SEASONS OF WAR: Tales From A Time War - ed. Declan May (2015) PART 12

Well Barbaby Eaton-Jones can bugger off.

SPOILER ALERT

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HE KILLED JENNY SHIRT!

I'm tempted to say nothing more about his story and hell-mend him, but I suppose I have to be the bigger man here.  Let's see...

It's pretty damn good, actually, with a bone weary Doctor near the end of this incarnation and ready for death.  As I've mentioned before, it's unavoidable that a War Doctor has to be violent and amoral, a killer with little conscience, but I have particularly enjoyed moments like this, where one author or other demonstrates that - in the absolute end - the War Doctor will be bowed down by the weight of his actions, and regret all the things he's had to do.  Eaton-Jones effectively turns this necessity from subtext to (almost) text in relating one of the Doctor's memories concerning the death of one administrator who worked with the Daleks (presumably - it's not made clear) because he had no choice but to do so.  It remains unspoken, but the comparison with the Doctor is clear enough - forced throughout this collection of stories to do all manner of things he'd rather not, to sacrifice all the principles which made him the Doctor and, in doing so, become someone who, in his own words, doesn't deserve that name or, perhaps, his own life.

So, maybe it's not so terrible that Jenny Shirt dies, after all - for all that the Doctor says it would seem I’ve made the wrong choice, it's a dying Jenny who tells him that he hasn't - and that's pretty important.


"English. Therefore probably drunk" - Gary Russell wins the prize for funniest line in the book.  And his story 'The Beach' slots in very well as near the end of the book as the Doctor is near the end of his life.  Because the War is nearly over, the Doctor has a Plan, and it's time to wrap up loose ends.  Russell's writing has been accused in the past of prioritising continuity concerns over story, but that's the last accusation which can be levelled at 'The Beach', which is sweet and small-scale recounting of debts repaid and promises kept.  Quite lovely, in its way, in fact.

There's a reason that George Mann was chosen to write the sole War Doctor novel so far released by the BBC.  He has the happy knack of capturing the most interesting parts of the characters he writes, for one thing.  Not for Mann a War Doctor obsessed with fighting.  Instead, he shows us a War Doctor trying to please (and, perhaps, save) a single friend, and in doing so pleases this reader enormously.  The litany of rescued moments which the Doctor shows Cinder (and how nice to get what is effectively a deleted scene with that splendid girl*) serve both as a touching opportunity to gain her own survival and an affectionate reminder of the multiple, wonderful, alien worlds of 'Doctor Who' as a whole.  That we know, as readers of 'Engines of War', how it all ends up does nothing to detract from that.  Fingers crossed that this isn't the last time Mann writes for Doctor 8.5...

 * and a new Cinder image by Paul Hanley!