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

This is a very clever character piece, tying into the theme of autumn - calming down after the craziness of Summer, and preparing for the harsh winter ahead, the beginning of the end. This is such a beautiful story for Nyssa, if we had something like this in Season 19 I would've appreciated her so much more - and of course it comes from one of my favourite writers from the new series, Paul Cornell.

The Doctor spends most of his time on the cricket team, becoming one of the boys, and I think he's rather enjoying himself. He's taking time to learn what it means to be human, and as one of the most human doctors out there, alongside maybe McGann and Tennant, this works for him so well to have some fun for once, and struggling with human-scale challenges rather than foes that threaten the livelihood of the Universe. Although he might act human, he absolutely has no clue how to understand the concept of love, and rather struggles to comprehend the romance blossoming between Nyssa and Andrew. Because he's always been supportive of her dreams, considering her to be strict and career-focused (something rather progressive of Nyssa at the time), he's thought her dreams were career-based, hence allowing her the time to write a book. However, he had no idea what was coming for him, and it was a great shock for him. The way this relationship is handled is mature and brilliantly written, a lot like the way Martha sees John Smith fall in love in Cornell's other work, Human Nature. Sarah Sutton does a phenomenal job here, portraying an uptight young girl who's never been exposed to the value of romantic love and ends up being really rather awkward. She softens a lot as she spends more time with Andrew, finally allowing herself to open herself up to emotions, pouring them out into a book from the mindset of a child and not a scientist. It's such a fantastic idea to throw Nyssa in this direction, and the work/life balance storyline, whilst a usual trope for female characters, is flipped on its head as she might miss out on what would've been, but actually questions the "fairytale ending" as Nyssa is able to look at this with a sceptical eye having never grown up to think of this as idyllic - she's her own person with her own values, and she sees that life as not one she wants, opting to travel further with the Doctor. I think it'll be interesting to see how this further plays out in the final part, Winter, as I know she's grown up and has a child, exactly the lifestyle that she rejects here. It's like I said at the start - the Autumn is preparing for what's to come.

There's no real danger, just pure character drama - it's not something the show does often, but it's a welcome change when it does happen. I love how Nyssa mentions that pacifism doesn't have to be a fantasy, and tries to live her life like that, really setting the tone for the story as a whole.

There's a real sense of comfort and relaxation here - this tranquility is so strange to see with these characters, managing to spend time in one place, it's almost like the Doctor never wants to leave. Nyssa being tempted by a place with the same name as her home is such an interesting idea, referencing the fact that she still misses the comfort of staying in one place in one time and suggesting that she's tempted by the idea of staying with Andrew. The setting suits this relaxed episode so well.

Andrew is a man's man, struggling to open up about his feelings - for him, he adheres to a very strict belief of societal roles, but he's still enchanted by the woman who ignores them. There's something so poetic about that, and the way that the two bounce off each other is so sweet and perfect.

The score is so peaceful and quiet, it never goes overboard, but the constant, little twinkle accompanying the dialogue really sets the mood perfectly.

Favourite Line: "He brings time to the immortals. He makes the kingdom come to an end."

One of the strongest Fifth Doctor episodes by far. The performances shine through an already superb script, the setting and score is so sweet and compliments everything tied together brilliantly. It tells a story of romance with an unlikely companion and these scenes where she has her first kiss and... more... are so strange but it fits so well for Nyssa. Paul Cornell is honestly one of the best writers ever given to Doctor Who - I don't know why I was so surprised at the quality of this script, with stories like Father's Day, Human Nature/The Family of Blood, Scream of the Shalka and more... How could I have expected anything less of him?