The Wings of a Butterfly

"Duotheros stared at the Doctor for a long, painful moment before slowly exhaling the breath that he suddenly realised he'd been holding during the unfolding of this fateful tale of tragic destruction."

Writer: Colin Baker
Format: Audio
Released: November 2010
Series: Short Trips Volume 1.06

Featuring: Sixth Doctor

Synopsis

Visiting Gallifrey to attend an academic conference, the Sixth Doctor's old friend and mentor, Duotheros, requests that he use the TARDIS to examine a temporal anomaly centred on Bixor. The planet, once thriving, appears to have mysteriously eradicated itself, substantially reducing the number of people interested in buying Duotheros' definitive history of that sector of space. Will the Doctor's investigations reveal the cause? Or does Bixor's untimely demise have something to do with a certain blue box?

Verdict

The Wings of a Butterfly was an enjoyable listen. Relatively short at 19 minutes long (I guess that's going to happen seeing as it's a Short Trip audio!), the story was great and the time slot was just about right. I really loved how Colin Baker himself wrote this story! It's very clever, somewhat humorous in places and is very typical of the Sixth Doctor. I thought Duotheros was good and I liked his optimism in getting the Doctor, in this incarnation of all, to help him with sales! Once the Doctor agreed and went back in time to Bixor, when it existed, the result was unexpected but funnily great! It was good how someone's trousers falling down, with the TARDIS' dematerialisation thrown in, ultimately lead to the destruction of a planet! So, the Doctor did what he did best. Saved lives, albeit against the Laws of Time. He went back in time and made sure his TARDIS' arrival was not a factor and also managed to prevent the trousers from falling down by altering some sewing! Once the planet was saved, history was changed and Duotheros had no recollection of asking for the Doctor's help. Only the Doctor would live with the memories of both time streams. A good, funny story.

Rating: 8/10