BASIC PLOT
From the desert world of Karris to the interplanetary scrapyard of Junk, the Doctor and Donna discover that appearances can be deceptive, that enemies are lurking around every corner, and that the centuries-long peace between humans and machines may be about to come to an end... because waiting in the wings to bring chaos to the galaxy is The Cult of Shining Darkness!

DOCTOR
Tenth.

COMPANIONS
Donna Noble.

MATERIALISATION CIRCUIT
Pg 22 Against a wall, on an unnamed planet in the Andromeda galaxy.

Pgs 245/247 Near a theme park on Pasquite.

PREPARATORY READING
It's helpful to be familiar with The Runaway Bride.

CONTINUITY REFERENCES
Pg 9 "Surely you don't mean Pompeii?" The Fires of Pompeii.

Pg 10 "The perfect hosts - well, that's what it says in The Rough Guide to the Isop Galaxy." The Isop Galaxy featured in The Web Planet and was also mentioned in Bad Wolf.

"Remember how you were when you saw your first Ood..." Planet of the Ood.

Pg 12 "She loved art. Really, she did. She's had a copy of that sunflowers picture on the wall at home." Presumably the version without the "For Amy" signature, as this predates Vincent and the Doctor.

Pg 13 "The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver" Fury From the Deep et al.

Pg 17 "At least it's not Huon particles, then." he Runaway Bride.

Pg 25 "Pompeii had een a bit like a theme park, the Ood-Sphere had just been a wintry planet." The Fires of Pompeii, Planet of the Ood.

Pg 26 "Donna's only real experience with robots had been the robot Santas and the ones on Planet 1." The Runaway Bride, The Doctor Trap.

Pg 28 "He paused and shifted his weight from one foot to the other, narrowing his eyes, before pulling a yoyo from his pocket and experimentally bouncing it a couple of times." The Ark in Space.

Pg 42 "The Ood, the Magentans, the Racnoss, the... lizard men of Wongo." Planet of the Ood, made-up, The Runaway Bride, made-up.

Pg 45 "The door hissed open suddenly, just as she was trying to explain about the Jant and their plan to hollow out Callisto." Callisto featured in the audio Valhalla.

Pg 46 "I was kidnapped by one - took me off in a taxi. On my wedding day! Can you believe it? And the robots on Planet 1 - they were just weird." The Runaway Bride, The Doctor Trap.

Pg 50 "'He's certainly not as stupid as he looks.' 'Go on,' said the Doctor to Boonie. 'Say it: "No one could be as stupid as he looks." Believe me, I've heard it before.'" In City of Death.

Pg 52 "If a vending machine wants to be called "Barbara", it'd be rude to call it anything else." Sick Building.

Pg 82 "Never a good colour for eyes, red. Trust me. You've never met the Ood, have you?" The Impossible Planet et al.

Pg 97 "'She's impersonating a goddess' [...] 'Must be something about travelling with me,' the Doctor said with a grin. 'They're always doing it.'" The Aztecs.

Pg 99 Reference to Donna's parents (The Runaway Bride).

Pg 100 Reference to Wilf (Voyage of the Damned et al).

Pg 120 "You mentioned these "robot Santas" on your homeworld." The Runaway Bride.

Pg 167 "Although if it did, maybe it'd be the ginger one he's always wanted." The Christmas Invasion.

Pg 177 "Told you about the robot Santas, did she?" The Runaway Bride.

Pg 223 "Any chance you could, oh, I dunno, tell them to go to their rooms? Sometimes works, you know." The Doctor Dances.

Pg 225 "'Correctamundo - oh...' The Doctor's face fell. 'I was never going to say that again.'" School Reunion.

Pg 237 "Just like Pompeii all over again, isn't it?" The Fires of Pompeii.

Pg 248 "Back to Chiswick, back to temping, holidays in Egypt" Partners in Crime.

OLD FRIENDS AND OLD ENEMIES
None.

NEW FRIENDS AND NEW ENEMIES
Mother, Weiou, Boonie, Kellique.

CONTINUITY COCK-UPS

1. Pg 19 "This would never happen at the Tate Modern, you know." Except that, as the Doctor himself pointed out in Sometime Never..., it's called "Tate Modern", not "the Tate Modern".

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

1. The Tate Modern is a famous art gallery in the Isop Galaxy, wholly dissimilar to Britain's Tate Modern.

FEATURED ALIEN RACES
Pg 8 Robots, of all types.

Pgs 39/134 Mesanth is a Lotapareen, a multicoloured, three-legged lizard with three arms and an oval head.

Pg 43 Dallendafs, who look human, but age slower than everyone else.

Other Andromedans look human, but aren't.

Pgs 69/86 The Jaftee, squat monkeys with short arms and coppery-coloured hair that flows from their heads and shoulders to their backs.

Pgs 74/87 The temple beast, a creature with thrashing tentacles.

Pgs 123/143 Lagacteons, who have exposed frontal lobes and spiny fingers.

FEATURED LOCATIONS
Pg 11 An art gallery in the Andromeda galaxy.

Pg 17 The Dark Light.

Pg 26 The planet Uhlala.

Pg 42 The Sword of Justice.

Pg 69 Karris.

Pg 123 The asteroid Junk.

Pg 196 An escape pod.

Pg 199 The Torch.

Pg 245 The planet Pasquite.

IN SUMMARY - Robert Smith?
This is an okay runaround that desperately wants to be more than that, but can't quite manage it. The idea of examining racism via robots isn't a bad one, but the arguments put forth barely scratch the surface. And the whole thing is resolved when Donna freaks out because someone calls her a racist, thus proving that it's far worse to be called a racist than to actually be one. Okay, I take back what I said earlier; that's actually quite true to life! As for the rest of the plot, it's a bit woolly, as Michalowski's stories always are. The entire thing is centred around a cult leader who died two years earlier... but, bizarrely, she's never revealed to be alive all along nor are her followers planning on resurrecting her. Which leaves... not a whole lot. The cultists hate robots because, um, just because. That said, the extremely cheesy thought processes of the Jaftee (written as though they're in a Gary Russell novel) did make me laugh, so that's something.