A True Gentleman

"The Doctor can't help you right now. He's fixing my bicycle."

Writer: Jamie Hailstone
Format: Audio
Released: November 2010
Series: Short Trips 1.03

Featuring: Third Doctor

Synopsis

A young boy finds himself part of the adventure when the Doctor helps him fix his bicycle tyre...

Verdict

A True Gentleman was a pretty good little Short Trip audio and despite it not really having any negative qualities, it fell victim to the very nature of the range in which it is a part of. The Short Trips were extremely short during their first stint which, I am aware, sounds quite self-defeating but when compared with the monthly releases we get now, there really isn't a lot of substance to some of the adventures and that can hurt things when it comes to story quality. Now, this was just a lovely little tale of the Doctor helping out a young kid in need and whilst that's nice and exactly what you would expect of him, it didn't make for the most exciting of stories. That being said, I thought Katy Manning did an excellent job as the story's narrator and I was hugely impressed with her impression of Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor. It was probably the major highlight of the audio! I think this story was very well written for the Third Doctor and it's hard to imagine a more gentlemanly incarnation than the third. I could actually see pretty much any incarnation of the Doctor stopping to fix a child's bicycle, but I don't think they'd all have been as kind as the Third Doctor was here. He didn't just fix the tyre, but he ensured that it would never get punctured again. I liked how the Doctor had a reputation in the area where he rented out the house and it was so good that the landlord encouraged his son to go off with the Time Lord! How's that for parenting? I really liked the initial encounter between the child and the Ambassador of Cobaltis with the latter utterly distraught that the Doctor was busy fixing the young boy's bike. The Doctor soon appeared though and a lump of lead made the Ambassador very happy as it was a scarce material in its galaxy and was priceless. I do wonder how they reacted when the Doctor suddenly stopped renting the house! Overall, this was just a nice little story of the Doctor doing a good deed.

Rating: 6/10