Last Minute Shopping

Last Minute Shopping had an endless sense of potential to it, just from being so simple and fun. The Fifth Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough all go Christmas shopping in the 21st Century on Christmas Eve.

Taking advantage of being published in this time period, there's a lot of fun to be had with Tegan not knowing about stuff like loyalty cards and Ebay. It had me laughing here and there, and if the story had just been what it initially appeared to be - our three characters buying gifts for each other while we get a sense of Turlough's thoughts on Christmas, I'd be all for Last Minute Shopping as a silly little short absolutely worth reading.

However, a number of jokes just didn't work as well as I wish they had. Neil Perryman is only credited with this and a fan account, so maybe it isn't much of a surprise the writing is a little inconsistent. He at times has a great handle on these characters, but other times characters like the Fifth Doctor come across as a bit off-putting. Our characters only have an hour (an amusing way to frame the story across different time codes), yet the Doctor never manages to get anyone anything while Turlough spends a lot of time describing Tegan's body to other women in a way that apparently amuses them? It's very odd.

Then the story just sort of ends in a lead-in to Resurrection of the Daleks, which felt unnecessary to me. It's just a bit disappointing as this Short had some potential and is decent fun, but overstays its welcome a bit and just doesn't quite work for me.