TYPE: New Series
FEATURING: Tenth Doctor, Martha Jones
AUTHOR: Stephen Cole
PAGE COUNT: 248
SYNOPSIS:
The TARDIS lands the Doctor and Martha in the Lake District in 1909, where a small village has been terrorized by a giant, scaly monster. The search is on for the elusive 'Beast of Westmorland', and explorers, naturalists and hunters from across the country are descending on the fells. King Edward VII himself is on his way to join the search, with a knighthood for whoever finds the Beast.
But there is a more sinister presence at work in the Lakes that a mere monster on the rampage, and the Doctor is soon embroiled in the plans of an old and terrifying enemy. As the hunters become the hunted, a desperate battle of wits begins - with the future of the entire world at stake...
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
REVIEW:
Aiming for Berlin in 1908, the Doctor misses his mark as usual and the TARDIS lands in the Lake District of England in 1909 instead. The locals are in a frenzy over a giant creature that destroyed a village, and when the Doctor gets a good look at the dead animal he immediately recognizes it as a Skarasen, a cyborg reptile and 'pet' of the alien Zygons. But nothing on Earth could stop a Skarasen, so how could it's skull be blown open... from the inside? The Doctor is faced with the possibility that something else may be hunting the Zygons...
When I ordered this book, I was really looking forward to being able to read it. The Zygons made their first appearance in the classic series in the 1975 serial Terror of the Zygons, which has always been one of my favorite stories. I've always considered the Zygons to be one of the best and most well-realized aliens ever created in the history of the series. Sadly, they were never seen again, although they finally returned in the Eighth Doctor novel The Bodysnatchers (1997). Another ten years on from that, they returned once again in print here in Sting of the Zygons.
Since I haven't reviewed Terror of the Zygons yet, here's a quick primer on them:
- Their world was destroyed, and several groups (none of which seemed to have any knowledge of or contact with each other) wound up on Earth.
- The Zygons appear to be highly evolved, humanoid sea anemones, with various nodules all over their bodies, and stingers in their hands.
- Their technology is organic in nature, and they have the ability to take the form of captured beings in order to blend in.
- The Zygons' chief weapons are the Skarasens, giant reptilian creatures that the Zygons convert into armored cyborgs. The Skarasens are also the Zygons' only food source, as they depend on the creatures' lactic fluid for their nourishment.
Having encountered them before, it's only a couple of chapters into the book before the Doctor has a good idea of what he's up against, and while the Zygons of this story have pretty much the same plan as the previous ones - take over Earth and convert it into a new homeworld - there manages to be a few surprises. One of the perks of being a book is that the number of Zygons is quite large (no need to put tons of actors in make up and costume), much larger than the handful seen on TV, and with this amount it heightens the tension as you can't tell who is really human and who is a Zygon. I thought it was very clever this time around to show the Zygons taking on the forms of animals, such as cows or a family dog. I hadn't even considered that a possibility as I was always distracted by trying to figure out which of the people might be Zygons in disguise, so the story gets bonus points for that.
I also enjoyed the setting. 1909 was still a time when everyone (at least in 'proper society') was very reserved, all of that 'stiff upper lip' and 'tally-ho' attitude, so the Doctor and Martha made a fun contrast to the rest of the characters. The Doctor also scored bonus comedy points by giving the name Arthur to three horses, a reference to Season 2's The Girl in the Fireplace where he named a horse Arthur.
The plot did get a bit subverted for me in the end, because the Doctor surmises at first that the damage to the dead Skarasen in the beginning could only have happened if something or someone else alien had hunted it, since nothing on Earth, especially at the turn of the 20th Century, could do the damage he observes. I was hoping this could add an extra layer to the story: OK, not only do we have Zygons, who can impersonate anyone, but we may also have an alien hunter on the loose. Alas, this was not to be, so in the end I was left with Zygons once again wanting to take over Earth, the same as every other group of Zygons that we've seen in the past. Despite this little let down, due to the above mentioned points, the story still managed to be fun and engaging enough of a read. Not a bad story for the Zygons to return in.
