Subject:      The Man in the Velvet Mask - review by the Happy Guy
From:         gaffney@iconn.net (Sean Gaffney)
Date:         1996/02/01
Message-Id:   <4eqrld$rv9@news.iconn.net>
Organization: i-Conn
Newsgroups:   rec.arts.drwho

Well...here goes.  This is gonna be a tough review to write.

SPOILERS! (And, unlike most of my reviews, there really are.  You
just can't avoid it.)

OK, it's time to review THE MAN IN THE VELVET MASK, which should
have the subtitle "The Decline and Fall of Dorothea Chaplet".  Hmmm.
Remember Peter Darvill-Evans' speech that the MA's would be able to slot
seamlessly into their respective eras?  Well, if that weren't already shot to
hell, it's gone now.  There is no way that this would EVER have been
produced, and it's not simply a case of budget difficulties.

Dan O'Mahony wrote FALLS THE SHADOW, which should have clued
me in, but didn't.  Suffice it to say, this has more horror than MANAGRA,
more violence than TIME OF YOUR LIFE, is more beautifully written than
VENUSIAN LULLABY, and sticks in your head more than any Kate Orman
book.  It is...a very good book.  And yet I hesitate to recommend it to anyone.

Let's just get the reviewing out of the way.

Plot - Complex and obtuse, as you might have guessed.  It kept me pleasantly
surprised, though, especially the problem of the maggots.  More aliens who view
Earth as an experiment, but at least they're feeling guilty about it.

The Doctor - On his last legs.  Dan paints an eerie portrait of a Doctor who
cannot control his own body, whos legs and mouth rebel against him.  As usual,
we see him get better when he has more to do, but it's a constant struggle.
He even has a heart attack, and is not concievably better at the end.  This is
a near-to-regeneration Doctor.  Despite this, he solves the problems of this world
admirably, and has the usual Hartnell irascibility and bluster.

Dodo - Hoo boy.  Now, I knew virtually nothing about Dodo going into this book
except she was perky, innocent, and a Susan-clone.  All three are wiped out in
this book.  Dodo spends most of the book in a thoughtful funk, we see that almost
killing the whole human race with her cold actually affected her, she loses her
virginity (more on that later), and we even get an explanation for her varying
accents!  Boy, I expected character development, but this was...whew.

Others - All of the other characters are drawn in sufficient shades of black.  Minski,
the books' big villain, is thouroughly reprehensible, and De Sade is no better.  The
only problem I had is that I figured out the mystery of who Prisoner No. 6 was almost
immediately (a knowledge of THE PRISONER helps).  Dodo's lover is a convincing
rogue, and his friend Bressac is brilliant.  All 3-D people.

Humour - OK, I can see Dan poking fun at Paul with his "There are no happy endings,
only satisfactory ones."  And there is the Blackadder ref, and a couple of others.
But that's about it.  Very serious book.

Sex - Yes, that's right.  Dodo has sex, several times, during the course of this book.
And it ain't even a case of love.  She just wants his sweaty body.  Despite this, the
scenes are handled tastefully, with no focusing on the act itself.  It surprised me,
I must admit, but hey, I'm a happy guy, I can live with it.  And this is a guy whom
Dodo likes so much she's willing to let's maggots chew on her nerves just to
remember him.

Implications - I really enjoyed this book.  There was no experimental writing, as in
the New Adventures.  This is a straightforward story.  And yet, with the bloodshed,
creepy horror, and sexual implications, this book just couldn't have happened during
the Hartnell era.  I suspect that this may prove to be a very unpopular book on the
group.  So, if you disliked, TRANSIT, FALLS THE SHADOW, and TIME OF YOUR
LIFE, you might want to give this one a miss.  But if you have a *very* open mind,
then read it.  It's an excellent book, and never fails to shock you.

10/10.

--Sean Gaffney
--"You git!  I thought you were dead!  Git git git!" - Benny, No Future