Cygnus Alpha | Time Squad

by Marc Platt, Terry Nation (Original Scriptwriter)

Genres: Science Fiction

137 pages, Hardcover

Published March 27, 2023

About the author

Marc Platt is a British writer. He is most known for his work with the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.

After studying catering at a technical college, Platt worked first for Trust House Forte, and then in administration for the BBC. He wrote the Doctor Who serial Ghost Light based on two proposals, one of which later became the novel Lungbarrow. That novel was greatly anticipated by fans as it was the culmination of the so-called "Cartmel Masterplan", revealing details of the Doctor's background and family.

After the original series' cancellation Platt wrote the script for the audio Doctor Who drama Spare Parts. The script was the inspiration for the 2006 Doctor Who television story "Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel", for which Platt received a screen credit and a fee.

He lives in London.

Reviews

[Alex Sarll · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marc Platt has a tougher row to hoe here than Paul Cornell did in the first volume; those opening episodes were classics, while this pair are...fine? Cygnus Alpha in particular is an early indicator of how often the show's main interest will lie in whatever Avon is up to, often with minimal relevance to the main plot - here it's tempting Jenna to fuck Blake off and just go find somewhere out of the way to live happily ever after. While all the main plot has to offer is some accurate but unoriginal observations about the scam that is organised religion, and Brian Blessed - and on the page, you can't even really capture the sheer Brian Blessedness of Brian Blessed. And then Time Squad is basically about getting Cally into the team while the ship faces some peril sufficiently generic that it could equally have been a Star Trek storyline. There are no subplots created from whole cloth this time, nor does Platt attempt to continue Cornell's well-meaning but doomed attempt to harmonise the crew as all being referred to by their surnames. But he always was good at writing from genuinely alien perspectives, and that comes through here in little details like the brief chapter from the Liberator's perspective, or the exploration of what it's like for a telepath to be alone in their head for the first time. I was unaware until going to add this on Goodreads that it wasn't even the first time a decent SF author had novelised Cygnus Alpha; Trevor Hoyle previously had a go too. And while this passed the time perfectly well, and had a few nice flourishes, I fear it would say something bad about our culture if there's ever a third.

[Jon Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

A platonic ideal of how to adopt two stories from one medium into a coherent whole in another. Platt is very good at smoothing away the budgetary limitations of the BBC of the 70s using current concepts without losing the feel of either episode, and his characterisation is spot on - this feels very much like the early Liberator crew with all the tensions of a bunch of flawed people who don’t fully trust each other trying to find a way to work together. And framing it as essentially the end of the origin story, with the crew finally coming together makes this feel more of a vital cornerstone of the series than the initial story: it’s where the show defines itself after the initial setup.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Time Squad section I found much more effective than the Cygnus Alpha bit, feeling like it spent more time developing from what was there on screen - the extra early scenes with Cally, especially, that both establish her relationship to the comrades she lost and seek to smooth over and tie together the various bits of information we get about the Auronar over the course of the series, but I also liked smaller moments: the establishment of Jenna as someone who hasn't killed before this point offset against Gan physically being unable to kill (which made their side of the plot, which I apparently found so unmemorable that I'd forgotten it happened on the show, really work for me), or Cally going from sharing Avon's dismissive view of Vila to a moment of recognition that he's important to the crew, or the way the defence of the Liberator against the guardians serves to consolidate their position on the ship and their relationship with Zen. The earlier parts of this novelisation don't, I think, have that amount of standout development to them, but the latter section is so good that I can't fault the episode 3 adaptation for feeling a bit perfunctory.

[Adam Sharples · Rating 5 out of 5]

After finishing the first book in this box set, I was amazed at the amount of detail put into the story from the script, and how the author had used his own experience from loving this old series, to embellish the storyline and give you a new perspective on the tale of Blake and his gang. This book isn't any different, with Marc creating a whole new take on two of the coolest episodes of season 1 and has done a perfect job in transposing the script material into a cohesive and exciting story.

Not much else to say really except that if you get the chance to get this boxset of books and you love Blakes' 7 then you really should get it.

[Constant_reader_UK · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another amazing addition to the box set.