Planet Skaro > Reviews > Doctor Who: The Legacy > Kuang Shi - Chapter Four
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Chapter Four Review by Elizabeth Medeiros

Chapter four, the concluding chapter of “Kuang-Shi” is just as graphic as chapter three, but it might be even more disturbing. Each of the main characters, the Doctor, Alf and Nick, confronts extreme danger (or chaos) and the repercussions of what happens will probably not end with this story.

Alf, of course, is in a battle for her very life. Exhausted, and battered by the barbaric and sadistic Nicholas the Impaler, she manages to escape. But Nicholas stalks her, he's not content with terrorizing her, he wants to literally imprint his retribution on her body and her spirit. These scenes are jarring; Andie's prose is stark, and the tone of these scenes is dark and unforgiving. We see Alf not as some unreal damsel in distress awaiting rescue, but a desperate, resourceful woman who must defend herself no matter what. And defend herself she does, but at what cost to herself? The moment where she destroys Nicholas is pivotal for her as a character, it'll be interesting to see how that affects her in future stories.

Just as hard to read are the scenes with the Doctor. At times, combating the Kuang-Shi, we are shown a Doctor we seldom see: harsh and uncompromising. Though he's a man still haunted by the memory of Brad's death, and he will not be the cause of other innocents suffering. Some readers won't recognize and probably will have difficulty accepting a Doctor who can kill vampires without remorse, but I think Andie's depiction of him is well justified. But for the Doctor, too, there will be consequences. He's saddened by the impact of the vampires on the people of Styria, especially Ephan, who has changed from a frightened boy to a hardened zealot. And after six months of leading the revolt against the Count and the rest of the vampires, the Doctor is weary, disgusted and eager to leave and help Alf and Nick. As he explains to Ephan, he's a Time Lord, he's not from Larkhowl and he will be on his way.

Nick also has to deal with some major happenings. When we left him, he was back in the Forum World, when he was a god as one of the Millennium People. Slowly, as he remembers his life as a Forum member, the Moderators and the Boss (an enigmatic figure with a goatee) try to remind him of his true nature. It's little hard to take some of this completely seriously, characters floating around on clouds (however benevolent) tend to bemuse me. Still the choice given to Nick is vital, to be included in the wonderful sense of chaos for eternity, or to go back to his brief life as a human. That's why I was disappointed when the Dommervoy appears and with his “Tick. Tock.” intervenes just before Nick is to choose. Who is this Dommervoy? The real chaos, a wild card that surfaces at random, a deus ex machina that saves the day? As a reader I felt somewhat annoyed that the choice was abruptly taken out of Nick's hands. He's as he was before, implants in place and without his memory of what just happened. (Although I do realize at some point in the Legacy this will be resolved, and I'm eagerly anticipating that.)

“Kuang-Shi” is a disquieting and unsettling tale to read. It's more than a vampire story, in fact, its previous title of ”Whispers of Immortality” may give another clue to the aspects of the Doctor, Nick and Alf and just who they really are. As a story it'll grab your attention with its intensity, and the ending will have you waiting impatiently to see what's in store for the main characters next week in “The Mirror and the Pomegranate.”

Chapter Four Review by Paul Clement

With the dramatic ending to chapter three, chapter four enters with the reader pondering how the Doctor will escape Styria, how Alf will fare in her encounter with the evil Nicholas, and what will become of Nick now that he has returned to the Forum.

As the lion's share of the final chapter revolves around the Doctor, it seems as good a place to start as any. Linking on from comments made in another review about the previous chapter, the Doctor does at times appear less reluctant to take a life than we would possibly expect him to, granted it is the life of a vampire, but the whole feel of it seems wrong. The Doctors casual use of dialogue as he does it probably makes it all the more disturbing, with lines such as "‘Here, let me light your way.' He tossed the torch at one of the Kuang-Shi. Instinctively the man reached out to catch it. Within seconds his whole body was burning” baring little relation to the Doctor I would say I feel used to. However, the Doctor is redeemed by the fact that this is a fairly unique occurrence made under extreme duress. Later in the chapter, he does also go on to say that vampires are by there nature, parasites that are not alive to begin with whose sole aim is to feed of the lives of others, so perhaps his brutal actions may be excused on this occasion. His reaction to the change in nature of Ephan and the feeling the reader gets that the Doctor feels partly responsible for it also seem to be an act of redemption on the Doctor's part. Perhaps most significantly, and reminiscent of both Genesis and Resurrection of the Daleks, the Doctor cannot kill the ultimate source of evil when he has the opportunity to do it, despite his full awareness of all the misery and suffering that could be caused by them. Once again, we are shown the morale side of the Doctor, who perhaps feels that to do this would make him become like them, something he is not prepared to accept.

In contrast, the scenes featuring Alf and Nicholas seem far to brief, perhaps this is the fault of the constraints placed upon Andie writing in the format of a novella, but it almost appears as if he has rushed through these scenes as quickly as possible to reach the enthralling climax. This is perhaps one of the best moments within the whole of Kuang-Shi, as finally disposes of the sadistic Nicholas. Even as she dispatches him, however, that strong trace of humanity within her doesn't lead her to gloat over her fallen enemy, instead she ends his existence disclaiming his false beliefs that she and the Lady Dorothy are one and the same person.

The scenes following Nick's return to the Forum throw up some tantalising questions as to the future of the Millennium People, while Nick's dilemma as to whether to rejoin them or to face remaining as a human if he is to rescue the Doctor, builds further onto the character of an already great companion. Unlike the scenes featuring Alf, however, Nick's storyline ends in a quite unsatisfactory anti-climax. With the choice in his hands, I felt a significant moment was arising only for it to be snatched away by the return of the Dommervoy.

On the whole however, this chapter and the whole of the Kuang-Shi were an interesting read that has built a solid foundation for the rest of the season and have progressed the Legacy series on well and has left some interesting questions for later stories to answer. I'm looking forward to both the next story, and the next contribution to the series by Andie.