Ace of Hearts

"The photo was gone. In its place was a playing card - the Ace of Hearts."

Writers: Robert Perry & Mike Tucker

Format: Novel

Released: March 1998

Printed in: Short Trips Vol 

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Ace

Synopsis 

The Seventh Doctor takes a visit to Perivale during a tense Five Nations tournament. His intentions soon become clear as in the middle of the night he has an apology to make - to baby Dorothy. 

Verdict 

Ace of Hearts, a title I absolutely love, was an interesting and nice read but even for the Short Trips range it was far too short! It barely lasted four pages which just takes the small format to the absolute extreme. But what we got was actually really nice and full of intrigue. The Doctor was travelling as any normal person would which I was surprised at and would've liked reasoning for. He faced those awful delays on the train that we wrongly blast the train company (often Arriva Trains Wales from my personal experience being a regular train user) for. Signalling problems are a cursed thing that sadly we have to face more often than we'd like but now the Doctor too had to face the troubles of the railway. Why he couldn't just travel to outside of Ace's house in the TARDIS I'm not so sure. The use of the different times to advance the story on was interesting and I thought it was a kind of snapshot preview into the revived series as we were introduced to some of Ace's family for the first time, from my perspective at least. I wasn't around in the '90s to collect all the new novels where so much was revealed about the Doctor and Ace and I'm trying desperately to catch up on some classic novels with my recent purchases of Transit and The Gallifrey Chronicles. It just doesn't fit Ace's character with her real name being Dorothy. It doesn't capture her personality at all! The Doctor arriving at Ace's household around 16 years in her past as we see her on television was interesting and gave us a scary insight into what the Seventh Doctor's true colours really are. I found it quite horrifying that the Doctor knew Ace had absolute trust in him yet he blatantly abused that on more than one occassion and then admitted it'd probably happen again. The Curse of Fenric, as was referenced, is a fine example of this abuse of trust. I think it might go a way to explaining why Sylvester McCoy is my least favourite Doctor. This incarnation seems sneaky and not entirely thrilled with his companions, whether that be Mel, Ace or Bernice. It seemed so un-Doctor like that he couldn't face telling his own companion who trusts him absolutely to her face that he's sorry for misusing and betraying her trust in him. Instead he got his feelings off his chest to baby Ace. And that's basically the story. I did love though the message the Doctor left in Ace's bedroom. He replaced a picture of her as a baby with the playing card of the ace of the hearts. He showed his true feelings towards Ace which was very nice. He'd gotten his thoughts off his chest and I think he's scared to tell her as we know her because he doesn't want to lose her which is nice and like the Doctor I know. Overall, far too short but a nice adventure full of intrigue!

Rating: 7/10