The Immortals

"We're looking for the giants."

Writer: Simon Guerrier
Format: Short Story
Released: May 2004
Printed in: Short Trips: Past Tense 01

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan

Synopsis

The Fifth Doctor takes his three companions to Eastern Europe in the early eleventh century. It's not a location the Doctor is overly clued up on, but even he knows the locals can't have recently done battle with the Romans...

Verdict

The Immortals was a somewhat average start to the Past Tense edition of Short Trips prose. As one collection finishes I find myself needing to get through the library loans I have out rather quickly with less than two months now left to live in Bristol. As well as an MA dissertation. We'll get there. Now, I love the prospect of several historical stories with each of the first eight incarnations of the Doctor and this one was an interesting start. I think it would've helped to get a specific location but the timeframe being early eleventh century was really intriguing. I do though think more could have been made of it but the locals' reaction to the Doctor and his companions as newcomers was pretty good. I liked Udilf and Mang the most of the guest characters but they didn't really stand out too much. What I found with this story was that there wasn't really anything that bad, just not a great deal seemed to happen. The excitement only really came on the penultimate page and even then it was written in a way that you realised everything was okay and all had already occurred. It was a weird ending. It seemed to be written so differently from the rest of the story. One thing I thought this adventure did pretty much nail was the characterisation of the Fifth Doctor and his companions. Things being placed for them shortly after the events of Logopolis with the Doctor newly regenerated was excellent and I loved how Nyssa was the knowledgable one of the trio in understanding that aspect of the Doctor. Tegan still wanted to get home but she was some 1,000 years in the past, and at least the same amount of miles away geographically. A decent attempt from the Doctor though. I wasn't a big fan of Tegan in this story as she so adamantly convinced herself that history was changed just because of one story. That was a big assumption to make, especially given the prominence of oral tradition throughout history. Of course it was just a story! Nyssa taking her to one side in quite an angry fashion was good though and I liked how she stood up for respecting their hosts, even if she didn't quite have the knowledge of Earth's past. Adric was characterised very well in this adventure and because of that I didn't much like him. He's just a bit annoying isn't he. He doesn't want to do much and isn't very interested in anything either. Boring. I'd have much preferred things if Nyssa was the one to go with the Doctor and inspect the creatures. Those creatures turning out to just be Asians was unexpected but I wasn't a fan of silk being the reason they couldn't die and could retrieve the arrows from their skin. That was hardly a big reveal. The moment where there was a little TARDIS quartet standoff with Adric and Tegan taking each other's side but Nyssa standing firm with the Doctor was very good and I hoped more was made of that. I've already talked about this one's conclusion and whilst it was exciting, some more clarity was needed in terms of timing. I'd also have liked more on the Doctor and Adric leaving the Asians - especially with the latter basically inventing the cross-bow! The Doctor leaving that slide hardly seemed in character. Overall, some good parts but room for improvement.

Rating: 6/10