Caged

"They took me and never even said hello."

Writer: Una McCormack

Format: Novel

Released: June 2024

Series: NSA 67

Featuring: Fifteenth Doctor, Ruby

Synopsis

Are aliens ever abducted by aliens? And if they were, would anyone believe their story?

When the Doctor and Ruby arrive on Cavia, they meet a gentle local who is certain that she has been taken for study by creatures from the stars. The Doctor is concerned to find mysterious meteors appearing in the sky, while strange robotic creatures crowd the forests, watching everything and waiting for... what?

Who is interested in Cavia, and why? What is the sinister truth of the abductions? The Doctor and Ruby must discover the secrets of this mysterious world – and those who would seek to destroy it...

Verdict

Caged was another really strong book to continue the prose adventures of the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby! I must admit it does feel a little strange to have released this book a week after the Empire of Death finale, especially with it being established as being quite early on for Ruby with no references coming post-Boom, but I'll take it whenever rather than never! I think it is clear that the author only had a brief idea of what this Doctor and companion pairing would be like as I felt the characterisation of both was somewhat safe and generic. But that works! It wasn't bad at all, but I do think Ruby Red felt a little more in line with what we saw on screen over the last two months. The concept itself is an intriguing one with the tagline of aliens being abducted by aliens something that is certainly enticing. We had the expected moment of Ruby comparing the eyes looking at her to as if she was looking at a guinea pig or a rabbit. It's hard to put yourself in that position but it really isn't any different. I thought Chirracharr as the central character and the subject of that alien abduction was superb and a really likeable alien. She was just lovely and was so interested in everything. Travel, family, others. She just wanted to learn and that meant she got on rather well with the Doctor. Tixlel as the Head of Research for the Experiment was a strong character too and I appreciated his love and devotion to his life's work. Except the Experiment was much more than that. It was something that had spanned generations across a millennia. It had thought shut down but here it continued in secrecy. Until now. The idea of a protest against the Experiment because the Building Collective needed more room to house the population was really good and parallels could definitely be drawn with some of modern society. Despite an entire species and world within, that loving the Doctor named as Friends, they weren't Ixites so they didn't matter. They were manufactured and manipulated on Ix, but now the land was required. Of course, the Doctor and Ruby weren't having that. I loved how fascinated Chirracharr was when she first encountered the Doctor and Ruby, and it was also nice that she took matters into her own hands to prove that her supposed dream of the white walls and the sad eyes of Tixlel was not false. She would head to the mountains as that's where nobody went. The Doctor encouraging that adventurous spirit of her was terrific. Ruby taking things into her own hands and tackling the protestors by showing that she was an alien was impressive and pretty admirable! I liked that she wasn't interested in the idea of a fear for the others or a belief that there were no aliens beyond the Seven Systems. She wanted to defend Chirracharr and her people because she believed they had the right to exist. I thought that was really good and showed her strong companion traits. The rollers were a fun element of the story too and the Doctor quickly deducing that they were observing and machinery was good. I thought the resolution at the end was pretty simple and I liked the threat of the meteors as moon-sized to wipe out the Experiment, but then the Heritage Collection arrived to safeguard it once its depth and scaled was learned. It was an important part of Ixite heritage and would be preserved. The theme of the word hello throughout was quite beautiful. Chirracharr couldn't understand why someone wouldn't just introduce themselves. They'd be willing to share land so having the Doctor try to explain to her how some people were evil was a bit sad. She genuinely had a kind heart. It was fantastic to have Tixlel go within the Experiment at the end and see Chirracharr and her people up close and personal. Not to analyse but just to converse. That was really good. Overall, a great little read!  

Rating: 8/10