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Wolfsbane Author: Jacqueline Rayner Review Wolfsbane is a multi-Doctor adventure, but not in the traditional sense of The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors or The Two Doctors. In Wolfsbane, the Doctors in question never meet, in fact the only crossover is in one companion, Harry Sullivan, and he doesn't even realise that the 'other' Doctor is infact the Doctor. The story is therefore set early in the Tom Baker era, with Sarah Jane Smith appearing alongside Tom Bakers Doctor and Harry Sullivan. The multi-Doctor part is realised through Paul McGanns eighth Doctor, who is without any companion of his own. Harry gets accidentally abandoned in early twentieth century England, and becomes embroiled in the hunt for a killer wolf who has apparantly been killing sheep and now humans in the local vicinity. Saved from a lynch mob my a mysterious Doctor, and taken to the local manor house of the Leffy family. There, he meets Hester and Goerge Stanton, mother and son, and the predatory German Emmeline Neuberger who is desperate for a husband so she can remain in England. Meanwhile, the Fourth Doctor and Sarah go back for Harry, but arrive two weeks late to find gravestones for Harry and many other locals. They investigate the situation, and the Doctor goes off to find Emmeline while Sarah finds George in the local asylum, and also digs out Harrys grave to find the coffin contains only books. Meanwhile, Harry and the Eighth Doctor have discovered that Hester Stanton believes herself to be the re-embodiment of Morgan le Fay, and her son George to eb the rightful King, Mordred. Hester has manipulated Emmeline to England and is using her to 'wake the land', causing plants to grow exponentially before their eyes. Eventually, with the aid of the Holy Grail brought to this time by Arthurian peasant Godric who was held by a Dryad for a thousand years, Harry and the Fourth Doctor cause Hester to be swallowed up by the land, and George is taken to the local asylum. The Fourth Doctor and Sarah then return to pick up Harry, after a spell with the Dryad, and Godric is returned to his own time. Wolfsbane is essentially two stories told consecutively, in slightly different times. First you have the Eighth Doctor and Harry who really carry out most of the plot, then you have the Forth Doctor and Sarah who provide the follow up and largely clean up the loose ends. What the author Rayner does really well here is to blend the stories so that one strand deosn't take over too much, and both stories are given the chance to be played out well. In general, what we have here is a fairly traditional whodunnit, Doctor Who style. By saying that I mean that whilst some mystery is held throughout, largely you are told relatively early on who the main antagonists are likely to be. It has often been commented that Doctor Who has done this on a number of occasions, and really has defined the whodunnit in a whole different way. Within the context of a book though, Rayner has managed to translate this style really well into a new era of a reading/viewing public and she should be congratulated for this. What really sets this book apart from others in the BBC Past Doctor novel range is the characterisation. All of the people in the book really come to life, and this is a really easy thing to get wrong, so Rayner really must be applauded for her work here. Both Doctors really show their characteristics well, and although I believe him to be an easier person to write, Harry Sullivan was captured very well. Sarah too was made into what you would expect of the character, but the 'guest characters', especially Emmeline, come accross really well alongside the established personalities. Despite all the positivity I have exuded so far, I do have one gripe, in that the ending is very bizarre. Many Doctor Who novels end rather abruptly in my opinion, and don't really have a send off or how the characters go back into normal life. Here, Rayner starts going on about different dimensions, different possible endings and other matters that really leave the reader being confused after what they had expected to be the end. I read the ending twice through, and still don't see why, in the context of this sole book, the last chapter was written as it is. Whilst it is possible there are other books that determine why it was written like this, I believe that the books should be single entities unless part of a story arc. Despite this problem, the book up to this point really is a good story to read through, engrossing and really very exiting. This has been ruined a little by the last chapter, but I still have a positive feeling on the whole. Overall, Wolfsbane is a cracking little story where the action and characters alike really stand out from other novels. This is ruined slightly by a bizarre ending where different dimensions and endings are discussed, and I really can't help thinking that this shouldn't have been included. This aside, any fan will enjoy reading Wolfsbane, and it stands as one of the best books in the range of BBC Books past Doctor adventures. Rating:  |