Canaries

📝8/10 = VERY ENJOYABLE!

Time Lording through time and space, one victory at a time!

VICTORY XXXII

The Time Lord Victorious event concludes with this short story, penned by Dave Rudden and published in the Wintertime Paradox collection. The TLV connection is small but significant.

This is a charming little story about a woman (Anke) who runs a museum of impossible things—objects from alternate timelines. The Doctor tries to reach her by telephone multiple times to warn her of the dangers of such a museum and to get permission to investigate the items but is constantly dismissed by Anke—until her collection risks tearing up the fabric of space and time.

Anke is a very sympathetic person. We don't learn a lot about her until the end, but she comes across as very likable. Rudden writes the story with a warmth and familiarity that makes it a fun and intimate read.

I find it fun that the Curator pops up here in a key role. It's always great seeing more of him in the extended universe!

The ending is sort of a head-scratcher.

Wow, this was great. I haven't checked out much of the Time Lord Victorious content but really enjoyed this. There is a real character piece for this Anke woman, even if the story is quite short, it left me intrigued for the other Victorious range of works out there, and I really liked all the little references to past Doctor Who stories out there. The idea of the Canaries themselves is interesting and great foreshadowing, too. Definitely worth checking out, especially since it is available free online.

What if TLV is all just a ploy for the reintroduction of Faction Paradox into the Doctor Who universe. If that's the case I'm all for it. This is a fantastically written short story and makes me want to go out and purchase The Wintertime Paradox (also written by the same author). On numerous occasions reading this short story I screamed out loud with joy (much to the annoyance of my peers sat around me) in particular at these two lines: "Worn by a long-forgotten cult who worshipped impossibility and contradiction." and "‘Do you know what a paradox is?’"

These lines filled me with immense joy as I immediately knew they were talking about Faction Paradox. I shan't get into the nitty gritty of Faction Paradox but for those of you who don't know who they are essentially they are a time-travelling cult who worship paradoxes and try to create them as frequently as possible.

Dave Rudden does an extremely good job at weaving suspense and tension into this little package, from the constant calls by a scared Doctor warning our main character about the threats that the objects pose to the moment of the big reveal you are left on the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next

Overall, one of the best Doctor Who related short stories I have read for a long, it's a credit to everyone who worked on it and to everyone who worked on TLV