Return to Vortis

The Web Planet is almost universally mocked for its insectoid costumes which would be marvelous for any third grader's school play. And its 6 episodes were slow going, at times. Certainly not all killer, no filler. So I give Christopher Bulis a lot of credit for writing a story that is a sequel to this much maligned television tale.

The TARDIS lands once again on Vortis. But the crew finds that there are more than just Menoptera and Zarbi here. Two groups, the Imperial and the Republican, from the Rhumon system have laid claim to it with representatives from each stranded on the planet. Our time travelers are captured by Republicans but Victoria manages to escape with an assist from some grey creatures. The Doctor and Jamie escape Republican clutches too but only because they fall into Imperial ones.

Amongst the representatives of the Empire is one Father Modeenus, whose religious fervor gives Jonathan Edwards a run for his money. I seem to recall that various authors from the Wilderness Years had an anti-religious bent but I cannot remember if Bulis is one of them. I don't think that Vanderdeken's Children had anything character or story line that was critical of religion. There was "magic" in The Sorcerer's Apprentice but I don't recall there being anything sacrilegious about it. And it's been a long time since I've read Palace of the Red Sun - too long, perhaps.

There's a lot of running & hiding, being captured & recaptured here as our heroes get passed around by the various factions. The Doctor seems a bit generic, for the most part, and I felt that he got lost in shuffle for much of the book - at least until the end. Victoria and Jamie were fine with our Victorian young lady really stepping up. She even does her best Ethan Hunt imitation and goes undercover disguised as a Monoptera. (?!) Perhaps the biggest winners, however, are the Menoptera who lose the high cheese factor of their costumes and fly ships and kill baddies and rescue people and just generally come across heroically, if not as mild-mannered bad asses.

Twilight of the Gods has this vaguely Twilight Zone-like twist to it involving some naughty students and their less than pleased teacher.

Overall, I enjoyed this tale. There's enough action to keep the story's pace going at a nice clip and just enough menace directed at our heroes to keep things interesting. Despite not being overly Troughton-like, I appreciated that the Doctor was not perfect here, attempts to defeat the bad guys didn't always work immediately and there were setbacks. There's also a fun little scene here that reminded me of the introduction of midichlorians in that Star Wars movie I cannot recall the name of where the Doctor figures out and then explains how it is that the Menoptera can fly when their physiology would seem to render that impossible. I also enjoyed how Modeenus chewed the scenery.

But the see saw nature of the action got repetitive and the Imperial and Republicans factions generally came across as 2D mindless military drones. Perhaps this latter bit was meant as a commentary. Fair enough, I suppose.

Despite these things, this was an enjoyable story.