Seven House Search for the Doctor A Find Your Fate book

Author	Dave Martin
ISBN	0 727 82087 7
Published	1986

Synopsis: The year is 2056, and the Doctor is trapped in toroidal stasis by arch enemy Omega. But help is at hand from the Doctor's old friends Drax and K9 - and you! Now open the covers and join the Doctor in an adventure through Time and Space ...

• The Choice is Yours by Andrew Feryok

The Choice is Yours by Andrew Feryok 9/9/12

"Quake"
- The Doctor's clue to beating Omega, Section 24

Doctor Who's "Find Your Fate" line is one of its more forgotten areas of merchandising. It all started with this book, Search for the Doctor, which was one of six books published by Ballantine Books and Severn House in the mid-1980s, all starring the Sixth Doctor. This was followed by two more books published by FASA starring the Sixth and Fourth Doctors. Then there was a long gap and, in 2006, the series was revived once more with the Tenth and then Eleventh Doctors. I had only two of these books in my possession and kept them more because they were Doctor Who collectibles rather than something I would want to read. But my definitions as to what is true Doctor Who has expanded of late and I decided to give the "Find Your Fate" series a chance. Would it be a mangling of literature or something I would want to read more of?

Search for the Doctor turns out to be a pretty decent read. It's actually far more linear than I thought. I think this is because it's the first book of its kind in the Doctor Who line. You can tell author Dave Martin originally wrote this as a linear novella and then broke it up with crude attempts at sidetracking on side quests. There is no real sense that you are in control of events as a "Find Your Fate" book should. But then this was symptomatic of most books of its kind. One of the reasons why this format never took off big time was because authors would get so caught up in the intricacies of the way the story was being mapped that they wouldn't pay attention to the story. This ended up being the opposite here. The only time I really felt like the fate of the story was in your hands was at the very end when you had to decide what the Doctor's clue of "Quake" meant. You then had to make a series of five decisions, each of which led to fatal endings, except for once which would lead you on to another set of five decisions which would lead to further decisions that ultimately led you to one of several endings, only one of which was good (the others spectacular in their manner of destroying you). At this point in the story, you really felt a part of the adventure. But, all too often, the story would spin off to focus on the Doctor or Omega in events that weren't directly affecting you. I also found it annoying that many of the choices involved you having to roll dice in order to make your decision. What self respecting reader, especially a kid, would bother with that? They would probably do what I did: look ahead and see what the best path was and just take the best path. A reader isn't going to start over from the beginning like a board game! There were also some printing problems and one of the choices at one point got put on the back of a page. Thus when I reached the end of the book (the true end) I realized that there were whole sections I hadn't even read because I had never seen that choice in the book!

However, the actual story is well worth the frustration in the structure. For those who thought that Dave Martin or Ballantine might ignore the series' continuity is dead wrong. In fact, Dave Martin kind of pulls a Terrance Dicks here by providing a greatest hits of his work. The story revolves around Omega and features the return of K9 and Drax from The Armageddon Factor. It's mentioned that you receive K9 as an inheritance from Sarah Jane Smith and deliver a message from her to the Doctor during the story. There are also lots of references to The Three Doctors throughout the story. It's great that Dave Martin brought Omega back. He's one of those villains that everyone loves to know more about, but who rarely gets used. Interestingly, for those of you who loath Arc of Infinity, Martin has deliberately ignored that that story ever happened and references The Three Doctors as their last encounter.

Dave Martin also isn't shy about using violence and complex sci-fi ideas. Some of the endings for this book were quite graphic! Whether it was your body being torn apart by bullets from an airplane, or being caught in the center of a nuclear blast, or being turned into a fish person and beaten to death for the rest of your existence! These are some pretty harsh fates if you make a misstep in the story! But this actually gives the book a sense of danger and makes the stakes higher and more exciting when you make a decision. I just wish more books of this genre had the guts to make such endings. Martin also takes a Chris-Bidmead-type pleasure in describing sci-fi ideas, whether it is explaining in detail how Omega was able to take control of a black hole's singularity, how the matter and anti-matter universes work, or how the TARDIS itself works. I have to admit, I loved the part of the story when the Doctor uses the TARDIS' telepathic circuits to play with the dimensions of the TARDIS so that he can trap Omega inside. He is able to remove the door or even make Omega walk through the door and back into the same room again! If only he could do that on TV.

Dave Martin captures the Sixth Doctor extremely well in the story. He comes across as being more of his Season 23 persona, a bit more charming and clever, while still having that arrogant and self-confident streak. While it's a shame that he doesn't get to feature as the central hero as much, Dave Martin does go to great lengths to make sure that he stays involved in the story whenever he is able. Drax was not exactly a character I was looking forward to returning, since I found him to an annoying addition to The Armageddon Factor. But he ends up being pretty okay here. He's obviously a stand-in for the Doctor in the story and I absolutely love the fact that his TARDIS is shaped like a 1950s Cadillac! K9 makes for a great comedy relief as usual and an able friend for your character in the story.

Overall, this is a solid adventure. It's far more linear than it should be. Structurally, as a "Find Your Fate" story, it fails to provide many twists and turns, but taking a wrong turn at least leads to a grisly end that makes you think twice about choosing. The "flip a coin" choices were just dumb and I hope they drop them in the future. I like the story's use of the series' continuity and I loved seeing Omega again. There is no question that this book should be part of Doctor Who's literary lore and should not be forgotten. In the end, I enjoyed reading it. It was an exciting story with some really cool sci-fi ideas behind it. I can't wait to see what the next one is about! 8/10