5️⃣⏬ = MIDDLING!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

“DOCTOR WHO AND THE PIRATES?”

I’m listening to this story as part of the Fifteen Doctors, 15 Stories audiobook release.

Eoin Colfer, the author of the Artemis Fowl series, writes this adventure for the First Doctor and Susan. His tongue-in-cheek writing style isn’t one I’d usually attach to this Doctor. And the entire plot here is so silly that it's almost too much. The Doctor has lost his hands to Soul Pirates and needs a new one, and he goes looking for one in early 1900s London while simultaneously tracking down Susan, who’s gone missing. The style of the story seems to mix Colfer's usual style with a Douglas Adamssian take on sci-fi.

Colfer’s characterisation of One feels very off. He should be grumpy, a bit selfish, and quite alien at this point, yet he thinks, acts, and speaks much closer to his later self. There’s also a lot of action here that doesn't fit this Doctor. Susan barely appears in the story and isn't given anything substantial to do.

The Soul Pirates harvest body parts from people across the universe, and the Doctor has been hunting them across time and space (unlikely, at this point in their lives). They are simple, almost Ogron-like creatures, mostly played for laughs. They feel a bit too left-field for Doctor Who, and this comes from someone who found the little pesky goblins in the latest Christmas special perfectly fine!

The epilogue is perhaps the biggest takeaway here, but also a slightly forced final twist: how this adventure inspired J. M. Barrie to write Peter Pan.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

Wait, so the Doctor suddenly has visions of their future incarnations?

I get some Church on Ruby Road vibes from the pirates and the pirate ship.