Adventures in Space and Time: Kate Orman

http://cuttingsarchive.org/images/9/92/1996-03_TV_Zone_076.jpg

Publication: TV Zone
Date: issue 76 (March 1996)
Author: Craig Hinton
Page: 39
Language: English

AFTER the pyschological drama of The Left-Handed Humming Bird, there was no let up with Kate Orman's second novel, Set Piece, which saw the departure of Ace as a sort of protégé Doctor. And now comes February's New Adventure, Sleepy, in which our heroes are once again put through their paces as they encounter a psionic virus which hides an even more frightening secret.

However, to begin on lighter note, the back cover blurb points out that all three of Kate's novels feature pyramids. I asked Kate why this was.

'The third time was a deliberate joke that I turned into a major plot thread —I'd noticed the odd similarity between The left -Handed Hummingbird and Set Piece covers, with pyramid, blue sky, goodie on the left and baddie on the right. So I decided to pop an alien pyramid into Sleepy. And then 1 asked the cover artist (Mark Williams) to copy the style of the first two covers. Bingo—instant fake trilogy!'

Kate's first two novels took a deep and detailed look at the character of Ace. In Sleepy, you had your first taste of Chris Cwej and Roz Forrester. How did she find them? 'Cwej is a big sweetie — I adore him! However, I found Forrester a challenge to write for. She's unsympathetic and grouchy, although she does have a softer, grumbling side.'

One of the hallmarks of certain NA writers — such as Kate and Paul Cornell — has been the evolution of the Seventh Doctor's character through the series of novels. Does Kate think that this evolution is still continuing, or has it come to an end now?

'There are always new experiences for the Doctor, even at the age of one thousand — this is shown most clearly in Paul Cornell's Human Nature. Which is great because he must get dead bored defeating villains and saving the universe all the time. And 1 think that one important way in which the Doctor evolves is each time a new companion joins the team. Different companions bring out different aspects of his personality. So far. three new companions have been introduced in the NAs, and of course Benny and Ace are starting to make cameo appearences of their own!'

Sleepy is the first book in a themed cycle concerning psi-powers, which continues later in the year. Did Kate have to make many changes to fit in with the theme? 'Not really; I just had to add a couple of extra references here and there.'

1996 is proving very prolific for Kate; she has a second NA coming out in August called, intriguingly, Return of the Living Dad. Any clues?

'We discover that Benny's Dad wasn't vapourised by the Daleks as she believed; he's actually alive and well and running a coffee shop in Berkshire. It's set in 1983, when the Cold War was in full swing and I was growing up having nuclear nightmares. It's full of schemes, betrayals, and espresso!'

Adventures in Space and Time: Kate Orman

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