Millennium Shock

Millennium Shock - A Review

by Phillip Madeley

This is the second Doctor Who novel to feature the Voracians, a race of organic green snake-like reptiles enslaved to a more robotic way of life under Voractyll; the virus program that turns technology against people in order to enslave organic life. The first novel they featured in - the Virgin MA \ System Shock - found the Fourth Doctor and Sarah encountering a group of Voracians trying to take over Earth in 1998 using the newly established information superhighway. Here the Doctor returns to Earth a year later as another group of Voracians plan to use the Millennium Bug panic to introduce Voractyll to the Earth again on January 1st 2000 and complete the takeover of Earth that failed in System Shock. As in this and the earlier novel, the Fourth Doctor teams up with an older Harry Sullivan who now is Commander of M15, and as with most of Richards novels the characterisations are spot on, with the Fourth Doctor's persona captured perfectly for the time this novel is set - fitting in during the time the Doctor was alone in the TARDIS during season 14 (after The Deadly Assassin). The Doctor works well here as the detective searching for the pen which contains the Voractyll code that the Voracian group need to attempt their takeover (the pen was originally given to Sarah earlier). Sarah does not appear in this sequel bar for her appearance at the very start and her article on the concept of the Millennium Bug, which ties in very well in showing her journalistic skills and explaining to those less computer-literate readers about the Millennium Bug itself. As this novel, like System, was published before the date of the events described in the plot, this must have come in handy.

This book has been described by some as little more than a rehash of System, but I think it stands up well on its own. The Voracian baddies - led by Byron Cutter, who the Doctor thinks has the perfect name for a villian ("much better than Stabfield") - are well handled here again and a brilliant original monster for the Who novels. I much prefer these new baddies, to say the reappearance of the Daleks or Cybermen, and their plan is once again very futuristic and appealing to those who understand the more technological side of events. It could almost be described as a James Bond-esque adventure with NATO and Russian/US armies becoming involved. The other thing that appeals from this book is that you never quite know who is who in this book - with some characters turning out to be Voracians disguised. Not wanting to spoil the plot for you, I will not say who.

This book is a great read and definitely worth getting hold of - but I strongly advise you to read System Shock first as you will appreciate the plot more. Let's hope that the Voracians make another appearance in the future.... perhaps in a new series on TV?