Doctor Who: Blood and Hope

Telos Doctor Who Novellas #14

by Iain McLaughlin, John Ostrander (Foreword)

The Civil War: a time of great unrest, when fathers found themselves in conflict with their sons and when lawlessness and slavery was rife. The Doctor, together with his companions Peri and Erimem, arrive in the middle of the conflict. The Doctor manages to cope in his own inimitable manner, however Peri -- an American -- and Erimem -- a dark-skinned Egyptian -- find themselves faced with all the bigotry and haired that typified the war for some.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction

120 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2004

Reviews

[David Layton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short novel featuring Doctor 5. "Blood and Hope" occupies the pure historical genre of Doctor Who stories, so has a place left vacant during the Peter Davison run on TV. This story also includes the character Erimem from the Big Finish audio series. The plot is fairly simple. The Doctor and companions land, immediately find themselves in trouble, get separated, and spend the rest of the story trying to reunite. In this case, they land at a farmhouse in the borderland between sides near the end of the American Civil War. The Doctor gets in trouble with a kind of jailbreak of some slaves, leaving Peri and Erimem to fend for themselves. The two have to pretend that Peri is a woman displaced by the war, and that Erimem is her slave. They run afoul of mad Confederate Colonel Jubal Eustace, who goes on a vendetta against them. Meanwhile, The Doctor has been forced into service as a surgeon for the Union army. Simple as the plot is, McLaughlin complicates the story and makes it more interesting by writing this as an epistolary novel. The main "narrators," therefore, are a Union officer named Will Johnson, writing letters home to his sweetheart about his search for his cousin, Paul le Val, who is forced into service for the Confederacy, and Peri, who is dictating a kind of personal confession of some action she does not want to admit to. There are a few other writers, plus some extracts of historical documents, but most of the narrating is from these two perspectives. This means that The Doctor is pretty much a side character, seen only in how his actions affect other characters. The novel is not "about" The Doctor all that much. Instead, it is about the psychological effects of war on Peri, Will, Paul, and Jubal. In that regard, the novel is fairly accurate, and McLaughlin does not overplay either the "you should be horrified" angle, or the sympathy angle. The plot does proceed by an abundance of remarkable coincidences, which seems to me a bit of lazy plotting. Overall, it is an interesting and worthwhile read.

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1171550.html#cutid1[return][return]Iain McLaughlin's novella Blood and Hope, in the Telos series of (frankly overpriced) Who novellas, brings the Fifth Doctor, Peri and audio companion Erimem to Virginia in early 1865; they gain the hostile attention of a deranged Confederate officer, but also assist in the reconciliation of one of the many families sundered by the war. The Doctor ends up assisting Lincoln in his famous walkabout in newly captured Richmond. McLaughlin, who invented Erimem in the BF audio The Eye of the Scorpion, rather neglects her here - she is, of course, as an African presupposed to be a slave - and instead looks at the background to his American characters. There are other flaws, but it is a well-meant effort to engage Who fans in the extraordinary events of the era in question. I have been pretty critical of Telos in the past, but this is one of their better ones.

[Numa Parrott · Rating 4 out of 5]

It didn't feel like a Doctor Who story but it was really good. It was more like a story about the Civil War in which a few known Whoniverse characters deigned to appear. In a way, that's just really wonderful, because it makes Doctor Who as a whole feel more realistic than ever.
Having lived near Gettysburg and in Virginia for several years, I felt like the story was really going on in my backyard.
Seeing Five and Lincoln interact was heartbreaking, and Peri's character journey was definitely something the TV episodes never came close to. These novels do tend to push the characters to greater extremes. They're very daring.
I love it.

If you love the Doctor (or you're a Civil War buff), read it!

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surprisingly deep character-piece, featuring a very under-rated Doctor/companion team, popularized in the Big Finish audio range of CDs. I could have done without the irritating framework of an audio diary (it would have worked jut fine, simply told in flashback), but the emotional wringer Peri & Erimem are put through is conveyed with disturbing intensity. Considering how short this novella is, it's quite an achievement. The final few pages are wonderful; one of the best endings ever to a "Doctor Who" story of any kind.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good historical adventure set during the American Civil War. I particularly like the way Peri - who narrates parts of this story - is allowed to shine. Her character gains some real depth as she has to deal with some traumatic events towards the end of the story.