The Twin Dilemma

"Subjection to evil creates and feeds further evil."

Writer: Eric Saward
Format: Novel
Released: March 1986
Series: Target 103

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Peri

Synopsis

The Doctor has regenerated, having scarified his fifth persona to save Peri's life. But things are not going well...

On this occasion the process of regeneration is by no means smooth, for the even-tempered, good-humoured fifth Doctor has given way to a rather disturbed and unsettled successor.

In a particularly irascible moment the new Doctor comes dangerously close to committing a shocking crime. Overwhelmed with guilt for his violent behaviour, the repentant Time Lord decides to become a hermit...

Verdict

The Twin Dilemma was a pretty decent novelisation of the televised story of the same name, but I don't think this was the best transfer into prose. Now, this story is famed for being the worst Doctor Who story amongst fandom, but as my blogging of the televised version a few years back shows, that is not an opinion I share. I think it's quite a good story to be fair and serves as a unique way to introduce the Sixth Doctor. I thought that aspect was presented well here, but I was surprised that given this is the first story for an incarnation of the Doctor, the first chapter was absolutely nothing to do with him! The backstory of the Sylvest family was intriguing and some good development, but I think that set a trend throughout the book of unnecessary padding out and going off on tangents. When my girlfriend asked me how the book was, that was my frustration and as she is a writer she was keen to tell me that divergence is a good storytelling technique, but there was just too much that meant little here. There was almost too much to take in with everything that was being explained by backstory with actually not a huge amount going on with the main plot. As the story goes on, the prominence of the twins dwindles and they aren't really needed by the end. I liked the idea of parents being afraid of their children because of the intelligence they possessed though. That could be quite fun to explore further. The explanation of regeneration and the mentioning of lindos was intriguing and I do question how that may be contradicted in future Doctor Who stories following the revelations of The Timeless Children. The star of the book for me was Peri and we were able to clearly see what kind of a predicament she had been thrown into here. Her reaction to the regeneration was a lot of fun and it's quite surprising to see how quickly she forgives the Doctor for almost killing her! That moment of snapping was so impactful in the televised version, but it was difficult to achieve the same feeling in prose. A lot of it was down to Colin Baker's performance. The Doctor being troubled by his post-regeneration settling was good and it was very humorous to have him jumping around different personalities. The frustration in Peri was clear to see. Azmael was a very good character and I liked his background as a Time Lord and everything new we learned about his time on Gallifrey in this novelisation. His relationship with the Doctor was good and I'd love for that night by the fountain to be depicted at some point. Azmael's relationship with Mestor was great to explore and I thought the giant gastropod made for a pretty darn good villain. His scheme was brilliant, but it probably gets revealed in its true nature a little too late. He doesn't take any messing and shows power over Time Lords which is quite rare. I do think it's questionable to have him as a slug though, even if the plan was to send the eggs of his species around the universe to conquer it by exploding a star. I thought Azmael not seeing the plan was a little bit too convenient, as was the Doctor just forgetting he had the second packet of acid. Regardless, I liked the threat that Mestor provided. His transference into Azmael's body was interesting, but I think there needed to be a bit more clarity on the whole regeneration at the end even though he had used up his allotted cycle. Hugo was a fun little character and I enjoyed the action packed chase through space and time with him and Azmael. The Doctor's shock at Peri wanting him to save Hugo's life after he had, from the Doctor's perspective, attempted to terminate his own life was terrific. There was already a lot of evidence of the incarnation the Sixth Doctor would become in this book and he was certainly well characterised. The moment where the Doctor declines allowing Hugo to stay in the TARDIS with he and Peri could have been written a little better as the Doctor comes off a bit rude. Overall though, this really isn't a bad story but I just wasn't too much of a fan of the writing style of Saward which was a bit of a shame as this is actually a much better story than popular opinion would have you believe.

Rating: 6/10