...although it's more of a Horror story...

After a couple of - with all due respect - disappointing entries in the Doctor Who canon of late, it's joyous to be able to report that yes, the guy behind this novel is indeed the same Chris Boucher who gave us The Robots of Death and Image of the Fendahl back in the Seventies. The latter is particularly pertinent as Psi-ence Fiction is a slow-paced Horror story, in which the fourth Doctor and Leela investigate the effects of some pseudo-scientific experiments in present-day England. With particular reference to some supposedly haunted nearby woods, and a cameo appearance from a few cows.

But some glib comparisons should not lead anyone to doubt the strength of this story - particularly as these aspects are merely evocative superficial touches; plot, themes, and characters are very different indeed from that particular tv story. Psi-ence Fiction is, as the title might imply, a study into both the paranormal and its potential for exploitation - with particular focus on extra-sensory perception. The greater depth provided over the likes of Fendahl by the literary medium also allows a lot more insight into the world in which the story is set; the show has known multitudes of academics, doctors and professors, but few of them spent much of their 15 minutes of Doctor Who fame appearing on chat shows or bemoaning the running of their universities and the woeful lack of funding opportunities, let alone actually interacting with your actual students, as happens here to amusing and believable effect.

Leela is as beautifully recreated as she should be - given that Boucher created her in the first place - and while his previous novels seemed a little on the skimpy side, Psi-ence Fiction's pleasantly sedate pace seems far more an integral function of the story being told than a way of ensuring the story stretches out to the requisite page count. If you think of Doctor Who as something to provoke hiding behind that well-utilised sofa of cliché, then Psi-ence Fiction will thrillingly rekindle all those dormant fears ...