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TARDIS Guide

Overview

Released

October 2015

Written by

Justin Richards

Pages

36

Synopsis

Out walking in the hills one day, a young woman called Andiba hides when she sees several strange creatures beside an odd metal craft. Can she stop their dastardly plans for the local distillery before it's too late?

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2 reviews

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.


kevinwho

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On the one hand, would Time Lords really tell tales of Slitheen to their young? On the other, this story is a brilliant story for kids. Just the right amount of danger and silliness.

The Slitheen are a perfect antagonist for a kid's story, horror and humour in equal measure. I'm especially glad that they don't dwell on the potential fatphobia that comes with the Slitheen, instead describing the human form as 'portly' once, and not mentioning it ever again as far as I remember (also a fun descriptor when the story involves a winery).

Generally yeah, this story is just really fun, don't have too much to say other than that I'd definitely read this to kids!


JayPea

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AVG. Rating131 votes
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