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"SECRET OF ARKATRON – ELEVEN AND THE ASTEROID OF HAUNTED HORRORS"

Secret of Arkatron opens with a delightfully eerie setup: a derelict house perched on an asteroid, littered with books, photographs and holograms—seemingly a museum. It feels haunted, not by ghosts, but by memory. The Eleventh Doctor arrives, curious and full of manic energy (although slightly off in tone at times), and soon encounters two researchers nosing around the ruins.

The story initially conjures a vivid setting, mixing atmospheric spookiness with sci-fi intrigue. The idea of a house-as-memorial drifting in the void is deliciously macabre, and the early mystery—what is this place? why does it feel curated?—is compelling.

FROM MUSEUM TO PRISON

The tension escalates as the house reveals its more sinister defences: alarm systems, robot guards, and the unsettling presence of a corpse. It’s here that the story really leans into horror-tinged suspense… before slightly undermining itself with a twist that’s more obvious than it wants to be.

It turns out this house is actually a prison, built to hold a mass murderer captive—surrounded by artefacts of his victims and the regimes he helped prop up across the world of Arkatron. The intent is deeply chilling: forcing a war criminal to live eternally among reminders of his atrocities.

Unfortunately, the reveal is telegraphed too early. The text repeatedly notes the same bald-headed figure in every photo, every video, and every data reel—so when the living version turns up described in the exact same terms, the twist doesn’t land. The narrative slightly over-explains itself just as things should get creepier.

WELL-CRAFTED WORLD-BUILDING (EVEN IF IT TALKS TOO MUCH)

For a short story, Secret of Arkatron contains a surprising amount of detailed world-building. The descriptions of each exhibit are striking, painting a vivid portrait of a planet riven by dictatorship, propaganda, and systemic oppression. Each artefact tells a small story, and together they evoke a rich political history—like walking through a sinister museum curated by guilt itself.

Sadly, the spooky atmosphere is somewhat sacrificed as the story shifts into full explanation mode. The creepiness dissolves under the weight of its own exposition, and the final confrontation—complete with a quick sonic screwdriver trick—is a bit underwhelming.

📝THE BOTTOM LINE: 7/10

SECRET OF ARKATRON starts strong, with a gothic sci-fi setting and an intriguing mystery, but stumbles as its secrets are laid bare too quickly and too completely. While the story is unusually detailed for such a short piece—especially in its descriptions of exhibits and the planet Arkatron’s grim past—the overexplanation and predictable twist undercut the mood.

There’s a great concept buried here: a living prison built on psychological punishment. But in the end, the narrative lets its villain—and its tension—escape too easily.

Just when I was talking about short stories not feeling like they talk down to their readers. Some of this definitely feels like talking down or dumbing down, some of it is fairly generic haunted house but actually space type-deal, and some of it is just the characters acting pretty out of character.

Again there's the thing of a few lines here and there where I don't believe characters would say that like that, and while it's not major it's enough to take me out of it. And then the ending with The Doctor re-trapping the villain in permanent conscious stasis forever... I mean sure he's done that kind of thing before (Family of Blood and Rogue come to mind), but there it's given appropriate weight, here it's just sort of glossed over.

A decent short story with a bit of generic haunted house atmosphere, it has a couple of nice moments but is quite basic.