The Doctor lands the TARDIS in a small Colorado town in
1981. Everything looks nice and neat on the surface, yet the Doctor
soon discovers that there’s something wrong. For instance, why do these
houses have fake TVs and taps with no plumbing attached? It’s not long
before the time travellers find out that they would appear to have
stepped out onto the set of The Stepford Wives, although even
the guys here are androids… Killer androids… While Amy and Rory do
everything in their power to avoid being killed, the Doctor attempts to
dissipate the explosion of a nuclear bomb without causing an
international incident.
I think Nuclear Time would have worked better as a TV episode, as it involves a rather convoluted temporal theory that does not come over too well on the printed page, as it involves the Doctor travelling back over his own timeline. It certainly would have been neat to see the Doctor bicycling backwards! The relationship between Albert, the scientist who invented the androids, and Geoff, the Colonel who kidnapped him to ensure his work was carried out in secret, seems rather oddly informal. Perhaps Oli Smith was trying to avoid the usual cliche of having such characters as antagonists, or it could be that Albert is suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. All the same, their relationship was far more bizarre than Albert’s love for his robotic creation, Isley. The setting of the late 70s/early 80s allows Oli Smith to indulge in some harmless nostalgia, with several references to Star Wars. However, Amy and Rory are pretty much disposed with for much of the novel by being stuck in a burning house, probably because Oli Smith could not have seen them on screen prior to writing Nuclear Time, so he was possibly unsure of the faithfulness of his characterisation of them. Having written that, the character of the Doctor does not really ring true either, especially since Oli Smith spends some time mentioning what effects the temporal disturbance is having on the Doctor’s body. I’m not really used to reading descriptions of what the Doctor’s, say, stomach felt like. Although we have seen the Doctor eating and drinking, his alien body is usually not described in quite so human terms. Much like the adventure itself, Nuclear Time is a bit of a muddle.
I think Nuclear Time would have worked better as a TV episode, as it involves a rather convoluted temporal theory that does not come over too well on the printed page, as it involves the Doctor travelling back over his own timeline. It certainly would have been neat to see the Doctor bicycling backwards! The relationship between Albert, the scientist who invented the androids, and Geoff, the Colonel who kidnapped him to ensure his work was carried out in secret, seems rather oddly informal. Perhaps Oli Smith was trying to avoid the usual cliche of having such characters as antagonists, or it could be that Albert is suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. All the same, their relationship was far more bizarre than Albert’s love for his robotic creation, Isley. The setting of the late 70s/early 80s allows Oli Smith to indulge in some harmless nostalgia, with several references to Star Wars. However, Amy and Rory are pretty much disposed with for much of the novel by being stuck in a burning house, probably because Oli Smith could not have seen them on screen prior to writing Nuclear Time, so he was possibly unsure of the faithfulness of his characterisation of them. Having written that, the character of the Doctor does not really ring true either, especially since Oli Smith spends some time mentioning what effects the temporal disturbance is having on the Doctor’s body. I’m not really used to reading descriptions of what the Doctor’s, say, stomach felt like. Although we have seen the Doctor eating and drinking, his alien body is usually not described in quite so human terms. Much like the adventure itself, Nuclear Time is a bit of a muddle.