The Force of Death is set around the end of the 19th Century and this tale begins with journalist James McFarlane, this Doctor’s companion in this range, travelling to Ireland to report on the supernatural within the Irish countryside. On his railway journey to his lodgings in Galway, he hears stories of the local mythical sea-creature, the Dobhar-Chu, from a man travelling on the same train. Soon after arriving in Galway, he hears further reports about local animal mutilations and the sinking of a British Navy ship, the RMS Majestic. Was it the Dobhar-Chu that was responsible?
Starting his investigations, McFarlane meets up with the Doctor, posing as a local vet, who is already in the area monitoring another situation…
The Force of Death is the fourth instalment of the Eighth Doctor BBC/Penguin audiobooks range which all utilise more traditional monsters. From the cover, the listener can assume that this will be a zombie tale. Indeed, even the audiobook’s precis gives the indication of a zombie story, but zombies only appear momentarily.
The structure of the story is very different to its predecessor, The Teeth of Ice. The Teeth of Ice is more of an ensemble of characters interacting within the Arctic base. The Force of Death is more a series of set pieces with few characters lasting more than their sequence. This isn’t a problem, by the way, as within the limits of an hour or so, this allows the story to build up layers and misdirections so that the listener only really gets to know what has been going on until right at the end.
A very entertaining sixty-five minutes: Dan Starkey still provides his slew of voices, including a slightly less ‘Beatles’ Doctor this time, and Andrew Lane still delivers uncomfortable descriptions; most notably the fate of the poor sailors from RMS Majestic.
That Andrew Lane has been writing all of the stories in this range allows the overall flow of the narrative to remain constant and maybe even throw in a line here and there which may give a hint to future stories (see below). I sincerely hope that the adventures of the Eighth Doctor and John McFarlane continue in this small but well-formed little series.
Last year I wrote a review of the preceding story, The Teeth of Ice, where I was unhappy about the ending. The problem was that the story had the Doctor putting in place the plan and equipment for the destruction of Rochdale’s airship, but became angry as McFarlane, the companion of the series, pulls the trigger. In short, the Doctor sets up the devastation but gets to side step the responsibility.
A year later, The Force of Death is released and I approached this audiobook with hope that this particular narrative would be tackled.
When McFarlane is reunited with the Doctor, he is, expectedly, a little anxious of how the Doctor will receive him. However, the Doctor just seems to forgive and forget; “lest said, soonest mended,” says the Doctor as he warmly receives McFarlane for the first time after the events in the arctic. Bit of a cop-out, I initially thought, but the subject comes up again later.
That later conversation has a bit of ambiguity. The Doctor talks about his change of character since he last saw McFarlane, how he will have to harden up and have to take sides because worse times are to come. A reference to the Time War? That is the easiest conclusion; after all, the cover image of the Doctor is the third-phase Eighth Doctor costume first seen in The Night of the Doctor.
But it’s also possible that the Doctor is referring to future Eighth Doctor/McFarlane stories: bearing in mind that the tales so far have been Victorian-era Earth and relatively low-key threat, in universal terms, will future threats be ramped up? Will the Doctor and McFarlane have to save the world together, or have to resort to causing death and destruction well in excess of Rochdale’s airship and crew? Or will we see McFarlane get involved in the Time War itself?
Same time next year, Andrew? It’s a date.
