The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance

A surprisingly short story. Almost felt like a short trip. That in itself is not a downside, but the way the time is divided feels off.

At first I had trouble pinning down what this story wants to be. It has no real threat, there’s no real moral and it’s also not really about a societal issue. None of this is a problem, but what is it trying to achieve?

The only thing that makes sense to me, is that this story is a tragedy. There is a real and (shortly) well-presented emotional core between Barbara and Rhythm. Problem is, for a tragedy, the story is very preoccupied with, frankly, unimportant stuff. The doctor explores the Tardis in great depth with a few locals, but that adds nothing to the overall tale, which is, as mentioned, already very short.

For this story to work, I think it should have had Barbara alone. Left stranded by accident or something similar to that. It could honestly just have been the conversation about love for 30 minutes between 2 people who grew up with very different principles. For now, it has to give so many pieces a place that it detracts from an actually very interesting topic. It could’ve been a lot, but it just isn’t in its current form.

Cover art is real nice though. And the acting is top notch. So that’s something.