Shell Shock
by Simon A Forward


Publisher: Telos
ISBN: 1 903889 16 2 (standard)
1 903889 17 0 (deluxe)

     

    BASIC PLOT
    The Doctor is stranded on an alien beach with only intelligent crabs and a madman for company.

    DOCTOR
    Sixth.

    COMPANIONS
    Peri.

    MATERIALISATION CIRCUIT
    Pg 14 Aboard a derilict hulk, unnamed world, the future.

    PREPARATORY READING
    None.

    CONTINUITY REFERENCES
    Pg 14 "The Doctor chose to engage in a spot of fishing." The Doctor later does this (and gives up) in The Two Doctors.

    "Despite the Doctor's cautionary and, she thought, characteristically pompous warnings and reminders of her near-drowning in Lanzarote." Planet of Fire.

    Pg 39 "She feels the quills forming at the roots, spiking out through her skin, growing out from inside her." Vengeance on Varos.

    Pg 39 "Paternal hands lock around her throat like a vice, and she's staring up into a distorted face, a new and unfamiliar face that she knows, as much as she begs not to believe it, belongs to the Doctor." The Twin Dilemma.

    "Sharaz Jek, doomed like her; desperate like her; but wearing a mask more obvious than Peri Brown's." The Caves of Androzani.

    Pg 40 "Turlough saves the day, bears her away to the TARDIS." Planet of Fire.

    Pg 46 "I rather fancied a spot of recreational fishing." The Doctor later does this in The Two Doctors.

    OLD FRIENDS AND OLD ENEMIES
    None.

    NEW FRIENDS AND NEW ENEMIES
    Scrounger, Dungbeetle, Scuttlebutt, Crane.

    CONTINUITY COCK-UPS
    None.

    PLUGGING THE HOLES [Fan-wank theorizing of how to fix continuity cock-ups]
    N/A

    FEATURED ALIEN RACES
    Intelligent crabs (augmented soldiers), who can have a variety of attachments.

    FEATURED LOCATIONS
    Unnamed world, the future.

    Various military installations, in flashback.

    IN SUMMARY - Robert Smith?
    Shell Shock is very good indeed. The dialogue-free sections slow it down a bit, but it has some fantastic prose, some real tragedy in Peri that thankfully avoids melodrama and some genuinely shocking twists. It's a thoughtful piece, more interested in its characters than trying to dazzle us with big ideas... and is all the stronger for it. Solid stuff, in all the best ways.