The Road Chosen

Since two-thirds of my household are struggling with math homework, I dared not let on the title while I was reading it. Luckily actual knowledge of mathematics beyond my ken was not required to enjoy this book. The penultimate 7th Doctor PDA, The Algebra of Ice promised the return of the Brigadier, presumably still reeling from the events of Battlefield.

The tale begins with the TARDIS going all funny. It brings The Doctor and Ace to various moments in time which don't quite go as the history books say they do. Edgar Allen Poe doesn't die in quite the same manner as he should, the fate of Pompeii becomes slightly altered, and a sign at a certain junkyard well-known to DW fans reads “I.M. Forman” instead of its familiar spelling with an E. The Doctor figures out that these blips in time somehow revolve around a young mathematics genius named Ethan Amberglass. Our intrepid investigators pay the recluse a visit only to find that he's mastered the crotchety thing and moved beyond it.

The Doctor heads over to UNIT where the Brigadier enlists his help with investigating an eldritch pattern in a field in Kent. No mere circle, the pattern consists of a series of geometric shapes and is encased in layer of super-cold ice, as if all the molecules of the ground had suffered a mighty blow at the hand of entropy and lost all energy. Also interested in this strange phenomenon is one Adrian Molecross, the publisher of a Fortean online magazine called Molecross's Miscellany of the Mysterious and Misunderstood.

Meanwhile another math genius, Pat Unwin, is in the employ of Sheridan Brett. Brett is a twisted, sadistic bastard with a preternatural affection for entropy. With a nihilistic temperament, Brett is keen on destroying the universe. This makes him a refreshing villain as he has no lust for power. A thirst for self-aggrandizement is replaced by a total indifference to, well, pretty much everything. He simply wants to bring an entropic end to life, the universe, and everything several billion years early. As Unwin says to Ethan at one point, ”I think entropy is the problem, don’t you? I mean, what’s the point of all the rest of it if we’re only going to end up cold toast?” The crop patterns are portals to another dimension and opening them would allow some being hell-bent on destruction through to our universe.

Rose also makes good on the potential of the books to give a more adult spin on DW with Brett. At one point he kidnaps Ethan and locks him in his basement. There Brett viciously tortures Ethan by stubbing cigarettes into his cheek, the sole of one of his feet, and other body parts. It's a brutal scene and much more shocking than the usual hooking up people to electrodes and giving them a shock routine that is familiar to DW viewers.

After reading Mike Tucker & Robert Perry's story arc wherein Ace matures and becomes more independent, I was wondering what Rose would do with the character. She portrays the companion in a way that is a mix of the brash teenager of the television show and the more adult figure that has been carved out by other authors of the series. For most of the book she is the companion that we know from TV. However, she is attracted to Ethan and they verbally spar with one another not unlike Walter and Hildy in His Girl Friday before consummating their brief relationship.

There's nothing new in Ace bestowing her carnal favors upon a strapping young lad. Instead it's The Doctor whose character is twisted in a new direction. In a moment of desperation, The Doctor tries to convince Ethan that his – Ethan's – death would put things right.

‘What are you trying to do – persuade me to kill myself and save you the trouble?’
‘It’s one life against the whole of existence.’
‘It’s my life, and I’m not going to do it.’
‘The universe!’ cried the Doctor, anguished.
‘You’re trying to take it off you – murder without murdering. You think I’m going to make it easy?'

It was a rather shocking scene for me as I'm used to The Doctor volunteering his own life to save everyone else only to have some other character step up and make the ultimate sacrifice. Here, not only is The Doctor pleading with someone else to die, it's also someone for whom Ace has feelings. But we do get a scene where a subsidiary character sacrifices himself: Molecross takes one for the team by stepping between Brett and the TARDIS' Artron Energy Capacitor. (I never knew the TARDIS had one of those.) I thought the scene with The Doctor trying to get Ethan to sacrifice himself made Molecross' death even more poignant. Molecross is dismissed by the Brigadier as a crank and is basically brushed off by The Doctor and Ethan. He comes across as being rather timid. While neither a natural born leader nor blessed with an abundance of confidence, he does thrust himself into the fray on more than one occasion. He is the perpetual underdog and you can't help but cheer for him.

While Ethan survives the final confrontation with those beings who seek to enter our universe, his body eventually gives out. The book's final chapter is a very touching farewell to him. The Doctor enters his mind and explains to him that he has a brain tumor and that he knew about it the whole time. Although it would prove fatal, the tumor also kept the aliens from possessing his mind. The Doctor also admits that his attempt to get Ethan to sacrifice himself was wrong both morally and practically as it was through Ethan that The Doctor figured out that the aliens had hacked into the TARDIS. He says, “I make terrible choices, and I can’t be sure of the ends. It’s the road I’ve chosen.” A wonderfully contrary statement to The Doctor we have gotten to know lo these many years.

My big gripe about this story is that the Brigadier is woefully underused. He adds a bit of color here and there and puts UNIT's resources at The Doctor's disposal but he was far from being an indispensable part of the story or even a major element. A beloved character gone to waste.

The Algebra of Ice is a very dark story. There's torture, the death of Molecross, and Ethan's fate to be in a coma until his body gives out. Plus The Doctor's intuition that Ethan's death would thwart the villains. Brett is a thoroughly repugnant sociopath while the aliens are only seen via a sort of virtual reality world and there we see one of them in the form of a snake. The enemy is defeated but not everyone lives happily ever after.