Illegal Alien

"A face of blistered, scabrous metal. Wide, weeping holes for eyes. A mouth eaten by corrosion into a loopy, deranged grin."

Writers: Mike Tucker & Robert Perry

Format: Novel

Released: October 1997

Series: PDA 05

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Ace

Synopsis 

Britain is at war. Night after night the Luftwaffe are bombing London. A serial killer dubbed the Limehouse Lurker is stalking the rubble-strewn streets. But a deadlier threat falls from the sky in a shape of a sinister silver sphere...

Cody McBride, ex-pat American private eye, sees the sphere crash-land and split open - and glimpses something emerging from within. But the military dismiss his account of events - the sphere is simply a new German secret weapon that has malfunctioned in some way. What else could it be?

Arriving amid the chaos, the Doctor and Ace are the only people to believe McBride. The sphere bears all the hallmarks of sophisticated alien technology - and whatever was inside it is now loose in London. 

Before long the Doctor and his friends have embarked on a trail that brings them face to face with hidden Nazi operatives - and some very old enemies...

Verdict 

Illegal Alien was an excellent novel and served as a brilliant choice for my first original novel to feature the Seventh Doctor (as the sole incarnation of the Doctor) and also my first full novel to feature the Cybermen! I of course did get a chapter in The Eight Doctors a couple of weeks featuring the Seventh Doctor and I have read Ghost Light, but this was my first full length novel with Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor and I'm not sure why but I think his incarnation worked terrifically well in prose. I'm far from the biggest fan of the TARDIS pairing of the Seventh Doctor and Ace but I have to be honest, I loved them in this. The pair were characterised incredibly well and it really was a joy to read their dialogue being so closely resembled to that of their television appearances. I thought the Cybermen were brilliant in this and I pictured them in their The Wheel in Space design throughout the novel as that's what version was on the cover so I'm guessing that was the intention of the writers. Prior to reading, I wasn't actually aware that this novel was developed from an unmade scrlpt intended for what would have been Season 27. I guess I probably should have worked that out as the book was unusually split into four parts (something I actually loved) and with that it definitely had the feel of a Classic era story which was wonderful. The Seventh Doctor seems to like getting mixed up with the Cybermen and the Nazis at the same as they both cropped up in Silver Nemesis, a story that was nicely referenced and used through Ace to sell the threat of the Cybermen excellently. The setting of 1940 at the height of the Blitz was a good although I'm not sure it was entirely necessary. It does seem a little easy to just set a story during World War Two but using the bombing to advance the story and explain quite a lot of things was very admirable. The concept of the Limehouse Lurker was excellent and although I did respect its identity to be revealed as a Cybermen, when that moment finally came it was still fantastic. All three cliffhangers were very good and I think it definitely seemed to help the flow of the book by having it split into four parts. We had some superb guest characters with Cody McBride, Mullen and George Limb the obvious standouts in my opinion. I thought it was great having the thoughts of Cody open each part and then to have them finish the novel itself with the epilogue. I really liked the character and his relationship with the Doctor and Ace was magnificent. The development of the relationship between Cody and Mullen was also a highlight of the novel and I was glad to see that acknowledged before the novel finished. I enjoyed the references this story had to offer with Dragonfire, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Remembrance of the Daleks, The Tomb of the Cybermen and Revenge of the Cybermen all getting a nice mention. One thing that I thought was quite amazing was the Doctor mentioning the train route from London to Swansea, and naming all the stops in between. This is the very train I catch on my home from university and that irony was heightened by the fact I was on the train back to university, albeit from a different location. But it did put a smile on my face I must say. Reading this book just seven days on a lecture on disease and sewerage systems of London, double irony struck as I was surprised to see a heavy setting and even the mention of Joseph Bazelgette himself! Wall was a good character and I liked his role within the Cyber hierarchy very much. I wasn't expecting him to be hiding what he was behind his glasses though. The story was incredibly action packed which was great and there was more than one battle between soldiers and Cybermen presented! The maniacal nature of the Nazis was captured superbly and I liked how the story concluded on Jersey, the only British soil the Germans occupied during the war. The demise of the Cybermen and Nazis was rather explosive and I liked how George Limb's desire to reach the future saw him killed in the vortex. Overall, a novel full of action with a superb setting and great plot. 

Rating: 9/10