Next we have the most recent Fourteenth Doctor story and I gonna assume the last for quite some time. This is part of a collection of stories for each Doctor, a set that gets re-released whenever a new Doctor takes over so as you can imagine it gets bigger and bigger each time. Probably not ideal when the incumbent Doctor has already been around for a couple years and is likely leaving soon, you’re better off just waiting for the next edition with the next Doctor. But in any case, these stories are honestly just average, nothing that special or worth recommending. The Fourteenth Doctor’s entry is probably the laziest out of all the stories, Fleeting Faces isn’t so much one story but a collation of three stories, two of which already exist. These being Into Control and Under Control, also written by Steve Cole which were released in 2023, the other and only new addition is a novelisation of Destination Skaro, which was a five-minute Children in Need Special released prior to the 60th Anniversary specials. So not really a lot to go off of.

For the sake of giving the other stories their own talking points, I’m focusing mainly on the Destination Skaro portion, and if anything I can talk about Destination Skaro in general. Destination Skaro is one of the most baffling things I’ve ever come across in Doctor Who, and I don’t mean because of what it involves, more about all the discussion around it. Just when people were beginning to hope all the mudslinging in the fandom was in the past with the Jodie Whittaker era, this comes along and says “Nope! The playground online bickering is still just as strong!” I mean it’s insane just how much discourse came from this short episode. To summarise, the story is set on Skaro where Davros, pre-accident, has created his first Mark III travel machine, demonstrating to his new assistant Mr Castavillain, Davros shows off all the features of this machine including a multi-functional claw weapon. Mr Castavillain takes the opportunity to awkwardly suggest several names for this machine before Davros is called away by a surprisingly good impersonation of Nyder’s voice and warns Mr Castavillain not to touch anything. No sooner does he leave the TARDIS crashes into the lab, completely breaking off the claw weapon. Out comes the new Fourteenth Doctor to a stunned Mr Castavillain who inadvertently helps him find the perfect name for this new machine, and before leaving, the Doctor gives Mr Castavillain a substitute for the missing claw, that of course being a plunger. Which when Davros returns goes from menacingly shocked to actually liking the new look.

As you can tell this is very comedy focused which was one of the things people complained about given it’s ties with Genesis of the Daleks, I dunno, call me crazy but you’ll forgive me if I had enough sense to know going in that a five minute Children in Need Special with a character called Mr Castavillain was surprisingly not going to be Genesis of the Daleks 2!!! In fact, we already had a Genesis of the Daleks 2 in Destiny of the Daleks and it was written like a skit from Monty Python!!! There’s the complaints about Davros being featured pre-accident when most accounts suggest he based the Dalek design off his own life support machine, I don’t disagree but if you thought Julian Bleach was gonna sit in a makeup chair for several hours for a five minute special he’s only in two minutes of and not get paid for it, you’re deluding yourselves! Then there’s the whole “controversy” about Russell announcing that going forward Davros will only be shown able-bodied, and the wheelchair look is gone. Firstly, we don’t even know when Davros will be back in the show, this was his first appearance since 2015 which was eight years prior, for all we know it’ll be another eight before he shows up again. Secondly, much as I’m not a fan of this idea myself, there is actually an opening to allow this to happen, which again goes back to his last appearance in 2015. During the events of The Witch’s Familiar Davros tricked the Doctor into giving him a large amount of regeneration energy to help extend his lifeforce. It’s entirely reasonable to suggest that over time the energy gradually healed his body as regeneration energy is meant to do, so if you’re gonna be mad at anyone, who should probably blame Steven Moffat. Again, I don’t like it either, but the opening is there for it to make sense in-universe, though given Russell’s history he’ll probably forgo the sensible explanation in favour of something dafter he didn’t put more than ten seconds thought into.

As mini-episodes go, given some of the ones they used to do during the Matt Smith era, this is nowhere near the dumbest mini-episode I’ve ever seen (have you watched Good as Gold recently!). I chuckled once or twice, both of which involved Julian Bleach, when he stops mid-sentence and notices the plunger, his face does crack me up. Honestly even without the makeup and wheelchair, Julian Bleach still looks great as Davros, his talent is suited to villain roles and a lot of his work comes from facial acting, both humorous and intimidating, something that’s partially restricted by the Davros makeup. If the show is genuinely serious about retiring the iconic wheelchair look of Davros going forward, I could probably stomach it if it’s Julian Bleach still in the role. He’s still second best after Terry Molloy. But yeah, this is by no means a good mini-episode, it’s just silly, and as far as pre-Genesis of the Daleks stories go, if you want a proper Davros origin story, I recommend Big Finish’s four part mini-series I, Davros. It chronicles Davros’s life from childhood to wheelchair and is some of Terry Molloy’s best work in the role.

……….Oh yeah I was meant to be talking about the novelisation, it’s fine, it pretty much nails the TV version so in that regard it’s a success. It’s a five-minute mini-episode for crying out loud, it doesn’t take Rob f**king Shearman to put that on a couple pages!