Interference (Book Two)

[Original blog post on Tumblr: February 10th, 2016]

Some highlights of the last EDA I’ve read (Interference: The Hour of the Geek).

I took these screens while reading, along with my reactions. As usual, this is full of spoilers. And extremely long.

There’s an absolutely brilliant 250 pages-long story somewhere in the 600 pages of Interference Book One and Two. It deserved to be a single book, with better pacing and most of the story threads shortened - especially the arms dealing one from the first book, because it takes two thirds of Book One and ends up getting nowhere in Book Two.

Again, don’t get me wrong, the ideas in this book are absolutely incredible, creative and wonderful. But again, nothing much happens in it. Well, until the halfway point, at least. And again, each character hasn’t moved a lot from their initial position once the second book is over.

In fact, the codas at the end of the book are a lot better than the actual main plot. And guess what? They made me add two points to my rating. They are that good. 9/10 (final rating for Interference as a whole: 8/10)

Mayday mayday cuteness alert.

Hey, I hadn’t even noticed that.

Is the author patting himself on the back here? I am so going to laugh if any of my guesses from the first book turns out to be true.

The Remote basically “remember” each other back to life, but to the risk of becoming caricatures of their earlier selves. I like that.

Oh, so the Cold isn’t just a place, then, it’s also something alive?

Zombie starships, everybody! (ʘ‿ʘ✿)

“TO MAKE THE NOTHING SAFE”

Fitz you shouldn’t have joined them in the first place, it’s a bit too late to change your mind at this point

Kode you shouldn’t do that, you’ll end up like Fitz who worries more about his lack of cigarettes than about the fact he’s in World War Two

This description made me laugh a lot for some reason

Kode stop making me laugh, this is supposed to be a serious moment

KODE NO

Meanwhile the transmissions are beginning to include scenarii built with Sam’s mind, but this one is very reminiscent of Katarina’s death for some reason.

Oh, I like this.

The fact that Sam’s got “principles” is starting to influence the Remote.

“She couldn’t even imagine what that many people looked like”

*coughs* Beltempest *coughs*

Okay what the hell is wrong with this f█cking planet

There’s a lot of potential behind that idea, I really like it.

Oh f█ck, back to Eight

I’m having Scherzo flashbacks

Kode is apparently picking up transmissions from the TARDIS...?

In my opinion all these explanations are right

First: NOT OKAY

Second: OF ALL THE DOCTORS YOU COULD HAVE PICKED TO TRY TO ANSWER A SPECIFIC QUESTION, YOU PICKED THE ONE WITH MEMORY ISSUES, HOW INCOMPETENT ARE YOU, GUYS

Hold on a f█cking minute he’s onLY BEEN IN THIS DAMN CELL FOR THREE DAYS AND HE’S ALREADY WORSE THAN HE WAS IN “SEEING I”

[fans of Looms cheering in the distance]

I’m cackling

I’m sorry but Compassion is kind of an █sshole

...or is she? Sam’s principles are starting to change her, at any rate.

“ANTIPERSONNEL LEY LINES”

I’m beginning to give up on Fitz at this point. Just as he’s beginning to give up too, really. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want him to kill himself, but still.

In which Mr Llewis continues to be ridiculous

Okay

SARAH JANE RESCUED EIGHT, YOU GO SARAH JANE

“It could have been worse”

Eight I don’t want to alarm you but that’s still in the top 5 of horrible things that happened to you so far in these books

!!!

What do you mean “have we met before”?? What does he look like?

NO WE CAN’T AND PLEASE KODE DON’T MAKE THINGS WORSE THEY HAD JUST STARTED TO GET BETTER OKAY

Oh. So Sam’s “principles” have infected the whole media.

You always say that

Okay.

So the Cold can be found under the ground of Anathema. So the place in which you go when you’re eaten by the cold must be inside Anathema.

OH

MY GOD

OKAY I COULD BE WRONG BUT I THINK I KNOW WHERE THIS IS GOING

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OKAY OKAY

“HAVE WE MET BEFORE”

“YOU MUST HAVE ONE OF THOSE FACES”

So... Fitz died and ended up being revived/cloned as this guy at some point, then. I should be sadder about this, I think. But I had kind of gave up on Fitz, so yeah. When a character is completely out of shits to give about his own situation, it’s more difficult to care for him, at least in my opinion.

SHE CALLS FITZ “CODE-BOY” THAT’S WHY THE REVIVED VERSION/CLONE IS CALLED KODE

Oh my god Sam

Oooooh this should be horrifying but it’s so cool

“It was a glitch”

Wait what

So Anathema wasn’t built on a planet, then?

ANATHEMA WAS BUILT ON THE SURFACE OF A MOTHERF█CKING GIGANTIC STARSHIP THAT LOOKS EXTREMELY OMINOUS I’M SCREAMING

AN OMINOUS GIGANTIC TIME LORD STARSHIP

AN OMINOUS GIGANTIC TIME LORD STARSHIP WHICH IS A DOOMSDAY WEAPON FROM THE TIME WAR I’M FLAILING SO HARD RIGHT NOW

Are all UNIT scientific advisers super strange? Legitimate question here.

Wait a minute aRE YOU IRIS WILDTHYME

“The Doctor made a variety of embarrassed noises”

Wonderful. Who wants to go outside first? Raise your hand.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

Nope

Leave this guy in the Cold and get the hell away from here

HE CALLED HIM FITZ

Thank you very much for contributing to my ever-growing collection of horrible things that could have been used during the Time War, because this is both terrifying and really damn cool.

Also, I’m having Neverland flashbacks.

ASDFHJKASDFGHJKASDFGHJK SAM NO

AZSDFGHJk

ASDFF

Okay good

You go, Sam.

At least, if she leaves in this book as the introduction of the previous one said, she will leave on a high note - that was great.

On one hand no, I don’t agree with that, you can’t say “eh this society hurts people on purpose but it’s their culture, you can’t help it” - but on the other hand, yeah, I kind of understand what he’s trying to say. It’s just not a very good example.

You two stop being cute this instant

So Sam decides to stay with Sarah Jane until she catches up the time where she left her home in the first place. Why not.

Awwwww

WHAT DO YOU MEAN “WE’VE ALL BEEN THERE” SARAH JANE

So wait, the Doctor is going to rewrite Kode as Fitz, I mean the original Fitz?

He’s looking at his own feet. He knows that’s a very shady thing to do.

WAIT A MINUTE SO THE ONE ARMED MASKED FIGURE THAT FITZ SAW DURING HIS INITIATION WAS HIS FUTURE SELF

How is that possible? Didn’t he kill himself? Isn’t this the reason why he was remembered as Kode? Because he died? Is this future Fitz from a cancelled timeline? Too many questions here.

I just noticed the main plot has ended but there’s still 100 pages left at this point. Hmmmm.

“LOVABLE IDIOT MODE”

Isn’t that Eight’s default mode

Oh that’s right, we never knew what happened on Dust with Sarah Janes, Three and I.M.Foreman.

OKAY

OKAY

STARSHIPS MADE OUT OF THE DEAD CARCASSES OF INTERSTELLAR CREATURES (ʘ‿ʘ✿)

Oh my fucking god

I adore I.M.Foreman okay

Oooooh so the whole show is some sort of ship made out of the concept of a travelling show! I love this!

Okay so this doesn’t contradict my theory from the end of Book One. If anything, it kind of fuels it. If they are other incarnations of I.M.Foreman, technically they are all priests.

“AN URBAN JUNKYARD”

YOU DON’T SAY

I’VE BEEN SAYING THIS SINCE LITERALLY THE FIRST TIME YOUR NAME POPPED UP IN PART ONE, I.M.FOREMAN

IT TOOK YOU FAR TOO LONG

Well to be fair you couldn’t pilot the TARDIS very well at that point either.

How does that feel for a change?

Wait

OH

MY

F█CKING GOD

OKAY

SO THAT’S THE FUTURE FITZ THAT FITZ SAW DURING HIS INITIATION

SO KODE IS JUST A COPY OF FITZ THAT HE LEFT BEHIND WHEN HE JOINED THE FACTION FULL-TIME AND THE ORIGINAL FITZ BECAME “FATHER KREINER” HOLY F█CKING SHIT THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE MAIN PLOT, WHY IS THIS ONLY HAPPENING IN A CODA AT THE END OF THE STORY

FOR THAT MATTER I.M.FOREMAN IS ALSO THE BEST CHARACTER IN INTERFERENCE AND ONLY APPEARS AT THE FRINGES OF THE STORY AND/OR IN CODAS

WHY ARE YOU REFUSING TO USE YOUR BEST IDEAS IN THE MAIN STORY, WRITER, COME ON

I understand that if you continue I’m going to cry a little bit so please don’t

The EDAs in a nutshell

I KNEW IT

I F█CKING CALLED IT ALMOST 300 PAGES AGO IN THE PREVIOUS BOOK

I’m starting to understand why Rassilon put strict rules on regeneration

The urge to draw all the incarnations of I.M.Foreman is getting stronger by the minute

What a life some characters have in this series. If you’d try to explain it, I’m sure it would sound complelety absurd.

Are you finding the goddamn all-consuming maelstrom of DNA locked in this wagon more relatable than anyone else you’ve seen on Dust, Fitz? Wow.

Hahahaha, Thirteen is terrifying, okay

Oooooh so that’s how he lost his arm!

Not okay. Not okay at all.

I’m having more feelings about that character than about 95% of the things that happened in Interference so far

..................okay so I just noticed I hadn’t screened a previous part of the book related to this, but... oh my god that’s how the original I.M.Foreman met his future selves on Gallifrey isn’t it

And that’s why they won’t remember the events of Dust until their last incarnation who’s talking about all this with the Doctor since the beginning of the damn story

The codas are 100% more brilliant than the main plot, I swear

I’m a bit sad because that means they never had individual lives outside of the show after their first incarnation regenerated into the second one

Oooooh I had completely forgotten about the biosphere machines they were talking about at the beginning of Book Two!

.........that planet Eight and I.M.Foreman are on while they are talking about all this... it’s Dust, isn’t it.

Oh my god.

Three, those are terrible last words

I AGREE THAT WAS FAR TOO LONG ALREADY

I kind of hope he will never realise who Father Kreiner was, honestly.

True

That last couple of sentences is extremely relatable

So technically, this is still Thirteen, except Thirteen is now an ecosystem who chose a humanoid form to talk to visitors.

So... I.M.Foreman has been a man, a woman, a shapeshifter, a weapon, a time-based creature, a maelstrom of DNA, and an entire ecosystem.

I have no words.

I hadn’t thought about this either.

Interesting idea.

Oh nooooo

HAHAHA WAY TO END ON AN OMINOUS NOTE

So yeah, that coda on Dust was better than the main plot. Seriously. That was far too long. But worth it just because of that last part.