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Storm Harvest

JUNE 1999

Storm Harvest, Robert Perry and Mike Tucker’s third Doctor Who collaborat-

ion, somehow manages to be both their most assiduous offering to date as well as their most disappointing.

I say this because Storm Harvest would beyond a shadow of a doubt have made one hell

of a television story, or at least it would have done had Tucker and his special effects crew had the budget to realise what is, essentially, Jaws in Space. The monstrous Krill depicted

in Black Sheep’s cover illustration perfectly demonstrates such sentiments.

“The Krill are pure rage. Pure aggression. There is nothing for me to reason with, nothing that I can appeal to.

By now there must be millions of them out there, and I don’t know how to stop them.”

Indeed, the Krill are a marvellous creation, both conceptually and physically, and would they have been realised on the screen even half as well as they are on this book’s cover, then Storm Harvest would have been one of the seventh Doctor and Ace’s most memorable outings.

However, laden as it is with unmemorable supporting characters and a somewhat non-specific warrior race in the Cythosi, on the page Storm Harvest flops spectacularly. Whilst

it is reasonably well paced and gloriously action-packed, this beach blockbuster just does not translate at all well into print. Simply put, there’s no real depth here; just gore. Even the story’s setting – the touristy water world of Coralee – relies too heavily on visual spectacle

to really come alive from the prose.

Now I’m certainly not saying that a story of this type couldn’t work in print – in fact, I’m sure that it could – but unfortunately in this case we have a square brick trying desperately to fit into a round hole. And so regrettably the trilogy of novels that many fans have endearingly dubbed “Season 27” draws to a spirited, if not very satisfying, close.

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2006

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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