The novel “Beautiful Chaos” by Gary Russell was published for the first time in 2008.
The Tenth Doctor brings Donna Noble back to her home to allow her to spend time with her family on the anniversary of her father’s death. The atmosphere Donna finds is darker than she expected, mostly because of her mother. Her grandfather has a special friend who suffers from Alzheimer’s but he’s the one who offers some light by announcing that he discovered a new star who will be named after him.
Wilf invites the Doctor to the ceremony where the new star’s name will be officially announced but some oddities worry the Doctor. A decidedly out-of-the-ordinary star can only bring trouble, and what’s the goal of people who, in various parts of the world, are working for a mysterious force?
“Beautiful Chaos” 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.
“Beautiful Chaos” is set mostly during the time when the Tenth Doctor travels with Donna Noble, who spends a lot of time away from home from the point of view of her mother and grandfather. Donna’s family is central to the novel, to the extent that most of the story is about interpersonal relationships with various complications. The exception is in the first and last chapters, which are set several months later, when Donna has lost all memory of her travels with the Doctor.
In the TV show, Donna’s family had a certain amount of space but the pace of the episodes didn’t leave much room for development. Among the recurring characters, her mother is the character I disliked the most, so I found it curious that Gary Russell used a good part of the novel to find redeeming qualities in her. He spends a lot of words trying to convince the reader that she’s a bitch on the outside but all in all she’s not so bad inside. I remain unconvinced.
Another part of the novel is about Henrietta “Netty” Goodhart, with whom Wilf has begun a romantic relationship. Unfortunately, the woman is in the first stage of Alzheimer’s and occasionally already shows symptoms. Netty’s situation is part of the plot and Gary Russell handles it delicately. I understand his choices even if with certain incurable diseases, unfortunately, courage and strength are not enough.
The threat the Doctor and Donna find on Earth is connected with the Fourth Doctor’s adventure “The Masque of Mandragora“, of which “Beautiful Chaos” can be considered a sequel. Gary Russell explains various references to that serial but the details are clearer for the readers who watched it.
Actually, the plot related to that threat seemed rather rushed leaving a lot of room for the internal dynamics in Donna’s family. The books in this series are limited in length, so the Mandragora part felt like a filler Gary Russell put in because he had to include a threat.
In the end, “Beautiful Chaos” is a novel about family, with emphasis on the relationships within it, and disease, focusing on Alzheimer’s. I didn’t feel particularly enthusiastic about it because I’ve never been a big fan of Donna’s and Wilf is the only one in her family I liked. Of all the stories that include Donna, this seems to me the most oriented towards those who appreciated this character.
