Gallifrey to Trenzalore #7: Indian Summer by James Goss

Short Trips: Snapshots
"Indian Summer"
Written by James Goss
Published: 30th June 2007
Read: 1st March 2016

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BUY: Amazon UK

"Indian Summer" sees a change of pace and perspective for the marathon as we have an adventure with Suresh Parekh and witness his encounters across time with the spectre-like old man known as the Doctor and his timeless granddaughter, Susan.

The story begins in the Summer of 1816 and the young Parekh is working as a waiter at a hotel on the road to Bombay. With India being under the "protection" of the British Empire, the hotel and restaurant is a frequent waystation for British soldiers, miners, the well-to-do and the adventurous lady explorers. It is through Parekh's eyes that we meet all these people and Goss states many truths about the British character: i.e. we're always demanding explanations; with enough will, we can ignore anything, even if it is staring us in the face.

The one mystery that intrigues Parekh though is the sporadic appearances of the apparition of an old gentleman that appears at a dining table ever so often. Following the ghosts first appearance to a trio of soldiers playing cards, one of them died days later. As the years progress many of the people that the apparition appeared to had gone on to die after they felt the cold, terrifying stare. The mystery is further compounded by the occasional visit by a young girl who doesn't seem to age over decades and simply drinks a lemonade and asks about her grandfather before leaving.

As the decades pass, Parekh is concerned that he ages at a very slow rate when compared to those around him. Not only does he outlive the hotel's original owner, the Irishman Rawson; Rawson's 'adventurous' elder sister; his mother; but in a heartbreaking twist, his wife, several of his children and even his grandchildren. He finally finds answers when he receives a note from Rawson's sister, received following her death on the journey back to India. She too had seen the apparition of the old man in the day's before his death and had quite a lengthy conversation with him before he disappeared. During the conversation, he left instructions for Parekh to construct an interesting contraption involving a wine glass, a couple of forks and some wine corks.

The "apparition" and his granddaughter.

After several attempts, Parekh is able to assemble the contraption and save the old man from his spectral hell. Having lived well beyond his years, Parekh is quick to accept the Doctor's explanation that he and his granddaughters are travellers through time and that his time as an apparition was simply an accident involving his TARDIS. He then goes on to explain that he hadn't "cursed" all those people to death, but that they had simply been temporal anchoring points of the nearly deceased that he could attach himself to and appear.

As the 19th century passes into the 20th, Parekh has to assume a new identity as a relative of Parekh and starts a new family. After several years though, he returns to work as a manager at the very restaurant he used to own. Who knows how long his life has been extended thanks to his close interaction to the time travelling old man and his granddaughter? All we know is that his tales of their encounters and the deaths that followed keeps his customers entertained.

When I initially read this story as part of an earlier marathon in January 2013, I posted this very brief review:

My review of this story will probably be one of the shortest I will write. You see, my little reviews will more often than not, feature a brief recap of the story, then on to my likes and dislikes, a few observations and then bang. With this story, I feel that to reveal any of the details will be a bit of a spoiler just in case you wanted to read it which, I STRONGLY URGE YOU TO DO.

I will say that having dabbled in a bit of writing myself, that creating and running with original characters is one of the hardest task, but to have little snapshots of one characters life and to fully flesh them out into 20-odd pages is, frankly, a masterstroke.

Three years later and I have to agree with my statement, though obviously I've changed my mind in relation to spoilers. Goss creates a fully-rounded endearing, curious and lovable character in Parekh and you can't help be lifted by his initial triumphs and getting promoted to head waiter and then manager despite all that stood against him as an Indian man in the time of the Raj. Indeed, you also feel real sympathy for the man as we learn that he is losing everyone that he loves as he outlives them.

All in all, a wonderful tale, well told. This is the first James Goss story of the marathon and I can't wait to read more.

10/10

Next Episode

"The Gift"

Continuity Corner

• The Doctor admits to Parekh that he only has a "working" understanding of the TARDIS and the "little accident" was the result of him attempting to prove to Susan that he could operate the TARDIS.
• The Doctor is disappointed that Susan takes so long to track him down, but is pleased that she has got an opportunity to practice piloting the TARDIS.
• The contraption that Parekh builds is remarkably similar to a similar contraption built by the Third Doctor to interfere with the Master's time experiments in The Time Monster. During that story, the Doctor recalled building them at the Academy.