The Monthly Adventures #91c - "Autumn" by Paul Cornell

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 holiday in the small town of Stockbridge playing cricket quickly turns sour, when local politics and an unprecedented romance aim to derail the Doctor and Nyssa’s travels.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

If you had told me a low stakes romance would be my favourite entry into this anthology before I listened to it, I would not have believed you. And yet, here comes Paul Cornell to do his usual bit of grabbing my heartstrings by the throat and garotting them. 

I don’t usually like romances, they just don’t appeal to my tastes and as an aroace person, I often find them unrelatable but what I can get behind is some glorious character development. Nyssa was a companion that really needed an episode like this - actually, you could say that for every 80s companion - and every single moment we get with her is pure gold. I love how she considers leaving the TARDIS, how well she settles into life in the 20th century, how she deals with her memories of Traken. Plus, Andrew’s a very down to earth and believable character, who manages some nice chemistry with Nyssa.

The Doctor, also, has some great material here. His relationship to cricket is surprisingly profound and his reaction to realising Nyssa might leave him is genuinely heartbreaking. I think Cornell focussed maybe a little too much on Nyssa’s plotline and the Doctor’s subplot could’ve used a little more attention, because its emotional ending doesn’t hit quite as hard as Nyssa’s did.

However, there’s one thing really holding Autumn back for me: despite what I said, I still don’t really jive with it. Especially the early scenes just feel kind of awkward to me and whilst I think critically there’s very little wrong with the story, my enjoyment was not 100%.

8/10

Pros:

+ Provides stunning development for both Five and Nyssa

+ Effectively creates whole character arcs in a short amount of time

Cons:

- The cricket plotline was somewhat sidelined

- Personally, not my kind of story

The 5th Doctor and Nyssa are given so much life and agency in Autumn. Nyssa falling for a man in a slowly paced and believable way feels so *right* for a character which has been denied any real romance up until this point - it feels meaningful and groundbreaking for the character. Equally, The Doctor gets another shot at justifying his long held tangential relationship with cricket. I really get a sense of his passion for the sport which completes an element of his character that feels a bit random without this story (regardless of Black Orchid). Both characters are forever elevated by the story.
Paul Cornell knocked this out of the park.

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: Renaissance of the Daleks

A fantastic character study of both the Doctor and Nyssa. Similar to the last story that focused heavily on cricket (Black Orchid), this isn't a story with some grand, world-ending stakes. It's an adventure I wish we'd see more of in Doctor Who, the Doctor and his companion(s) taking a break in one place for a while.

We get some narration from the Doctor himself, I love moments like these as they give you such a great insight into the Doctor's beliefs. I also really enjoy that he goes to the same place to play cricket all the time, so much so that they just let him play whenever he comes as his story has been passed down through generations.

Nyssa is arguably the focus in this story, she has a very interesting romance plot centered around her writing a book about her experiences. It's never explicitly mentioned that the book is about Traken but it's fairly clear from the way it's described. It's interesting to see her grapple with the fact that most stories need a villain.

This is a story with such a great atmosphere, a really poignant piece on the effect time has on us all. I liked that the story ended the same way it began, really fits in with the idea of Circular Time.

Next Story: Return to the Web Planet