Stardust and Ashes - ★★★½☆

This review contains spoilers not only for the title story but also for "An Earthly Child", "Relative Dimensions" and "Lucie Miller/To the Death".

Reflecting on Stardust and Ashes was interesting. Ian Potter is not an author I've heard many stories from, his most notable contribution to me being The Alchesmists, another Companion Chronicle for which I don't have much affection. I only checked who had written this story after I had finished listening, so any previous opinions I had about the author didn't affect my experience this time. And I was taken by surprise.

This is a very perspective-driven story, as Companion Chronicles often are. The structure of the range allows its releases to exist on two distinct layers - the main story, which is being told by the companion, and the set-up story, which sometimes has a metanarrative purpose. It is common for stories to be told by the companions years after their departure. Stardust and Ashes is set in a particular period in Susan's life - shortly after "Lucie Miller/To the Death", the resounding finale of the fourth season of the Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller's adventures. There, Susan was reunited with her grandfather, introduced him to her son and, later accompanied by Lucie, they were brutal victims of a second Dalek invasion of Earth. To the Death is a massacre of the regular cast, with Susan and the Doctor being two of the few survivors.

Stardust and Ashes' Susan is a grieving one, completely lost and not quite sure who she is anymore. The setup intertwines with the story she tells, set many years earlier when she was still traveling with the Doctor, Ian and Barbara, in the frustrations she faces. The narrative this time stands out for bringing to light, from her point of view, some contradictions that the character has gained over the years. She patronized at various times, both by her grandfather and by Ian and Barbara, and she points out to the man she tells the story to that she believes that her grandfather and her began to play a role after their departure from Gallifrey. That they both, at some point, began to believe that she was just a child.

It's such an interesting perspective that I also think works on a few levels - it addresses some of the character's inconsistencies, it questions a bit the role that Caroline Ann Ford herself had as Susan in the classic series (Doctor Who in the 60s had surprisingly well-developed female characters, but Susan is often not one of them) and it also, lovingly, shakes her relationship with the other characters. Susan wasn't just patronized by her peers - she was treated that way by the text. Another question arises from this: what else can Susan be?

In the context of this audio, and the future that the character has conquered, she has also become a wife. A mother. And as she herself says, those were two other roles that she learned to play. But in Stardust and Ashes she has lost all of that - David has been dead for years, Alex and Lucie have been killed by the Daleks in a bloody showdown and her grandfather, with whom she had just reconnected, has once again left as broken as she is. From the ashes of all that she has lost, is there any Susan left who can rise again?

The last seven minutes are stunning. Quite possibly my favorite performance by Ann Ford in the role. All of Susan's grief, all of her pain, all of her loneliness comes out. It's heartbreaking and it hurts. To quote my favorite line:

"I miss all of them so much. And what do I got now? A ruined city. Not even my boy's ashes."

"A rebuilding city. You're not regretting let him go?"

"No. No regrets. I needed to."

"So, what's next?"

"I don't know. I'll just have to do what I feel's right. Stop looking back and keep going forward. I've got something to prove."

The stronger part is definitely the setup story, but the story that Susan tells has its merits - it's one of those scenarios where the characters are trapped in a ship controlled by a computer that doesn't want to let them go and becomes a threat. It's not my favorite of this niche in Doctor Who, that title goes to Aquitaine, but it has great characterizations for the regular cast. Several decisions made in the plot felt very true to the spirit of the 60s - there's a scene in particular where the Doctor asks Susan and Barbara to go investigate another place as an excuse for them to leave where they are so he and Ian try to use a dead body to unlock a passage. I rewatched The Daleks recently and this scene reminded me of the moment when the two of them pull the Dalek out of its shell without Susan and Barbara seeing the creature. Here Susan herself points out how stupid it is because they've seen much worse (and it's playing by a sexist point of view that was common in the 60s but don't make much sense with the current background the character has), but it's a touch of characterization that stood out to me.

The threat from the ship is rarely physical, so this is a great opportunity to highlight the characters' naivety. The decontamination scene is really cool. The way Susan "resolve" the plot is also really cool. I think her uncertainty about whether they were the ones who helped the ship or if they were put in situations that led them to do exactly what the ship wanted is interesting, and I like how it ties into the discussion she's been having with Mr. Barryman about wanting to be alone vs. the strength of being together.

TARDIS report #1: I want to quote another moment that stuck in my head:

"Can you still do that? Y'now, travel back into the past."

"Only in memories. And stories. Now I only travel to the future like everyone else does. Moment by moment, day by day."

TARDIS report #2: I have some continuity notes. This story is set after The Sensorites, since the sensesphere is mentioned by the TARDIS team. Susan stated at the end of the story that shortly after the events narrated, she left the TARDIS during the events of The Dalek Invasion of Earth. So it's a little further ahead in the timeline. The setup story probably takes place shortly after Lucie Miller/To the Death, but before Susan joined the Time War.

TARDIS report #3: Obviously this story agrees and disagrees with various previous characterizations of Susan as is often the case. This is a version of the character that suggests she is much more mature and capable than some other versions. Older, too. But perhaps the most glaring discrepancy is the implication that her joining Coal Hill School was the Doctor's idea; usually the stories agree that it was Susan's.

TARDIS report #4: it's GREAT to have the Companion Chronicles back. Such a wonderful range. Some of my favorite stories ever in Doctor Who are Companion Chronicles. Hope they stay around.

The Daleks - ★★★½☆

When it comes to introducing Doctor Who's most important villains - and the most frequent ones, too - it's hard to treat this story as anything other than how iconic it is. There are two main points that stand out: the visuals and the development of the characters. Having left the prehistoric Earth wherein they were trapped, our group of protagonists - consisting of the First Doctor, his granddaughter Susan, and teachers Ian and Barbara - land on a strange planet. Its forests are petrified, there is no sign of life in sight and the entire place looks like it has been devastated by a nuclear bomb.

The main driving force of the story is, of course, the characters. The First Doctor is still, at this point, stuborn and arrogant. Overcome by curiosity about the city they saw from afar, he drags the others on a fake search for mercury, pretending that the TARDIS is faulty. This is because everyone else, like any sensible person, wants to get away from there as quickly as possible. What none of them realize is that the radiation levels on the planet are very high and that the lost city they want to explore is still quite inhabited - and so they are captured by the Daleks.

The Daleks is a story in three acts - the first part is quite enjoyable, with them exploring the planet. There are several imminent dangers, the radiation being the most glaring, but the episode is much more marked by a heavy and scary atmosphere than by a physical enemy. In parts two to four, much of the time is devoted to the characters' escape from the Dalek city, while in the last three parts they must return there and, in the process, rid Skaro of the plague of salt shakers. Each has its merits - I particularly like the tension building in the scenes where the characters venture through Skaro, whether in the first part or when they traverse the local jungle in the second half of the story.

Ian Chesterton is the MVP this round. All of the regular cast have good scenes, but overall he is the one who commands the story and steals the show. A highlight is the moment when he enters a Dalek carcass, in order to pretend to be one so that they can escape. The Doctor has an interesting role, which highlights both his worst traits (after all, he puts everyone at risk) and shows more pleasant glimpses of his character - despite several disagreements, he ends this story on a much friendlier relationship with Ian and his role in the plot during the second half of the story makes his scientific spirit shine.

Both Barbara and Susan have at least some agency in this story, and stand out in contrast to the female Thals - who are terrible. The First Doctor era is marked for me by surprisingly strong female characters for the time, but the writing is still, at times, misogynistic. Although in The Daleks this doesn't spill over into the main cast - Barbara is as much a part of the story as Ian - the Thal women are either background decoration or a disservice. I particurlaly like how Barbara agrees with the Doctor at times; them siding with each other against Ian and Susan even if at the moment Barbara is not close to him at all. It highlights a bit of her moral complexity while also establishing that they're not so unlike each other after all.

The most important element of this story, and one that has a lot of repercussions from now on, is all the text and subtext surrounding the Daleks. Doctor Who starts airing in the middle of the Cold War, so the reason Skaro is the way it is becomes pretty self-explanatory. It's the unconscious fear of the threat of the atomic bomb taking shape in the horrors of science fiction. Another key aspect is the scene in which Ian explains to the Thals why the Daleks would attack without provocation - they are driven by hatred. By intolerance. This is an idea that isn't explored much in this first appearance of them, but it comes to the fore in later ones - especially in their next story, The Dalek Invasion of Earth.

If I must point out flaws, there are two. I really like two Thal characters in this story - Temmosus and Alydon -, but they are by far the most annoying part of it. It always irritates me a little when they show up again. It's no wonder that they are an element that has been somewhat forgotten over time. Worse than that, I think their existence works against the author's intention because they are a very idealized vision of the white man and are placed almost on a pedestal. The other problem is a matter of pacing. I love the scenes of the characters' journey through the Skaro jungle in the last parts, but you could probably trim the fat a bit and speed up the escaping bit in parts 2-4 and voila, you've got one less part. Turning this into a one-hour story is crazy, you'd be losing a lot - especially good character interactions - but I do think there is a hypothetical slightly sharper version of this script that is also a little shorter.

Tense, oppressive, with beautiful scenery and full of good moments for the regular cast, The Daleks does have lots of merits that justify its impact on the future of the series.

TARDIS report #1: I feel a little mean saying this, but the scene where Ian accidentally crushes the flower Susan was showing because Barbara screamed always makes me laugh.

TARDIS report #2: that moment when Ian and the Doctor take the Dalek out of its shell, without us seeing what they're seeing, is my favorite scene. I get chills every time it cuts to the tentacles coming out from under the blanket as they're leaving. The story never shows what they look like, but just the suggestion is terrifying.

Quinnis - ★★★½☆

Fair warning that this review contains spoilers not only for Quinnis itself, but also for the Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller adventures - season four.

This is truly a great horror story. Still traveling alone through the universe after fleeing their home planet, the Doctor and his granddaughter, Susan, ended up in a parallel universe – more specifically, in a village on the planet Quinnis. Parallel universes tend to be a trap in sci-fi stories like Doctor Who because there’s nothing you can tell in them that couldn’t be done in your main universe; oftentimes this takes away a bit of the weight of the world you’ve been building up and the apparent novelty ends up disappointing. In the same way, there’s nothing in Quinnis that couldn’t happen in the series’ main universe, but the direction, acting and script do an impeccable job of characterization and world-building that makes you feel like you’re actually in a place where the rules are different.

This is true in many ways, but perhaps the most interesting is the cultural aspect. The people of Quinnis are marked by absurd levels of superstition and are devastated by a drought that seems to be going on forever. The most precious thing anyone can have in a place like this seems to be, from the start of the story, water. At first, the arrival of the Doctor and Susan there is seen with great disdain, as a bad omen. At a certain point, this changes, when the Doctor jokes that he could make it rain without any difficulty and is taken seriously. He is soon co-opted by the leaders of this city, but this turn of events never seems optimistic. Susan becomes more isolated than ever in a hostile environment; the favor of these people is as fleeting as the wind and there is always danger lurking. As the two realize in the first few minutes, the man who was previously responsible for making it rain was thrown to his death when he seemed to have become of bad luck himself. It is under these circumstances that she befriends a local girl, Meedla, played by Tara-Louise Kaye – she is the only character in this story that Ann Ford does not voice, if I'm not mistaken.

It's been dry too long. The rains are late, but they will come soon. And that's when it all changes. The land will burst with hungry life. The misery will tear the world apart, and no one will tell the tears from the rain.

Meedla is a disconcerting character, it’s clear from the first moment she appears that there’s something wrong with her. She’s probably my favorite version of that old trope of the weird kid from horror stories. It’s easy to predict that she’s a Shrazer, a kind of local monster that people believe brings bad luck, but that doesn’t bother me – the fun of the story isn’t who the villain is, but how she's tormenting Susan. One of the elements that are explored in the TV series about Susan is precisely how she felt alone and wanted real connections, she wanted friends. And that’s exactly what Meedla takes advantage of as Quinnis unfolds. Susan’s loneliness and how easily she trusts people. One of my favorite moments in the story is at the end of the first part, when the rain finally reaches Quinnis – and even that turns out to be a bad omen, with the town almost being flooded – and Susan realizes that she’s being followed by the Shrazer. At one point the monster is captured by one of the traps that were set up there, but when Susan turns around it is Meedla who is trapped. She helps her friend, disoriented, but it is no use – she is swept away by the rain and, although it does not take long for her to realize who she really was, Susan carries a certain regret for her “death” until the end.

The sound work is impressive. I love the rains, it really seems like the city is about to be devastated, that you too will be swept away by the water. There is no way to characterize the monster visually, of course, but this is compensated by the noises it makes. It's chilling, with Meedla's voice mixing with the strange sounds of birds. Every time there is a chorus of a crowd, you can feel the depth of the sound; be it in a more ritualistic scene or after the death of a character, when the women of the city come together in collective mourning, wailing loudly. And although I can't explain why, there is something very effective in a nightmare scene with Susan, in which she believes that the Shrazer has invaded the house she is in. All these elements, bit by bit, build a very vivid image of Quinnis, almost like a cursed city in which you are trapped alongside the characters.

Meedla ends up being a remarkable character not only because of the horror setting but also because of the effect she has on Susan, who, even as an adult, according to the narration, seems to harbor some regret over the circumstances of this friendship – it is debatable whether Meedla had any genuine affection for her, but that does not prevent Susan from feeling pity or wanting to help her, despite everything. Almost against her own instincts, at several moments Susan helps her or prevents her from getting hurt even when she already knows Meedla is the Shrazer, that she is a murderer and that she was feeding off all the misery that was tormenting the city and Susan herself. And in these touches of characterization, this is a story that says a lot about who Susan is. Another positive point about Quinnis – and one that is common with another Platt story featuring the two of them for the Companion Chronicles, The Beginning – is that the script balances the Doctor and Susan's screen time well and in the end, although you have a very psychological story focused on the companion, you also feel like you've discovered a little more about her relationship with the Doctor.

There are also some cool little details about this story; the first is that Susan mentions in one of the first arcs of the first TV season some places she and her grandfather have visited, one being Quinnis. I find it fun when these little lines are expanded upon in the supplementary materials; the same thing happened with a band she listens to in An Unearthly Child – John Smith and the Common Men - in a much later Fifth Foctor story. The second is the setup for this release, which is structured as Susan talking to her husband, David, who has already passed away. Interestingly, both the real plot and the setup are well positioned in the timeline; the first takes place right before she and the Doctor go to London, 1963, when she enrolls Coal Hill School; while the other takes place between An Earthly Child and Relative Dimensions, stories in which she – and her son, Alex – meet the Eighth Doctor. Not only that, but a little fish she gets from her grandfather in Quinnis ends up being very relevant in that second story.

Perhaps my only problem with this audio is precisely the characterization of the Doctor and Susan regarding their trip to London. The Doctor says, twice, once at the beginning and once at the end, that Susan needs stability and friends her own age and things like that – I never felt, on TV, that this was a feeling from the Doctor but rather a desire from Susan, but in this story the behavior of the two is reversed. Evidence of this is his lack of goodwill when she threatens to stay alone in London during An Unearthly Child and that his arc throughout the travels with her is precisely to realize that she has grown up and needs to leave the nest.

I really like Marc Platt's writing. He disappoints every now and then, but as a rule a story of his is almost always a guaranteed good story. Quinnis is one of them.

The Alchemists - ★½☆☆☆

The Alchemists is a historical episode set a few years before World War II, during the rise of Nazism, that I would define as an unfocused political thriller. The Doctor and Susan land in 1930s Germany and decide to visit one of the local scientific centers where they meet Fritz Haber, a real historical figure who was important for developing a process for synthesizing ammonia that, although initially of interest for agriculture as a fertilizer, ended up becoming a key element for the production of explosives during the World Wars. Things take an unexpected turn when, during this visit, the Doctor is kidnapped and Susan now has to rescue him. A very good premise but one that I don't feel was well developed.

Susan's wanderings through the streets of Berlin are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I find the direction very atmospheric and evocative of the social tensions of the 1930s, especially with regard to Hitler's rise to power and the naturalization of barbarism. This is palpable, for example, in the way several characters demonstrate a certain ambivalence towards Haber; an apparent moral contradiction – from the point of view of these CHARACTERS, I want to make it clear, not mine – between him having played an essential role in Germany's development in the previous years but being a Jewish man. The white characters constantly expect him to betray the country, a lack of character that they assume is inherently racial. Likewise, there is a refinement of cruelty in this story when, after receiving help from a group of children, they guide Susan to the Brownshirts, a paramilitary organization. In the specific case of the characters we see here, they're Hitler Youth who wants to take control of justice on the streets of Berlin into their own hands – the real story of the Brownshirts is a little more complicated than that, but that's how they are characterized in this story.

The Alchemists is set in 1933, just a year before the Night of the Long Knives, when political tensions between internal factions in Nazi Germany culminated in the purge of political rivals, including prominent members of the Brownshirts. It was therefore an important group in Hitler's rise but its power was quickly stifled when it became an obstacle to the Third Reich. The cruelty, of course, lies in the naturalness of the whole thing and in these characters, all children, being used as political pawns. Not only that, but this entire hostile environment that takes over Berlin is closely interconnected with the famine that gripped the country after World War I; an element not so present in the script but still subtly represented - whether in the children following Susan in the hope of earning some money, or in the resentment that characters in the adult cast demonstrate for the German defeat, blaming the recession that followed in the rest of the world and, mainly, on the Jewish people.

Just as much as I find the atmosphere very well constructed and immersive for the historical context in question, I find the unfolding of the events in the particular narrative of The Alchemists weak and the acting questionable. I found it bearable now, after listening to the story for the second time, but the German accent of some characters, especially Strittmatter, was very irritating at first and kept distracting me. As much as Susan's wandering around Berlin raises all the positive points that I discussed in the previous two paragraphs, it is also pointless. It may even be a realistic approach to how Susan would be lost in a situation like that, but as character development it is a big no-no. All the resolutions of the plot are independent of her, she is just being carried here and there by the characters that really matter. And the worst thing is that I find this easy to solve.

In the final minutes of the story, it is revealed that a shopkeeper that the Doctor and Susan met while exchanging their coins for German coins was the one who kidnapped the Doctor. This is justified by the fact that word had spread among society that Fitz Haber was studying a way to transform materials into gold, supposedly to boost the German economy – or perhaps he was going to give the secret to enemy countries?! The shopkeeper, Strittmatter, jumps to conclusions when the two idiots show up with brand new and perfectly preserved Roman coins – because they are, they are coins that they obtained when visiting Rome on previous trips. Obviously, no German in 1933 would imagine that he had met two time travelers, so the conclusion he comes to when the two go to visit Haber is that the scientist has found a way to produce gold. I think it is a very clever plot developed through real historical facts – Haber did in fact try for years to find a way to extract gold from the sea. So when Susan returns to the store with more coins to exchange for more money and ends up kidnapped too, I think it's a shame that the story doesn't make this intentional on her part. She's very intelligent, smart, she could have deduced who the kidnapper was from previous dialogues – as she realizes shortly after – and come up with a plan to save her grandfather. Voilà, a tiny change in the script and she gains a much more active role in the resolution of the story.

Another problem is a character I haven't mentioned yet, a double agent named Pollitt who also wants to discover the secret to producing gold and whose main interest seems to be profiting from the impending war. I think he's a character who fits well into the worldbuilding of 1930s Germany, but I feel like he doesn't have much of a role in the plot other than being a villain who's a bit more threatening than Strittmatter. It's no wonder I described the entire story of the audio in the previous paragraphs without mentioning him. I wouldn't eliminate him from the plot because in my correction of Susan's role he would be important for her to deduce who kidnapped her grandfather, but I admit I don't know what other additions I would make to the character to make him a bit more important. But maybe that would be enough, since his confrontation with Susan and the Doctor at the climax of the story is, perhaps, my favorite moment of it.

The final scene in which the Doctor comforts Susan with the prospect of better years awaiting the world after the War is well-intentioned and it's understandable where it comes from, especially from the outside perspective of two time-traveling aliens with a moral system naturally different from ours, but it is too complex an idea to be discussed in such a short scene and so it feels somewhat insensitive. Millions of people died in the war, heinous crimes were committed. There is no such thing as looking on the "bright side" of a tragedy of this magnitude. Hunger, hatred and death are not, and should not be, tools of progress. I do not think, again, that this was the point of this ending, but it does feel insensitive.

Unfortunately, for me the negative elements have a much more significant weight in the story and my conclusion is that, what a shame, I really don't like The Alchemists.

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.

Losing the Audience - ★★★☆☆

A historical set in the fifties that tells Susan and the Doctor's encounter with two radio actors, Max and Maxine, a divorced couple that are still friends with each other. It's a story that deal with the world post World Wars and the PTSD of the survivors - through Max. But it's also one of those conspiracy narratives that unravels terrible secrets lost to time when fan of the Max's show start to disappear... They're being murdered. The culprits are aliens that alied themselves to Britain against the nazis with the promise to get a part of India, but were betrayed and imprisoned up to the day the right frequencies at the radio station made it possible for them to escape.

These are aliens from another dimension, one with physics different to ours, and they are affected by sound, radio, waves. That's how they were imprisoned, and that's how the Doctor saves the day, killing them all. Honestly, my only problem with this story is that I though this should be longer. An two hour audio or a regular book. There are a lot of good ideas that don't have enough time to breath and reach their true potential.

It's really easy to picture how it would work. Part one of four would be an horror piece focusing on the public of the radio show being killed while Max tries to make sense of what's happening - maybe Susan goes with him, behind her grandfather's back. There is enough room in a longer story for other people to believe it was Max who killed these people, which this story briefly implies could've happened. You could make him doubt himself, and link it to very obvious untreated war PTSD. One of the cliffhangers could be the Doctor and Susan in the audience just when a murder is about to happen.

There is some really interesting implications about the aliens in the story. They are not necessarily malicious, even though they don't follow anything akin to our moral code. They are killing the audience believing they are nazis, since they didn't figure out yet that they were betrayed and it has been years since the war ended. Are they truly in the wrong here? Most incarnations of the Doctor wouldn't say so. Not One though, not at this point, and that's why I find his cruel atitude towards them in the end very in character. I honestly believe the only thing in his mind in this situation would be to not disturb Earth's history; he would be picking sides, which a kind of cruelty by itself.

That's implied in this story - the characterisation is on point -, but a longer story could elaborate on this dubious morality of the First Doctor and perhaps even built some conflict between him and Susan.

This story has a lot of potential - but as it is, it's a nice 6/10.

An Unearthly Child - ★★★½☆

"Have you ever thought what it's like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension?"

The first episode is a character masterpiece. Susan's introduction is eerie and haunting, there is something in her eyes and demeanor that let you know, far beyond her words, that's she is otherworldly. Ian and Barbara are charismatic from the get go, and I think it was a smart decision to tell this story from their perspective. It sets a tone about the role of a companion throughout the series that is true to this day. And of course there is the Doctor, which is truly the antagonist at the beginning. It sets up character development that we will see flourish in The Daleks and The Edge of Destructions; but also brings up some beats that go on long game.

There is a longing in his words as he tells Ian and Barbara that he and Susan are exiles from their home that is not usually associated with the character. He is not yet the adventurer he's bound to become, and it's impossible to negate Ian and Barbara's role in it. And of course, we'd see more direct consequences of running way later in the series. Susan doesn't want to leave London 1963, says that the last six months have been the best of her life. It's a glimpse about the kind of life she longs for herself and the stability she can't have with her grandfather. Susan is almost never, in TV, as opinated as when she tries to tell the Doctor that if he leaves he'll do so without her. Of course, it doesn't work in her favor. Ian at one point claims the TARDIS is alive, which will be relevant soon enough.

This is not an amicable version of our longterm protagonist. Not yet. He is arrogant, dismissive, selfish. He makes choices for his own amusement that put the others in the danger, including the granddaughter he swears he is trying to take care of. He is cold and he can't admit when he is wrong. And that's the side of him that shows itself the most in An Unearthly Child. He is also the first character in-universe (by release date) to say "Doctor Who?". It's not what's implied, but I think I prefer to have Ian and Barbara unintentionally giving him his name than some of the alternatives.

We do see a glimpse of another side of him, though, in parts two and three. He is sincerely sorry for getting them captured by the tribe and putting everyone in danger; and while he is still arrogant and unhelpful at times he does recognize Ian's value and tries to help Barbara calm down. It's not enough to change his demeanor towards them, not yet, and him trying to kill Kal only to be stopped by Ian is a step back. But there are other nice moments for the TARDIS team, as when the Doctor proves that Za killed the old woman or when Ian recognizes the Doctor as the leader of their tribe.

Parts two to four are a letdown from part one though. I have watched An Unearthly Child many times by now; the tribe's politics was not an aspect that grabbed me the first few rounds but that have grown on me as a pretty decent plot. So what's the problem, then? For me it's the acting. It's not bad by any means, but most of the characters that are not our regulars, if not all of them, are highly unlikable and a very cartoonish take on "caveman". All the maneirisms in the dialogue are honestly tiring at times.

There is also some signs of the screamonger Susan will become. It's somewhat justified, but it'll become irritating fast. In contrast, Barbara also have two dispairing moments in this story, but it feels truer to her character because of three reasons; one, it's her first trip in the TARDIS; two, it doesn't become a staple of her character and three, it's followed by her deciding they must help Kal, acting for the first time as a moral compass for the characters.

I don't love the caveman part of An Unearthly Child, but it's a really good pilot for a series I love that already shows many reasons why I love it; one of its strongest traits being a fantastic cast of recurring characters. It's ★★★½☆ for me.

The Time Witch - ★★★☆☆

Brimo, the titular character, have a lot of potential. It's not the intention of this story to do so, and therefore that's not the perspective that I look at The Time Witch; but it's easy to read the openning pages and question if her punishing was fair. It doesn't seem so. Anyone in her position would have gone mad. There is a longer version of this comic that put the morals at the center and builds an engaging character piece; but that's not the version that exists.

It's innofensive.  Imaginative enough, given its premise, and very fun to read; but in my opinion we see a better realised version of this concept later on DWM publication, with a much stronger character conflict played out (that chapter in The Glorious Dead, if you ever read it you'll get the comparison). I still love the art and my favorite part is the guardian of Brimo's dimension; I love his design.

This is the start of doom for Sharon. On its own the decision to age her could lead to interesting stories; but I know that what follows is just weird. The weirdest "coming of age" ever.

Indian Summer - ★★★★★

I love this short trip. It's a tale about Suresh, a Indian boy that just started working in a hotel that has a haunted table at its restaurant. We see his life throughout the decades and many of his meetings with the ghost; as well as a mysterious girl that appears every few years looking for her grandfather, but who doesn't seem to age.

It's a character piece, primarly. It has a lovely protagonist and his relationship with the hotel itself is heartwarming. Suresh loves his life and it's contagious. I also adore the relationship he develops with the ghost, even before they can talk. Every scene is a just a little snipet in his long, wonderful life, but it tells us so much about who he is.

Obviously the ghost is the First Doctor. He and Susan got caught in some time and space shanenigans and now he is lost in the flow of time. He's holding himself to the big events, and that's why he only appears when someone is close to death. I love the atmosphere of the story before we know that's what's happening; it's pretty obvious it's the Doctor from the get go, but what if whatever happened to him is the cause of all these deaths?

Susan has a small role in the story, but this time that doesn't bother me. Even if she doesn't appear much, she has a more active role. She doesn't solve anything, sure. But she tried!

I love the characters. I love the plot. I love the writing. I love the setting. I still have a lot of short trips to go through, but I can't see any beating this one for me.

Bide-a-Wee - ★★½☆☆

It's barely a story, but it had potential to be a great one. We see the Doctor and Susan taking a vacation from their travels on Earth. Susan is out with newly made friends and the Doctor is enjoying his time in a local inn.

We find out, just as the Doctor, that one of the guests have been messing with time and the town is perpetually stuck in the 1933 when a couple from the 1999 arrive, shocking the guests with their marriage (and child), since the man is white and the woman is not. Their little boy seems to be the only member of the family to notice there is something wrong going on.

It has a very small scale though, and the solution is very simple. Not that I wished to overcomplicate this, but there was potentional for this one to be a full fleshed out story focusing on the ill effects of being permanently - or so it seems - out of your time. It seems like hell.

Plus, the antagonist - we can barely call him that - may or may not be the Monk.

The Sleeping Blood - ★★★☆☆

The Sleeping Blood is an atmospheric story with a strong theme but not enough time. The first part is very engaging because it is structured like a horror story. The Doctor fell ill after being infected by an unknown disease by touching a wild plant on a planet he and Susan visited, and now they are traveling in search of a cure. He is taken out of the game very early in the plot when his health worsens and so the focus goes completely to Susan. Caroline Ann Ford's performance is confident and emotional, perfect for the structure of the Companions Chronicles, and the core of the narrative is a moral conflict that arises for the character at the end of the story.

That's part of the problem. For most of its running time, The Sleeping Blood is a good character study for Susan who, for the first time, must stand on her own and save her grandfather, while maintaining a tense atmosphere with horror elements. She spends about twenty minutes alone exploring this abandoned research station where the TARDIS has landed and the entire time you, and the character, have the impression that someone is watching her. The first time I listened to this audio, I thought it was going to unfold into a hunting story following the footsteps of Predator. That's not what happens. At one point, Susan will come across a military team that is there after a local criminal who has threatened the lives of important politicians, the Butcher. The horror elements continue from there but take the form of a more traditional serial killer story, albeit with the twist that he kills remotely.

The sci-fi part is interesting although a little contradictory. There's kind of a medical museum in this building that Susan landed in where she goes into to find antibiotics. It is also established that this planet, called Rua, has long abandoned this traditional model of producing medicines and now most diseases are cured through nanotechnology. And of course, at a certain point it is revealed that the Butcher has been killing his victims by hacking this nanotechnology present in the blood of practically everyone who lives on Rua. This raises the stakes of the story because, as he demonstrates during a scene, he can kill the characters at any time. I think Rua's world-building is very well done and tied together; What's a little weak are Susan's motivations. Nanomedicine was apparently child's play for her on Gallifrey, but she insists on looking for an antibiotic the entire story – shouldn't it be an outdated technology for her? Besides the obvious: there was NOTHING in the TARDIS that could help the Doctor? In the end, this doesn't matter because it's just a justification to isolate Susan from the Doctor for most of the duration of this audio and give her a reason to explore this planet alone, but it's still a small problem I have with the plot.

But as I said, the real argument of the plot only emerges at the end, when she discovers that Butcher, who is actually called Gomery, was doing all that to try to democratize access to medicines, especially those based on nanotechnology, after the death of his grandmother. It's an interesting debate of public health versus capitalism and how even the most well-intentioned of people (one of the soldiers Susan knows) can be co-opted by the system to reinforce it, but I think this discussion is a bit too on the nose – and comes too late. We barely spend time with Gomery, so when a flashback begins showing him talking to his dying grandmother in the hospital it seems like the story is trying to make you emotional – but it's very artificial. Yes, an elderly woman dying because she doesn't have money to take care of her own health is sad, but you only addressed it in the last five minutes. I understand that this is positioned at this point in the plot precisely to end it with a feeling of injustice, that Susan unintentionally perpetuated a cruel system on this planet. It is also to draw a parallel between the antagonist and Susan, both motivated by love for a grandparent, but the key difference here is that I, as a listener, know and care about Susan and the Doctor in a personal level. The story tries to make me care in the same way about Gomery and his grandmother, but it doesn't work in so little time. Therefore: it's an interesting premise that does not have room to breathe.

There are several interesting moments of characterization for Susan and they are the real reason why this story is worth listening. Her guilt at the end, all the questioning whether she should have interfered in that situation, the feeling of injustice that takes over her, the resilience she shows to save her grandfather, even her impressions about their trips and what her stay in the TARDIS has been like – there are moments, she says, when she feels completely suffocated in there. There is even a cute suggestion that it is the TARDIS itself that takes Susan to Rua knowing that she will get the cure for the Doctor there; since the TARDIS lands there without Susan piloting it and she assumes it was her grandfather – it takes place before The Edge of Destruction so they both still don't know that she has a certain level of sentience. The direction is also very good, with impeccable sound work. The plot, unfortunately, does not reach its full potential.

Frayed - ★★★½☆

Frayed é a story that shines through its characters.

Tara Samms, the apparent author, is actually a pseudonym for Stephen Cole, an author with a considerable number of contributions to the Doctor Who universe but with whom I have a complicated relationship - in my experience with his writing, his stories range from fun to total disaster. Frayed landed, for me, in the author's better output.

In half of the chapters, we follow the Doctor's arrival at the Refuge, a research facility on a distant planet occupied by humans, which is being attacked by strange creatures, 'humanoid' foxes that appear to be made of dust. He and Susan are separated at the beginning of the story, and the other half of the book is dedicated to a dream world that bit by bit reveals the true nature of the Refuge.

Readers well versed in Doctor Who will quickly recognize Frayed for what it is: a simple base under siege; one of those stories in which the Doctor and company are trapped with a group of characters being attacked by an external threat that wants to dominate the place they are in and, often, not leave any survivors in their path. Another person might be frustrated with this aspect of the book, after all it's nothing that we haven't seen hundreds of other times in the sixty years of the series - but it's understandable why this trope is recurrent in Doctor Who: it makes for very entertaining and fun stories. I personally love a good base under siege.

Where Frayed deviates greatly from what is expected from Doctor Who, however, is in the rather graphic depictions of violence. From injuries on the "battlefield", to very bloody descriptions of foxes killing Refuge employees - there is a moment, for example, in which one of them rips off a character's arm and blood gushes over another -, to very surrealistic moments that take place in the aforementioned "dream world". But it is in the thematic connections between the characters that the book really comes to life.

In addition to our recurring characters, the First Doctor and Susan, we have a range of Refuge workers - including the facility leader, Moseley; librarian Webber; the medic Juniper; the cook Salih and the retired military woman, Cass. Each of them shows a different aspect of life in the Refuge under attack; what happens when ordinary men and women are put into a war zone. And bit by bit, it investigates and reveals different aspects of human nature based on the decisions of these characters throughout the plot.

Moseley gradually breaks down throughout the book, as more of the employees are killed by the enemy and as it becomes obvious that Earth will not send help. He feels like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders, and he is a very sympathetic character also for his flaws. Cass is that very common 'problem character' archetype in Doctor Who, that despicable figure who you know is in the story make everything worse at the most inopportune moment. But I think it is one of the most effective executions of this archetype, the text very convincingly justifies her excesses through her ego, her almost unhealthy obsession with recognition and the violence encouraged by a thirst for blood closely linked to the military mentality. Webber keeps the First Doctor company for a good part of the story and I thought it built a very good dynamic, with him being the most rational person left in the Refuge and allowing the Doctor to navigate the narrative without unnecessary obstacles.

But the most interesting of these characters is Jill, the central figure of the dreaming chapters. As the Doctor quickly discovers, the Refuge was a genetic research facility. At the time this story takes place, it is possible to easily carry out complete genetic mapping during pregnancy. The Refuge was part of a project to genetically treat children who presented genomes associated with a predisposition to commit crimes - or, what in practice turns out to be, a prison for "future criminals" which is quite cruel - and extremely eugenic - although it tries sell itself as a shelter for broken children. Some of them, like Jill, have different degrees of telepathic abilities. Recent events since the fox attack have caused her to be somewhat distraught while being connected to the dream chamber - where surgeries are performed while children are "awake", in induced dreams - and Jill's imagination has taken over the virtual interface.

One of the Refuge employees to whom Jill was very attached, Olmec, dies before the start of Frayed, and therefore the chapters in which we see the girl's dreams are quite symbolic of her grieving, very painful and very confusing, which mixes with stories - Mayan myths - that Olmec told her. The gods and myths are intertwined with the pains of her past, of the abandonment from her mother - who committed suicide - to the physical and verbal violence she suffered in the Refuge or things that she shouldn't have known about, but that were inevitable due to the his telepathic abilities. She discovers, for example, that the Refuge creates babies without brain activity, just their bodies, to remove organs or parts of interest for surgeries on the children; which disturbs her and manifests itself in her dreams in the form of a strange baby that wanders around.

My favorite scene happens towards the end of the story, when Susan - who ended up trapped in the dream chamber with the children - helps and observes Jill trying to get Olmec - who had been seriously injured, induced into a coma and no longer presents significant brain activity - regain consciousness. What Susan soon realizes is that the Olmec that manifests itself in the interface is nothing more than a manifestation of Jill's desires - for a safe haven, for someone to love her, to protect her, to take care of her. It's a cruel scene, cruel as life often is, and that's why it's very beautiful and got to my heart.

There are other unique aspects to Frayed, the most notable of which is that this story is set up as the Doctor's first encounter with humanity. In what it purports to be, it's quite effective, but it's worth mentioning that I read this story as part of my project, Project: Blue Box, in which I'm going through the releases of the Doctor Who universe in chronological order - from the Doctor's point of view - and that this story necessarily takes place shortly after The Beginning, where the Doctor and Susan already meet humans and hear about Earth. This type of divergence is expected from a universe as large as the expanded universe of Doctor Who and it is the type of inconsistency that I think is healthy to just ignore and enjoy the original intention of each work.

What is really peculiar, though, is that this story also sets itself up as when the Doctor and Susan "earned" their names - which once again conflicts with The Beginning - and although I can see some people disliking this idea, since the way in which this happens can be a little anticlimactic, it works for me. It's very simple, happens by chance, and although there's nothing grand about it, it's precisely the type of choice that falls very much in the mold of the classic series in which the beauty of the narrative is often found in the accidents of life and History, with a capital H, than in epic plots of enormous proportions that sometimes the new series trivializes.

Finally, I want to highlight that the First Doctor is very well characterized, still being a grumpy, selfish old man, without a shred of mercy and who thinks too much kf himself, but without going overboard and risking becoming a caricature. Frayed's most palpable flaw is Susan, because although I really like her scenes - there is in particular a fantastic dialogue between her and her grandfather in the last chapter - she takes on a very secondary role in the plot, which I find intuitive on the part of the authors who usually write pre-An Unearthly Child history, but it's always a shame. I think we all like it when she takes on a more active role and shows sides that aren't very common in her time on TV.

The Exiles - ★★★☆☆ 

This is one of the takes of the first moments in the TARDIS after the Doctor and Susan's departure from Gallifrey; it doesn't really contradict The Beginning but fitting this one there is a little contrieved. You can justify that by Susan's own word in The Beginning though, that everybody remembers things differently.

I like it. It's not a fully fleshed out story, it feels more like a scene you never saw of Susan exploring the TARDIS for the first time and her feelings and thoughts regarding the ship and being an exile. This one is part a terror anthology, and that's tied in this story both by the atmosphere of the narrative - Susan is a little bit afraid of the TARDIS - and her meeting kind of a ghost. It's the coolest moment, I love it.

She is trying some new clothes and sees a man behind her in the mirror; it's implied it's a vampire. When she tells her grandfather later, he responds saying that the TARDIS doesn't exist in a traditional flux of time and there is not exactly a present, past or future for the ship itself; and that Susan must've seen a glimpse of its history (I interpret it as being a ghost from its past). It's creepy, it's mysterious, I love it.

The Longest Story in the World - ★★½☆☆

This is barely a story. It's more a frame story for the rest of the book. It's also really weird. Though we are never explicitly told, we can infer we are being told of the Doctor and Susan's days on Gallifrey. But it's a very different take. Space and time travel is nothing but delusions of Susan's, perhaps a glimpse of the future by implied psychic abilities.

The narrator is not reliable, I assume, since the frame story is a girl telling a Caliph "the longest story in the world", so she is not killed. 1001 Nights, obviously. Because of that, this story doesn't actually have and ending. Perhaps there is some payoff by reading the other short trips in the book, but by itself is is uterly bizarre.

The Beginning - ★★★½☆

The Beginning is an interesting story with a marketing that works against itself. It's not about the Doctor and Susan's departure from Gallifrey, even though we do see a snipt of it in the first few minutes. It's is, in truth, their first travel in the TARDIS. The beginning of what matters. Phrasing it like that reveals my instance on telling much about the Doctor's life in Gallifrey; I'm mostly against it - for me, when you focus on that you miss the point of the series. But I understand who is left frustrated by this. Everybody comes to this story expecting something it isn't. Only the first of a series of weird, weird choices.

For a start, it's the first in a triology in the Companion Chronicles, celebrating the 50th year of Doctor Who. It makes sense to tell us the first adventure ever in a anniversary story, but the element that truly ties the triology is an original character - the man, the legend... Quadriger Stoyn. And I truly can't understand WHY. After their departure from their home planet, the Doctor and Susan are surprised to find a third person on board the TARDIS. You guessed it, it's Stoyn. From the get go, he and the Doctor are on opposite sides, since on of them is a fugitive and the other wants go to back home.

I don't dislike the concept, but I admit it doesn't feel right to have someone else on board before Ian and Barbara enter the picture. It doesn't feel natural. Which is the point, but still. However, his presence in the narrative do bring out interesting facets of the First Doctor. This is an incarnation that it nothing alike the modern public perception of the character in many ways; but especially his moral. This version of the Doctor, even more so before his character development as we see on TV, is marked by bouts of cruelty, selfishness and arrogance. All of that is present here; he doesn't care even a bit about what could happen with Stoyn and sees him as an obstacle in his and Susan's path. That gives us scenes of him sabotaging the TARDIS so Stoyn can't go back to Gallifrey, essentially keeping him a hostage. Much of the clash between them, more so in the second part, revolves around Stoyn trying to get back a piece of the TARDIS the Doctor took with him, which without is impossible to travel, so he can escape. I want to highlight that nothing of this is a problem for me, the opposite actually; it's a very good characterization for the First Doctor and is one of the elements that distinguishes him from his future selves and makes him so interesting for me. There has been some stories in the expanded media that I actually missed his moral ambiguity.

However... Stoyn is an efectivr antagonist, but there in nothing that makes me care about him in a personal level; even though the Doctor is wrong I am never on his side because Stoyn sounds like a jerk all the time; and I don't think the text goes much deeper than him wanting to go back home. There is potential for the future of the character, since the Doctor leaves him in a terrible situation, almost a death sentence, so he has plenty motive to go for revenge. The only moment that gave me any stronger feeling towards him was not for the best; he insinuates himself to Susan and tells the two of them to run away together and leave the Doctor to die. It's nothing very explicit, but his ulterior motives towards her are palpable and it's an element that, for this story, I find out of place and unnecessary.

Susan herself is really good; Caroline Ann Ford's acting obviously matured a lot throughout the years and here she delivers an enthusiastic and emotional performance. The Companion Chronicles are by large narrated in first person by the companions themselves reflecting or remeniscing on a past adventure; and therefore is a format that allows a more psychological and intimate approach to the character than the usual full cast format. This time that is used to its fullest in the first half, since the first twenty minutes are mostly about Susan's feelings about their escape from Gallifrey and her first impressions of the TARDIS. Likewise, when the story picks up where it left off in the second part, the narrative is restructured based on Susan's disorientation due to the sudden change of events. She is also the one who voices the First Doctor and, although I don't think it's as much of a personal or emotionally charged performance, it is done with palpable affection and conveys the character's mannerisms very well.

But I also like the plot itself. The first place they land is actually the Moon, a long, long time ago, at the beginning of the development of life on Earth. One of the twists in the plot is precisely that the Moon is already inhabited by this species called Archaeons. Their meeting with the rest of the cast is friendly at first and marked by the Doctor's sense of adventure and exploration; his and Susan's excitement about discovering new worlds and other people is really cool. In addition to creating some interesting science fiction ideas. Archaeons, apparently, are not carbon-based life forms and therefore their biological and physical functioning is extremely different. Their technologies are also quite weird. There's a scene in the first part that I particularly like in which Susan faces a body of water that behaves strangely and shows distorted reflections of the characters. She is swallowed by water and Ann Ford's performance builds a crescendo of panic and shortness of breath and this sensation of drowning not only literally but also in her feelings. It's perhaps my favorite moment in the entire story.

The narrative takes another turn at the end of the first part when it is revealed that the Archaeons have manipulated the development of life on Earth so that it occurs in an organized way according to their wishes. Their plans are thwarted when they try to enter the TARDIS but inadvertently cause a disturbance that temporally freezes the characters for millions of years; When things return to normal, life on Earth has already developed chaotically, humans already have a colony on the Moon and the Archaeons enter a kind of cultural existential crisis. I like how this plot develops because it deals with one of the central themes of the First Doctor's era, interventionism. Part of the “cruelty” of this phase of Doctor Who is precisely the frequency of addressing fixed points and how History should not be changed; even though this is a contradictory element to the Doctor's own nature because he is, in his own words, a meddler. He even uses this word in this story although I think it is more appropriate a little later in the character's life, when he is already traveling with Vicki. Despite his very strong policy of non-intervention here, he decides to act against the Archeons because they are influencing life in a very extreme way, he does not see this as something natural.

In another story I could talk about this plot from a point of view of determinism or even eugenics. They are valid interpretations but I wouldn't say they are the most relevant this time. The main conflict is order versus chaos. Although they are the interventionist force of the story, the Archaeons serve as agents of order while the Doctor is a chaotic figure. I find it a very interesting approach because normally this role of non-interventionism for the Doctor is associated with maintaining the order of things; and while that still holds true here – he wants to maintain the natural order – the story consciously reverses roles and plays with what is expected of the character.

The Beginning is a very interesting release to discuss and for which I have mainly positive impressions, as is obviously palpable from the text, but it is not on the list of my favorites yet. In the future, who knows.

The Dogs of Doom - ★★☆☆☆

I don't like the aesthetic. The way the werelox look was obviously intentionally disturbing, but it being intentional doesn't make me hate it any less. And I consider it a personal attack because werewolves are one of my favourite horror creatures ever, and almost every time Doctor Who do a take on them I don't like it much. But this one is just... ugh. I also don't appreciate one of them becoming a central character and then being the comic relief because of the contrast of crazyness and violence going on, just not my thing.

I have to admit to that cliffhanger of the Fourth Doctor transforming in one of them is gold. That part of trying to find a cure is the best one too.

It also has this aesthetic my mind insists in calling 90s' (this is actually how I picture VNA's Ace vibe being without having read any of them yet) even though this was written in the 70s' and I logically know, however limited my fashion knowledge may be, it much more representative of the 70's than the 90's... not my cup of tea. I don't like tea at all, actually. It's also one of those that feels a bit 2000 AD, but this one fits Doctor Who a bit better tho.

What I like is Babe. She is a sweetheart, I cared when for a second I thought they were going to kill her. Perhaps they should've, since it ends up being so gutless for what turns out to be a DALEK story. And that's is another problem I have with The Dogs of Doom. Let's actually talk premise.

The worst werewolf-adjacent species in the history of fiction is causing chaos throughout space, going planet by planet infecting innocent humans that suffers through the worst fate anyone can go through: becoming a werelox too. I hate it, but it's a fun "invasion" story that was playing with "zombie tropes but make it the ugliest werewolves ever to exist". Then by the middle of the road all we meet the Daleks, who are of course behind it all.

The story ends up much less fun than it was to that point simply because we know who the Daleks are, and they are a much more serious threat than the werelox. Not only that, but as much as I dislike the creatures themselves the elements of horror and cruelty at the first half coming from them were actually efective, but introducing the Daleks just make them even less serious because now they are just scared (psycho) pawns. There is just a whiplash by the villain swap that I dislike.

Also, Sharon doesn't do anything.

This is the last of the Pat Mills/John Wagner run and given that I enjoyed their other three stories, I wish they ended with a stronger one.

The Star Beast - ★★★½☆

Probably the most iconic story of the Doctor Magazine, but it's a bit overrated. Most whovians must be well acquainted with the premise of The Star Beast now it had a TV adaptation, but here we go: a ship crashes in an English city (in this version what I believe is a fictious town, Blackcastle), and local girl Sharon Davies rescue a defenseless creature being chased by horrible monsters. And of course, wherever is trouble there is the Doctor.

I actually prefer the comic version to the TV one, simply because I think the alien characters are much better utilised and the plot is better structured. The Wrath Warriors in special are both more interesting and terrifying here, and the conflict between them and Beep the Meep is better developed. I can't deny the adaptation has stronger emotional moments though, but it's less because of anything to do with the originals ideas from The Star Beast and more because it's a reunion of the Doctor and Donna that just hit in the feels. I like the visuals in both fairly enough, but I dislike the conclusion to the TV episode.

And then there is Sharon. I actually like her here, it's a really strong introduction and probably the most emotional scene is courtesy of her; when she yells at Beep how horrible he is and that she will never make the mistake of so easily trusting again. It's a bit tragic, actually. Her innocence was just robbed from her. But it frustrates me in retrospect because she's so good here and I just hate the path they took her character. It's not really The Star Beast's fault, of course, but I can't completely dissociate it from the rest anymore as long as Sharon is concerned.

And there is also an actual problem, and it's the Meep. Or rather the reveal that he is evil, which I didn't try to hide at all since everybody probably knows already anyways. I like the character, I like his background, but the comic ruins its own twist by showing the reader way too early that he's evil by telling us so through his thought bubbles and evil faces when nobody is looking. It'd have worked much better is there was just ambiguity to his actions until the climax, when he mind control a bunch of people, Sharon included, and the reader was left to wonder who to trust.

Totally understandable why this is so iconic, but it's a flawed classic.

Timeslip - ★★★☆☆

Timeslip is a short story, not only because it has eight pages but also it's quite simple. The Doctor and K9, in the TARDIS, are taken by surprise by a creature travelling through the cosmos that sees the TARDIS and think - yummy!

I like Timeslip. Sure, it could have been even stronger if it actually had anything to say through the "deregeneration", but the art gorgeous and very evocative. I adore the design of the creature, the page that depicts the "deregeneration", and that page layout of the Doctor pulling the lever is beautiful. I can't say it hasn't high stakes, but the solution being pulling a lever is a bit anticlimatic. But oh well, it's not like you could've done much more within this premise in only eight pages.

City of the Damned - ★★★½☆

It's is an interesting story. It has strong brutal emotional moments that take advantage of the very bleak nature of the scenes to make its point. It works, a lot of pages stuck in my head; the opening scene is a punch to the gut and the ending however optimistic is also very bittersweet. There is a very unique kind of grief that will haunt the people of this city of the damned for the rest of their lives.

City of the Damned is a tale of a city its people let go of their emotions for the greater good. It's a cautionary tale of how hurtful that can be, of how important emotions are to our sense of self - and of how that self itself is something so much valuable. And of course, the Doctor arrives at the heart of the matter, making it his mission to bring back emotion to a souless city.

With a premise like this it's really hard not to think of the Cybermen, since they have already a strong hold in an extremely similar premise and are one of the most iconic recurring villains of the show. So I question a bit if this shouldn't have been an actual Cybermen story, but I also think there is interesting arguments to make about how humanity can perpetuate in very distinct scenarios the worst it has to offer.

I like the characters. The habitants of the city are for the most part very stoic, which is the point and hits HARD. As I just said, the opening scene is powerful. I am not sure I love ZEPO as comic relief characters, but I appreciate that they give a single emotion to each of them - it makes so much sense that after living an entire life without feelings there is something you feel so strong about you'll latch to it. I also love the Brain Trusts design. I really like the slugs But the strongest character is surely the city itself.

I have a bit of a problem with the designs though. I love the city itself and there is nothing wrong with the designs in a vaccum (they are really good, actually), but the aesthetic brings a lot from 2000 AD/Judge Dredd (which is to be expect with a creative team made of John Wagner, Patt Mills and Dave Gibbons). That can be felt in other stories in this run too, but City of the Damned and the later The End of the Line is when it's most noticeable. And besides I not being the biggest fan of it (just not usually my cup of tea), I have mixed feelings if it fits Doctor Who. I like to think that anything can fit in Doctor Who, but I don't know.

But please don't misunderstand me - the art is gorgeous.

The Iron Legion - ★★★½☆

What makes The Iron Legion such a good first story for the Magazine is how full of wonder it is. It has a lot of creative, engaging ideas that come to life quite well with a gorgeous art; it never loses steam and is fun the whole way through. There a quite a lot of colorful characters, my favorite being the old robot Vesuvius.

The Iron Legion starts when the Fourth Doctor encounters the titular characters slaughtering an entire village. The first page alone is very evocative. The Doctor then is caught up in an interdimensional conflict when he finds out the Iron Legion came from an alternative Earth that never saw the fall of the Roman Empire, which is now determined to conquest all things.

The quick pace is both a blessing and a curse. I have come to appreciate it because these comics reminded me how much you can fit in so few pages, but we are still in the early days of the strips - we have only four pages per part, which establishes a weird pace to the story (I much prefer the 8 to 12 pages we get with later Doctors) and don't let all of the wonderful locations we visit be exploited to their fullest. The ending is also a bit rushed. I do think the villains are a cool idea - demon-like aliens influencing time itself by manipulating ancient history is quite fun - but I'm not in love with the execution. They end up just a little bland.

Just a few tweaks and The Iron Legion could be an absolute classic. It kind of is already, to be fair. Weirdly enough, there are quite a lot of ideas not completely realised here that a future DWM story would use wonderfully - how religious devotion can turn out a tragedy and justify horrors, a city made a hellscape by that belief, a "cult" bent in bringing the end of the world, and an even bigger menace behind it all just waiting to take its chance at the Doctor. Still, I like it for what it is. It's worth a read.