Of the seven Short Trips books I've read - three from the BBC, four from Big Finish - this collection is my least favourite. Doctor Who
can be anything, and one of the things it frequently turns out to be is
scary. Which is fine, but (for me) there has to be something more than
that, so a whole book focusing on the fear is too much - regardless of
the quality of the writing.
The Exiles is the first story in the collection, and has the
advantage that I read it before I became glutted on terror; but it is
also a fine tale that does have something more anyway.
This is the earliest story of Susan and her Grandfather on their travels
- indeed, it begins with the ship parked on their home planet as they
enter for the first time. I choose my words carefully here, because at
no point is there mention of Gallifrey, the TARDIS, or the Doctor. The
use of "home planet" keeps the story grounded in the early days of the
show, and although it's written in the third person we see events
entirely from Susan's point of view: it implies that she came up with
the acronym for the ship during their travels, and that the name
"Doctor" may also have been adopted later. Certainly "Grandfather" is
used in a similar way, as a name rather than just a familial
relationship. Whether Susan is her Gallifreyan name is more problematic.
At first glance the prose seems to think so, using it many times per
page; but Grandfather always refers to her as "Child", so I'm inclined
to think this is for convenience rather than saying anything about her
past.
Like Inside the Spaceship, the story takes place entirely within
the ship. It covers the first night of their hurried flight, and the
first half describes their initial attempts to suss out the console
room. The pacing and mood here is very well handled, expressing a
palpable sense of desperation that gradually fades (though not
completely) as the would-be travellers figure out how to bring the ship
back to life. Or rather, Grandfather does; Susan is very much the
passenger here. This feels realistic rather than patronising, with him
having acted as an ambassador and watched technicians operating the
controls of other timeships.
There are a number of hints like this about life on their home planet,
most of them fairly vague or inconsequential; a story set in this
timeframe can't help but tie down the past to an extent. It's a tricky
line to walk. When my children were into Thomas the Tank Engine
on TV I became irritated that the show introduced so many new characters
that weren't there in the original books - until I realised that, in my
own childhood, meeting new characters had been one of the main things I
looked forward to when I read a new book! It's a "damned if you do,
damned if you don't" situation, and I've been more tolerant since.
The second half of the story is entirely Susan's, as she heads off to
investigate the interior of the ship. This part has a certain Castrovalvan
feel to it, particularly when she encounters a full-length mirror just
sitting in the corridor. It also touches on her telepathy, subtly, as
she thinks thoughts that are definitely not hers, tempting her to
explore. Is this the being she later encounters, or is it the ship
itself? I'm tempted by the idea of the latter, as a strong telepathic
link between the two would explain why she was the most violently
affected in Inside the Spaceship. Again it's only a hint, though, and the lack of a concrete answer is part of the mood setting.
We also get to see Susan in the wardrobe, choosing from the "rails and
rails and rails and rails and rails of clothing." She transforms herself
through this, ditching her brown robe and assembling an outfit not too
dissimilar in style to the fashions of 1963.
Throughout, there is good use of imagery. Mirrors, of course, have a
special place in our mythmaking, and - having compared entering the ship
to falling "down the rabbithole" in my last review - I can't avoid
thinking of the second Alice book here. The gradual retreat of darkness
in the first half also makes me think about the long warm-up time of
1960s televisions, or the early moments of the universe. The fact that
Grandfather is the first of their people to think of leaving also
emphasises the idea that we are here at the birth of something new.
My only real complaint about The Exiles is that it feels like a
fragment of a tale. Obviously this is something that could be said about
almost any vignette, but there is an over-reliance on "unfinished"
stories in this collection and it begins here. The odd thing, though, is
that it really is a fragment. I know, because I've read the next
bit of the story in another collection! It makes me wonder how many
more sections are out there. I won't get to that second instalment for
about six Doctors-worth of reviews, and given the prices that the Big
Finish Short Trips books go for I may never find out if there are any
more. Perhaps they only exist as echoes, glimpsed in mirrors reflecting
other universes? Whatever. It's very cool, but also very annoying.
A Confused Chronology, part 4: Ahistory
I have to bring this up now, even though the positioning of this tale is
totally clear-cut, because we won't be seeing another Lance Parkin
story for quite a while. Parkin is the author of a mammoth tome
organising as many stories as he can into historical order. He is also
the author of a couple of novels that throw the idea of a single
continuity out of the window. Elizabeth Sandifer describes this as
"hilarious" in her entry on Parkin's Cold Fusion,
and while I can see her point I don't see the situation as at all
contradictory. (Dr. Sandifer also dislikes the idea of a Whoniverse, a
term I use with gay abandon; but there we are simply using the word to
mean different things.)
Actually, I've already mentioned Ahistory - in the first entry of
this sidebar series - and I have no doubt that it'll crop up again.
Most of the book is a history of the universe, but the history of
Gallifrey is given a separate section as it would be meaningless to try
and line it up alongside the passage of normal time. And there are a few
stories that can't be placed at all for some reason or other, some
because they take place entirely in the vortex. I look forward to the
edition that includes short stories such as this one...
Published:
Date: 23rd December 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84435-504-4
Rating:
7/10.
Next Time:
I've still got a couple of weeks before the blog's anniversary, so (all
being well) I'll say a little something about Susan's next chronicled
adventure: Frayed.
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