A Town Called Eternity sees the 5^th Doctor and Peri arrive in the Wild West – California to be precise.  They discover that not only are dinosaurs alive and well and killing the locals, but that an old enemy has taken up residence as the town’s new Sheriff.  Yes, that’s right folks – the Master has donned a black Stetson.  There is a glorious image at one point of the Master strolling towards the Doctor and Peri all decked out in the requisite cowboy outfit, all fashioned in his favourite colour.

The story itself is a lot of fun.  A local family, the Browns,  have discovered the Fountain of Youth and the Master, unsurprisingly, plans to use it to prolong his lifespan.  His current regeneration is suffering from the effects of his fate at the end of Planet of Fire: apparently burning to death in the numismaton gas.  It is the fountain that has been bringing dinosaur fossils back to life and has also made one local, Josh, effectively immortal (he claims to be over a hundred years old).

And yes, the Brown family are, apparently, Peri’s ancestors.  The authors have fun with this idea as Iziah Brown, the patriarch of the family, has multiple wives.  The Master kills one of the wives assuming this will wipe Peri from the timelines (and the Doctor assumes this has happened also), but then when 5 other wives are revealed, the Master sets about knocking them off hoping that one will be Peri’s direct ancestor (fortunately, he is stopped before he can get through all the wives).  The coincidence of the Doctor and Peri arriving in the one, small town her ancestors lived in in lampshaded somewhat in the story but hand-waved with a cursory ‘coincidence happens in Doctor Who; deal with it’.  That said, while the coincidence of the Doctor and Peri stumbling across the Master – again – is also given the ‘coincidences happen’ label, what’s interesting is that the Master is not surprised when they turn up and in fact seems to have been actively expecting the Doctor to muddle in and attempt to ruin his plans.

Much of this story is ridiculous.  A confrontation next the fountain sees the Master, some hypnotised townsfolk, dinosaurs and the Brown clan facing off against each other, whilst later on the Doctor, Peri and the Browns perform a series of bizarre acts (singing, dancing, kissing and, in Peri’s case, barking like a dog) to break the conditioning of a mob of hypnotised townsfolk ready to lynch them.  Ridiculous but hilarious!  I loved it.

I often say how I dislike westerns and then I watch/listen/read another and find I’ve really enjoyed it.  The ‘Town’ trilogy, as I’m calling them, are all great stories: A Town Called Mercy, A Town Called Fortune and A Town Called Eternity.  This latter story is just great fun.  It’s barmy and riddled with unbelievable coincidences and ideas but is written in a breezy, fun way which rattles along.  It’s even split into two parts in the anthology, allowing for a cliffhanger.  I don’t usually like short stories either, but this is far more like a mini-adventure and is hugely entertaining.   The Doctor and Peri are written well, especially Peri, who at one point reflects on how, separated from the Doctor, she is forced to take on his role whilst attempting to save her ancestors.  It’s reminiscent of how Clara ‘becomes’ the Doctor in Flatline and a believable development of Peri’s character.  The Master is just the right side of Ainley’s sometimes over-the-top performance: much more like his appearances in 5^th Doctor stories than how the character comes across in the 6^th Doctor’s era (and rightly so as this story is set after Planet of Fire).  The supporting cast are clearly defined and I rather liked the Brown clan and Old Josh.  The multiple wives are, even in the short ‘running time’ of the story given distinct characters and it is established clearly that their polygamous marriages are a situation they have all entered into willingly; highlighted by one of Iziah’s wives being black and a former slave and another being a highly intelligent palaeontologist.

A selection of western tropes are present and correct: the Sheriff; the outsiders; a saloon; a lynch mob and a hanging (the Doctor is actually hanged and presumed dead – saved only by his respiratory bypass system).   Other than this, though, the historical setting is fairly vague only really suggesting the latter part of the 19^th century.  Eternity as a town is suggested to be one which is forgotten in the intervening years before Peri’s native time.

I don’t often recommend short stories but this is great fun.  Both this, and the rest of the ‘Town Trilogy’ are all good examples of Doctor Who playing with an established genre and finding different things to do with it whilst maintaining the most important aspect of Doctor Who (one which fans seem to forget all too often) –  to be entertaining.