Think this is the last one for me for today, especially given it’s the halfway point
Once Upon a Time - 7/10
There’s something that I really like about stories about stories, and this does just scratch that itch for me. Sure the idea of a ‘medium monster’ has been done before, but as with a lot of these shorts there’s a certain charm to the way it’s done here.
The inciting incident is a great way to bring us in, especially being about the medium it’s a part of, and the fact Donna briefly gets sucked into the monster’s power as well gives us a chance to see what impact the creature can have on others from a first person view (if the descriptions of rotten fruits weren’t enough).
And again, the ending, beating the creature with a happily ever after, and 10 reminiscing on how that used to be how things end is really nice and does bring you into the emotion.
Another fun little character short. I like that this is clearly mid-torchwood Jack, but they don’t mention that explicitly because it’s a kid’s story. Another magic show where they tell you how it’s done, less clever here than Disappearing Act, but I think the rest of the story makes up for that.
It following a kid with these powers who’s clearly not had a great life and then Jack comes and rescues him, then seeing that he’s had a nice long life in the end while reinforcing Jack’s Immortality (but without killing him because again, kid’s book), I just think it’s done well for what it is.
Another just fun and solid story. For how I was talking about the last one avoiding death being a kids book, I really didn’t expect the next one to be all about someone wanting to die.
Characterisation is on point here, I especially enjoyed
‘Imagine it – a creature that can live for centuries, maybe thousands of years. And the one person it really cares about, won’t live nearly that long. It can’t bear the thought of outliving its friend. A bit like …’ His voice tailed off.
‘A bit like,’ Donna finished for him, ‘Puff the Magic Dragon.’
The Doctor nodded. ‘Exactly what I was thinking,’ he lied.
Donna crying at the second half of the music as well really works, reminds me of Planet of the Ood, and generally this kind of short story works great for a short, it’s been written with the format in mind, and it doesn’t talk down to it’s audience like some of the earlier stories in the collection felt like they did.
Just when I was talking about short stories not feeling like they talk down to their readers. Some of this definitely feels like talking down or dumbing down, some of it is fairly generic haunted house but actually space type-deal, and some of it is just the characters acting pretty out of character.
Again there’s the thing of a few lines here and there where I don’t believe characters would say that like that, and while it’s not major it’s enough to take me out of it. And then the ending with The Doctor re-trapping the villain in permanent conscious stasis forever… I mean sure he’s done that kind of thing before (Family of Blood and Rogue come to mind), but there it’s given appropriate weight, here it’s just sort of glossed over.
Now this was fun, giving you a glimpse into the mind of a sontaran as well as having a scared little blind girl for the kids to identify with.
Unlike the sycorax story as well, here everything just feels perfectly in character, the sontaran may end up helping the girl, curing her of her blindness, but he does so that she can avenge her parents, aid the quest he’s on, and of course, show glory in battle. It works brilliantly.
I also love what they do with the rutans here. The idea of them being able to transform given some genetic material but their transformations being imperfect giving the misdirection of the girl being the rutan in disguise, but then it being revealed that it’s the other sontaran, caught out by lack of knowledge on how the sontarans view their scars, it’s great.
Again, Amy is written pretty out of character here. It’s what a little girl would imagine Amy’s character to be, so I can understand why she’s written like that but like, it’s still bad.
The adventure as well feels quite childish and it’s wrapped up incredibly quickly.
Generally this works for what it is, but I can’t exactly give it any more credit than that.
Still has the same thing where it feels like the story is quite dumbed down for children as Amy’s Escapade, but seeing this side of the story is quite fun.
Rory is written a lot less out of character (I don’t for a second believe that Rory wouldn’t’ve been able to recognise Amy in the shop though), and seeing the other side of the events is nice. This side of things also ends a lot less abruptly as well, and the joke that 11 was the one who took the doughnut in the first place is a nice note to end on.
The shortest of the short stories so far (and presumably the shortest overall), this is a very fun little tale that I don’t really have much to say about. It’s enjoyable, I like the concept, the idea of a train saying it’s coming in 50 years is a funny mental image, and generally the underground is a fun setting.