The Monthly Adventures #91c - "Autumn" by Paul Cornell

Circular Time is the first example of something I’ve been awaiting since I began this review marathon: the anthologies. Consisting of four short stories rather than a collective narrative, the anthologies were always going to be a challenge to review since they’re technically four stories in one and so four reviews in one. The best work around I could think of is just to write four short reviews, so today, we begin our journey down the road of short fiction. And luckily, we just so happen to have a collection written by one of my favourite authors. Well, half of it anyway.

A holiday in the small town of Stockbridge playing cricket quickly turns sour, when local politics and an unprecedented romance aim to derail the Doctor and Nyssa’s travels.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

If you had told me a low stakes romance would be my favourite entry into this anthology before I listened to it, I would not have believed you. And yet, here comes Paul Cornell to do his usual bit of grabbing my heartstrings by the throat and garotting them. 

I don’t usually like romances, they just don’t appeal to my tastes and as an aroace person, I often find them unrelatable but what I can get behind is some glorious character development. Nyssa was a companion that really needed an episode like this - actually, you could say that for every 80s companion - and every single moment we get with her is pure gold. I love how she considers leaving the TARDIS, how well she settles into life in the 20th century, how she deals with her memories of Traken. Plus, Andrew’s a very down to earth and believable character, who manages some nice chemistry with Nyssa.

The Doctor, also, has some great material here. His relationship to cricket is surprisingly profound and his reaction to realising Nyssa might leave him is genuinely heartbreaking. I think Cornell focussed maybe a little too much on Nyssa’s plotline and the Doctor’s subplot could’ve used a little more attention, because its emotional ending doesn’t hit quite as hard as Nyssa’s did.

However, there’s one thing really holding Autumn back for me: despite what I said, I still don’t really jive with it. Especially the early scenes just feel kind of awkward to me and whilst I think critically there’s very little wrong with the story, my enjoyment was not 100%.

8/10

Pros:

+ Provides stunning development for both Five and Nyssa

+ Effectively creates whole character arcs in a short amount of time

Cons:

- The cricket plotline was somewhat sidelined

- Personally, not my kind of story