Gary Russell has had a pretty charmed life given he is a Doctor Who fan and one would assume that, although he hasn't gotten to actually portray the Doctor, he must have reached the second best goal of his life. Over the years he has produced Doctor Who audios, written Doctor Who novels and is now a script editor at Upper Boat. It's a little surprising then that Beautiful Chaos is his first New Series Adventure.
Beautiful Chaos has Donna return to Earth and so characterisation is going to be the most important thing in this novel as the Doctor/Donna relationship has to now factor in Sylvia and Wilf. Writing for Donna is a bit tricky, as one tends to write more for Catherine Tate than for Donna, and writing for Sylvia is just as hard as you have to make a negative character still sympathetic. Regardless of the story of Beautiful Chaos, Russell has managed to nail the four central characters and the complex relationships between them. Wilf is postive, loving of Donna's new life and deeply respectful of the Doctor, while Sylvia is negative, but for all the right reasons - she is terrified of losing her daughter so soon after losing her husband, she has shouldered huge responsibilities while Donna has left them, and she is struggling to accept the situations that have been thrust onto them. The majority of the story takes place before Donna is finally returned to her family, but a coda gives us a chance to see that even Sylvia has a grudging respect for the Doctor and an understanding of what he means to Earth.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given his tendency towards what people refer to as "fanwank", Beautiful Chaos mines the series history for its villain, bringing us the evil Mandragora Helix that once plagued the fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane in Italy during the 15th century. Central to the Doctor's defeat of this entity, which is attempting to manifest and control Earth, is an elderly lady who Wilf has taken a shine to, and who suffers from Alzheimer's. This is a tricky topic to deal with and Russell handles it rather sweetly, not shying away from the disease and the inevitability of its outcome. Rather nicely as well is Wilf's wonder why the Doctor can't cure it after all his travels.
All in all, Beautiful Chaos is probably the best of the four Doctor/Donna novels to date, helped no doubt by the fact that Donna's journey has finished on screen. But good work Gary for providing such a great character driven story.
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