Sightseeing in Space: Terminal of Despair

"They've made us afraid to hope."

Writer: Steve Lyons

Format: Novel

Released: October 2011

Series: 2 in 1 4a

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Amy, Rory

Synopsis

The TARDIS crew is quarantined in Terminal 4000, where the hideous Desponds have destroyed the hopes of all awaiting passengers. Can the Doctor and his friends help them escape without succumbing to despair themselves?

Verdict

Terminal of Despair was an excellent novel to kick off my reading of the Sightseeing in Space book! Another in the 2in1 collection I have finally succumbed to as part of my local library and honestly I am annoyed at myself for leaving this range for so long. I thought it was going to be too child oriented but I was so wrong. Sure, this is aimed at a slightly younger audience but as a twenty-eight year old man reading this I could appreciate the excellence in the story being told. I am a big fan of when adventures go to space so the umbrella title for the book excites me, although I wouldn't exactly say a spaceport terminal qualifies as sightseeing! That's coming from me as well who is a notorious tourist whenever I go abroad I make sure to see all of the touristy sites and some of the off the beaten track attractions as well. For example, when visiting Bratislava I went to the Museum of Clocks despite having little knowledge or interest in the time mechanisms! A terminal though is something I think I might draw the line at so I was surprised that on arrival Amy was so keen to explore. I get the attraction though with the setting being the future so she wanted to see what duty free was like in space. I thought the Doctor jumping around with boredom was fun and strong characterisation of this eleventh incarnation. When Janie was introduced to the story I loved how her question to the Doctor about not coming to save them then changed the entire dynamic of the novel! His approach to things shifted enormously and he was horrified to find that the passengers were all delayed by five months. That's some waiting time. His discussion about places that you just wait was terrific too and they really are quite boring places at times. That's why I usually have a book when travelling to keep the time productive. I thought the concept behind the Desponds was fantastic and the prospect of them taking all hope away from someone they latched onto was powerful stuff. I can't imagine what it would be like to have all hope eradicated! Seeing the Doctor become subjected to that was a bit of a surprise to be honest, but the result was incredible. This wasn't the Doctor we knew at all anymore as he was happy to just leave. Amy came into her own as the companion here and her appeals to him were just wonderful. Telling the story of The Eleventh Hour and her Raggedy Doctor was sublime and I like how she appealed to the 160 odd stranded passengers that they had hope and this was represented in the Doctor. His exiting the TARDIS to applause kicked him right back into gear which was just tremendous. That was a stellar image as the Doctor returned to his incredibly hopeful self that we all know and love. I thought the sub-threat of Roger and the Cap was strong and Rory getting mixed in with them because they thought he was an engineer after he accompanied the Doctor in repairing the vending machine was amusing. It was less so when he was pushed out into space helplessly! The use of his own oxygen tube to get back to the ship was impressive stuff from Rory though. There was a lot of jeopardy in this book which was fantastic and I liked how the Doctor tricked the computer systems on his way to getting things back up and running. The sonic never finding the frequency to hurt the Desponds was amusing especially when he had found the one to attract them. Roger being responsible for the Desponds in the first place was a good revelation and explanation of how things came to be in a quarantined knockdown and him accompanying Amy in the TARDIS at the end without her knowing what he'd done to Rory was tremendous. Her shift in wanting him to tell the authorities everything was marvellous. I like that the ships all set off as the Doctor and Rory sacrificed themselves, before Amy took it upon herself to move the TARDIS despite the word not coming due to the Doctor being out of credit! That was a sublime chapter cliffhanger. Overall, a terrific read! 

Rating: 9/10