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| 12 Doctors, 12 Stories "A Big Hand for the Doctor" Written by Eoin Colfer Published: 23rd January 2013 Read: 20th September 2016 |
12 Doctors, 12 Stories - "A Big Hand for the Doctor"
What's It All About
Our second entry in "Book Week" is 2013's "A Big Hand for the Doctor" by Eoin Colfer.
The adventure begins in London at the turn of the 20th century with the Doctor meeting an old acquaintance from Gallifrey, a Xing surgeon named Aldridge. We quickly learn that the Doctor lost his left hand after engaging in a sword fight with the captain of a Soul Pirate vessel. As is usual when you take something in for repair, the Time Lord has to settle with a dodgy replacement while his new arm is repaired and has to remain in London for the next few days.
On his way back to Hyde Park, where the TARDIS is parked, he gets a message from Susan informing him that they've detected the Soul Pirate ship at large in this time zone and were looking to harvest a particular group of children. Naturally, she has chosen to disobey her grandfather and gone off to try and rescue the children, leaving the Doctor no choice to pursue.
On arrival, the Doctor finds the Soul Pirate vessel hovering over a townhouse near Hyde Park and is collecting the children, including Susan, from the house using an anti-gravity beam. As the beam is the only way to get within the Soul Pirate vessel, the Doctor manages to get within the beam, after engaging one of the Soul Pirates' less blessed pirates in a rooftop fight. Once aboard the vessel, the Time Lord plays dead until he is able to size up the vessel, at which point he finds the children and reprograms the anti-gravity beam to safely carry them back to the surface, as well as setting an additional blast that destroys the Soul Pirate vessel.
Our second entry in "Book Week" is 2013's "A Big Hand for the Doctor" by Eoin Colfer.
The adventure begins in London at the turn of the 20th century with the Doctor meeting an old acquaintance from Gallifrey, a Xing surgeon named Aldridge. We quickly learn that the Doctor lost his left hand after engaging in a sword fight with the captain of a Soul Pirate vessel. As is usual when you take something in for repair, the Time Lord has to settle with a dodgy replacement while his new arm is repaired and has to remain in London for the next few days.
On his way back to Hyde Park, where the TARDIS is parked, he gets a message from Susan informing him that they've detected the Soul Pirate ship at large in this time zone and were looking to harvest a particular group of children. Naturally, she has chosen to disobey her grandfather and gone off to try and rescue the children, leaving the Doctor no choice to pursue.
On arrival, the Doctor finds the Soul Pirate vessel hovering over a townhouse near Hyde Park and is collecting the children, including Susan, from the house using an anti-gravity beam. As the beam is the only way to get within the Soul Pirate vessel, the Doctor manages to get within the beam, after engaging one of the Soul Pirates' less blessed pirates in a rooftop fight. Once aboard the vessel, the Time Lord plays dead until he is able to size up the vessel, at which point he finds the children and reprograms the anti-gravity beam to safely carry them back to the surface, as well as setting an additional blast that destroys the Soul Pirate vessel.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
At the time of release, to say that I was looking forward to having a brand new First Doctor story to read is a bit of an understatement, but I was disappointed that both of the two First Doctor anniversary stories (Hunters of Earth) are set before An Unearthly Child, therefore depriving a whole new audience of the opportunities of getting to know Ian and Barbara and how they bring out the best in our crotchety Time Lord.
The story starts rather well, with the setting in the late Victorian era quickly evoking a nostalgic feel for proceedings. The addition of the Xing surgeon Aldridge was a welcome addition as he provides that very rare link to the Doctor's past on Gallifrey and shares a couple of anecdotes that gives us a fresh perspective on him. Aldridge also provides an amusing reaction to the Time Lords themselves: apparently shutting up business on their planet as they got to up themselves.
Moving on to the protagonists, the Soul Pirates and the premise that these space pirates created powerful illusions in order to draw human children aboard their ship so that they can either eat them or use them to power their engines is suitably gruesome. Being rather a short eBook, the solution to the problem isn't exactly ground-breaking, but I like how the whole climax of the story is witnessed by J.M. Barrie and he soon sets to writing a story featuring a pirate fighting a man with a hook and children floating through the air on fairy dust.
The story starts rather well, with the setting in the late Victorian era quickly evoking a nostalgic feel for proceedings. The addition of the Xing surgeon Aldridge was a welcome addition as he provides that very rare link to the Doctor's past on Gallifrey and shares a couple of anecdotes that gives us a fresh perspective on him. Aldridge also provides an amusing reaction to the Time Lords themselves: apparently shutting up business on their planet as they got to up themselves.
Moving on to the protagonists, the Soul Pirates and the premise that these space pirates created powerful illusions in order to draw human children aboard their ship so that they can either eat them or use them to power their engines is suitably gruesome. Being rather a short eBook, the solution to the problem isn't exactly ground-breaking, but I like how the whole climax of the story is witnessed by J.M. Barrie and he soon sets to writing a story featuring a pirate fighting a man with a hook and children floating through the air on fairy dust.
Summing Up
While the story was quite good, if nothing new, it just doesn't sit right with me. The basic characterization of the First Doctor is there with the grumpiness and the fact that he has no time for frivolity and rarely laughs. I just had a heard time seeing him does what his Tenth incarnation does and losing his hand in a swordfight, then going back for more! Susan is characterised well for the very few lines that she gets and even that's restricted to "oh, grandfather" moments. Hmm.
5/10
Continuity Corner
- On Gallifrey, a particular Time Lord known as the Interior Designer had once suggested that his people changed their names to the Temperors. Unfortunately, his contemporaries disapproved and he became known as the "Bad Temperor" for the rest of his quantum days.
- One of the Doctor's previous visits to Aldridge came after the "Inscrutable Doppelganger fiasco" which saw him part with two litres of very rare TL-positive blood so that the surgeon could work up plasma. Another encounter involved dealing with homicidal earthworms that secreted laughing gas.
- The Doctor claims that his outfit was chosen by computer so that he could blend in with the local inhabitants on Earth. Considering that the Doctor has been shown wearing the outfit since leaving Gallifrey (per "The Name of the Doctor"), presumably, this occurred before he left.
- Things that don't make the Doctor smile are chit-chat; answering questions, either in an emergency or in times of complete calm; the paintings of Gallifreyan Subjunctivists; Marmite; and Blake's 7. He does seem to like the Harry Potter series, though, as he mentions Hogwarts (c.f. "The Shakespeare Code").
- The Doctor occasionally has visions of some of his future selves. At one point he wishes he was the fit and sprightly Doctor with a dickie bow (probably referring to the Eleventh Doctor).
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