Does the Doctor always get it right? In his efforts to help is it possible that, occasionally, the Web of Time itself can be broken by his actions?
Does the Doctor always get it right? In his efforts to help is it possible that, occasionally, the Web of Time itself can be broken by his actions?
SHORT TRIPS: REPERCUSSIONS
An actual linking theme, a set of stories tied together by something other than an oblique concept or bizarre writings about the Zodiac? Yes — in Big Finish’s eighth Doctor Who short story anthology, Charley Pollard finds herself aboard an airship interacting with various people taken out of the Web of Time by the Doctor, and they all have stories to tell. But are the stories any good? One way to find out…
The Time Lord’s Story — Iain McLaughlin & Claire Bartlett — Nothing particularly special, this story is quintessential BF: a generally boring Gallifrey Confronted By An Awful Threat From The Dawn Of Time Brought About By Power-Crazed Time Lords And Also Vansell Is There story. Tianna also comes across as dangerously Mary-Sueish. Still, it’s readable and not a bad way to pass a few minutes.
The Ghost’s Story — Trevor Baxendale — Decent, atmospheric ghost story with something of a confusing ending. It’s suitably melancholy, and generates an excellent mood — but unfortunately I don’t think Baxendale gets a grip on McCoy at all. With every ghost story he writes, though, Baxendale gets better and better at it. You can see where The Deadstone Memorial came from in here.
The Rag & Bone Man’s Story — Colin Brake — This is a nice little tale of a device that grants the bearer good luck, and how the first Doctor aims to get it back from a man using it for profit. I think Brake has come in for far too much criticism on his novels, but this is excellent — Hartnell seems to work for everyone, and his Doctor is on great form here.
The Seismologist’s Story — Peter Anghelides — Ouch. Much as Hartnell seems to work for everyone, Pertwee always seems to be a struggle — this is cliched, bog-standard moralizing Pertwee, stupid Jo, and sub-Bondian Master stuff that we’ve seen a thousand times before in the novels and other anthologies. Why are authors constantly trying this type of story hoping that it’ll work?
The Dead Man’s Story — Andrew Frankham — And this is how to write a Pertwee story: don’t try to follow the cliches. But this isn’t about the Doctor, it’s about Jake, and it’s incredibly poignant and quite effective. It’s hard to construct a human, sympathetic character in this few pages but Frankham makes it look easy — but why Jeremy, huh?
The Inquisitor’s Story — J. Shaun Lyon — A fine two-hander, and Lyon’s choice of Doctor is excellent as the sixth excels in these situations. The prose is solid and the setting good enough to cover up the obvious and rather unoriginal theme — the “killing child Hitler” scenario is probably discussed more than anything save the grandfather paradox — but all in all this is a solidly average entry.
The Gangster’s Story — Jon de Burgh Miller — Eh. A very, very average gangster/crime story with lifeless prose and dull characters. There’s no reason for Erimem to be in this, and really there’s nothing distinctive about Davison that makes him the necessary star. I suppose it’s not bad, per se, but I left the story exactly as I entered it. There really isn’t even much of a plot beyond the obvious cliches.
The Bushranger’s Story — Sarah Groenewegen — After two diabolical entries Groenewegen concedes that she can’t write NAs — but then gives this offering about horses, dogs, and childbirth. The alien society comes across as familiar and tedious, and Leela’s more stupid than ignorant… all told, this isn’t particularly good either.
The Schoolboy’s Story — Trey Korte — Brilliant! Korte shows a keen understanding of young children, struggling parents, overwhelmed teachers — and yes, the TARDIS inhabitants — as he weaves together a touching tale of childhood and consequence. All this plus an honestly realistic portrayal of the United States in a Doctor Who story — and he even gets Steven right, something which doesn’t happen too often due to the lack of viewable material of the character. Excellent stuff.
The Juror’s Story — Eddie Robson — The first Doctor is on trial and his subsequent incarnations stack a jury to free him. I’m fairly certain the character names aren’t kept consistent throughout, and Robson makes a huge mistake by not making the various Doctors distinctive. I’ve noticed in more than one story in this collection that I often have no idea (except from the companion pairings) which Doctor is featured, and that isn’t a good thing. I suppose this is a fun idea, but the execution is poor.
The Farmer’s Story — Todd Green — A decent Western about the oil boom and the resistance to it by local farmers, but that’s about it. There’s not much of a theme, the Doctor and his companions don’t do anything, and the resolution is obvious (save the TARDIS parts) and straight out of a movie. I’m noticing a lot of these reviews involve the words “cliche” and “average” — interesting.
The Republican’s Story — Andy Russell — Solid prose helps produce a good period piece, though the drama revolves around the assumption that the Doctor would take Sarah to the era of the plague and completely fail to notice her development of plague symptoms. I grant the fourth Doctor’s irresponsibility, but come on. Still, the quality of the writing makes this an above-average entry.
The Assassin’s Story — Andrew Collins — Another paradox story, another attempt at finding a unique resolution, another partial success. As with the previous entry, Collins’ writing is what sells the story, as his first person narration is excellent. The opening passage in particular is stunning. One of the better stories in the anthology.
The Diplomat’s Story — Kathryn Sullivan — The Hufko are very well written, a fine example of an alien race being convincingly described in a short story. But the story’s about eating grains and constructing a holiday resort! Ormsin has clearly suffered a loss at the beginning of the story, and I’ll assume that her work helped her get over it — but this isn’t explained in the story because we’re too busy learning about Hufko swimming habits. If you’re going to write a plotless short story, don’t do it like this.
The Steward’s Story — Mark Michalowski — The fairytale narration works very well, as does Michalowski’s somewhat offbeat humor. Yet again, we have excellent writing covering up an uninspiring central concept from which we learn that the Web of Time affects everyone thanks to relativity. This would be interesting…
The Tramp’s Story — Joseph Lidster — …if we weren’t presented in the very next story with a character that actually can be removed from the Web of Time without noticeable consequence. Perhaps this was intentional, but in either case, this is still an excellent story. Lidster has quietly become one of the greatest short story authors, as he’s never afraid to try new narrative styles and generally pulls them off with style. The characters are beautiful, the prose is excellent, and the plot is elegant — what a way to go out.
The connecting scenes — Gary Russell — Refreshingly straightforward, effective writing from Russell. Unfortunately it’s very repetitive, but that’s part and parcel of the nature of the material, I suppose.
Overall Repercussions struck me as nothing more than average. There’s some great writing on display in some of the stories, but almost everything is a cliched paradox story of one sort or another. Of course, this was the theme of the collection, but there’s so little here in terms of pushing boundaries — it seems as though BF is content to rest on its laurels putting out work like this. It’s hard to find much to say about this anthology, good or bad. Not worth reading, I’d say.