentacled creatures continued threat was very good though I do wish they had been properly named rather than just being referred to as the giant, blue glowing blobs. Come on Justin Richards, you can at least conjure up a species name! Saying that, despite how much I enjoyed the book (as you can see from my rating below), I found it strange how the book was entitled what it was. The words 'deviant strain' were thrown in to speech by the Doctor but it was never really explained. Judging from the acknowledgements, Richards just wanted to use the title because it so happened to be the name of the font that appears on the covers of the updated range of books. I'm not saying it shouldn't be called that but if you're going to reference it in story and in the blurb then at least fully explain its meaning! I really liked some of the characters in this novel and I think my favourite would have been Christina because of how well and how easily she got on with the Doctor. It was obviously going to be a hit straight away as she was a scientist so they got on rather pleasantly which was nice to see. I also thought Minin and Levin were very good and they added a lot to the Doctor's plans. The resolution to the plan of Klebanov and his skeletal scientist allies was very clever. They were using the creatures which weren't described all that well as a means of sucking the energy out of living people to power their crashed ship. Borinska had quite an experience with one of the stones and a superb chase with Rose but ultimately she paid the price. Just when Klebanov was proclaiming victory, the Doctor had already won. He'd put the whole energy cycle into a loop, each time with a bit of energy lost. Brilliant and a typical resolution by the Doctor. He didn't even tell his companions. I guess his little swim was worthwhile. Klebanov and the ship became nothing more than a husk and the Doctor was triumphant. He'd promised earlier on in the novel that he would stop what was going on, whilst recognising that a few wouldn't make it, and he'd delivered. The human race were saved once more. 

Rating: 8/10