Why are there dummies driving the cars and hollow buildings? Sarath’s moon is going to hit and crack the planet open like an egg. Fire rains down on the city in huge burning meteorites, the roof deck of the building containing the TARDIS crashes down into its hollow interior, burying Barbara. Twists: The magnificent city, dwarfed by the huge colony saving spaceship is a great image and captured to perfection on the striking cover, easily the best one of the PDA range to date. To his credit Ian cannot sleep or eat whilst she is missing, worried sick about her for the novels entire length. Poor old Barbara spends most of the book trapped under rubble, crawling along filthy underground walkways and being forced to work in a labour camp. The death of an individual Ian can understand but the death of a world…he could accept it intellectually but not in his heart. This books proves how much Ian has softened towards the Doctor, he realises how guilty the old man must be feeling when his curiosity leads to them losing the girls (to possible injury or death) and refuses to make him feel guilty about it (compare this to his attack on him in The Daleks). There is something special about this first set of regulars that has been unmatched ever since, the sense of family and needing each other, particularly Ian and Barbara, is extremely palpable. Schoolteachers in Love: City at World’s End focuses far more on the Doctor and Susan than Ian and Barbara but as usual their page space is filled with great moments.
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