Is there a doctor in the galaxy?

kw: book reviews, science fiction, space opera, mysteries

One could make a career out of reading Doctor Who novels. In the past twenty years, according to data at the Tardis Library, 973 editions of a couple hundred titles have been published. Just in the past year 123 editions have been published, all based on the BBC program that ran from the 1960s to 1989, and has been running again since 1997. The ability of "the Doctor" to return in a new body from time to time gives the show quite a lot of latitude to introduce a new lead actor from time to time.

Published in April 2009 by BBC Books (which traces back to Random House), Judgement of the Judoon, written by Colin Brake, has probably already been followed by more than twenty newer volumes. There appear to be scores of authors willing to write under the guidance of the series editors and consultants…and many more who write "unofficial" volumes.

Based only on reading this one volume, I find a refreshing return of space opera, with its hyperdrive ships, giant spaceports, comely villains, homely heroes, and picaresque plotlines. In this case—as in most of the volumes—the Doctor has a mystery to solve> he also has an unlikely pair of co-sleuths: a rhinoceroid Judoon police commander and a teenaged human private eye. A series of apparent thefts, and now a mysterious murder, have crippled operations at a new spaceport terminal, and the Doctor has just one day to trace a mysterious "Invisible Assassin".

As the three work their way towards a solution, they get to know one another. A plot subthread is their growing regard for each other. There's plenty of comic potential in the antics of a quarter-ton humanoid with a rhino's head who is used to getting (or making) his own way. In between life-endangering events, though, understated humor flies all directions. The climactic tragedy aside, the book's tone is light-hearted.

I'll have to look up an episode or two to watch, to see how the show's tone matches the book's (or vice versa). And when I come across any of the companion volumes, I'll see what else the many authors are cooking up to confront the Doctor. Not that I want to make a career of that, now…