Last Man Running

"If you cannot think rationally, you will always be afraid."

Writer: Chris Boucher
Format: Novel
Released: September 1998
Series: PDA 15

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Leela

Synopsis

Eager for solitude away from the TARDIS and the endlessly inquisitive Leela, the Doctor steps out onto a benign-looking planet. But the apparent tranquility hides a terrifying secret...

The TARDIS has arrived on a world of violence, where hideous creatures hunt and kill endlessly, vying for supremacy at the top of the food chain. But is evolution on the planet natural or engineered by some higher power? And why has an aggressively suspicious alien police force sent a secret mission here?

With no one safe from the planet's tireless predators, Leela's warrior instincts are tested to the full. The Doctor, meanwhile, begins to suspect that there is a scientific purpose to the planet – one married to a sinister intelligence.

Whatever the data being collated from the planet, the Doctor soon realises its usage may have far-reaching consequences for all humanity...

Verdict

Last Man Running was sadly not a great read at all. I struggled to get into this book from the get go and it just never managed to get going for me. It was dull, boring in parts and every single revelation just seemed meaningless. I was really disappointed which I was quite gutted about to be honest! I never like to criticise, especially anything for this great show, but this was a quite horrible adventure. I found it strange from the start that the Doctor would just leave Leela in the TARDIS as he ventured into unfamiliar surroundings which seemed incredibly out of character. The only good thing about this novel was Leela herself. She was absolutely wonderful and saved the book from being a complete disaster. It still wasn't far off though! It just didn't make a great deal of sense to me and seemed to be so dragged out. The pace was slow and I couldn't help thinking that by the time I was 100 pages in, the point where the story was at could have been told in just a few minutes on screen. There seemed to be unnecessary extensions and then a lack of elaboration when things moved forward. The structure just wasn't fun. I found the setting intriguing at first, but even if the Doctor wasn't going to know some of the ins and outs of what was going on, I think the reader should have been made aware. The idea of a cloning facility to produce the best fighters and push them quite literally to death was quite good, but the Empire of the Lentic just meant nothing to me when the truth of the setting was revealed. I didn't have any background on it and even the Doctor's explanation provided little. The constant resentment and ill-feeling coming with certain individuals and their toody or firster background was incredibly tiresome and I cringed every time it was mentioned. It was just rubbish. I couldn't get invested in any of the characters and I found the system by which they shortened some of their names very frustrating. If that was going to be used then they should have always been referred to the shorthand name rather than constant alteration. Don't even get me started on the Doctor continuously being referred to as The. What is the point of that? It was horrendous. The characterisation of the Fourth Doctor was nothing more than okay on the whole, but I did enjoy how he was testing Leela and came to appreciate some of her qualities. She was able to thrive in the setting and the moment she spoke to the Doctor when he was running scared up a tree was undoubtedly the book's highlight. Their relationship was written decently compared to other elements and I liked how she was being tested. The use of copies though came far too late and didn't make an impact at all when Monly wasn't actually dead. It took some fun out of things for me and then the same trick kept occurring and it was tiresome. The ending wasn't brilliant either and seemed to be directionless, and we didn't even get to find out who was in control! I couldn't quite believe that. Sozerdor meant little as an enemy because the trick had literally been done a couple of chapters earlier and the way the Doctor left him was ambiguous in an unfinished and not very good way. Overall, not one of my favourite reads in the slightest. All of it score comes from Leela!

Rating: 4/10