Gallifrey to Trenzalore #5: Childhood Living by Samantha Baker

Short Trips: The Centenarian
"Childhood Living"
Written by Samantha Baker
Published: 1st August 2006
Read: 25th February 2016

At it's core, "Childhood Living" is about two grandfathers and their granddaughters and the relationship between them. For those who have read The Centenarian, you'll be aware that every story features Edward Grainger at various points throughout his life. Thanks to previously progressing to the Pertwee era, I had already encountered Grainger at an earlier point in his timeline (1949 to be precise), so I was a little more invested in the character.

The story is split into two as we have Grainger and his young granddaughter, Linda, being given a guided tour of a British submarine stationed at Portsmouth, while the Doctor and Susan are orbiting Earth in the TARDIS on a bit of a guided tour of the entire Earth. Naturally, things go pear-shaped when the TARDIS drifts into the path of a Slarvin spaceship, and the Doctor is unable to get the ship out of the way, but thankfully they are rescued by the slug-like Slarvin. Despite the near miss, the Slarvin are very helpful, by making some minor repairs to the TARDIS and even go so far as to provide power. Quite how, the Slarvin were able to gain access to the TARDIS is unexplained. Despite the Doctor's claims in The Daleks about the complexity of the lock, this group of slugs were able to gain entry with ease.

As the rest of the story unfolds, it turns into an alien invasion story with a little bit of a twist. These Slarvin and their Empress are out to incubate some eggs that crashed to Earth on a ship a couple of years earlier. Unsurprisingly, these eggs are aboard Grainger's submarine. In what appears to seem a rather unusual act at this point in the Doctor's timeline, he risks his and Susan's life to get the Slarvin ship off of Earth and save the planet.

Still, the adventure really isn't the main point of this story. It is all about little Linda as she examines her grandfather anew, get's to see him in his element as he returns to Naval service and realize that she really knows nothing about Edward at all. Wonderful story, with a few cliche elements.

8/10

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