Far From Home

"What a day of adventure."

Writer: Alison Lawson

Format: Short Story 

Released: May 2004

Printed in: Short Trips: Past Tense 02

Featuring: Eighth Doctor

Synopsis

The Eighth Doctor is being chased away by Mr Wesley when he is caught up by two young children on their way to school. Tommy and Ralph soon get into a mission to help a crashed spaceship after the Doctor received its distress call. Except one passenger is missing, and the rain is deadly...

Verdict

Far From Home was a very good continuation of the Past Tense edition of Short Trips prose from Big Finish! No, this is not a blog entry regarding the latest Spider-Man MCU film (although I am currently watching all of that, TV series included, in chronological order but that's just a Twitter thread @brandonarthur18). Instead this was an adventure in my home country of Wales in the quite specific location of Bettws. As soon as I read that was the setting I was super delighted. It's a niche little area and I thought the lack of Welsh stereotype was largely good, with just the one instance of 'boyo' which was much more realistic than some representations in prose depicting Wales. This was of course a historical and the 1928 setting worked superbly well. It was so simple in just having the children walking two miles through lanes and fields to get to school, but that's exactly the kind of stories I was told by my Grampy about his journeys to school so that resonated with me a lot. Through Tommy and Ralph, who were fantastic characters, I had quite a sense of nostalgic feeling and a real reliving of my childhood through their excitement. It was wonderful writing to see just how fascinated they were with the stranger who came to be revealed as the Doctor. I liked that the Eighth Doctor was travelling solo as the children could be utilised a lot better than they would had Charley appeared for example. The relationship between Tommy and Ralph was very good and even when they had to split up with the younger latter being on his own and away from the Doctor, his maturity in looking after the Velderon was hugely impressive. They were an intriguing species and I was surprised that they would be so small given their violent nature. It worked for the story though and the real threat being the impending arrival of the rest of the alien species to retrieve those who fled in the shuttle was good. We didn't get to see them which I thought was the right move too. The ue of rain in this story was sublime and if there's a place you need rain at any possible moment, Wales is definitely the place! I loved that in a Doctor Who adventure in Wales, the rain was deadly. The Velderons, through their acidic nature, were susceptible to it and it was quite horrifying to read of the death of the Velderon who had escaped from the crashed ship. Tommy's reaction to him jumping backwards down the well was heartbreaking to read. Mr Wesley was a humorous character in wanting to prevent people from reaching the barn and the thrill of the children getting to infiltrate somewhere they're usually forbidden from going was terrific. George Evans-the-Cwm, a rather weird name even for us Welsh, was another good threat to the secrecy of the children and even though they knew that their parents would soon be aware that they'd skipped school, Tommy and Ralph didn't care one jot because of the adventure they'd had. They met an alien, saved another one and got to see the TARDIS disappear. Quite the adventure! Overall, a lovely tale.

Rating: 8/10