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Doctor Who: The Placebo Effect [Paperback]

Gary Russell (Author)
3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Publication Date: 6 July 1998 | Series: Doctor Who
It is 3999. An artificial planetoid, Micawber's World, is hosting the intergalactic Olympic Games, and athletes from all the worlds in the Galactic Federation are arriving to take part. But when the Doctor and Sam arrive, the murders soon begin.

The Doctor finds himself drafted in to examine some bizarre new drugs that claim to enhance the natural potential of the competing athletes. But what is their real purpose? Why are members of the Security Forces disappearing randomly? And just why is Chase Carrington, manufacturer of the drug, so protective of his company's secrets?

Watching and waiting, at the very heart of Micawber's World, are a race of parasites the Doctor has fought before. The Wirrrn have come to the Milky Way from Andromeda, determined to spread their seed throughout a whole new galaxy, and it seems to Sam that the Doctor's hands are too full to pay their threat full attention.

This is another in the series of adventures featuring the 8th Doctor and Sam which reintroduces the Wirrrn from the 1975 television adventure The Ark in Space.

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Product details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: BBC Books; illustrated edition edition (6 July 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0563405872
  • ISBN-13: 978-0563405870
  • Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11.2 x 1.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 755,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon Review

Placebo Effect has at its heart an interesting idea: the insectoid Wirrrn (from the 1975 story "The Ark in Space", with spelling taken from Ian Marter's "Target" novelisation of that same story) want to use athletes visiting an artificial planetoid for the 3999 Olympic Games to carry their spawn out to other worlds. What is confusing is how long the Wirrrn have been inside the planetoid in the first place and how they managed to develop pills which in the first part of the book are meant to inhibit full conversion into a Wirrrn larva but in the later stages seem to do exactly the opposite (humans touched by Wirrrn larvae turn into Wirrrn themselves). Maybe they had human operatives working with them all along, but there's no sign of them, and in any case, how did they avoid detection when there would have been no way to prevent infected humans from turning into Wirrrn too quickly?

In addition to the Wirrrn/Olympics plot there is a lot of material about Foamasi operatives (from the 1980 story "The Leisure Hive") and their various Lodges which seems to have been imported from another novel entirely as it has little or nothing to do with the main Wirrrn story.

On top of all this there are some Teknix (from 1965/66's "The Daleks' Master Plan") roaming about, not to mention Stacey and Ssard from the Paul McGann Radio Times comic strip of 1996 and a cornucopia of alien races lifted from the pages of TV Comic, the Doctor Who annuals and several of the Virgin novels. If there's one thing Gary Russell likes, it's continuity. Add to this strange mix some operatives from the SSS and a bizarrely over-the-top ruler of Auckland with her foppish attendants, and you have a book buried under its own ideas, with the plot--what there is of it--struggling to surface.

The enthusiasm of the writing carries Placebo Effect along, and aside from a period of tedium in the middle of the book it's all good fun. It climaxes with a riot of randomly exploding athletes and a hasty conclusion with no-one knowing quite whether the others are human, alien, Foamasi pretending to be human, Wirrrn pretending to be human or even Wirrrn pretending to be Foamasi pretending to be human. Though not breath-taking it's a strangely enjoyable novel. --David J Howe

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Customer Reviews

3.2 out of 5 stars
6 reviews
3.2 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Doctor Who - The Placebo Effect 30 Jan 2003
By Mr. Derek Pike
Format:Paperback
A bit of a mess this one. I was looking forward to reading this after the author's introduction, I thought this would be a good traditional Who adventure, but it was just hard work.
I was never a big fan of The Wirrn anyway, but they were a bit more interesting in this adventure. However, this was the only plus point in a story that simply features far too many characters and at least half of them irrelevant. I found The Royal's farcical and the religious cult predictable and annoying. The idea of an intergalactic Olympics has a great deal of potential, but the arena is blown up before any action really kicks off.
As for the Doctor and Sam, once again they are lost in a sea of excess detail. After the revelations of Seeing I, I was expecting some good banter between the reunited pair and some development in their relationship, but this was virtually business as usual, and once again they were split up and Sam becomes involved with another hapless do-gooder, a repetitive feature of Sam's narratives.
Could've been a Gold medal winner but came in as a limping also -ran.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Could have been great...but isn't 21 Sep 2000
By finna
Format:Paperback
This could have been a really great story; it has several original and exciting concepts at its' heart to make it so-the 3999 intergalactic olympics, a plethora of alien races, and an old enemy lurking mencingly in the background. Unfortunately, for me at least, the book is a very unsatisfying read.There are just too many elements working against it. Too much time is wasted concentating on the Foamasi and their lodges, a strange religious order is included that neither interest nor contribute to the plot, and the Wirrrn in the background are just, well... too much in the background always, so that their effect is pretty much negated. The story simply treads water too often for its' own good, with the main plot becoming so obscured by tedious and irrelevant subplot that by the dull ending you hardly care any more. Not quite as bad an effort as, say, Beltempest, but not really much better either.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Almost too many ideas 26 Jan 1999
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Yes, the only problem with Placebo Effect is that what with the Wirrrn (with 3 r's), the Foamasi, Stacy and Ssard from the Radio Times Comic Strip, and far too many supporting characters that you can't possibly keep track of them all which can leave you a little confused as exactly who had done what by the end. The climax is also very hurried and is rather too similar to the end of Starship Troopers. These gripes aside however Placebo Effect is excellent. Gary Russell has come on in leaps and bounds since he wrote the abomination that was Invasion of the Cat People. Sam is given further character depth when she is forced to examine her beliefs and she really feels like she's grown up since Seeing I. The Foamasi are given a whole race background, and the author does a very good job of explaining how the Wirrrn absorb people into their collective (like Star Trek's Borg, a similarity which Russell acknowledges in his introduction). Probably worth a second read this one, to try and work out all those supporting characters. Although it's not written with quite the grace of a Kate Orman or a Justin Richards, it's still light years ahead of anything by John Peel. Highly recommended.
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