The novel “Sting of the Zygons” by Stephen Cole was published for the first time in 2007.
The Tenth Doctor takes Martha Jones in the English Lake District region in 1909. There they discover that people are hunting the “Beast of Westmorland” that has even attracted the interest of King Edward VII, whose arrival is expected in the area. The Beast was sighted but the Doctor realizes that it’s a Skarasen and its presence means that in the area there are Zygons as well.
The Doctor knows the grave danger linked to the Zygons, who can take the shape of the humans they take prisoner. He needs to find out as soon as possible the aliens’ plans but who can he trust when anybody could be one of them?
“Sting of the Zygons” is part of a series of novels connected to the new “Doctor Who” series. They’re targeted to a wide audience by being linear enough to be appreciated even by very young readers but sophisticated enough to interest more mature readers.
The Zygons were the protagonists of “Terror of the Zygons”, a popular serial in the classic “Doctor Who” series but on television they returned only in a special for the 50th anniversary “The Day of The Doctor”. It went a bit better at literary level, where there has been the occasional appearance of these aliens.
The plot of “Sting of the Zygons” brings some variations to that of the classic serial “Terror of the Zygons” and not only for its protagonists and the setting in 1909 in the Lake District. In this novel, the Tenth Doctor is involved in the search for a giant animal sighted in the area and discovers that it’s a Skarasen, whose presence is linked to that of the Zygons.
The presence of the local inhabitants, the other characters arrived to hunt the Skarasen and especially that of Martha Jones allows the Doctor to explain its nature and that of the Zygons. Sure, it’s better to have watched the serial “Terror of the Zygons” to have a wider perspective but the readers unfamiliar with these aliens can find in the novel the information they need to get to know them.
Unfortunately, “Sting of the Zygons” reminds of the classic “Doctor Who” series also in the story’s structure, meaning that all too often the protagonists just move from one place to another. The novels in this book series are not very long so the pages used to describe the most mundane events are taken away from other, more interesting, uses. One consequence is that many characters in the novel are often stereotyped and not really developed.
Without these flaws in my opinion “Sting of the Zygons” could be a really excellent novel for the story about the aliens and for the setting. In the stories with the Zygons an important factor of tension is the fact that they’re shapeshifters and can take the shape of anyone they can capture with all the consequences. The setting allows Stephen Cole to provide a portrait of the British society after the end of the Victorian era.
As it already happened in the television series, poor Martha suffers discriminations. The author doesn’t tells us about the good old time of the British Empire, instead shows us a society with strong class divisions. In this setting, even characters who are supposed to be among the good ones have prejudices related to gender and race.
The result of this mix of elements is a novel with a lot of action but not always useful to keep pace and tension. There are twists and turns but at some point the story starts getting repetitive in some ways. This sometimes weighs on a plot that should be more focused on the fight between the Doctor and Zygons.
In the end between good and bad in my opinion the positive elements of “Sting of the Zygons” are greater than the negative ones. Maybe Stephen Cole didn’t have enough time to make better use of the limitations in the length of these books but overall the result is good so I think this novel is worth reading.
