I really don't like writing negative reviews, which is why I've put off
this one for a while. Well, okay, there's also been the matter of real
life positively barging in and taking the doors off the hinges as it did
so. Some of it's been good (such as the two concerts my children have
been in, including Tuesday night drumming at The Crucible) and some of
it bad (mainly being in considerable pain for much of the time and the
loss of concentration that comes with that). Still, it's been over a
week and I'm feeling like it's not going to get any easier to write
this, so I'm just going to put together something short.
My first Whoniversal encounter with Lady Jane Gray was the Sarah Jane Adventures story, Lost in Time (previously mentioned in connection with Mister Benn,
of all things). There, the sequences with Rani meeting the Nine Day
Queen were my favourite sections of the story; they had an emotional
warmth that came across very well. The same is not true here. For one
thing, Matthew Jones seems to think that the alien is the most
interesting thing about the story, even though it really isn't. Or at
least, shouldn't be; but the world of 1553 is so sketchily rendered that
it might be by default. The guest cast (with one exception) come across
as far too stagey, talking in clichés. Sometimes this can work, but
here it is at cross-purposes with a dark plot that seems to call for
more naturalistic performances.
The regulars don't sound much like themselves, either. The Doctor, in
particular, is far too generic. If anything, I'd say he sounds more like
a particularly grumpy McCoy than Hartnell, with a few "hmm"s, "my
dear"s and "my boy"s thrown in for verisimilitude. It's not at all easy
for an author to catch the cadences and mannerisms of a televisual
character in print, as I have been finding out for myself lately; but
for me as a reader it is vitally important.
What of the plot? The story starts well, with what I thought was going
to be part of a framing sequence: an extract from an exam question set
by Barbara. However, this is just something put in at the beginning with
virtually no connection to the plot and no matching endpiece, unless
you count the way the tone changes to that of a history textbook for the
last several paragraphs. We then have a historical backdrop to an alien
hunt, with the threat of changed history thrown in for good measure.
It's inoffensive stuff, but there's not that much to it.
Once again the TARDIS crew spend some considerable time hanging around
during the story - months in this case - and then it is implied that the
Doctor is there at Jane's execution, nine months after their arrival.
This isn't a complaint, really, since it creates space for the best
aspect of the story, which is how it ties into the real history of the
time. This is masterfully done, even down to the little details like the
bruises on Jane's wrists and her choice of reading matter. When I was
younger I used to love the jigsaw-puzzle cleverness of stories by
authors like Isaac Asimov, and this one has that in spades. I'm sure if I
wanted I could do more research than just reading the Lady Jane Grey
Wikipedia page and I would find that Jones' knowledge runs deep. These
days, this isn't enough for me, though. I want characters that live and
breathe; and these are almost entirely lacking.
I say almost, because Lady Jane Grey is actually rather good. She almost
rescues the first part of the story, and it is a real loss when she is
sidelined later on in favour of the alien hunt.
Well, once I started I had more to say than I thought. There's actually
quite a bit to admire in the story, but its flaws run afoul of my
particular bugbears; so I can't rate it highly.
Published:
Date: 1995
ISBN: 0-426-20448-4
Rating:
2/10.
Next Time:
Perhaps Susan's Tale will continue; or perhaps I will be able to uncover The True and Indisputable Facts in the Matter of the Ram's Skull...
No comments:
Post a Comment