The Crystal Snare

"How does a trip in the TARDIS grab you?"

Writer: Richard Dungworth

Format: Novel

Released: October 2007

Series: DYD 05

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Martha

Synopsis

People from all over the world were amazed at the exhibits on display at the Great Exhibition – and they didn't even see the alien visitors! Help the Doctor and Martha put a stop to the aliens' plans, before they wreak havoc on humankind...

Verdict

The Crystal Snare was a great little Decide Your Destiny novel! This was definitely one of the best stories from a range I have something of a love-hate relationship with. I have grown to enjoy these a little more as I’ve read quite a few over the last couple of months, but I still find the format a little iffy when it comes to continuity. Are all possible routes and choices part of viable continuity? And is it really believable that across the series the Tenth Doctor would meet ten different children to take on adventures? I’m aware I’m overthinking things here and I know that but I just can’t help myself! I fully appreciate I’m not the target audience but I could overlook that as I thought this was a solid outing. I think it definitely helped that some of the numbered segments were a little longer at four pages at times which helped to flesh things out in terms of depth and give a bit more storytelling. I did think this story was incredibly dialogue heavy though so it didn’t flow all that well in parts, but for the most part I was a big fan. I thought going to the Great Exhibition was a fantastic setting and the idea of a bet between the Doctor and Martha was good fun. I liked that good natured camaraderie and it instantly established the strong chemistry this TARDIS pairing had. The bet centring on whether the Doctor could get a nineteenth century time travel device operational was amusing but I’m not sure how much of the original tech was working or responsible once the Doctor got involved with temporal means and the sonic screwdriver! I really liked the feel of the Exhibition in being a museum and that’s essentially what it was. I really loved that some of the choices we could decide were on what exhibits to explore and just going on an exhibit venture from the nineteenth century was magnificent. It was really timely and felt contemporary which is a big bonus. I thought the splitting up of the Doctor and Martha was good and actually leaves the reader with a tough choice of who to accompany. There’s only one choice when the companion screams though! Whilst it was stated quite clearly that the reader character was a child, I try to choose based on my own preferences and what I would do in the scenarios. Of course, it’s a little difficult to imagine being in the Great Exhibition and putting oneself into 1851, but for example I was pretty confident in always choosing to run rather than confront an enemy. Speaking of which, the Shryken served as a pretty good enemy for the story and their name was certainly monstrous. I’m never too much of a fan when the Doctor knows all about an enemy he hasn’t encountered in any form of released media before, but the idea behind them was strong. Their method of invasion was quite unique in terms of sampling the species and the imagery of fifty or so humans in what were essentially incubators was quite something! The ruthlessness they had after the studies in simply engineering a virus to wipe out the population and take the planet was horrifying. The way it was presented in the book was just so simple as well! It almost passed me by with how casual it was. The Doctor was understandably stressed by the situation but he knew what needed to be done once his opposition was confirmed. Simply wipe out their generators of the signal, and with them leaning towards glass as a species the reason for the setting and their presence in Victorian London soon became apparent. The Great Exhibition itself was the signal generator! It was a moment very reminiscent of Rose and the Ninth Doctor realising that the London Eye was the source of the signal required by the Nestene Consciousness. It was some really fun symmetry. Smashing the glass panels as a way to break the signal was a good way to round things out, and I liked leaving things ambiguous for the fate of the reader. Just how long will we travel in the TARDIS? That's good fun for the younger viewers. Overall, a great read!

Rating: 8/10