The Five O’Clock Shadow

The First Doctor #7

'The Five O'Clock Shadow' (2005) from Short Trips: A Day in the Life.

Quite an irritating little poem - not much of a fan of the way that it's written, nor of the storybook villain that has no visual descriptors and its only other description is a bunch of vague themes. I was hoping that The Five O'Clock Shadow would be in some way related to the man that Susan saw in the mirror in The Exiles but alas it seems not to be. I suppose the inclusion of the Peter Cushing Doctor and Susan is a fair way to attempt to draw them into the First Doctor's canonical timeline, but in a one-note and too brief story that doesn't do much else for me it feels like a bit of a wasted concept.

This poem is told from the perspective of Dr.Who the 1960s film doctor played by Peter Cushing and goes into how him and Suzy came to be. Its quite genius, The Doctor our Doctor creates a fictional Doctor and Susan who are the theatrical versions.

Of course this is one of many creations of how the films fit into canon, and I think as a quick story in this quick review Nev did a good job explaining it. However due to other explanations which I think are more fun, its not gonna be a recommended re-read but its defiantly worth at least one