Another short story from the A History of Christmas collection and it's absolutely terrible. It smacks of fan fiction and the actual writing is clumsy and full of badly structured sentences and choices of phrase. I don't often notice different styles of writing, despite being a teacher with a specialism in English, because I tend to switch off my work brain when enjoying Doctor Who. However, within the first paragraph I found myself mentally marking the writing! It is awful.

The plot too is rubbish. Before checking, I had worked out the author was American as the plot revolves around a battle won by George Washington whilst a General. We are in Trenton, New Jersey with some Hessians but I have absolutely no idea what the history surrounding this event is. I have no idea who the Hessians are, why they speak German, why Washington was attacking their fort, etc. None of this information is even hinted at in the text - not even for the benefit of Jamie who would know nothing of this history. The author assumes we know why it is vital Washington wins the battle and therefore why we should be as worried as the Doctor that history is put back on course - but I couldn't and didn't care.

There is also a weird inclusion of two time travelleing teachers from the 30th century, a future Ian and Barbara, who are researching history so they can better teach it to their pupils! Somehow they have prevented Washington from winning the battle but there is absolutely no explanation of how they have managed this! They are terrible characters.

The Doctor and Jamie are written appallingly as well. Jamie's dialogue and thoughts sound nothing like him and most of the Doctor's dialogue and characterisation is very generic Doctor, rather than evoking Troughton.

The plot is resolved with a flash and a bang and the Doctor and Jamie head into the fort to enjoy the Christmas revels (!).

I have absolutely no idea how this got past Simon Guerrier's editing because it truly is absolutely atrocious and not worthy of appearing in the usually excellent Big Finish Short Trips anthologies.

Avoid at all costs.