Alastair Reynolds’s Third Doctor story Harvest of Time reads like a classic 1970s Doctor Who story in four parts. We have all the familiar ingredients: UNIT, the Master imprisoned, mysterious aliens in the form of the Sild, Jo Grant and the partially functioning TARDIS. Alastair Reynolds is one of my favourite authors most of whose work I have read and enjoyed. With all the right elements in place, how has Harvest of Time turned out?

The Story

Mysterious crab-like creature are washing up around the coast and taking over all who find them. At sea ships are reporting strange sights of water disappearing and on an oil-rig government officials are testing their new communications technology Merman. As UNIT investigate it becomes clear that someone, or something, is taking the Master out of time and he is being erased! All events are connected and the only way the Doctor and Jo can save the day is by teaming up with the Master! Meanwhile at the far end of time an alien civilisation is exploring a mysterious spaceship that appeared in the skies.

There are great scenes of the Sild taking over everyone they encounter and UNIT have only one means of dealing with them - lethal force. The Master is supposedly trapped in a power station but as the Doctor travels to see him the Sild are attacking. The Doctor rescues the Master and is forced to take him in his TARDIS to the end of history where they encounter the enigmatic Red Queen. They also learn the secret of the Sild’s method of manipulating time and the role that the Master has taken in aiding them. They travel in time again to a paradox fuelled showdown on board the Sild-controlled ship!

Needless to say the Doctor eventually prevails but not before he has faced challenges he never thought to face.

But…

Inevitably there are flaws or at least things that don’t feel quite right when reading this Third Doctor story. There are occasional references forward to nu-Who creations; the Master appears to have had an incredibly large number of regenerations - some alien and some female. More substantially than the fiddling at the edges of canon is that rhythm of the story, by which I mean that Jo and the Doctor are separated and don’t come back together until after the resolution of the main plot. All Jo and UNIT are left to do is mopping up events at the oil rig which although vital are only connected in the reader’s mind rather than within the plot.

A picky reader might also suggest that UNIT appear somewhat one-dimensional and the various staple character all but interchangeable. There is also way more paradox than would be normal for the 1970s; yes Day of the Daleks was based on a paradox but Harvest of Time is crawling with them.

On the plus side

Even with the criticisms this is a well written piece of intelligent science-fiction and much less controversial than previous ‘top author’ titles such as Michael Moorcock’s Coming of the Terraphiles and worth reading. If you liked Stephen Baxter’s Wheel of Ice then pick this up if you haven’t.

What did you think? One you liked or one you felt didn’t quite work? Let me know!