Short Trips - "The Last Days" by Evan Pritchard, edited by Stephen Cole

Short Trips
"The Last Days"
Written by Evan Pritchard
Edited by Stephen Cole
Published: 2nd March 1998

What's It All About

When I began this journey I knew that I was going to include as much "expanded universe" material as possible. The reason for this was two-fold: firstly, I wanted some new material rather than just plowing through the standard TV marathon which I'd done before and would doubtless do again; secondly, I wanted to experience material that the TV series would or could never do either because it would be far too expensive to realize or the material was too sensitive to go out on a Saturday evening when the whole family is sitting down to watch. With "The Last Days" by Evan Pritchard we certainly have a story that fits the latter criteria.

The story certainly hits the ground running with the Doctor making a rousing speech to a legion of Roman soldiers, denouncing the Jewish Zealots and their crimes against Rome and promising that their fortress at Masada will fall, ending the long siege. An intriguing opening, certainly, and this is added to in the next scene when we learn that Ian and Barbara are currently residing in Masada. Through Barbara, we learn that shortly after their arrival in Judaea some weeks earlier, the TARDIS crew got caught up in a skirmish between Roman soldiers and the Zealots. In the melee, the party was soon split up with the Doctor and Susan ending up on the Roman side and Ian and the injured Barbara carried off back by the Zealots.

Over the intervening weeks during Barbara's recovery, the travellers have been trying to ingratiate themselves into their various camps and their respective leaders, Eleazar ben Ya'ir for the Zealots and Lucius Flavius Silva for the Romans. As is now becoming traditional, Ian sets to prove his trustfulness to Eleazar by making tactical suggestions in their battle against the Romans, much as he did with the Thals. Meanwhile, the Doctor has taken on the air of a well-to-do Roman citizen and exerts influence over Silva and the Roman legions.

Ironically, it is Ian's influence with the Zealots that has them leading a more successful campaign than history records, so much so that the Romans are demotivated enough to give up their long siege of Masada. Ever mindful of making sure history runs its natural course especially after the incident with the Aztecs, the Doctor and Barbara work to ensure that history is set right. The Doctor exerting his built up influence to stop the retreating Roman legions in their tracks and Barbara in planting the seeds which lead to the fall of the Zealots.

I'm not averse to spoilers in my marathon entries, and indeed the idea of discussing spoilers in reference to a historical event which occurred 2,000 years ago is a bit ridiculous. However, I encourage anyone reading this to seek out the story and give it a good read. Those familiar with the Siege of Masada will obviously know the outcome, but even as a student of history I wasn't aware and was so utterly shocked.

The remains of Masada Fortress in the 21st Century.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

As I'm sure readers are aware by now, I'm an absolute sucker for a historical story, even in an era I'm not particularly familiar with. Familiarity isn't necessary and considering the ending, a bonus in reading the story. The author, Evan Pritchard, takes an event in ancient history and personalizes it for the readers by placing one of our heroes at the centre in the most horrific way. Away from the harrowing scenes, though, we have a further exploration of the themes of meddling with Earth's history that we go so recently with The Aztecs and the Doctor and Barbara so keen to keep events on course, in opposition to Ian.

This story is a gem, that ticked so, so many boxes and really made me think for ours afterward. Kudos to Mr Pritchard.

10/10

Continuity Corner

• Ian references Barbara's experience with the Aztecs (The Aztecs) when they arguing about attempting to alter the course of history. Given that Ian is still blase about attempting to alter history, could suggest that it takes place before The Flames of Cadiz.

The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance by Moris Farhi, adapted by Nigel Robinson, directed by John Ainsworth

Doctor Who: The Lost Stories - 2.1B
The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance
Written by Moris Farhi

Adapted by Nigel Robinson

Directed by John Ainsworth
Published: November 2010

What's It All About

The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance is an interesting addition to Doctor Who history. Produced during the series' infancy in 1964 by Moris Farhi, it was never intended to be broadcast, but to serve as a pitch to show to script editor David Whitaker.

Whitaker obviously saw enough potential in Farhi to commission him to write a six-part historical story, which he later developed as Farewell, Great Macedon. Unfortunately, that story never made it to our television screens either and joined such other famous lost stories as The Masters of Luxor, The Giants and The Hidden Planet.

Nearly fifty years later, Big Finish Productions decided to bring many of these lost stories back from the dead and finally bring them back in some form. Working with Farhi, Nigel Robinson set about adapting both Farewell, Great Macedon and The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance. After forty-six years and, despite never being intended for release, we finally get to visit the planet Fragrance.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

For this era of Doctor Who it is very unusual for an adventure to open when the Doctor and his companions have already been in one location for a few weeks, had a nice relaxing holiday while the locals have fashioned a replacement part for the TARDIS, and are now preparing to leave. It is certainly a welcome change of pace, seeing how the TARDIS crew are when they're relaxing, rather than running down endless corridors, shoving Daleks or tackling Voord.

Indeed, the Doctor is so relaxed he even agrees to let a couple of the locals have a good ole mooch around the TARDIS, much to Ian's amazement. This proved to be the most entertaining and informative part of the story as we learn more detail about how the TARDIS operates than we have in the 50+ years of televised stories.

Of course, the main focus of the story is on Barbara and her relationship with a local young man named Rhythm. Throughout their stay on the planet Fragrance, Barbara and Rhythm have spent a lot of time together and now he has fallen in love with her. This isn't a typical holiday romance that he'll get over in time, it is a biological imperative that she reciprocates. The people of Fragrance have two phases of life, the thin purple arc and the fragile yellow arc. The fragile yellow arc is only attained when a young person falls in love with another and it is reciprocated. If not, the person is biologically tuned to sail out into the ocean and sacrifice their life.

Naturally, Barbara, although not in love with Rhythm, is compelled to remain behind so that he can live, and almost decides to do so. However, the decision to do so is taken out of her hands as the Doctor sets the TARDIS off and they watch on the scanner as Rhythm sails out to sea.

The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance is a very interesting and heartbreaking piece by Moris Farhi, and it is obvious to see how this story appealed to David Whitaker so much that he commissioned him to write the upcoming Farewell, Great Macedon. On its own, though, the story just wouldn't have fit into the era of Doctor Who that was being broadcast in 1964.

7/10

The Dr Who Annual 1966: "The Monsters from Earth", illustrated by Walter Howarth

The Dr Who Annual 1966
"The Monsters from Earth"
Written by [unknown]
Illustrated by Walter Howarth
Published: September 1965

What's It All About

"The Monsters from Earth" represents the sort of story I expect to find in these annuals that are produced mainly for a child audience. The basic set-up is there in that two children, Tony and Amy, as well as their dog Butch stumble into the Tardis while playing a game of hide-and-seek on Earth in 1966. That seems fair enough, although I really can't see the Doctor leaving the door open to allow the children to enter while he wandered about trying to get his bearings. Still, it's a means to an end.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Out of the three stories from this annual I've read so far, this story probably has the most exciting visuals and the addition of some companions also seem to liven things up as the previous stories, especially "The Lost Ones", had the Doctor talking to himself about how he invented the atmospheric density jackets while he was slowly asphyxiating from lack of air.  Indeed, the visual of having the TARDIS caught in a giant spider's web and being menaced by said giant spider is probably more terrifying that Pertwee's encounter with "The Great One" in Planet of the Spiders.

Like the previous story, this one features an alien race from the show's first season. No, it's not the Daleks. Nor the Voord. It's the Sensorites! The illustrations are terrible, but the Sensorites weakness for loud noise and darkness is mentioned and exploited in this story, yet their telepathic abilities go unmentioned. This story is presented as being the Doctor's first contact with the Sensorites, however, I'm sure that he had never encountered the Sensorites before The Sensorites. Maybe it's my faltering memory. This story also adds a dash extra to the Sensorites by suggesting that they worship the giant spiders in the caves and to hurt them is blasphemous.

My favourite part of the story has to be the Doctor trying to convince the Sensorites to throw him back in the cave where the TARDIS is located by suggesting numerous ways of exterminating the spiders, only for the Sensorites to turn around and say that they could not expose the spiders to such blasphemy and a being that could cause so much harm to them.

Overall, an improvement over the first two stories, and we get to see the very first companions. As for his promise to get Tony, Amy and Butch back to 1966 at the exact moment they left...

7/10

Continuity Corner

• This story represents The Doctor's first contact with the Sensorites.

Time and Relative by Kim Newman, illustrated by Bryan Talbot

Telos Novella #1
Time and Relative
Written by Kim Newman
Illustrated by Bryan Talbot
Published: 23rd November 2001
Read: 19th-20th September 2016

What's It All About

It's March 1963 and the United Kingdom is in the grip of a months-long winter that has brought the country to its very knees. As ordinary people struggle daily to live out their lives, the British government blame the Soviet Union for the terrible conditions gripping the country.

Through a series of diary entries written by Susan Foreman herself, we see how the community of the Coal Hill area of London deals with "The Cold". Told from the first person perspective, Susan observes how her teachers and friends from Coal Hill School, as well as a few characters from the local community, react when the mundane but inconvenient, turns horrifically deadly. Within a single scene, we can go from a good-natured snowball fight to a deadly attack by a snowman which sees a child impaled through the leg by a massive icicle.

The struggle becomes worse for the people of Coal Hill as "the Cold" continues to grow stronger and take on a life of its own. The cute but deadly snowmen, soon take the form of terrifying Cold Knights that stalk the land and kill people in a horrific manner.

Susan believes that her grandfather can save them all from "the Cold", but he has been indoctrinated not to meddle in the affairs of other species. Besides which, when "the Cold" has a prior claim to the planet Earth, he needs convincing whether humanity deserves the right to exist.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Although we've had a few visits to 1963 over the course of our journey, only two stories have been really steeped in the history and feel of that time, this and Hunters of Earth. However, while Hunters focused on the kitsch and nostalgia of the era with very few negative aspects, this story presents a more truthful warts-and-all perspective which the Doctor and Susan have been living in for the "last five months".

The whole backstory behind the story focuses on the Cold War between the East and West with both sides blaming each over for the terrible winter which has wreaked havoc over the Northern Hemisphere. The fact that the USSR was proved to be responsible from unearthing "the Cold" through their Novobirisk Project in Siberia, a plan to engineer climate change, just goes to show how bad things were in the early 1960's. After all, we are only a few months removed from the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The hardcover for Time and Relative.

One other key aspect of the 1960s that is examined is the casual racism that was rife across the United Kingdom at the time. Through Susan's babysitting of Malcolm and her interactions with his mother, both from Trinidad, we see the everyday insults and disdain people of colour were greeted with. Naturally, this aspect is pushed to extremes at the height of the story when Malcolm is attacked by the vicar's wife who believes that people like him and brought this terrible situation on them.

If the background of 1960s political events and racism wasn't enough, we also have issues of parental abuse and post-traumatic stress syndrome to deal with. These two weighty subjects are examined though Susan's two school friends, John and Gillian (no relation from Dr Who's grandchildren from the TV Comic strips). Gillian's story seems the most harrowing of all, with many mentions to what she has to endure at home from her father, although it is never outright stated, it is fairly obvious she is suffering some form of abuse from her alcoholic father. In a similar way, John also comes in from abuse from his father, Colonel Brent, who is determined that the fourteen-year-old should follow him into the military and put his own thoughts and desires aside.

Give everything that I've written so far, you'd be forgiven for thinking that this was quite a bleak story, yet it isn't. Through the perspective of Susan's diary entries we not only witness the terrible deaths and tragedy that is caused by "the Cold", and indeed it can be quite graphic at times, but the good in humanity is also recorded. Deadly Cold Knight attacks are juxtaposed with stories of Susan and Gillian "aging up" and trying to get into the local pubs and clubs or the horrors of having double Geography on a Friday.

Susan and her grandfather.

Despite his absence for much of the story, the Doctor's presence is felt throughout this story in the faith and love that Susan has him in, and the belief that he'll be able to fix everything. Again, it is that hope and faith that lifts the story up, and indeed goes a long way to resolving the story. It is not only Susan's faith in him that causes the Time Lord to help save humanity, going against years of indoctrination, the hope that humanity can become better as seen in young Malcolm. Together, the young boy from Trinidad and the Time Lord from Gallifrey are able to weaken "the Cold"'s grip on the Earth, long enough for the Doctor to reduce it to the size of a snowflake and take it to Pluto so that it can live and grow unencumbered.

Summing Up

Considering the story was written by Kim Newman, a writer not unfamiliar with the horror genre, it was no surprise that this story veered towards gory on a couple of occasions, but perhaps no more so that the series was during the Hinchcliffe-Holmes era. In summary, I must agree with Justin Richards in the afterword of this novella, when he goes on to state that Time and Relative is the quintessential Doctor Who story. The fantastical and the mundane are brought together in perfect harmony and top it all off with a few monsters and a couple of laughs.

9/10

Continuity Corner

• Susan claims they arrived in 1963 London "five months earlier", despite it only being late March. She simply goes on to criticise how "hidebound" humanity is by chronological systems.
• At this point in time, Susan is said to be fourteen-years-old (she is said to be fifteen in An Unearthly Child).
• Both Susan and the Doctor have developed a specific form of amnesia which blocks out many of the details of their homeworld and their people. The Doctor seems worse affected, but whenever Susan dwells on it, she develops a terrible headache.
• Despite the amnesia, Susan does recollect some details when she puts it into the context of her everyday life at Coal Hill School. Constantly reiterated is the fear of the "Truant Officer", a sinisterly bearded individual, that they fear is tracking them across time and space.
• Susan has been keenly absorbing many aspects of human culture, including cinema and sampling the night-life. She likes Peter O'Toole, John Lennon and Patrick McGoohan. She loves Lawrence of Arabia, The Beatles, and Danger Man, but doesn't like Albert Finney.
• Sneaking into the cinema to see X-certificate film, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Susan and her friend Gillian saw Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright in the audience.
• Susan has a Saturday job, looking after a six-year-old boy named Malcolm, while his mother works at the local newsagents.
• In order to get "the Cold" to Pluto in the Far Future in the TARDIS, the Doctor had to make five landings before landing on Pluto, and an additional twelve landings to make it back to Totter's Lane at the exact point he left.

The Dr Who Annual 1966: The Lost Ones

The Dr Who Annual 1966
"The Lost Ones"
Written by [unknown]
Published: September 1965
Read: 22nd September 2016

What's It All About

When I read where the Tardis had landed today, I must admit that I groaned. Yes, it's Dr Who's first visit to the planet Vortis and he is seen set upon by the Menoptera. However, we don't get a rehash of The Web Planet, nor do we get a rip-roaring page-turner of an adventure. Instead, this story really looks into scientific curiosity as the Doctor is intrigued at these enormous insects, and the Menoptera in turn, are fascinated by the Doctor. Of course, when the Doctor is imprisoned and threatened with being dissected (as he was in "The Sons of the Crab") I started to think we were going to get a rehash of the previous story albeit with the Menoptera instead of the Yend of Wengrol.

Enter the eight-foot giant soldiers who rescue the Doctor and carry him off to their crashed spaceship. Here, we are once again given over to scientific and historical curiosity as the soldiers are identified as being from the city-state of Atlantis! The Doctor correctly surmises that he has travelled thousands of years back in time, and he theorises on the history of these Atlanteans, that they were able to travel the stars and colonised other universes before they turned on themselves leading to the destruction of Atlantis. The soldiers repeated references to the Greek gods, also lead the Doctor to suspect that survivors moved out to Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt, spreading their myths and shaping humanity.

Summing Up

To sum up, then, this was a story that was short on action, yet provided some intriguing insights into the make-up of the inhabitants of Vortis, as well as providing us (yet another!!!) theory for what fate befell Atlantis and the Atlanteans. There was only one stand-out scene for me in this story, where Dr Who was forced to remove all of his clothes in order to prove that he wasn't an insect! That certainly wouldn't have happened had this story had appeared on television, and with good reason, but I could certainly see Hartnell injecting all his defiance and will into it and not losing his dignity. To top it all off, we have another downbeat ending with Dr Who leaving the Atlanteans battling it out with thousands of Zarbi and larvae guns. Dry but interesting.

6/10

Continuity Corner

• Dr Who invented the Atmospheric Density Jackets (The Web Planet) for use in the eventuality that an accident deprived him of oxygen.
• This is Dr Who's first visit to the planet Vortis, as he has never met Menoptera or Zarbi before.
• Dr Who once again confirms that he is from the planet Earth ("The Sons of the Crab").
• The Zarbi served as companions and workers for the Menoptera for millions of years. The Menoptera were forced into exile when a Zarbi queen evolved that was different to any other: she was ambitious and set about equipping the Zarbi with weapons. The Menoptera were forced to evacuate to one of the orbiting moons aboard a sole spacecraft.
• Dr Who hypothesises that the giant Atlanteans colonists on Earth must have settled in Ancient Greece, Egypt, and Crete where they forgot their noble origins, devolving into savagery, yet still worshipping their gods.

A Big Hand for the Doctor by Eoin Colfer

12 Doctors, 12 Stories
"A Big Hand for the Doctor"
Written by Eoin Colfer
Published: 23rd January 2013
Read: 20th September 2016

12 Doctors, 12 Stories - "A Big Hand for the Doctor"

What's It All About
Our second entry in "Book Week" is 2013's "A Big Hand for the Doctor" by Eoin Colfer.

The adventure begins in London at the turn of the 20th century with the Doctor meeting an old acquaintance from Gallifrey, a Xing surgeon named Aldridge. We quickly learn that the Doctor lost his left hand after engaging in a sword fight with the captain of a Soul Pirate vessel. As is usual when you take something in for repair, the Time Lord has to settle with a dodgy replacement while his new arm is repaired and has to remain in London for the next few days.

On his way back to Hyde Park, where the TARDIS is parked, he gets a message from Susan informing him that they've detected the Soul Pirate ship at large in this time zone and were looking to harvest a particular group of children. Naturally, she has chosen to disobey her grandfather and gone off to try and rescue the children, leaving the Doctor no choice to pursue.

On arrival, the Doctor finds the Soul Pirate vessel hovering over a townhouse near Hyde Park and is collecting the children, including Susan, from the house using an anti-gravity beam. As the beam is the only way to get within the Soul Pirate vessel, the Doctor manages to get within the beam, after engaging one of the Soul Pirates' less blessed pirates in a rooftop fight. Once aboard the vessel, the Time Lord plays dead until he is able to size up the vessel, at which point he finds the children and reprograms the anti-gravity beam to safely carry them back to the surface, as well as setting an additional blast that destroys the Soul Pirate vessel.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

At the time of release, to say that I was looking forward to having a brand new First Doctor story to read is a bit of an understatement, but I was disappointed that both of the two First Doctor anniversary stories (Hunters of Earth) are set before An Unearthly Child, therefore depriving a whole new audience of the opportunities of getting to know Ian and Barbara and how they bring out the best in our crotchety Time Lord.

The story starts rather well, with the setting in the late Victorian era quickly evoking a nostalgic feel for proceedings. The addition of the Xing surgeon Aldridge was a welcome addition as he provides that very rare link to the Doctor's past on Gallifrey and shares a couple of anecdotes that gives us a fresh perspective on him. Aldridge also provides an amusing reaction to the Time Lords themselves: apparently shutting up business on their planet as they got to up themselves.

Moving on to the protagonists, the Soul Pirates and the premise that these space pirates created powerful illusions in order to draw human children aboard their ship so that they can either eat them or use them to power their engines is suitably gruesome. Being rather a short eBook, the solution to the problem isn't exactly ground-breaking, but I like how the whole climax of the story is witnessed by J.M. Barrie and he soon sets to writing a story featuring a pirate fighting a man with a hook and children floating through the air on fairy dust. 

Summing Up

While the story was quite good, if nothing new, it just doesn't sit right with me. The basic characterization of the First Doctor is there with the grumpiness and the fact that he has no time for frivolity and rarely laughs. I just had a heard time seeing him does what his Tenth incarnation does and losing his hand in a swordfight, then going back for more! Susan is characterised well for the very few lines that she gets and even that's restricted to "oh, grandfather" moments. Hmm.

5/10

Continuity Corner

• On Gallifrey, a particular Time Lord known as the Interior Designer had once suggested that his people changed their names to the Temperors. Unfortunately, his contemporaries disapproved and he became known as the "Bad Temperor" for the rest of his quantum days.
• One of the Doctor's previous visits to Aldridge came after the "Inscrutable Doppelganger fiasco" which saw him part with two litres of very rare TL-positive blood so that the surgeon could work up plasma. Another encounter involved dealing with homicidal earthworms that secreted laughing gas.
• The Doctor claims that his outfit was chosen by computer so that he could blend in with the local inhabitants on Earth. Considering that the Doctor has been shown wearing the outfit since leaving Gallifrey (per "The Name of the Doctor"), presumably, this occurred before he left.
• Things that don't make the Doctor smile are chit-chat; answering questions, either in an emergency or in times of complete calm; the paintings of Gallifreyan Subjunctivists; Marmite; and Blake's 7. He does seem to like the Harry Potter series, though, as he mentions Hogwarts (c.f. "The Shakespeare Code").
• The Doctor occasionally has visions of some of his future selves. At one point he wishes he was the fit and sprightly Doctor with a dickie bow (probably referring to the Eleventh Doctor).

The Dr Who Annual 1966: "The Sons of the Crab"

The Dr Who Annual 1966
"The Sons of the Crab"
Written by [unknown]
Published: September 1965

What's It All About

"The Sons of the Crab" sees the Dr Who, who describes himself as a human scientist from the planet Earth, taking his TARDIS beyond the Milky Way Galaxy for the first time and landing on the planet Wengrol in the Crab Nebula. 

After being captured and being poked a prodded like a lab specimen, Dr Who is sent before the planet's leader and learns that the inhabitants of the planet are continually mutating thanks to the deadly radiation of a new star that entered their system. While the leader foresees no cure to their mutations, the leader looks to Dr Who to take hundreds of test tubes containing their "children" and seed them on another world.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Having read several of the 1970s Tom Baker era annuals in the past, I was very uncertain about visiting these annuals but was actually quite surprised at the rather in-depth story that we were getting here. It's rather unusual for an annual that would be aimed at children to tackle the themes of eugenics and to have such a terrible ending that saw the test tubes become unviable once the TARDIS dematerialized.

Unfortunately, while this was a rather in-depth story, the prose didn't exactly set me alight, it was very, very dry. That's not to say there was some good characterization for Dr Who, especially when his dander was up when he was being poked and prodded. 

Could it work as a Doctor Who story?

Despite the fact that Dr Who refers to himself as a human from the planet Earth, I could easily see this story slotting into the regular Doctor Who continuity. Unlike many of the upcoming stories, especially from the TV Comic era, Dr Who doesn't act rashly or commit any violent actions and indeed seeks out to preserve life at the very end of the story.

If we were to look at this story as a Doctor Who story, then it would have to be placed very early within "Season 0" as the TARDIS hasn't been further than the Crab Nebula prior to this story. As for Susan's absence, some timelines suggest that the Doctor had dropped Susan off somewhere while he found a suitable place for them to settle. However, I don't consider this very likely, suggesting that Susan was inside the TARDIS all the time. It wouldn't be out of character for the Doctor to perhaps lock the internal door and keep Susan safe while he explored. Either that or she was asleep. 

6/10

Next Story

"The Lost Ones"