Checkmate

Kaldor City #5

by Alan Stevens

"Cause and effect. It applies to everything."

Taren Capel's legacy is unleashed, and death stalks the streets. As Uvanov fights for his career and life, Paullus contacts a force which could be the salvation of the people of Kaldor -- or their destruction.

With Carnell gone, Iago is the only one who can save the city from its fate -- but to do that, he must sacrifice everything...

Kaldor City - Checkmate uses characters and concepts from Chris Boucher's Doctor Who novel Corpse Marker to tell an apocalyptic tale of subterfuge and revelation.

Genres: Science Fiction

Audio CD

First published September 1, 2003

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Alan Stevens is a British writer and producer who is based in the Southeast of England, where he runs his own audio production company, Magic Bullet Productions.

Stevens has produced a number of documentaries, serials and dramas for radio and independent audio release, including the Blake's 7/Doctor Who' spinoff series Kaldor City and the second Faction Paradox audio series, and has co-written two guidebooks for Telos Publishing, Liberation: the Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Blake's 7 and Fall Out: the Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The Prisoner, with Fiona Moore. He writes articles for Celestial Toyroom, the magazine of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society, and has written in the past for Doctor Who Magazine and DWB.

Reviews

[Leila Anani · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the last of the 5 main, linked Kaldor City audio books based on Doctor Who: Robots of Death, sequel novel The Corpse Marker and Blake's 7 'Weapon'. This draws all its threads and characters together into one jaw dropping finale which brings in another Chris Boucher Dr Who: Image of the Fendahl. It is super involved and complicated and you need a very good grasp of all the source material and what has gone before to even begin to fathom this one - but if you are a massive Who Geek then this really does do justice to its fans, it's subtle, clever and downright genius for the most part.

To begin then we have Uvanov, Iago and Landerchild trying to sort out the mess of Taren Capel's 2nd Robots of Death fiasco. But while it was the focus of the last instalment, here it plays a very minor role and everything is more or less under control. There is something much darker afoot, hinted at in Carnell's farewell speech suggesting an ancient evil.

So remember the skull from Death's Head? Well it's the same skull from Image of the Fendahl and the Church of Capel are in fact the cult of 12, led by poor, mad Ander Poul (now under the name Paullus) who've got their heart set on Justina as the host for their god. The Doctor if you know your Who, beat the Fendahl by tossing it into a supernova. However now it's back - the supernova having made it stronger. Initial thoughts - we're all doomed. There's no Doctor around and hell if a supernova couldn't kill the damn thing... Kaldor City is done for! Now we all know Chris Boucher likes dark and unexpected endings - I still haven't recovered from Blake's 7, but this.... well now.

There are some really unexpected deaths, the highlight being the confrontation between Cotton and poor Rull in hospital. Amazing writing and such great black humour. We also get a 'this town ain't big enough for the both of us' showdown between Iago and Blayes (interestingly NOT Carnell who has fled) - up to this point it's 5* OMG this is awesome but then it all goes to the weird. And I'm still struggling to piece it all together.

So with no obstacles the 12 succeed this time around in resurrecting the Fendahl. Everything's fucked. The Blayes/Iago shoot out went down. I think Blayes got killed (but I'm not 100% sure) and Iago lies bleeding to death when Justina now the core of the Fendahl comes to him. Because Justina truly loved Iago she offers to let him time-travel back in time, which he does, to the point in Occam's Razor where he's objecting to Justina's painting. Here he shoots Justina (presumably to stop the Fendahl before it can manesfest) but then Carnell turns up and kills Iago. WTF?!

So the main upshot is that there is no escaping the Fendahl (a metaphor for evil and the darkness of the human soul?) and whatever you do you're fucked I think. But I'm struggling to work out why/how Carnell kills Iago and hell what happened to Carnell (I mean last we saw he ran away) - If you infer that Carnell is Stael from IOTF (note both were played by the same actor) then perhaps he died to become part of the Fendahl? In which case his presence might enable some sort of 'letting go' before absorption sort of thing for Justina and Iago - If Iago is able to shoot Justina then he doesn't love her - so she is able to give up and embrace the darkness. Iago is defeated by Carnell the only character to offer him serious challenge, so he too is forced to give up and embrace the darkness... Maybe. I'm reaching here. Honestly, the ending really left me scratching my head.

Other than the truly bizarre ending I have to say that the Kaldor City audios are amongst the best Who audio adventures out there - They are consistently good with witty writing, complex plot and an amazing voice cast - Paul Darrow and Brian Croucher really are amazing here - Normally with linked Who stories you get some weaker ones but not so here, all 5 stories are all brilliant and incredibly clever, sometimes perhaps even too clever. Everything is included for a reason and really challenges the listener. It expects its fans to be intelligent and to piece things together and make all the right inferences. In some cases perhaps it's a tad too subtle and ambiguous but that is part of it's genius.

Highly recommended and I think these will get better the more times you listen, because once you know the basic plot, you can start looking for the clues that were there right from the very beginning.

[David Layton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really a 3 1/2 star review. With the introduction of the Fendahl from "The Image of the Fendahl," the Kaldor City series adds a new complication, and with the plot already hugely convoluted, the close of the main series just does not feel like a close, or even like a setup to a series 2. The story gets a bit more surreal than previous Kaldor City episodes, and toward the end, one has trouble determining what is a dream what is an actual event. The story should have been twice as long to work out all the twists that had been happening for the previous four episodes. I know that preparations for the emergence of the Fendahl had already been placed in previous episodes with the two Wallbank paintings, but it still seems to me to take energy away from the driving force of the four episodes: the plot - counterplot politics. Thus, many of the most important questions are left hanging. Instead, the story finishes on the dream-vision of an apparently dying Iago, which may or may not be the final offering of Justina to him before she fully becomes the core of the Fendahl. The introduction of the Fendahl also requires that the audience be familiar with the Doctor Who episode from which it originates, as, per the needs of story economy, much is assumed and little is explained about it. The rest of the Kaldor City series left the references to Doctor Who as treats for the cognoscenti, and a person could easily follow the plot and setting without any prior Doctor Who experience. For me, the shift in direction sets aside what was most interesting about the Kaldor City series in favor of something much less interesting. On the plus side, the acting remains first-rate, and the cast is really all-star. Trevor Cooper and Brian Croucher particularly stand out to me as they play off each other so well and so naturally that I could replay their scenes together just to admire the acting. My final thoughts are that the program is very well performed, but does not bring the kind of closure I was hoping for.

[CJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Checkmate is a great continuation of the Kaldor City story. While there is a lot of talking in rooms in this release, it does tie up a lot of threads in the series so far. There were enough twists and turns in the story to keep me interested, and the dialogue was as snappy as it has always been.