All the stories I've reviewed so far have been (broadly) in sequence, except for those set before An Unearthly Child.
I always knew this couldn't continue forever, and wondered what it
would be like to revisit a period I'd covered earlier in my marathon. My
best guess for when this would happen was whenever I got around to
buying The Wanderer, but a comment I left regarding bethhigdon's Timelines review of The Mother Road prompted Ian Potter to lend me this book too.
It's strange. This story is set between The Aztecs and The Sensorites,
not that long ago, but I've already lost a sense of how well it fits
the period. Coming as it does after the TARDIS crew has settled in and
before the Doctor's flare-up at the end of the next televised story I think it's a good match; but this is an intellectual calculation rather than gut feeling.
Speaking of gut feeling, my heart sank a little when I saw the author's
name. I remembered disliking something by Gareth Wigmore before, though I
couldn't recall what it was - so I looked it up. And felt a certain
relief. My problem with Mire and Clay wasn't to do with the
writing but the subject matter, and from what I remembered of
bethhigdon's review this story was very unlikely to hit the same
problem.
Indeed, it doesn't. This is a lovely little tale, not really an
adventure at all - except in the way that normal people not hit by
crises have adventures, for example when taking an extra-special
holiday. Which this is, really, for all of the TARDIS crew, as they make
their way across the USA along Route 66. They even sing the song! (As
an aside, I don't remember any of the lyrics to that, but can manage
about half of Billy Bragg's A13.)
This is an almost picaresque character piece that perfectly captures the
crew in a quieter moment. The Doctor is at his most roguelike, having
lost the TARDIS in a game of chance, again; Susan is in early teenage
mode. The focus is on Iananbarbara, though, so this is quite an
appropriate point to look at it - and in tone it's similar to Set in Stone. Hey, they even have a version of that
conversation again! It's a bit different, though, since they are in
their own future (2006), and thus the reasons for not jumping ship are
different. It can stay.
In some ways this is not a very Hartnell-era story. There are lots of
real-world 21st century details, and if I had been told about this in
advance I would have said that it was a bad idea - but it works. Perhaps
it's that the people are indulging in a peculiarly 20th Century
activity, even though it's set later? Interestingly, I pictured the
story in colour, which rarely happens with this TARDIS team.
There are so many great scenes here: Iananbarbara by the pool (just
sweet), the Doctor telling a morally uplifting story to children (an
in-universe expression of the Reithian vision of combined education and
entertainment), the opening and closing scenes (particularly in what
they tell us about the Doctor), the frozen custard one... Every moment
of characterisation is spot on. Susan even makes a comment about
Iananbarbara's pussyfooting around their feelings that echoes one of my
own in Susan's Tale, which is nice.
I've said quite a bit about what I like in this story, but nothing so
far about negatives. I've not given it 10/10, so there must be some,
surely? Well... sort of. This story is not designed to be substantial,
or exciting, or important; it's the kind of thing you read while dozing
by the side of a pool in the California sunshine, or lying on the deck
of a cruise ship. Not that I've done either of those, but really, any
lazy Summer afternoon fits the bill. I wouldn't change it in any way
(well, maybe the name of the eBay stand-in), but I also can't put it up
there at the peak. Don't let this put you off, though - sit back with a
cooling drink and read.
Oh, no, wait - there is one thing. It's link to the anthology theme of
'farewells' is exceedingly tenuous, basically a conversation between the
Doctor and Susan about how they can never go home again that is only
one thread of a much broader tapestry. But I don't mark it down for
that!
Published:
Date: April 2006
ISBN: 1-84435-151-3
Rating:
9/10.
Next Time:
Surely it has to be the penultimate part of Susan's Tale this time?
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