Galaxy Four

"Freedom of thought can have dangerous consequences."

Writer: William Emms

Format: Novel

Released: April 1986

Series: Target 104

Featuring: First Doctor, Vicki, Steven

Synopsis

Following a skirmish in deep space, two alien spacecraft have crashlanded on a barren planet in Galaxy Four.

The Drahvins are a race of beautiful females, led by the imperious Maaga. The Rills are hideous tusked monstrosities, accompanied by their robotic servants, the Chumblies.

When the Doctor arrives, he discovers that the planet will explode in two days' time. The Drahvins desperately ask for his help in escaping the planet and the belligerent Rills.

But things are not as they seem...

Verdict

Galaxy Four was a brilliant novelisation of the mostly lost story of (almost) the same name. I was very excited to be reading this book because of how much of the story is currently missing from the television archives and I have watched the one surviving part that was of course recently discovered. I have also watched the recons on YouTube of the three missing parts so my understanding of this story is still good despite the fact that 75% of it is missing. However, it has been a while since I have watched this story so reading the novelisation was almost like it was brand new. I thought the format of the book was very intriguing with just four chapters. That obviously meant that it was one per part but chapters of nearly forty pages is almost unheard of when it comes to the Target releases. Following the cliffhanger of World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls I have been anticipating the return of the First Doctor at Christmas so doing a story of his has been something I've wanted to do for a while now. I thought the characterisation of William Hartnell's first incarnation of the Doctor was very solid but that's not to say that it couldn't have been slightly improved. The trio of him alongside Vicki and Steven is a very underrated one in my opinion and I thought they worked terrifically well here. Vicki really was terrific and I particularly liked Steven when he was left as the hostage to the Drahvins. The alien race comprised of beautiful women is a good concept and considering this story was originally written during the 1960s, the comments about the uselessness of men really made me smile. Maaga proved herself to be quite the ruthless villain and her position as leader of the race was good. She was the one who gave orders simply because she was the one who thought. Her hatred towards the Rills despite them wanting to help her and her people was quite a shock and I really liked how the TARDIS trio immediately realised that things weren't quite as the Drahvin had explained them. The threat of the planet only having two dawns before destruction was a great subplot and I liked how the Drahvin intended on stealing the Rills' spaceship once it was repaired. Even though they had been offered sanctitude, they wanted to wipe out the Rills instead. The history of how the two races ended up on the planet was really intriguing and I liked how significant the deaths were despite them being accidental. The Chumblies were quite amusing in the novelisation but I think they were better utilised on television but that doesn't take away from their role in the book at all. I still really liked them. One thing that really irked me about the book though was the attempts to say that the Doctor in this story was not the first incarnation. There were way too many mentions of this Doctor's body being too weak and aged and that he needed to a new one. It was implied that he'd changed before and I really didn't like nor understand that. The cliffhangers of the parts didn't seem overly great in a novel but that's not as important as the televised format so that was absolutely fine. The ending was excellent and well paced and I liked how Maaga was left on the planet to deal with the consequences for her actions. The Rills were safely on their way and the TARDIS departed just in time before planetary destruction. Overall, a fantastic book! 

Rating: 8/10