Doctor Who: Just War

Doctor Who: Virgin New Adventures #46

by Lance Parkin

It is March 1941, and Britain''s wartime fort unes are at their nadir. But events are still following the course of history. The Doctor is therefore alarmed to discov er that the Nazis are building a superweapon that could end the war overnight. '

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Novels, Historical Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 18, 1996

About the author

Lance Parkin is an author who has written professional Doctor Who fiction since the 1990s. He is one of the few authors to write for both the 1963 and 2005 version of the programme — though much of his fiction has actually been based on the 1996 iteration. Indeed, he was notably the first author to write original prose for the Eighth Doctor in The Dying Days. He was also the author chosen to deliver the nominal 35th anniversary story, The Infinity Doctors, and the final volume in the Eighth Doctor Adventures range, The Gallifrey Chronicles. More recently, he has written for the Tenth Doctor in The Eyeless.

He is further notable for his work with Big Finish Productions, where he is arguably most known for writing the Sixth Doctor adventure, Davros.

Outside of Doctor Who, he has written things like Warlords of Utopia and (with Mark Jones) Dark Matter, a guide to the author Philip Pullman.

Reviews

[Gabriel · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my many school reads, and one I remember not quite getting at that age. Deserves a re-read.

[Adam Highway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bloody brilliant. The incredible violence isn't excessive or overdone, but serves to reinforce the inescapability of oppressive regimes. The narrative works as a standalone but also ties in excellently with the over-arching 7th Doctor narrative of the NAs. Strongly recommended.

[Xanxa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a huge fan of WW2 stories or real-world war stories in general, so I have to admit I didn't have very high expectations of this book. I set out to read it because it was the next in the series.

I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I would. Some of the scenes took place in the Channel Isles amid the German occupation. I learned about it when spending vacations in the Channel Isles and visiting some of the bunkers, gun emplacements and one of the underground facilities there. I liked the fact that the author chose to write about this aspect of the war.

The old cliche "Careless talk costs lives" takes a central role in this story and forms a major plot point, although the writer doesn't work that in until part way through.

The Doctor and his companions play out their undercover roles and meet with a variety of interesting guest characters. I like the way that the Germans are portrayed - not as stereotypical villains but as patriots who thought they were serving the greater good and only found out later that there is no "greater good" in war.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the ending of this one so much, really thought it was a great payoff to a story which was engaging but which I wasn't 100% sure of the direction of. I think it manages the 'this was all pointless, sort of' beat better than some stories which just end up feeling pointlessly bleak. Sidenote: it's a small thing but I really loved the Doctor considering what will happen when Mel leaves. There's something so fascinating to me about the contrast between season 24 and where we are now with the Seventh Doctor.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sure am glad Benny is getting off this merry-go-round soon.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is reasonably enjoyable

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2170151.html[return][return]This is a New Adventure with the Seventh Doctor, Benny, Ros and Chris, with flashbacks to the Seventh Doctor's travels with Mel (which have never merited a full-length spinoff novel of their own). I realised about a qurter of the way in that I had heard an audio adaptation of it several years ago, one of the very first Big Finish audios about Benny, with her husband Jason replacing most of the other regular characters. The audio was good, but the book is also very good; too many Second World War stories, and not just in the Whoniverse, reach for easy cliches, and although the nastiest characters here are German and the nicest (apart from regulars) are Brits, there is a decent level of ambiguity all the way thorugh - including about the Doctor's role. Ros in particular gets some good moments as an authoritative black woman officer impacting the establishment in London, and poor Benny gets some nasty torture at the hands of the occupiers of Guernsey. The New Adventures seem to have been passing through a good phase generally at this point, in early 1996, though the end must have been already looming.

[Danny Welch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lance Parkin is often regarded as one of the greatest Doctor Who authors, novels such as Cold Fusion, Father Time, and The Eyeless are rated very highly by the community. However, those books couldn't have existed without his debut novel 'Just War', another Virgin New Adventure dealing with the Nazis but this time it's done in a very interesting way.

The Doctor has posted his friends across the English sea. Bernice Summerfield is hiding undercover in Nazi-occupied Gurnersy, whilst Chris and Roz are to work for the scientific intelligence division for the British. The Doctor is up to another one of his masterplans, but this time it may have devastating consequences for them all.

Considering this is a debut novel, Lance Parkin has written an incredible yet haunting piece of fiction that's very researched, with a very delicate and intelligent sense of prose. The characterization and world-building here are rich, which comes as a surprise considering it's a Doctor Who novel set in the 90s. It's an incredibly dark and disturbing piece of fiction that highlights just how evil the Nazis were. It's a simple yet complex little story with interesting subplots, Roz falling in love with a British soldier, Bernice Summerfield getting tortured by a sadistic Nazi, Chris going undercover to discover how the Nazis intend to win the war, whilst The Doctor as usual puts together his master scheme, whilst also watching it crumble to pieces with devastating effects.

Overall: It's an incredible piece of fiction that shouldn't only be considered as a mere Doctor Who novel because what the story has to say for itself is incredibly deep and meaningful with a fine sense of respect for history. If you are a Doctor Who fan or someone who's interested in World War 2, this is a must-read. 10/10

[Mikey · Rating 5 out of 5]

So it’s pretty wild going from The Infinity Doctors back to Lance Parkin’s first Who novel. They’re both impressively different from one another, but both very very good!

The Infinity Doctors had a fair share of dark moments, but Just War is - understandably - a very dark book. If the soldiers and Swastikas on the front cover don’t give you a clue, the title itself is a fair warning this isn’t going to be a fun romp.

Coming after The Also People there’s also a pretty big tonal shift here - in a way that was the calm before the storm. After that, it’s back into the thick of it, with each of the TARDIS crew split up for respective tasks. These are all well paced and immersive, painting a really vivid picture of the realities of World War Two and offering some really good character moments for each of the main characters. Benny - who gets put through the wringer something awful - once again proves what a great and strong character she is, and makes it pretty obvious just how she’s ended up being such an iconic and long-lasting character.

There’s very few light moments here - it’s a gritty and sometimes pretty tough read, but it’s very well done and doesn’t suffer from the same ‘first novel syndrome’ that other entries in this range have. It’s handled incredibly maturely and is definitely up there with some of the best of the New Adventures.

[City Mist · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very strong New Adventure. There's little technobabble or metafictional commentary, and the premise is straightforward and essentially entirely historical. This one was difficult to find, and I can see why. It's a book worth keeping.

[Arthur B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent "pure historical" examining the limits of the Doctor's interventions in time. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/202...

[Tim Trewartha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite simply one of the best novels in the New Adventures series. Can't believe it took me this long to read it.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Just War", by Lance Parkin

This wasn't the first Lance Parkin book that I've read. I got started a couple of years ago with his volume of Doctor Who essays in Time Unincorporated Vol. 1 and I found that so delightful that I moved straight on to The Eyeless, an NSA that he wrote about in TI. Though not as good as the best NAs, I enjoyed Eyeless as well. So, I was pleased to finally be getting to his NA work, and I'm even more pleased (and amazed!) to discover that his first novel is better than the much-later novel that I read.

"Just War" starts en media res with our characters scattered across 1941 Europe. Even better, we don't get a clear sense of what's going on for … really, all of the book. Despite the murkiness of purpose, our characters are all doing interesting stuff that we can follow. Benny's spying, Chris is infiltrating, Roz's analyzing, and the Doctor is sticking close. Much of the plot is thus very much a World War II novel, with only one bit of weirdness: a ship that explodes over the Mediterranean, that could be an alien ship or something else.

When the Doctor finally reveals that *spoiler* this entirely earthly ship is an advanced stealth design that came about due to comments that he and Mel accidentally dropped several years earlier, it's a delightful reveal: that the Doctor could so easily change history; that he's returning to Earth (this time at least) to fix one of his mistakes; and that he's trying to hide what he did from his companions because it embarrassed him.

As for the Doc and his companions, they're all dealt with wonderfully.

The Doctor doesn't get a lot of page time, but when he does, he's desperately trying to keep up with events and figure out what's going on, and occasionally failing, showing off a very vulnerable and uncertain manipulator -- a characterization that I really enjoy.

You can also see the heart of the modern Doctor when he says:

"Dark forces. I've fought against them, beaten them back. Wiped them out, as you say. But I've always tried to show mercy. … I've always tried to listen to the monster's point of view. You'd be surprised how passionate, how eloquent, they can be."

Poor Benny gets a bit bruised up over the course of the book. She's captured and tortured and driven so out-of-her-mind that she wonders if her time traveling is all a delusion. In one particularly wonderful sequence she even confuses the Nazis with the Daleks. On the other hand she's dauntless and even surprisingly brutal in this book, killing a soldier and locking a nurse in a morgue drawer! Yowza! I'd love to see more of this Benny. She learned from Ace!

Chris gets the least interesting characterization, and Roz for some reason gets repeats. She's facing racism (again) and also falls in love with someone that she ultimately leaves (again). I thought the Roz sections were brilliant, mind you, especially the increased focus on her heritage, dating back to Nelson Mandela and the "Age of Legend", but if things were going to repeat, it would have been nice to at least acknowledge that. Oh, and I don't entirely understand what drove her to get engaged to someone and then leave.

Overall, it was a great book. The focus on war and what it does to people (like Benny) was particularly well-done. Compared to "Toy Soldiers", it just blew the previous book out of the water.

I've given Just War a 9 out of 10.

[David Sarkies · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another counter-factual World War II novel
19 February 2012

Sometimes I wonder why people seem to not only like to write stories about World War II but stories about how World War II could have turned out differently. To be honest with you, I actually think that World War II turned out in the best possible way, but everybody (well, maybe not everybody, but at least a number of people) seems to want to go back and attempt to write counter factual 'What If' stories, though in some cases, such as this, we bring our friendly time travelling Doctor into the picture to make sure that the course of the war is on track.
My position is that it was a very good thing that the Japanese and the Germans lost the war. We would not like to live under the rule of the Nazi party or its Japanese counterparts. Further, if Japan and Germany had won the war then it would have been a very distinct possibility that the two would have ceased being allies and began to fight against themselves (this is the position that Phillip K Dick took in his book 'Man in the High Castle).
Some people seem to think that the Germans could have won by developing a superweapon (as is the case in this book) and they point to the Americans ending the war with an atomic bomb. However, we must remember that the Germans did have super weapons: they had jet fighters and guided missiles, and they did not win the war. The other explanation is that Germany was under constant bombardment from the allies while the United States lost a bulk of its Pacific Fleet and had some islands in the Aelutians taken off them for a short time. As such, without the threat of constant bombardment, American industry survived, where as German and Japanese did not.
The other thing is that the Germans should not have invaded Russia. Correct, but Hitler was an invader and he simply could not sit still (classic symptoms of Methaphetamine addiction), but my argument is that he should have invaded the Middle East, cut off the Allies' oil, and then moved north to capture the Russian oil fields. Then all he had to do was to sit down and wait, but that is something Hitler simply was not able to do.
As above, I don't buy the super weapon argument, but on the other hand I think that it is a good thing Germany and Japan lost. Okay, a lot of people criticise the Americans for nuking Japan, but honestly, what else could be done. I raise a lot of criticism against the modern American state, however we cannot criticise them for dropping the bomb. Japan surrendered, and it is suggested that unless the Americans dropped the bomb, it would not have happened. It is the classic tactic of a bully to attack the small sins of a person to attempt to bring that person down. Now, while I am a critic of American foreign policy (which I believe we should be), I believe that dropping the atomic bomb is a little off the point, simply because we needed to bring the war to a close against a stubborn enemy.

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is Doctor Who that is pushing the boundaries of what is Doctor Who. It is so ridiculously grim, with only the tiniest bit of science fiction to it. Really we are getting our companions experience first hand some of the horrors of the second world war.
I know a lot of others adore this novel, and I appreciate it, but it seems to revel too much in how grim it can make things. Having Bernice being extensively tortured (and lots of random descriptions of her naked), trying to imply Roz is just as bad as Nazis, having Doctor play Russian roulette with a war criminal. To me it goes beyond the points it could be making into gratuitousness.
Not that there isn't a lot to like, but super grim.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best debut novels in Doctor Who history. This is epic, tragic, triumphant, and terrifying. It's everything that a war experience SHOULD be...and everything that makes Doctor Who such an amazing series. The finale -- a Russian roulette confrontation -- is staggering!

[Ms_prue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this after The Also People. My love for Roz and Benny being deep enough by that point to sustain me through a story set in WW2. Rob recc'd these New Adventures to me probably 3 years ago - thanks Rob!