Who Reviews Apollo 23 by DJ Forrest

Written by Justin Richards

For BBC Books

Published 2010

A man walks towards the bandstand during a lunch break, and dies of asphyxiation and a woman walking her dog not across the park dies on the dark side of the moon, her pooch by her side, and an astronaut suddenly appears in a shopping mall, right outside a fast food restaurant.

‘Houston, we have a problem!’

This was my first introduction to the Eleventh Doctor stories, that I read a long time ago, so it was a nice revisit. It’s a Doctor and Amy story, and takes place on Base Diana, on the dark side of the moon. There are illegal experiments with hardened criminals, who are undergoing treatment to remove the bad side of their brain, and have new memories replace them. However, nothing is ever as it seems, and before we’re midway through the story, the Doctor has discovered the truth, along with Amy, who at this point, has discovered that, poking your nose into things that are out of your intelligence range, can get you into serious hot water.

The Doctor in his usual, 'must help the locals fix their quantum displacement device', does so, only to discover that the locals up and sabotage it – why, well there’s the thing, it’s not revealed until nearly the end of the story, but there’s plenty in the story to keep you entertained until the big reveal.

I do enjoy the Amy Pond companion stories, and sometimes when Rory gets involved it often brings with it an enjoyable humour about it – but as I’ve noticed with Rory, he’s often an afterthought.

Justin’s novel is an enjoyable read, and there are plenty of characters involved in the story that you’re waiting for them to become who you imagine them to be, and unless I’d seen something similar on the television, I was still waiting for the UNIT guy to become something more than a suit and dark glasses kind of guy.

As with all Who stories, this one is no different. There’s some brainwashing aliens doing horrendous stuff to humans, because their own bodies can’t sustain them in different elements – and it’s not too difficult to picture them in your mind.

Some novels have that kind of ‘talking down to you’ feel about them. This one, by far, does none of those things. It’s an enjoyable read, and as you would expect from the front cover, it’s set in America – as well as on the Moon.