Sightseeing in Space: The Web in Space

"You know what spiders do to flies, don't you?"

Writer: David Bailey

Format: Novel

Released: September 2011

Series: 2 in 1 4b

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Amy, Rory

Synopsis

A distress signal calls the TARDIS to the Black Horizon, a spaceship under attack from the Empire of Eternal Victory. But the robotic scavengers are the least of the Doctor's worries. Something terrifying is waiting to trap him in space...

Verdict

The Web in Space was a great story to conclude my reading of the Sightseeing in Space 2 in 1 novel! This followed Terminal of Despair up very nicely to round out a really strong pairing and I liked how different this one was despite being set in Space. I mean, Space is very vast and there's so much that can be done with it. I honestly did feel like this one was something akin to Wild Blue Yonder but with a few more characters. I think that Fourteenth Doctor episode is vastly overrated, but with a few more people to bounce off of here it definitely worked. I like the humour that came from the opening chapter with the TARDIS picking up the distress signal from the Black Horizon but playing that through the speakers at a blaring volume. I was impressed with the characterisation of our resident TARDIS trio in this one and I don't know why but the description of this often forgotten console room was really good. It set the vibe nicely and the interior of the Black Horizon was also written very well in providing a strong visual. I thought the concept behind the Empire of Eternal Victory was quite amusing and the idea of a band of scavenging robots picking up scrap for their empire was really good! I initially thought they were going to be presented as far too silly when a coffee maker peaked their interest after breaking in, but thankfully that was kept in check. I was impressed that they had knowledge of the Time Lords and the ultimate scavenge would be the TARDIS. That worked well but it was also something good for the Doctor to bargain for his life with. It would be worthless without him to explain! Zero-1 was a decent villain as the head of the scavenging robots, but the way he was hidden at a chapter cliffhanger and learned of the TARDIS and the Doctor being a Time Lord was excellent. These robots didn't sound too scary in appearance with their weird face masks, but their actions certainly made up for it! I was surprised they turned out to be the major enemy of the story because given the title, I was fully expecting it to be whatever was behind the web in space. And that's without the exclamation mark! I'm not sure where TARDIS Wiki got that from as I have the original double release from my library and it's definitely 'The' as the title. The concept behind the Diamondweb Spiders was enthralling and the Doctor being so protective of them despite them having the ship as potential prey ready to consume showed you all that was needed. They were so rare and the Doctor was genuinely impressed to be so close to one. Something that could trap comets in its web and fed off asteroids obviously required respect and that's what the Doctor would grant it. His communicating with it via vibrations was interesting and it was good that Sam picked up on that. He was a strong character and I liked how much Amy took a liking to him and recommended to Captain Jones that he be promoted once the events had died down, bit it was a slightly underwhelming way for things to finish in just having the spider know it was under attack and defend itself. I figured it would go down the route of her consuming the robots, but I guess they would barely register as a snack! I couldn't blame the scavengers for wanting to capture the spider though because the endless supply of diamond was more than desirable! Messy was a fun little character and his surrendering himself to Rory because of him defeating it by taking its arm off was quite amusing, and he was a useful piece of equipment to have around for much of the story! I really enjoyed the sequences where the artificial gravity was either not working or was flipped. That provided a lot of fun moments and I was glad of its duration. Trying to map out the ship was hard work with that! I thought the Empire of Eternal Victory ending in defeat for them was fitting, and they were essentially a robotic version of the Krillitanes in harvesting metals. An unfathomably big spider proved too much though! Overall, a great little read.

Rating: 8/10