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TARDIS Guide

Review of Andiba and the Four Slitheen by kevinwho

1 January 2025

This review contains spoilers!

I had to check where the material for this story was stolen, as it really did not jump out at me. The source is the Arabian Nights tale, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. I can see that in retrospect, as the Slitheen ship contains barrels of jewels for no reason at all to do with the story except to tie in to the source. Andiba is not some greedy Ali Baba stealing any of these jewels.

Instead we get a story of some Slitheen wanting to mine a mineral, which unfortunately is located right under a town. A town that COMPLETELY COINCIDENTALLY has a factory that produces vinegar. Lots and lots of vinegar. Puh-lease. And if anyone can explain to me how it is that the Slitheen land on this planet, talk among themselves, and a local eavesdropper can understand what they're saying with no TARDIS translation matrix around, that would be great too.

Okay, well, aside from the unbelievably convenient setup of having the Slitheen go to a place that produces great quantities of the thing that can destroy them, the story is fine. Well, other than the last Slitheen being fooled into drinking vinegar by the most obvious ruse imaginable. At least the writing is decent, and Six One Three does sound vaguely like Sesame. And apparently, the going rate is 1 Slitheen = 10 Thieves, so I guess that's the lesson to be learned from this fairy tale.