BBC Books Wishing Well

Author	Trevor Baxendale
ISBN	1 846 07348 0
Published	2007

Synopsis: The old village well is just a curiosity - something to attract tourists intrigued by stories of lost treasure, or visitors just making a wish. Unless something alien and terrifying could be lurking inside the well. Something utterly monstrous that causes nothing but death and destruction. But who knows the real truth about the well? Who wishes to unleash the hideous force it contains? What terrible consequences will follow the search for a legendary treasure hidden at the bottom? No one wants to believe the Doctor's warnings about the deadly horror lying in wait - but soon they'll wish they had...

• I wish... by Joe Ford

I wish... by Joe Ford 28/5/08

Good old Trevor Baxendale. You can count on him to write an entertaining urban thriller. Can't you? Unfortunately, Wishing Well is probably his weakest book to date but that has more to do with what he didn't do with this book rather than what he did. Under any circumstances, this is an efficiently written chiller with lots of spooky bits and some lovely scenes of devastation. The Doctor is fun and Martha sparks off him. The final six chapters are terrifically exciting.

Unfortunately, this book was always heading towards the big nasty tearing out of the earth and slaughtering people. There isn't really a plot sewn into this book, it's just a series of events that lead to the Doctor and Martha plunging underground to find out what is down there and the Vurosis squeezing itself out of the wishing well like toothpaste. Characters are thrown into the mix but there is nothing more than surface characterisation. They are there simply to react terrified by events. Nothing in Wishing Well challenges you, it occasionally amuses, often unnerves you... but overall I think I was truly surprised once.

Perhaps it was because Trevor Baxendale has impressed so much in the past with some lovely characterisation. Who could ever forget Hazel Mckeon from The Deadstone Memorial, who the Doctor drags up on to the garage roof to wave at the stars? Or poor old Rigby in Eater of Wasps, who gets disgustingly mutated into a wasp but tries to cling hold of his humanity? There are traces of Baxendale's depth character with Gaskin and Angela's love-hate relationship with some nice backstory of her husband going on a suicidal mountaineering trip with Gaskin and Angela hating him for it. But it is never given much attention, not when there is a nasty alien weed beneath the ground that could prove far more exciting. Let's not forget that kids can be thrilled by good storytelling as well as thrills. Harry Potter might not be my favourite series of books but Deathly Hallows was the highest selling book, well, ever, and it dealt with some pretty adult themes and contained some pretty heady characterisation of its leads exploding from puberty to adulthood. Kids of all ages lapped it up.

I don't want to completely trash Wishing Well; as I have said, once the book hits the halfway mark (anything before is beyond what Doctor Who fans like to call traditional) things spice up nicely. Uncomfortable scenes of the Doctor being pulled underground by suffocating weed impress, as do the disturbing transformations of several characters into monsters. Chapter Twenty One was especially good, with the Vurosis-infected Duncan smashing his way through Gaskin's manor, literally destroying any hiding place the Doctor and friends might have. The really bizarre moment where every character waits on bated breath whilst the Doctor flushes the Vurosis brain down the toilet is hilarious and the monster's rabid tunnelling through the house to retrieve the device is worthy of praise. Even better is the predictable but beautifully described ascension of the Vurosis from its hiding place; the visual of this parasitic alien stretching its claws up through the Earth all over the village is such an obvious idea that I don't think I have ever seen this well depicted.

Terrance Dicks is often recognised by his effortlessly readable prose (and substantial bulk!) and I would put Trevor Baxendale in the same league. Reading this book is like swallowing down an ice-cold lemonade on an unbearable hot day. Like Uncle Terrance, his writing trips off the tongue but unlike Terry he actually puts some genuine sensuality into the description. ("The weed had crawled up over his knees now, and was beginning to exert pressure - pulling him down. And then the light faded. The Doctor couldn't tell if the torch had died or if it had fallen deeper into the morass below - but either way it hardly mattered. Because suddenly the Doctor was plunged into complete and utter darkness. He couldn't see a thing. And the weed was still pulling him down..."). I found myself caught up in the story because of Baxendale's mastery of description more than the usual alien invasion spiel. Sometimes good writing can ride you through.

I am not too sure how to rate Wishing Well. Is it a good read? Sure, it passes a few hours admirably and features some lovely grotesque imagery. Is it in any way challenging or demanding? Nope, and during the under whelming first half that really is a handicap. Would I recommend this to kids? Absolutely, they will probably be peeing their pants with excitement during the final chapters? To adults and long-term Doctor Who fans? Not really, we have seen this sort of story done time and time again and the fact that we never find out why the alien is on Earth or anything about where it comes from is sure to annoy those who like a smidgeon of depth.

A middle of the road NSA with lots of good bits but ultimately I wish I could throw a coin down that well and have this story geared at adults. Plump up the characterisation and the gore count.