The 9th boom in the series of stories, each detailing another incarnation of the Doctor (old count basically, as the revelation of the `War Doctor` hadn`t been made then), this one focusses on the 9th Doctor, Christopher Eccleston.
The Doctor that rebooted the franchise, he only portrayed our favorite time traveller for a single season, but I really, really liked him. Enthousiastic, over exaggerating and shouting `Fantastic!` on a regular basis, this character had a great time portrayed by a strong actor. His intense acting when faced with the Dalek`s was one of the most meomorable of the new lifespan of the series, and he really got the whole franchise up and running again, joined by strong companions in Rose Tyler and Captain Jack Harness.
Only Human
Reports of a time disturbance lead the Ninth Doctor to modern-day London, where he discovers a Neanderthal Man, twenty-eight thousand years after his race became extinct. A trip back to the dawn of humanity only deepens the mystery: who are these strange humans from the far future now living in the distant past? The Doctor must learn the truth about the Osterberg experiment before history is changed forever.
In this story, the Osterberg Experiment is a group of humans, devoid of all emotions by drugpacks that they can access for experiencing certain feelings, that have travelled back from around the year 26.000 to the past.
After a `dark age` that lasted for almost 10.000 years, humanity is rediscovering their past, but one mad scientist has taken it upon her to create a better and more perfect human species, called Hy-Bractors, in order to avoid the wars and consequent Dark Age in the far future, and make humanity the prime hunting species in the universe.
At the same time, the Neanderthal and the Homo Sapiens are struggling to become the dominant species, and during an experiment, one of the Neanderthal is tossed to our timeline, without any means of ever getting back. The story forks into two parts, one detailing the adventures of the Doctor and Rose in the past as they try to solve the mystery, and light comical intervals as Jack learns Dass (the Neanderthal time traveller) of how to adapt to modern day life, fast food and television.
The book is a very enjoyable, though a bit short at 220+ pages, adventure and I can only recommend it to Doctor Who fans as a good read `in between`, but it does lack some of the higher morals or epic adventuring some of the other novels contain.
I should rate it about a 6 out of 10 or the likes, a good before bed time read, but not one of those tales you`ll be devouring cover to back in one go because the story grips you. I kind of feel that the end phase of the story is a bit to far fetched, though of course in sci-fi, where do you draw that particular line...
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