The Eleventh Tiger

A novel featuring the First Doctor, Barbara, Ian, and Vicki

Written by David A. McIntee

Polarity Rating: 3 out of 5

I've never been a very big fan of the historical epics during the First Doctor's era, so it was with trepidation that I opened The Eleventh Tiger. However, my fears were quickly allayed: the prose is descriptive and the characters (particularly the four regulars) are well-realized. McIntee uses masterful brush strokes to recreate China in 1865, and I was almost instantly sucked in.

But first, a bit of history. In 1865 China was still recovering from the Opium Wars, in which they lost to the British and were forced to tolerate the British occupation as they traded freely in opium and other goods. Among other things, China also ceded Hong Kong to the British. In the background of all this was a league of bandits known as the Black Flag Army, whose primary ambition at the time was to oppose the British. It's the Black Flag Army that's the catalyst of this story, although we later learn that, as usual, there are otherworldly powers pulling the strings.

As colorful as the book was, it dragged out for a bit in the beginning after the main characters are introduced and we discover that there's a British soldier in the city of Guangzhou who bears an uncanny resemblance to Ian. Did Ian return in the future? And why does this soldier not remember anything about his own life? The mystery is pretty compelling, since we all know he and Barbara eventually returned to their own time. But more on that a bit later. The story appeared to be taking the turn that most of the historicals did, with the TARDIS crew involving themselves in some tumultuous past event. Until, that is, we meet the abbot who is gearing up to take over the Black Flag Army. And the guy literally plucks out the eyeball of a dead deer and pops it into his mouth like a grape, but not before he orders one of his henchmen to cut off the nose and tongue of an allegedly insolent minion. And with this passage, the story takes a turn for the better.

Well, not all that better. McIntee's writing style continues to shine, and there are some absolutely fabulous passages with descriptions of hand to hand combat; this guy would have been an awesome choice to write a novelization of Kill Bill. There are some creepy terracotta soldiers that are possessed by alien energy and run amok, and the celestial activity leading up to the villain's master plan cause energy stored in rock to create images of ghosts. (Female ghosts, it should be noted, with long black hair that weep for dead lovers. I see some influence from the film Ringu in there somewhere.)

And then, dear reader, after a climactic scene in which Ian is going to shoot his future self to save Barbara's life, the story just takes a complete nosedive. We learn the story behind Ian's body double, and it's one of the most contrived plot points in recent memory. After leading us down the garden path for pages and pages, making the reader wrack his brains to figure out why a future Ian is in China in 1865 and why he's suffering from amnesia, we learn (spoiler alert!) that the "future" Ian is actually the "real" Ian's great grandfather. And they look like twin brothers! This has absolutely nothing to do with the alien menace lurking throughout the rest of the story and served only to insult the intelligence of the reader.

I have no complaints about McIntee's portrayal of the First Doctor, which is spot-on; there's a wonderful scene in which he engages in hand to hand combat that I could easily play out in my head despite the Doctor's obvious frailty. This is also the first novel, to my knowledge, in which we get to read about the inevitable affection between Ian and Barbara, and they even snog at one point. It was a bit of a shock, but ultimately quite understandable (particularly since they eventually marry, as we learn in The Devil Goblins of Neptune). Vicki seems a little under-utilized, as she spends most of the story hanging about in the background and developing a crush of her own on a local boy.

At the end of the day, the alien menace is vanquished and our heroes leave in the TARDIS. Unfortunately, the ending just seems a tad bit forced, as the solution to the problem appears out of nowhere. I do forgive McIntee for that, as the rest of the novel (sans the bit with Ian's double) is quite good.

Great writing or not, The Eleventh Tiger is not McIntee's best; he thrilled the socks off of me years ago with The Dark Path and impressed me again with The Face of the Enemy. But, particularly if you're a fan of the historical stories, you can't really go that wrong with this book. It beats the hell out of Sick Building anyway.