The Monthly Adventures #91b - "Summer" by Mike Maddox

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 blunder in a renaissance England public house leads to the Doctor and Nyssa’s imprisonment, only for an anachronistic artefact to catch the eye of their jailor: Sir Isaac Newton.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

If Mike Maddox’s biggest mistake with the last story was having too much to say, this is the complete opposite. Summer is definitely the most fun out of the anthology but it is very obvious it was a single idea that got blown up into a whole story.

Firstly, this is a fun script. Maddox writes humour very well and the pacing is great. The characters don’t feel wasted and the time is used well. I loved all the little gags in this, from the drowsy prison guards to Five reciting Pertwee’s “I Am the Doctor” whilst practicing alchemy.

Summer also does something that I always love in historical stories: realistic characters. Rather than doing the New Who take of “wow, look at this person, aren’t they so cool and perfect!’, Isaac Newton is an actual person with actual flaws and they are all on full display. His genius mixed with an insatiable ego genuinely makes him feel alive and his monologues were enjoyable because of how he was written and David Warner’s excellent performance.

However, there was really only one idea with this story. Isaac Newton works out the whole plot of Doctor Who through a coin, everything other than that is window dressing. Summer is a fun story but I hesitate to call it great, it’s very lightweight and you’re not going to leave it feeling entirely fulfilled.

7/10

Pros:

+ Decent bit of fun

+ Makes good use of its length

+ Good depiction of historical figures

Cons:

- Almost entirely uneventful