Gallifrey to Trenzalore #19: Brief Encounter: Playtime by Vanessa Bishop

Doctor Who Holiday Special 1992
"Brief Encounter: Playtime"
Written by Vanessa Bishop
Illustrated by Brian Hudd
Published: August 1992
Read: 23rd February 2016

"Playtime"

Alas, we reach the end of our two-week journey into the pre-An Unearthly Child era. It has been quite the adventure and I'm glad I got my hands on the complete Short Trips collection before I progressed too far into the marathon. We've had some brilliant adventures, with my favourites being "Indian Summer", "The Price of Conviction" and Hunters of Earth.

That's not to say that we won't someday return to this era. After all, Big Finish are releasing dozens of stories a year and it's only a matter of time before The Companion Chronicles or perhaps even The Early Adventures return to this era.

Before we return to the adventures of the First Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara we pay one more visit to 76 Totter's Lane on the very evening that this whole adventure began. Only this time, our story involves a young girl named Sarah Jane Smith.

Sarah Jane is on a day trip to London with her Aunt Lavinia when she gives her carer the slip and stumbles into I.M. Foreman's Scrapyard: a perfect playground. Even at the age of twelve, Sarah Jane has decided she wants to be a journalist and decides to practise her interviewing technique on the creepy shop window dummy propped up in a corner.

Quickly realising that there will be hell to pay when her aunt captures up with her, she makes a dash for it, but not without noticing the rather large police box. As she makes it back to her Aunt Lavinia, Sarah notices a car pull up and another girl entering the Scrapyard and mutters to herself: "Oh, that's not fair. Why is she allowed the adventure?"

One wonders what will become of this Sarah Jane Smith and whether she'll get to have an adventure of her own.

Next Story

The Daleks

Gallifrey to Trenzalore #16: Brief Encounter: Echoes of Future Past by John Summerfield

Doctor Who Magazine #181
"Brief Encounter: Echoes of Future Past"
Written by John Summerfield
Illustrated by Paul Vyse
Published: 28th November 1991
Read: 25th February 2016

"Echoes of Future Past" once again sees us taking up residence in I.M. Foreman's Scrapyard at 76 Totter's Lane on a cold and frosty night, and the Doctor is outside the TARDIS waiting for Susan to return home from school. As we wait with the Time Lord, the prose gives us a rare insight into the Doctor's thought processes. His feelings about Susan and how she's adapting to life in the 20th century as well as his worry for his own mortality and how he only has a century left (presumably until his regeneration).

Most interestingly, it is indicated that the Doctor is suffering from some form of amnesia, perhaps brought on by a defence mechanism inside the TARDIS, and has forgotten about his previous life on Gallifrey: all he can recall is his travels with Susan. It seems to me that this is being used to explain the Doctor's sporadic control of the TARDIS throughout the early years of the program, a different take is given to that in Hunters of Earth.

However, the Doctor has his memory jogged a little by the arrival of another man in the scrapyard which he instinctively knows is one of his future regenerations. He has brought with him a large casket which the First Doctor knows is linked to Omega and it triggers the memory that he was a pioneer among his own people at one time. The Future Doctor entrusts the casket to the First Doctor and then proceeds to leave Foreman's Yard.

"Echoes of Future Past" is a very short story, as indeed are many of the Brief Encounters series, yet it is still an interesting story. For the first time in this marathon we get to see the Doctor interact with another version of himself and, unlike many multi-Doctor stories, we see it from the perspective of an earlier Doctor. It must be disconcerting for the First Doctor to study the Seventh and note the sadness in his eyes. A haunting little tale, well told.

7/10

Next Episode

Hunters of Earth

Continuity Corner

• The casket that the Seventh Doctor leaves with the First is obviously the Hand of Omega, and so this story serves as a prequel/sequel to Remembrance of the Daleks. Interestingly, The Beginning suggests that the Hand followed the Doctor and Susan into the TARDIS as they departed Gallifrey, contradicting this story.