Short Trips: A Universe of Terrors

This seems like a brilliant idea: short stories featuring all of the first eight Doctors with various companion combinations, from “established” and “new” writers. I’m not sure how suited Doctor Who is to the short form, but it’s very appealing to be able to read a few stories and then come back to the rest later, as opposed to a Doctor Who full-length book, which is full of plot intricacies you may not always want to wrap your head around.

I was somewhat surprised to find the distribution of stories per Doctor was uneven, ie, the First Doctor had three stories whereas the Second, Seventh, and Eighth only had one each. I was also surprised by the fact there was a typo on the first page. Oh well. It’s nice to see a smattering of female authors as well.

My favorite stories were often the scariest (I love the collection subtitle, from one of the Seventh Doctor’s best speeches). I think I liked “Ash” by Trevor Baxendale the best. It features Steven, one of the most underused companions, and tells it from his perspective. It uses an age-old but effective device of a filter, ie, the First Doctor tells Steven a story about an adventure he had with Susan, and the effect is that you want to keep reading to the end of his tale. It’s a scary, gripping story the Doctor tells. Baxendale has got the First Doctor almost perfectly: ‘Must have seemed pretty barbaric, back then,’ Steven ventured. ‘Sometimes,’ conceded the Doctor, but his eyes narrowed slightly. ‘In some ways it was quite charming. Yes, quite charming.’ Although the story never really resolves, it does play on the fears theme well, and the Doctor even smashes a mirror.

I also liked “Mauritz” by Jonathan Morris (who wrote Anacraphobia, an Eighth Doctor book I didn’t much like). Again, an unusual perspective choice—from Adric’s POV, which he has pretty well down, even to the point of parody. I could kind of see where it was going, but it had a nice atmosphere of déjà vu, the drawings of M C Escher, and even “Castrovalva” and was definitely scary. I also liked the Fourth Doctor’s banter about Trappist monks. “Long Term,” by Andy Campbell, anticipates (or seems to) “School Reunion,” though it is much more disturbing. At first I found the tone to be too much, but I realized how it fit in. It’s weird to see the Fifth Doctor without companions, but it certainly makes him more compelling. This is a really scary story. For the Doctor, it was one more boy he had failed to save: strangers or friends, the guilt was the same.

I also liked Marc Platt’s “Whiskey and Water,” in which he proved himself a veteran writer. Surprisingly, this story was about the Sixth Doctor. As far as the collection went, I didn’t think either of the writers who tackled the Sixth Doctor got him quite right, but then again he didn’t have companions in either of the stories, and I admit it’s much easier to write Six when he’s bantering with Peri. Of all the stories, I think perhaps this best managed to cram in a unique, interesting full-fledged plot into the short amount of space. I can’t say I understand why the Wild West appeals to Who writers, but at least Platt seems to have researched (a bit). There are some funny moments: ‘If I’m going to be robbed, it’ll be by an outlaw with better dress sense.’ I was kind of annoyed that it was implied the Doctor couldn’t handle his liquor, but it made sense of course in the end. Lola Montez seems to speak like Molly Brown in Titanic, but admittedly the idea of the Doctor drunkenly playing the piano in a California dive is quite funny. Platt even manages to put some profundity in an often irascible incarnation: He saw millions of points of light, pinpricks of gold and ice streaming around him against the cavernous darkness of space. ‘Home,’ he said, his voice trembling. He looked embarrassed and dabbed a finger to his eye.

There were quite a few stories that fit the bill as scary or disturbing, but were just too weird to have quite congealed for me. “The Fear” by Alexander Leithes is a perfect rendering of the Fourth Doctor’s attitude, but in the end it seems like a dialogue rather than a fully-formed story. John Binns, the editor, contributes “The Comet’s Tail,” which is well-written, but left me scratching my head and wondering “what the hell was that?” afterward. “Gazing Void” by Huw Wilkins is quite well-written, a sober piece about the Eighth Doctor, but again I didn’t see there was much point to it. “Face-Painter” by Tara Samms was perhaps the most disturbing for me. The story would be more effective, I think, if it had been proofread by an American. It’s boldly set in Santa Monica circa present-day, with again a bold decision involving its point of view, but I had a niggling suspicion (later confirmed) from the beginning the writer wasn’t American. A small thing, but it bothered me.

Both of the Third Doctor stories, “Losing Track of Time” by Juliet E McKenna and “The Discourse of Flies” by Jeremy Daw, were pleasant enough (I enjoyed both of their settings) but they seemed really traditional and were not really scary. “The Death of Me,” by “Dalek”’s Robert Shearman should probably not have been included in this set because it seemed like a derivative of “Mauritz” although I’m sure both stories were written independently. Again, sympathy evoked for the Sixth Doctor—‘No,’ said the Doctor softly. ‘Most of my companions leave me’—amazing! He also got in a gag about carrot juice, ha. William Keith meanwhile takes a completely different tack—a poem about the Seventh Doctor called “This Is My Life”—but it’s some fairly bad limericks, though I applaud the effort.

I admit I read the book not just for fun, but to size up the “competition” as it were [in preparation for the Short Trips short story contest of January 2007]. This is why stories such as Lance Parkin’s “The Exiles,” Gareth Wigmore’s “Mire and Clay,” and David Bailey’s “Soul Mate” were the most surprising. Because, frankly, the stories I submitted to the competition were all uniformly better than these three [in my obviously WRONG opinion]. Lance Parkin, such a big name in Who, produces a fairly insipid piece of work about the First Doctor and Susan, though he gets in a good line or two: No one had left. Ever . . . There was no concept of leaving. No one had ever thought to. Why would they? Grandfather had the idea, and it was dangerous, but it was the right thing to do. While I enjoyed the setting (1840s Afghanistan) and the companion choice (Ian, who is a great companion and seldom used) I found the Most Annoying Character of the Year award goes to Zaheer in Wigmore’s story. As for “Soul Mate,” I feel I myself handled this issue better in a fan fiction (for another fandom!). Poor Tegan’s been bullied around by things in her head; no more, please. Though this made me laugh: ‘Geophasic?’ Tegan laughed. ‘I bet that’s not even a word.’

In short, I really enjoyed reading the collection. Some of it was fluff, but some of it was engaging and most of it was scary. I just hope this gives a good indication of what kind of writing they’re looking for, because if so, it gives me hope [alas].