Present Tense

4.5/5

A very cute quaint little story to lift your mood. You cant really do much with the amount of pages this story had but it works with it and does it well  with it starting with the Doctor and Romana excited to give each other gifts with k9 happy due to the  Doctor giving him a fake gift the doctor reprogrammed him to like the week before which is a nice little joke. The Doctor eagerly gives Romana her gift excited for her to open it. The gift is a beautiful crown with a gem that Romana doesn't act to excited about, which we find out later is because the doctor has gotten it for her before which makes him upset and then Romana reassures him that its alright and the Doctor then finds out his gift is in the Zero Room, Romana tells him the date. She gave him peace on earth, the Doctor shows his big grin and goes towards the zero room

This story has a nice couple jokes but due to its length, there was no point in it that wouldn't help lift someone's mood with the K9 percentage moment being a personal favourite due to how much it happened during the actual series

Perfect Present is about as outstanding of a Christmas story as I have seen for Doctor Who. It's short and simple in the best way possible, with the Doctor and Romana exchanging gifts. That's it, that's all they do in the TARDIS together. They give each other Time Lord gifts which are creative and full of interesting details - so alien and different from what a normal gift between humans looks like. Then they hug, and my heart warms. It's so lovely. As powerful as Never Seen Cairo, but without that story's sense of tragedy, Perfect Present is nothing but sincere and life-affirming. I am so impressed with Ian Potter's work here, even if there is only so much "story" to Perfect Present.