Time and Relative - ★★★★☆

Time and Relative is very unique; a story that stands out even within the timeframe in which it's set - just before An Unearthly Child, when Susan and her grandfather are already in Totter's Lane, London. It is narrated in the first person, from Susan's point of view, with the book simulating a diary. And it is not unfair to look at the narrative as a children's adventure, in that 80s and 90s movie vibe. It is a coming-of-age story from several perspectives, too.

Navigating the complicated feelings of school life in Coal Hill, life in London takes a sinister turn for Susan when a species from Earth's past awakens from a deep slumber - and intends to reclaim the planet and start a new ice age. This plot manifests itself in a simpler, magical way at first - it is almost April and it is still snowing in London. And the snowman in the schoolyard just moved.

There are two worlds in Time and Relative, which stood out to me the most while reading. There is a playful reality, which comes from the youthful, innocent and intense perspective of the main characters. And there are glimpses of a crueler world. This manifests itself in several ways - in the several mentions of harassment throughout the text; in the racism committed against Malcolm, a six-year-old child who Susan sometimes babysits; in the domestic violence that Susan's best friend at school, Gillen, suffers from her father. In the absolute fear that Gillen has of him, and in the neglect of all the other adults around her.

But it is also in the imperfections of its protagonists. Susan memory of her past life is incomplete and she does not yet feel free from the influences of the old-fashioned beliefs from that past. Like anyone, she wants her friends to like her. When a boy looks at her with admiration, she cannot tell if it is reciprocal. At several times she is hurt by the people around her, no matter how much she understands the circumstances. And all these feelings and sensations are completely new.

In the same way, Gillen wants to be more of an adult than she is. It's a way of trying to escape the violence at home, both metaphorically and literally. This whole subject is very sensitive to her, and there's a moment that I found particularly raw when she gets angry with Susan about what would actually be the "right thing" to do in their situation - relying on an adult. Her relationship with her father has made her lose any trust in authority figures, and all the characters seem bent on proving her right.

On the other hand, John has an admiration for his father that borders on the irrational and also reveals an unpleasant side of these relationships with authority figures - when the massacre begins and the situation calls for the intervention of an adult, the boy's father shows himself to be completely useless and alienated. At this moment, the hierarchy of the relationship practically reverses, with John assuming responsibility for his father's safety. The entire universe of Coal Hill School is built to amplify the flaws and shortcomings of adults regarding these children and the feelings of injustice, loneliness and ostracism that are not very uncommon in this phase of adolescence. It is no coincidence that the main drama of the three protagonists involves paternal relationships, the most central of which is Susan's relationship with her grandfather.

The conflict between those two also exists in two worlds, being a metatextual conversation about the unknown past of both. Especially in the terms in which this was presented during the First Doctor's era in the 60s; just like the audience at the time, Susan does not know the name of their home planet, or even if it was actually a planet. Her memories are trapped, hostages to History itself. And the Doctor is also trapped in the mold of the classic series and the non-interventionism that marked this phase of the character.

In a way, I find the conclusion contradictory to his development from now on; as much as letting the Cold kill all the humans on the face of the Earth was not an option, I have my doubts as to whether this isn't exactly what the First Doctor, at this point in his life, would have done. And not because he is still under the effects of a Time Lord brainwashing, as the text suggests, but because it is in fact the philosophy he believed and preached at the time. Or, if he would've intervened, it would be to preserve the status quo - they know of Earth and humanity in the future, letting it go extinct would contradict their own personal timeline. Despite this caveat, I think it is a very satisfactory conclusion to this story in itself, using the imagination and childlike innocence that guided the narrative as fuel for the construction of a better world.

What the characters often saw as flaws or immaturity is what saves the day - and guides the First Doctor towards the slightly more heroic figure he would become in the distant future. If I disagree with the circumstances in which this is presented in this story, I equally approve of the first driver of this change being the wonder of a child's mind - nothing could be more authentic to the Doctor. This coming-of-age fable is also his.

The conclusions for Gillen and John are not so pleasant, with both of them distancing themselves from Susan at the end of the story - which was natural after all the negative feelings that manifested amidst all the violence faced by the three, including enormous paranoia on John's part and even a death threat on Gillen's part. With his father's death, John goes to live with his mother; and Gillen plunges even deeper into precocious maturity, trying to leave behind the events of the last few days. Despite being much more alone than she started the novel, Susan comes out more confident than ever in who she is, the person she wants to become and that her trust in her grandfather is not in vain. It is by far one of the best stories the character has ever had.

TARDIS Report #1: The names Gillen and John are a nod to the First Doctor's lunatic comics, in which he traveled with two new grandchildren with those names. Inconsequential, but cute.

TARDIS Report #2: I found it curious that with two books in the Telos Novellas with the Doctor and Susan pre-An Unearthly Child, one of them is extremely focused on the Doctor and the other on Susan, to the point that the other barely appears or is more of a shadow cast over the narrative.

I love this take on the first Doctor and Susan so much.

The First Doctor #25

'Time and Relative' (2001) from Telos Novellas.

A very unique entry into the First Doctor's catalogue. Very nice to spend a lot of time with Susan and her school friends, establishing her life apart from The Doctor as she acclimatise herself to human life. The diary format is fun at first and it's good to hear Susan's inner monologue, but as the story goes along, and all of the main action happens on one day, it loses its purpose a bit unfortunately. The Cold Knights are a nice villain, and the goriness of the story here is much more appreciated than it was in Frayed, although I still find it to be quite out of touch with how seeing those things would affect a person like Susan. The primary issue I have with this story is just how wildly different The Doctor's characterisation is: he seems to be suffering from some kind of memory wipe that the Time Lords put on him before he left Gallifrey, and it manipulates his personality and belief system. This unaligns itself with all of the stories preceeding this but obviously that's going to happen a lot with EU. But this personality warping of The Doctor here is quite nauseating and feels a bit out of nowhere - it would be cool to see in a different story perhaps, but I imagine this story was written with the intension for it to be the very first story following their leaving Gallifrey. Overall intriguing, and a worthwhile read.

Such a dark dramatic novella