What TMITVM is trying to be is -- obviously -- a book about masks. This point is made pretty explicitly; subtlety is not one of O'Mahony's fortes, either here or in "Falls the Shadow" (which I liked a lot). And since it is about masks, it follows that it is also about identities. Thus, it would seem to make sense that, in a book about identities, O'Mahoney would get the characterization of the regular down well, wouldn't it? Sadly, this just isn't the case. Dodo is completely unrecognizable from the word 'go', as O'Mahony has apparently taken it upon himself to completely redefine the character. This is not a case of simple development, as Paul Leonard did so well with Jo in "Dancing the Code". The Dodo Chaplet of TMITVM simply does, says and thinks things which are completely out of keeping with the Dodo Chaplet of "The Massacre" through "The War Machines". The Doctor, too, comes off pretty badly, as O'Mahony goes completely overboard in emphasising his frailness and venerability heading into his forthcoming regeneration. O'Mahony has completely failed to take into account the fact that the Doctor and Dodo are nothing like this in their subsequent story. As a result, TMITVM totally fails in being a story set during a 'gap' in the TV series.

The pain doesn't stop there. The plot itself is puerile, predictable and pedantic, taking forever to get started and making huge detours in order to squeeze in some sexual innuendo (particularly where Dodo is concerned... O'Mahony seems to take great delight in discussing how one character is going to 'corrupt' the 15 year-old). These are perhaps accurate portrayals of thinking during the "historical" period in question, but they're not terribly relevant to the story, and are severely overemphasised. The story is a low-grade rip-off of several similar tales, like "State of Change" and Jim Mortimore's "Decalog" story, "Book of Shadows". And the atmosphere is so unrelentingly dark and dismal that it becomes utterly impossible to sympathize with the supporting cast, severely hindering the dramatic impact of some scenes.

O'Mahony's prose -- which was so wonderfully compelling in "Falls the Shadows" -- is also noticeably poorer here. Rather than propelling the reader from scene to scene, it becomes bogged down in its own excesses; the first half of the book, in particular, is turgid and practically unreadable.

Altogether, TMITVM is one of the least successful Missing Adventures so far, reaching down to "The Ghosts Of N-Space" and even "Time Of Your Life" depths. After the stellar "Falls the Shadow", Daniel O'Mahony's sophomore effort is -- well -- sophomoric at best.

3/10.

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